Public safety and education in jeopardy Gov. Jerry Brown announced his proposed 2012-13 budget last week. The $92.5 billion budget is balanced and could produce a $1.1 million surplus for future reserves. Both the projections and plan are delicately balanced on the assumption that state voters will approve his proposed tax increases on upper-bracket taxpayers…

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…

On Jan. 27, the California Energy Commission adopted first-in-the-nation energy standards for the next generation of light bulbs. The standards cover screw-in LED light bulbs a consumer would purchase for almost any household use. They also cover more specialized bulbs, called small-diameter directional lamps, used in commercial applications, such as track lighting. The standards focus…

“This is a dangerous time,” Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins said at the last Mountain Area Safety Taskforce meeting. The hot dry days, with little nighttime cooling, pose serious risks for fire. Since Jan. 1, there have been 42,488 wildland fires nationally. That is the fewest number of wildland fires in the past 10…

In August 2011, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to reduce federal expenditures and begin a road toward a balanced budget. Although many believed Congress and President Barack Obama would find an acceptable compromise to these across-the-board cuts, no other solution was mutually agreed upon. The reduced funding began March 1. Eighteen months after passage of…