Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Bay Area commuters along the newly repaired MacArthur Maze should know who to thank for its speedy recovery: C.C. Meyers, a construction company whose apparent commitment to quality has earned the undying gratitude of Californians, including Governor Schwarzenegger (and the similarly undying love of New Yorkers). The Maze reopened for business yesterday morning, a mere 25 days after an explosion from a gasoline tanker reduced the freeway interchange into a smoking heap of twisted steel and concrete.

Meanwhile, the CHP has suspended the hazardous materials license of Sabek Transportation, the trucking company responsible for the freeway collapse, citing 36 safety violations found during an inspection of its main facilities. The cause of the crash is still shrouded in mystery, but really, more important is the fact that you won’t have to ride BART anymore. More people using public transportation is always desirable, but here’s betting that the 2.5% increase in BART ridership will be as temporary as the Maze’s time out of commission.
 
Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger revealed his new $48 million initiative to crack down on gangs across the state -- but, oh, maybe especially in East Oakland. His approach, called CalGRIP (California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention), includes putting more CHP officers on the streets, but it also proposes using global positioning devices to constantly monitor former gang leaders. Yes -- as the governor himself boomed, "We will treat convicted gang members like sex offenders." Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, for one, dislikes CalGRIP’s focus on punitive measures. He said, "I am a big believer in aggressive and innovative crime prevention and intervention, which undercuts gangs from flourishing in urban neighborhoods." Which is why the Dems have upped the ante by proposing to spend an additional $5 million on preventing gang violence.

The LA Times points out today that California ought to come up with a good plan for cleaning up the California Delta, before all the endangered fishies are gone, and because, you know, that "could require a cut in water delivered to you and me." The Times, just a bit skeptical of the ability of Schwarzenegger’s appointed task force to get its comprehensive scheme accomplished by 2008, recommends appointing a "water czar" to oversee implementation of the plan. The Delta, which is where the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers meet to flow to the San Francisco Bay Area, is the source of water for a whopping 23 million Californians.

While touring the state of California yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated that she would be returning to Stanford University as a professor after her stint in the Bush Administration is over. According to the the AP, this means that we probably won’t get Governor Rice in California after all. However, Condi’s new "never say never" stance towards running for governor has also been seen as a "clear departure" from the past by others, including MSNBC’s blog. 

Speaking of Stanford, though, Condi may want to check first if her undergraduate students are actually real students, especially after an 18-year-old posing as a freshman managed to get away with living in the dorms and faking enrollment at the Farm for nearly a whole school year. It would be funny if it didn’t raise concerns about how Stanford’s so-called "bubble" of protection from the outside world allows this kind of stuff to happen -- well, no, it’s just funny.

Democrats in the House of Representatives haven’t been able to stop the war in Iraq, withdraw funding for military operations, set appropriate benchmarks for success, or, well, done all that much about the war since taking over Congress, but the new compromised war spending bill signed by President Bush yesterday does include some nice bonuses for California, courtesy of our diligent lawmakers. Farmers, fishermen, counties affected by cutbacks in logging, and whoever the heck might benefit from levee repairs all get additional funding, to the combined tune of over $3 billion, although most of that includes nationwide agriculture disaster relief.