June ballot Prop 68 authorized $4 billion Proposition 3, on the ballot in November, proposes issuance of $8.877 billion in general obligation bonds for water infrastructure improvement. Of the $8.877 billion, $3 billion is targeted for safe drinking water and water quality, $2.9 billion for watershed and fisheries improvements, $940 million for habitat protection, $855…

If you drive and text, talk (without a hands-free device) or tweet, you’re in trouble. And, that trouble now extends to riding a bicycle, if Governor Jerry Brown signs Senate Bill 28 into law, cyclists can also be cited. “Distracted driving” is already against state law, but distracted bicycling had not been. Original legislation that…

Allows additional time to count and certify ballots Proposition 71 on the June ballot would move the date approved ballot measures become effective to the fifth day after the California secretary of state certifies the election results. Currently, California law stipulates measures become effective the day after the election in which they are approved by…

Citing California’s five-year drought, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order making some of the state’s temporary water restrictions permanent. Permanently banned are wasteful practices such as hosing off driveways and washing cars with hoses that lack shut-off nozzles. The governor credited Californians with having accomplished significant water conservation, saving 1.3-million-acre-feet of water from June…

Riverside County residents with backyard chickens, and people with other birds, should take steps to protect the animals from virulent Newcastle disease, county agricultural officials urged last week. The disease has not been identified in Riverside County but recent outbreaks in Southern California demonstrate the need for precautions. “This disease is so virulent it could…