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ByDonThompson TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO California faces $340 billion in debts, or more than $8,500 for each of its 38 million residents, the nonpartisan Legislative An- alyst's Office said Wednes- day in recommending that the state set priorities for paying down its key long- term liabilities. The state should first ad- dress the $73.7 billion short- fall in the teachers' retire- ment system, a debt that could cost the state, teachers and school districts a com- bined $5 billion a year to re- solve over 30 years. Without changes, the system serving 868,000 members is pro- jected to run out of money by 2046. Paying down the $64.6 bil- lion shortfall in health bene- fits for 277,000 retired state employees and their depen- dents should come next. That could cost the state $1.8 billion a year over 30 years, the analyst said, but getting started sooner would dra- matically reduce costs over the long run. The report comes a month before the state's budget is due and feeds legislative de- bates over whether the state should spend or save its bud- get surplus and how to cre- ate a rainy day fund that would go before voters in No- vember for their approval. It was released a week before Gov. Jerry Brown unveils his revised budget recom- mendations. "I think it underscores what the governor has said for quite some time, which is that we have significant lia- bilities that we need to ad- dress," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state De- partment of Finance. The department's latest figures, for March, show rev- enues coming in $1.4 billion higher than they were fore- cast through the first nine months of the fiscal year that began July 1. But the department says much of the growth is from the highly volatile capital gains tax and projects that it will level off next year. "We know from painful history what happens when you spend one-time reve- nues on ongoing spending," Palmer said. "We don't want to see that movie again." In his January budget, Brown urged his fellow Dem- ocrats who control the state Legislature to start paying off California's massive lia- bilities, but did not propose directly addressing the def- icit for the nation's largest educator-only pension fund. The California State Teach- ers' Retirement System says its debt grows by $22 million each day nothing is done, yet Brown said he would meet with the key players over the next year to create a plan for long-term solvency. Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Ir- vine, vice chairwoman of the Senate Fiscal Oversight and Bonded Indebtedness Com- mittee, said in a statement it is time to "pay off the state's credit card," echoing com- ments by Assembly Repub- licans and Democrats. IN THE RED An al ys t: S ta te f ac es $ 34 0 bi ll io n sh or tf al l Debt amounts to about $8,500 per resident THEASSOCIATEDPRESS This 1967image shows research pilot Bill Dana in front of the X-15on the dry lake bed at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Famed re- search test pilot Bill Dana, who flew the X-15 rocket plane and other pioneering aircraft during the birth of the space age, has died at age 83. Dana died Tuesday at an assisted living facility in sub- urban Phoenix, according to an announcement Wednes- day by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Starting in the 1950s, Dana logged more than 8,000 hours in more than 60 types of aircraft, rang- ing from helicopters and sailplanes to the hypersonic X-15, which he flew to a max- imum altitude of nearly 59 miles, reaching a top speed of 3,897 mph. In 2005, he was awarded civilian astronaut wings for two of those flights to the edge of space — nearly 40 years after his X-15 flights — because at the time, NASA did not confer astronaut wings on its pilots. Dana also flew NASA's so- called lifting body aircraft that led to the design of the space shuttle. Dana was born in Pas- adena, but grew up in Ba- kersfield, where he fell in love with aircraft as a child. "I remember seeing B-25s and P-38s flying over at the start of World War II and there was something very glorious and exciting about the warbirds, and I was at- tracted to it and I never re- ally lost my ambition to fly those airplane(s)," he told Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine in a 1997 inter- view. Dana graduated from West Point, became an Air Force officer and was a fighter pilot in the Korean War. He later obtained an aeronautical engineering de- gree from the University of Southern California and was hired as an aeronautical re- search engineer at NASA's High-Speed Flight Station in the Mojave Desert — now called Armstrong Flight Re- search Center — in 1958. He became a test pilot the next year. The X-15 flights were the high point of his career be- cause of the plane's extraor- dinary performance, he said in the 1997 interview. His first flight lasted just 10 minutes but knocked him for a loop. The plane had a "great big engine and lots of accelera- tion and things happening very, very fast and I really didn't catch up with the air- plane until I was back down to about Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound), where I had been before in fighter air- planes," he recalled. Over the years, Dana took the danger of his profession in stride. "There's a whole staff of engineers in the control room watching every move you make and my fear was that I would do something that would embarrass my- self in the eyes of my peers, and that was the fear," he told Air & Space Maga- zine. "I don't ever remem- ber being afraid I was go- ing to die." A heart attack forced him to give up flying but in 1993 he became the center's chief engineer. He retired in 1998 but later worked as a contract employee writing histories of some of its programs, and during budget cutbacks even gave up his salary to do vol- unteer work in the center's history office, NASA said. Famed rocket pilot Bill Dana dies at 83 Flew 3,897 mph in X-15 supersonic jet PASSINGS By Juliet Williams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO The board thatoverseesCalifornia's$68 billionhigh-speedrailproject voted Wednesday to unani- mouslyadoptaplannedroute for its second and most sub- stantial section to date, a 114- mile stretch between Fresno and Bakersfield. Meeting in Fresno, the board voted 7-0 to approve a 20,000-page environmental planning document, sending the next phase of the project on for federal review. Wednesday's approval represents a significant step in the planning for the proj- ect, which has been stalled repeatedlybyunfavorablele- gal rulings, delays in acquir- ing land in the Central Val- ley,and a lackof funding. En- gineering work has started on the first, much shorter section, a 30-mile segment from Merced to Fresno. The environmental doc- ument includes plans to ad- dress air quality during con- struction, add green space to compensate for damaged habitat and prevent the spread of the highly conta- gious fungal disease known as Valley fever. The complex review is required to com- ply with state and federal environmental laws and has been in the works since 2011. The selected route goes from downtown Fresno, around Hanford, where local criticism of the project has beenthestrongest,andstops just north of Bakersfield for now,aftercityofficialsraised concerns about a downtown station that would encroach on historic properties. Despite the length of the report and a 4,800-page re- sponse to comments from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, critics of the project said many of their concernswerenotaddressed in the final report. They also criticized the board for giv- ing the public three weeks to respond and for failing to include 35 letters from the public when the report was posted online, which author- ity officials called "a clerical error." The board held a two-day meeting to allow for more Central Valley residents to attend, many of whom com- plained about the harm to or loss of their property be- cause of the bullet train. "This project is being rushed. Rushed equates to more litigation and less quality," said Colleen Carl- son, counsel for Kings County. The county, which includes the city of Han- ford, is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that argues the high-speed rail project's current plans do not comply with the promises made to voters when they approved selling $10 billion in bonds for it in 2008. A Sacramento County Superior Court judge's rul- ing that sided with the plain- tiffs has blocked the state from selling $8.6 billion in bonds for the project, rais- ing concerns that the state will not be able to meet its commitment to match some $3.3 billion in federal fund- ing. The state's appeal of that ruling will be heard in court later this month. Board Chairman Dan Richard said he feels "a huge sense of responsibility" to the farmers and landown- ers he has met in the Cen- tral Valley. "We have to make a de- cision about whether or not there are larger superseding benefits and value that this decisionwouldbringnotonly to this community, but to the state as a whole," he said. HIGH-SPEED RAIL Fresno-to-Bakersfield section OK'd The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A Cali- fornia transportation of- ficial says leaks found on the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that are allowing rainwater to seep into the structure should not result in more maintenance costs. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that De- partment of Transporta- tion toll bridge program manager Tony Anziano on Tuesday said the leaks were expected, not a defect. Anziano says minor sur- face rust has appeared in- side the new bridge be- cause of the leaks, but that the bridge contractor is re- quired to remove it, and to repaint and seal problem areas before the project is complete. He says the leaks will not cause more in maintenance costs over the 150-year life of the span, and do not pose safety concerns. MAINTENANCE DOT: Bridge leaks won't be costly fix The Associated Press MARTINEZ A judge in Northern California has dismissed a battery charge against a transgender teen- ager whose prosecution had been questioned by support- ers from across the country. The Contra Costa Times reports that a juvenile court judge dropped the mis- demeanor charge earlier this month after 16-year- old Jewlyes Gutierrez com- pleted a conflict resolution program. The charge stemmed from a November fight at Hercules High School that was caught on video and went viral. Jewlyes' case attracted the attention of LGBT advocacy groups, who questioned why she was the only student to face criminal penalties when the girls she fought with had been taunt- ing her. Jewlyes tells the Times the conflict resolution pro- gram helped her resolve her problems with class- mates. She says she can re- lax now that the charge is behind her. CONFLICT RESOLUTION Transgender teen's charges dropped "This project is being rushed. Rushed equates to more litigation and less quality." — Colleen Carlson, Counsel for Kings County Regular Haircut $ 2 00 off KWIK KUTS FamilyHairSalon 1064SouthMainSt.,RedBluff•529-3540 ANY RETAIL PRODUCT 20 % off withanychemicalserviceof $50 or more Notgoodwithotheroffers Expires 5/31/14 With coupon Reg. $13.95 RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. LIC#829089 Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate SERVICESATLOWERPRICES All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened 30K, 60K, 90K MembersWelcome | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014 8 A