« School warning: Get protected | Main | CD15: Peas-in-a-Pod for Free Stuff »

October 29, 2022

Comments

Joe

Speaking of things that don't get much press. Check this laundry list of wildfire perpetrators out; courtesy of a little weekly paper in North Lake Tahoe--Moonshine Ink:

A father/son duo and PG&E reportedly caused the 2021 major wildfires in our region. What’s the status on these cases? And what about the professor?

The Dixie Fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres in Northern California last year and sent smoke to the Lake Tahoe Basin for weeks, was caused by a decayed tree falling on a PG&E powerline, which then remained unaddressed by staff for 10 hours. PG&E has since expanded powerline safety settings across the state and is working to underground other powerline stretches this year.

In the vicinity of the Dixie was alleged repeated arson by Gary Stephen Maynard, a former faculty member at Santa Clara and Sonoma State universities (according to The Sacramento Bee). The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California reported Maynard was responsible for 2021’s Cascade, Everitt, Ranch, and Conrad fires. “Some of the fires Maynard set were new fires behind the firefighters fighting the Dixie Fire,” the report included. Maynard remains in custody, with a status conference set for Nov. 29.

David Scott Smith and his son, Travis Shane Smith, are accused of reckless arson in connection with last year’s Caldor Fire, which burned 221,835 acres across El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine counties. The Smiths attended their preliminary hearing on Oct. 11 (after Moonshine’s press date) in El Dorado County.

In case CR000038 (the Butterfield fire), Ellen Lindsey Walters is charged in count one with a felony violation of Penal Code Section 451(c), arson of a structure or forest, and charged in count two with a misdemeanor violation of Penal Code Section 148(a)(1), willful resistance, delay and/or obstruction of a peace officer. The defendant remains in custody with bail set at $100,000. The next court date is Oct. 18 at 1:30 p.m.

Everything's jake

There are so many homeless people (addicted/mental illness) existing in the parks and BLM lands--fires are inevitable. Also, Newsom hesitated on controlled burns throughout the state which contributed to the problem we faced in the last few years.
We are a one party state and politicians do not worry about their constituents. Vote them all out next week!

Spurinna

So easy to fix this.
Vote them out for people who will work for their voters.

MBGA

“So easy to fix this”.
I-don’t-think-so.

Voting out democrats is only the first step. And it will do effectively nothing if the republican alternatives turn out to be of the Republicans In Name Only type, like we got with Arnold.

But even if we were somehow able to get people with common sense traditional values back into the elected political positions the whole government is fetid with employees that will be working against the corrective changes necessary. We will still be fighting the entrenched non elected progressive appointed-for-life judges that are sitting on the bench making our streets more dangerous, and woke teachers that will continue to indoctrinate children, and administrators that encourage that, and the teachers union to protect them, and all types of resistance from everyone who gets a guaranteed paycheck from this broken (D) system, and massive amounts of bureaucrats and public servants who work to serve themselves not the public. (it’s too depressing to try to structure that previous sentence.)

I have yet to hear a game plan for how to remove them.

Certainly voting out ALL Democrats is absolutely necessary as a first step but we will have to figure out ways to rip out those rotting the system from within if we are going to fix things. I’ve yet to hear how this can be done because it takes talking about defunding a lot of institutions, services, agencies, and government departments, otherwise without doing that those people will never willingly go away. And that's where the real fight is going to be.

But yes, never vote for a Democrat.

Joe

From today's news we get the funny thought that people who have been working at Twitter, get laid off, get recruited to work in SF city government---WOW!

Starting today, Twitter CEO Elon Musk is planning to cut roughly 50% of the company’s jobs, according to Bloomberg — and San Francisco Mayor London Breed is trying to recruit some of those employees to fill nearly 5,000 vacant posts in city and county government. Other Bay Area companies are preparing for mass layoffs: Ride-hailing giant Lyft is slashing 13% of its workforce, or nearly 700 workers, while Stripe — the country’s second most valuable private startup — is cutting 14% of its staff, or more than 1,000 workers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Amazon, meanwhile, is putting a pause on corporate hires.

resident

Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of the residential projects in town have stalled? In the last week I have gone past at least six or seven where no work has happened in a week or two or more.

Joe

Dan Borenstein at the Bay Area News Group (as published in the Merc on 3/17):

California’s years of major population growth have ended, and a state forecast suggests that the numbers might peak by as early as 2030 and then start to decline.

At the turn of the century, when the population was about 34 million, state forecasters were predicting 45 million by 2020 and 59 million by 2040. That isn’t happening.

Instead, California’s population hit 39.5 million in 2020, dipped down to 39.0 million in the first two years of the pandemic and, according to data published by the California Department of Transportation, will max out at about 40.5 million by the end of the decade.

Whether it’s talk of a new BART transbay tube, keeping underutilized schools open or continuing to sink billions into high-speed rail, it’s time for local and state government officials to recalibrate. Projects that were conceived based on the assumption of an expanding California population will no longer make sense. We shouldn’t keep planning and budgeting as if the state’s numbers will continue to grow significantly.
---------------------
Time to rethink a lot of things including the "housing crisis".

Joe

We get the real data for 2021 via an editorial in the WSJ:

The IRS each spring publishes data on the movement of adjusted gross income (AGI) and taxpayers across state lines from year to year.

California lost $29.1 billion in 2021, more than triple what it did in 2019.

Californians represented more than half of Texas’s income gain in 2021. The Golden State also sent $4.4 billion to Nevada, $2.7 billion to Arizona and $2 billion to Washington. Nevada and Washington don’t tax wages, and Arizona is phasing out its income tax.
--------------------
13% of $29.1B is $3.8 billion in 2021...and 2022 and 2023 and 2024...you get the idea.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

About the Voice

  • The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community. Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California. On it you can read and comment on important city issues.

    Note: Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice Blog are those of the poster and not necessarily the opinion of the editorial board of the Burlingame Voice. See Terms of Use

Contributing to the Voice

  • If you would like more information on the Burlingame Voice, send an email to [email protected] with your request or question. We appreciate your interest.

    Authors may login here.

    For help posting to the Voice, see our tutorial.