California
Editorial: Probe discrimination in housing practices
IN THE 21ST CENTURY, one would have thought housing discrimination in the Bay Area was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that apparently is not the case.
The Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity, a publicly supported nonprofit housing counseling agency, conducted tests in nine Bay Area communities and found landlords discriminated in 29 percent of the cases.
As the group's report concludes, "Although the days of seeing signs displaying the words, 'No coloreds' are long gone, the threads of racism continue to appear in the fabric of our American way of life."
Losing Focus on High Speed Rail
California High Speed Rail Blog
It wasn't the article I was hoping to read upon my return from my honeymoon, but it's not that surprising to read in the Fresno Bee that the Sierra Club and the Planning and Conservation League are hesitating on backing Prop 1 and even considering a lawsuit - and for the nonsensical reason that the choice of the Pacheco route might "induce sprawl." That objection is bad enough, for reasons I'll discuss in a moment.
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Assemblyman Calls Public to Action for Transit Projects
Metro has voted to ask LA County residents on the November ballot on whether or not to raise the sales tax a half-penny for transit projects. However, the state has still not fully finished their process enabling the sales tax to be raised,
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California dealt setback in greenhouse-gas fight with EPA
(07-25) 12:07 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The court said the suit was premature because the EPA hadn't yet taken formal action to deny the state's request.
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Jobs outlook weak as state's unemployment rate hits 6.9% in June
Small rise from May brings the gauge to a nearly five-year high. The Los Angeles area has suffered substantial losses since a year earlier.
SACRAMENTO -- California's jobless rate crept ahead Friday as experts saw weakness spreading into new areas of the economy.
For months, job losses were concentrated in the state's housing industry. But with June's increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9%, it was evident that a broader downturn is underway.
SACRAMENTO -- California's jobless rate crept ahead Friday as experts saw weakness spreading into new areas of the economy.
For months, job losses were concentrated in the state's housing industry. But with June's increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9%, it was evident that a broader downturn is underway.
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Suburbia's not dead yet
While millions of American families struggle with falling house prices, soaring gasoline costs and tightening credit, some environmentalists, urban planners and urban real estate speculators are welcoming the bad news as signaling what they have long dreamed of -- the demise of suburbia.
In a March Atlantic article, Christopher B. Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of urban planning, contended that yesterday's new suburbs will become "the slums" of tomorrow because high gas prices and the housing meltdown will force Americans back to the urban core. Leinberger is not alone. Other pundits, among them author James Howard Kunstler, who despises suburban aesthetics, and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, see the pain in suburbia as a silver lining for urban revival.
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Yee Fights to Save SF-to-LA High Speed Rail
SACRAMENTO – The Senate Transportation and Housing Committee yesterday approved Assembly Bill 3034 to rewrite the $10 billion bond measure set to go before the voters in November to build the state´s high speed rail system, but not before a critical amendment was forced into the bill to protect the main line of the bullet train.
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Stronger emissions plan urged
Air Resources Board considers steps to cut the time Californians spend on the road.
Environmental and land-use groups are urging the state Air Resources Board to bolster its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions with more aggressive measures to slow the growth in the number of miles Californians drive.
At a public meeting Thursday, the board released the draft of a strategy to cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.
Environmental and land-use groups are urging the state Air Resources Board to bolster its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions with more aggressive measures to slow the growth in the number of miles Californians drive.
At a public meeting Thursday, the board released the draft of a strategy to cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.
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Mayor Villaraigosa Signs Landmark Law To Clean Los Angeles' Air
Law sets into motion LA's Clean Truck Program - the first of its kind in America - taking more than 16,000 dirty diesel trucks off the road and slashing harmful emissions by 80 percent
20 percent of dirtiest trucks to be replaced by October program start
20 percent of dirtiest trucks to be replaced by October program start
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California Continues to Fight Global Warming
Watch the video on ABC7.com
SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) -- Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to fight global warming centers on a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions, but in order to do it, we all have to play a major part that involves some lifestyle changes and even some sacrifices.
California's plan to fight global warming depends on forcing oil and gas refineries to produce less-polluting fuels, utility companies to generate a third of their electricity from renewable sources and auto companies to make cleaner-burning cars.
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