Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/341570
ByFenitNirappil TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO TheLegisla- ture adjourned for its sum- mer recess Thursday with- out meeting its top remain- ing priority, overhauling the $11.1 billion water bond scheduled to go before vot- ers this fall. The existing measure, which will appear on the November ballot as Prop- osition 43, passed in 2009 under then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but has been delayed twice. Most lawmakers have agreed it is too large and contentious to win voter approval, but they have struggled to find a compromise. "The most difficult thing about this whole discus- sion is it took six years last time," said Assembly Re- publican Leader Connie Conway, who served during the last negotiations. "It's like a telenovela with re- ally ugly actors: It's drama, drama, drama." A replacement water bond requires support from Gov. Jerry Brown and two- thirds of lawmakers in each house, including Republi- cans in the Senate, where Democrats are short of a supermajority. All are un- der pressure from environ- mentalists, farmers, water exporters and trade unions, among other interests. The most contentious is- sues for legislators to over- come include paying for wa- ter-storage projects and a provision seen as promot- ing Brown's delta tunnel project in Northern Califor- nia to divert water to farms and residents in the south. Brown, running for re- election on a platform of fiscal restraint, has pushed for a $6 billion bond. That leaves legislative leaders feeling pulled in opposite directions as they seek to cut spending while appeas- ing interests to win votes. Senate Democrats un- veiled a $7.5 billion plan for water projects Thursday, after a larger plan failed to pass a floor vote last week. But the plan reduces fund- ing for storage, and sup- porters say it takes a neu- tral position on the tunnels. Both are sticking points for Republican lawmakers. "In the water world, you can't always get everything you want," said Senate Pres- ident Pro Tem Darrell Stein- berg, D-Sacramento. Meanwhile, negotiations have stalled in the Assem- bly. The deadline to change the ballot measure is some- time in August. SACRAMENTO Le gi sl at ur e st ru gg le s to r ev am p wa te r- bo nd m ea su re SANTAROSAPRESSDEMOCRAT,KENTPORTER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A sign, melted in the intense heat of the Butts Fire, gives arrows for Snell Valley Road and Berryessa Estates on Wednesday near Middletown. By Associated Press The Associated Press A fire that erupted around 10:30 a.m. prompted the mandatory evacuation of 200 homes in central San Diego County near the mountain town of Julian. News crews from KNSD-TV reported seeing two homes burning. Firefighters attacked the 100-acre blaze in the air and on the ground. There was no immediate word on what sparked the blaze. The same area near Cleveland National Forest is where an 11-square-mile blaze destroyed more than 100 mountain cabins just a year ago. Meanwhile, the fire in Northern California's Napa County grew to more than 6.5 square miles as the fire raced uphill. The steep and rugged terrain also forced firefighters to build con- tainment lines without bull- dozers, said Alicia Amaro, a spokeswoman for the Cali- fornia Department of For- estry and Fire Protection. The blaze had scorched more than 4,300 acres by its third day, state fire spokes- man Daniel Berlant said. It has damaged nine struc- tures, including the two homes. The fire was burning to the north, away from the county's famed vineyards. "It has not come any- where close to what we con- sider Napa Valley wineries," said Cate Conniff, a spokes- woman for the Napa Valley Vintners, a nonprofit trade association. "It is moving in the opposite direction, and it continues to move that way. We're keeping an eye out on it." Residents in nearly 200 homes in a subdivision in the county's Pope Valley were allowed to return after an evacuation order was lifted Thursday afternoon but 180 others remained threatened, state fire officials said. Despite the fire-con- tainment level plateauing at 30 percent, the nearly 1,100 firefighters on the scene were making steady progress as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s, Berlant said. No injuries have been re- ported, and the cause of the fire remains unknown. Wildfires grow in north, south state CALIFORNIA The Associated Press MURRIETA An overflow crowd in a Southern Cal- ifornia community where protesters turned back Homeland Security bus- loads of immigrants gave a harsh reception to federal officials behind the deci- sion to bring them to their city in the first place. Local politicians calling for secure borders proved far more popular with the crowd Wednesday night in Murrieta. "Send them back! Send the back!" the special-meet- ing crowd chanted, shout- ing down Chief Border Pa- trol Agent Paul Beeson af- ter he took responsibility for transferring the Cen- tral American children and families to Murrieta from Texas, where the numbers are too much for facilities to handle. On Tuesday, the buses were rerouted an hour south to San Diego after they were met with flag- waving protesters in Mur- rieta. The Wednesday night crowd, gathered at a high school auditorium that seats 750 in the desert city of 100,000 people, groaned when Beeson said four of the immigrants had to be hospitalized, two with scabies and two with fevers. And Beeson conceded that he did not know where Tuesday's immigrants nor several more waves slated to arrive from Texas in coming days will end up. "We will make decisions when they arrive where it makes the most sense to put them," he said. The federal government is working to deal with a flood of Central American children and families flee- ing to the United States. More than 52,000 unac- companied children have been detained after cross- ing the Texas-Mexico bor- der since October in what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis. Many are under the impression that they will receive leniency from U.S. authorities. Murrieta Mayor Alan Long, who urged locals to oppose the immigrant transfer plan before it be- gan, said the city will track any spending it does over the issue and send a "big fat bill" to Washington. "Change needs to occur at the federal level in many ways," he said to a loud ova- tion. Riverside County Super- visor Jeff Stone, was wildly cheered after calling for se- cure borders and denounc- ing what he called the "ex- ploitation" by the federal government of the trauma- tized women and children immigrants. Another group of roughly 140 immigrants arrived from Texas for pro- cessing on Wednesday, but they were sent to El Centro more than 140 miles away and were met without in- cident. IMMIGRATION Fe ds b ooe d a er m ig ra nt s ta nd off DAMIAN DOVARGANES — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Immigration activist Amarily Ortiz, director of Confederacion Centro Americana (COFECA) demands the Mexican government to take more measures to protect and respect the rights of unaccompanied minors and families crossing Mexico's territory, during a protest outside the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles on Thursday. By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A corporate battle over a giant Pentagon contract to build stealth bombers spilled into the California Legislature on Thursday, as lawmakers grudgingly rushed through a $420 million tax credit for an aerospace contractor before adjourning for their monthlong summer recess. The 15-year tax incen- tive would benefit one of the two major competi- tors, a joint bid being sub- mitted by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. That has angered the other bidder for the $55 billion federal contract, Northrup Grumman Corp., which says it cannot offer a low enough bid without a similar tax break. Gov. Jerry Brown, who pushed for the tax credit, and Dem- ocratic legislative leaders promised to consider a sim- ilar incentive for Northrup after the Legislature re- turns in August. Lockheed Martin says the incentive would mean 1,100 California jobs should it win the contract, includ- ing 750 new jobs and 350 that would be retained. But Northrup Grum- man said it would create 1,500 new jobs in Palm- dale should it win the con- tract, even without the tax subsidy. A company spokes- man said giving the break to Lockheed Martin puts Northrup Grumman at a competitive disadvantage, the situation lawmakers pledged to correct next month. "Northrup Grumman, California's largest aero- space employer, is ex- tremely disappointed that the legislation passed to- day in California favors only one aerospace com- pany," the company said in a statement after the vote. "This is a significant blow to fairness in California's aerospace industry." The company looks for- ward to working with law- makers in August to secure a similar subsidy, spokes- man Tim Paynter said. "What we really want is a level playing field," he said. The bill, AB2389, passed the Senate with one vote to spare after hours of heated debate in commit- tee and on the floor, as sen- ators complained that they were being asked by Brown to pass the bill with a two- thirds majority just four days after it was presented to them. It had broader support in the Assembly, where it was approved 68- 2. "I feel like this is a jam- job and this is a game of chicken," said Sen. Kevin de Leon, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which voted to send the bill to the full Senate. The Los Angeles Demo- crat said California is com- peting for the aerospace jobs with Alabama, Flor- ida, Texas and other states, but he wasn't happy about the last-minute process of considering the tax credit. Yet he and others who voted for it said the gain in jobs would more than off- set the subsidy. Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Ros- eville, said projections are that there would be a net gain to the state budget of $80 million to $500 million over the life of the tax in- centive if the jobs stay in California. SACRAMENTO California lawmakers OK stealth-bomber tax break RICH PEDRONCELLI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, urged members of the state Senate to approve a measure to give a tax credit to an aerospace contractor on Thursday at the Capitol in Sacramento. The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A federal appeals court has rein- stated a lawsuit challeng- ing the San Francisco Sher- iff's Department's policy of forbidding male guards to work in the women's jail. The San Francisco Chronicle says a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Cir- cuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the policy constituted sex discrimi- nation which the city had failed to demonstrate was absolutely necessary. The 9th Circuit deci- sion overruled the find- ing of a federal judge who dismissed the lawsuit af- ter finding that excluding male guards made sense as a way to protect the safety and privacy of female in- mates. The policy was adopted in 2006. The Chronicle says the 35 guards who sued the next year included women who alleged it had in- creased their work loads and men who said it cost them overtime and possi- ble promotions. 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