Saturday, April 22, 2017

Congressional Democrats Demand Oroville Answers

Sometimes this is too easy. 
Citing the near disaster at Oroville Dam, a group of congressional Democrats is pushing the government’s watchdog agency to investigate federal oversight of dam safety regulations.
The group, including Rep. Doris Matsui of Sacramento and five other Californians, called on the Government Accountability Office to look into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s handling of the licensing of major dams.
The February crisis at Oroville “raises questions about deficiencies in FERC’s safety program and concerns over the potential for severe property damage, injury and even possible loss of life,” the group said in a letter released Wednesday.
Separately, the California state Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee will hold an oversight hearing on Oroville next Tuesday. The hearing comes as elected officials push the state Department of Water Resources to release more information about the Oroville investigation and repairs. DWR has sealed several key documents, citing security concerns.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article145980829.html#storylink=cpy

 And related:
A multimillion-dollar resurfacing job on the Highway 50 bridge over the Sacramento River has failed – mysteriously, officials say – and will have to be scrapped and replaced this summer at three times the original cost.
The resurfacing, conducted in late 2014 on the Pioneer Memorial Bridge between West Sacramento and Sacramento, began failing immediately, state Department of Transportation records show. Cars and trucks shudder when they pass over ruts that are now more than 50 feet long and seven feet wide at numerous spots on the bridge.
Caltrans officials say the repair could run $15 million to $18 million. The original resurfacing in 2014 cost $5 million.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article146129014.html#storylink=cpy
 Unfortunately the answer breaks the rule "there are simple answers and correct answers but never both."

The model of State governance does not scale to a region the size and population of California.  
Former garden resident.  Now lives in the barranca. 

54 comments:

Lawyerliz said...

So you break it up to 3 states?

First.

Rob Dawg said...

Eight Liz. None of them would be the "small" by any measure. Economy, population, size, anything.


PC Pacifica; SF peninsula and environs. (PC as in
Politically Correct, (even Hillary Clinton could get elected.)
MC Centro or Sierra; Central Valley plus mountains. (America's
Vegetable Drawer.)
AC Alta or Upper California Northern counties. (Big High Country.)
CC Costa California Ventura to Monterey - Tehachapis/Coastal Range.
(Alternative Aurocosta, Gold Coast.)
LA Angeles; All the Miserable urban crap, social problems,
etc. LA, Orange, Riverside, Antelope Valley, San Berdoo.
(Lousiana can take LS for their abbreviation)
SC From Sud California San Diego, Imperial and environs. (Alternatives
Imperial or just tell South Carolina to buzz off.)

- OR --

WC Wacko California. SF peninsula and environs. Obvious.
CC Centro California. Central Valley, mountains.
PC Pacifica. Northern counties and Oregon.

This leaves Washington State to move its' new capital to Vancouver.

California is in fact at the very least 6 states. A map of
Southern California alone would entirely cover New England to Penn.
Not only that but the shapes, amount of coastline and population and
economy are roughly comparable.

Q. [What's your like of separation between Wacko &
Pacifica, and Wacko & Costal?]
A. Marin can go either way... Don't go there!

Q. I still think Ventura belongs in L.A. :-)
A. (serious for a minute) LA thinks that. They need the good air,
landfill sites, growth expansion, etc. If you were to look at aerial
photos it would be obvious that there WERE reasons why Vta did not
become
like Orange County or San Berdoo. You can actually see the border from
the air.

In fact linear proximity is the only factor that puts Vta in LA's
sphere of influence.

SC Sudo (Pronounced Pseudo) California. San Diego, Imperial and
environs. For all the lighthearted description above; the areas have
geographic, historical, economic justification. We need more
Senators, representative state govt, federal clout, regional
solutions, etc.

I know this derived from the concept that city transportation
boundaries are ineffective but the conclusion is inescapable. CA is
too big.

Each state would be among the top 20 most populous, or largest, or richest
states in the union. The idea that the Ventura County Superintendent
of Schools needs more votes to win than Senators from Montana is
weird to say the least. When people refer to LA County Supervisors as
"Their Lordships" without smiling and they each represent multiple
congressional districts something is wrong with California's political
structure. Transportation is one symptom of political dysfunction.

In the next 17 months CA will add the population of Wyoming. Can we
get another US Senator every 34 weeks forever? We deserve them.

Lawyerliz said...

Maybe you deserve them but the rest of us prolly dont.

The Brit's did solve their rotten borough problem, but I can't imagine our congress allowING even 2 or 4 additional Senators, if you divided it in 3.

Lawyerliz said...

It wold be like when you had to balance a slave state wit a.non slave state.

Lawyerliz said...

Make the newcomers live on Wyoming for 7 months until they are allowed in Kali.
Cheer up, may you'll have a terrible earthquake and people won't want to come.

Lawyerliz said...

Florida should be just 2 states. Orlando and South, aND north of Orlando.
The firest Latinflorida, the ssevond, north Florida.

Lawyerliz said...

House up another 200.

Rob Dawg said...

Latinflorida.

Lol.

Rob Dawg said...

Dawghaus +$569.13

Lawyerliz said...

Pooh. Talking to myself again.

Lawyerliz said...

And the Dawg.
Contractor coming on Wednesday. New roof, rotted boards replaced, paint the outsides and part of insides. New cabinets for 2 bathrooms and new ceili b g coatings and paint the deck and from porch floor and odd aND end of handyman stuff, new creek door for the porch and what else? ₩

Rob Dawg said...

I is a spring Saturday. Gardens really coming together. More work than I ever imagined but I am doing lots of once and finished stuf. Now one of the worst jobs a underground broken water pipe.

Lawyerliz said...

Is anything ever finished in a garden? At least some some sawgrass has been vanquished. It's really dry, hope it stays that way, for the roof!

Lawyerliz said...

There is always another weed!

Lawyerliz said...

Yo?

Lawyerliz said...

Yo? Yo??

Lawyerliz said...

Yo?
Yo Yo??
Yo yo yo???

LBD said...

Busy, Picked up a steal on a jet ski trailer. Hard to find in the outback, quick fix up and maybe go to the lake tomorrow.

Rob Dawg said...

99¢ Store has freesias. Full bloom 6-8 bulbs per pot. The bulbs at the garden center cost more than that.

Lawyerliz said...

Is everybody busy?

Rob Dawg said...

Lakeside dining, Four seasons wine tasting, comedy club. Semi-retirement has perks.

Don't worry. Things will perk up.

Cinco-X said...

Well...I finally found you guys...g'night

Unknown said...

Still waiting for that audit of California voter rolls. Let's simplify it..if you don't qualify to fly on a commercial aircraft..you can't vote..

Cinco-X said...

Liz... Wake up... WAKE UP!!!!!

LBD said...

Good Morning!

Pretty hard to hold anybody responsible for work done on the dam decades ago. Current work is the question as to who set the design specs and supervision.

Lawyerliz said...

Good Morning. Slept late this morning. Earthquakes felt in Kali?

Lawyerliz said...

And hiding reports. Monumentally stupid.

Lawyerliz said...

Feasting on clementine tangerines.

Yummmmm

Lawyerliz said...

WhAt is than beast, Dawg?

LBD said...

Oranges from Sanger Kali, pretty good.

Lawyerliz said...

Trump wants wall down payment in exchange for preventing a partial govt shutdown. Hahahahaha​.

LBD said...

Fine with me, a real shovel ready project. If robotics are taking over we don't need more imported poverty, especially now.

Lawyerliz said...

Wakey.

Planted one tomato and chopped a couple of sawgrass clumps previously wacked.

Anybody here think a Mexican wall should be built?

Lawyerliz said...

Maybe robots will built the wall and nobody will get jobs. Robots will soon build the robots too.

LBD said...

Mish has an interesting post on truck driving and cost savings with driver less electric trucks. Why do we need more people with less jobs?

Lawyerliz said...

Why do we need people at all? Hmmmph?

Seems to me that we have the whole thing backwards. Machines should make life pleasant, not cause misery and starvation. Let's allow no more robots until a house cleaning robot is widely available. A super duper ultra Roomba!!!

Lawyerliz said...

Hmm, would dawg want a gardening robot, or would that destroy the fun and exercise?

Cinco-X said...

Good to see that all are alive and well...I was getting worried. I guess we're all early to bed and late to rise these days

LBD said...

Working is a good discipline and enjoyable for many of us. Yes it would free us from many undesirable even risky jobs but idle time for many is not good. How would you compete for fun coupons (money)? Ego's must be fed. :)

LBD said...

I get up when the dogs tell me too.

Cinco-X said...

36°F this morning, but it's warmed up nicely since. I think I'll take my walk in shirt sleeves if the wind doesn't kick up...

dodahman said...

another idea: If ya'll have too many folks to function well as a state(as you state, I think), draw some straws and move folks out.
Hint: The rest of us are not about to give you 8-10 senators, so you need to think out of the box on this one...

Cinco, I see you survived the meetings yesterday. Well done.

A wonderful Sunday to all.

Rob Dawg said...

Yes. It will be a good day.

Liz, that fearsome critter is just a mole. I stuck a hose down the hole to flush him out and move him down to the barranca.

The wall IMO is necessary as a demonstration of national resolve that we will remain a rule of law. That's a lot to ask of a stupid wall but Trump has been known to get a lot of mileage out of symbolism.

That is also why I continue to discuss the Oroville Dam. It is a symbol of dysfunction and corruption of the public space.

prairiedog said...

The wall is a stupid idea...actually, there already is a wall on a good portion of the border. A complete wall would devastate wildlife populations. The human hubris is overwhelming.

Lawyerliz said...

Agree, Prairie.

One of my fellow unitarians the said she was called and voted in favor of preferring united Airlines to Trump.

LBD said...

If the government had enforced and adjusted the laws many decades ago, then a wall would not be necessary. IMO

Lawyerliz said...

Yep, prolly. BUT it didn't

Cinco-X said...

No kidding... One California is bad enough

Cinco-X said...

Maybe Trump should adopt some of UAs practices on those that won't leave voluntarily...J/k

Rob Dawg said...

Careful everyone. Those Dawgifornian residency permits are conditional and subject to review.

Eight Californias would be 4-6 Dem Senators and thus 10-12 Republicans.

Rob Dawg said...

To be fair Reagan was the one to tumble immigration into the mess we have.

Fixing it won't be easy or fair. I'd start with addressing "soil born" citizenship.

Lawyerliz said...

Constitutional.

Cinco-X said...

That's a little harsh... The US Congress passed legislation in '64 and Johnson signed it... The rest of us were along for the ride

Cinco-X said...

G'morning all y'all...