Northern California Lawmakers Oppose Newsom's Plan to Speed Up $20 Billion Delta Tunnel
The Delta Conveyance Project intends to modernize the State Water Project, a massive water management system that's over 60 years old. It would build a 45-mile tunnel to channel water from the Sacramento River to the aqueduct that serves Southern California. Newsom has
Newsom, whose term ends in 2026, is seeking to streamline the project's construction.
He attached a trailer bill in his
'For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in endless red tape, burdened with unnecessary delay,' Newsom said in a statement. 'We're done with barriers—our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future. Let's get this built.'
State lawmakers from the region say the project is a threat to the ecosystem and will send water bills soaring for millions of users. They also criticized the project's $20 billion price tag and what they say is a bypass of environmental protections.
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'The governor is asking for a blank check, without cost caps, without meaningful oversight, without even committee hearings,' state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Democrat from West Sacramento, said during a
Delta Caucus Cochair Lori Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City, said Newsom's fast-tracking of the tunnel would hurt the local economy.
'The Delta Conveyance Project will devastate the Delta ecosystem and create a massive financial burden for ratepayers,' she
The project would upgrade the current conveyance system to also include a single underground tunnel, which would channel water from the Sacramento River in the northern Delta to the existing State Water Project's California Aqueduct on the southern end of the Delta, providing
The 45-mile-long, 36-foot diameter tunnel would be the state's second largest infrastructure project, after the high-speed rail.
California water agencies say the new infrastructure is vital for capturing water more efficiently amid climate concerns.
'Southern California stands to lose up to 10 percent of our water supply from the State Water Project if we don't act now,' Charley Wilson, executive director of the nonprofit Southern California Water Coalition, said in a
Desert Water Agency Board President Paul Ortega also commended Newsom's trailer bill accelerating the project.
'Ensuring the timely delivery of this important infrastructure will make our desert community and regions across the state more sustainable and protect our state's primary water supply from the impacts of climate change and disruptions from earthquakes or levee failures,' he said.
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Takeaways from the Trump-Putin meeting: No agreement, no questions but lots of pomp
WASHINGTON -- The much-anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin began with a warm welcome and a flyover by screaming jets at a U.S. military base in Alaska but ended with a thud Friday after they conceded that they had failed to reach any agreements on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war. After about 2 1/2 hours of talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, the two men appeared before reporters for what had been billed as a joint news conference — but they took no questions. 'We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to, there are just a very few that are left,' Trump said. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.' Putin, welcomed into the U.S. after being shunned by Western allies since early 2022 for ordering the invasion of Ukraine, thanked Trump for hosting the meeting and suggested with a chuckle that the next time the two sit down it could be in Moscow. Here are key takeaways from the summit: Putin got a red carpet welcome and even rode in Trump's presidential limousine from the tarmac to the summit venue. There, the pair were joined by two of their top aides: Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff for Trump and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and national security adviser Yuri Ushakov for Putin. Putin, who spoke first after the meeting concluded, lauded the historical relationship between the United States, Russia and the former Soviet Union, recalling joint missions conducted by the two countries during World War II. He said the U.S. and Russia share values, a standard talking point for Russian officials when trying to woo Trump and his aides. Putin also noted that Trump has frequently said the Ukraine war wouldn't have happened had he won the 2020 election. "I think that would have been the case," the Russian leader said, a comment sure to please Trump. However, there is no indication and no way to prove that Moscow would have acted differently toward Ukraine had Democrat Joe Biden not been elected. Trump had gone into the meeting hoping to get Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine — or at least a commitment from Russia to enter into negotiations to reach one. Instead, Trump conceded that 'we haven't quite got there' and said he would be conferring with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders about next steps. Trump said he and Putin had made some significant progress toward the goal of ending the conflict but gave no details on what that entailed and had to acknowledge that they had been unable to bridge substantial gaps. 'I believe we had a very productive meeting,' Trump said. 'We haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So, there's no deal until there's a deal.' In a subsequent conversation with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel, Trump again offered no details on his discussions with Putin. Amid drawn-out diplomatic moves to end the war, time is appears to be on Putin's side. That gives a leg up to Russian forces, who have used their larger numbers to slowly grind down defenses in eastern Ukraine 3 1/2 years into the conflict. Putin got a pleasant reception from the leader of the free world on U.S. soil and walked away hours later without either providing details on what they discussed, whether a ceasefire was any closer to reality or what the next steps would be. Putin praised Trump for the 'friendly' tone of the talks — Trump said nothing publicly about the killing of Ukrainian civilians in Moscow's attacks — and for 'understanding that Russia has its own national interests.' Putin said Moscow and Washington should 'turn the page,' with relations having sunk to the lowest point since the Cold War. Putin appearing in the U.S. for the first time in 10 years was celebrated as a sign that Moscow was no longer a pariah on the global stage. In a social media post, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told followers that the Western press would be on the verge of 'losing their minds.' 'For three years, they talked about Russia's isolation, and today they saw the red carpet being rolled out to greet the Russian president in the United States,' she said. Both men said the talks were 'productive' but the lack of any announcement of solid achievements was revealing. The news conference ended up being less than 15 minutes of rather standard diplomatic comments — and gave no indication that any concrete results were achieved — and offered little departure from their previous comments on the war in Ukraine. Trump has made it a feature of his second term to parry questions from reporters in front of world leaders, but in the clearest sign of his disappointment, the president abruptly cut short his plans to take questions. Trump had gone into the summit saying here was a 25% chance that the summit would fail and that it was meant to be a 'feel-out meeting,' but he had also floated the idea of bringing Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting if things went well. It's unclear what comes next.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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New redistricting maps leaked before release by CA Legislature. See them here
If Democrats succeed with their lightning-speed push to redraw congressional districts, California's Republican strongholds will look very different. New district maps leaked online ahead of their official release by the Legislature confirmed that Democrats are targeting five Republican districts in the North State, Central Valley and southern California, while hoping to shore up other competitive districts to make them easier for party candidates to win. Gov. Gavin Newsom has led the charge for Democrats to respond in kind after President Donald Trump asked Texas Republicans in June to fortify their House majority by redrawing districts to eke out another five seats in the 2026 midterms. At a Thursday campaign launch, Newsom framed redistricting as Democrats' chance to 'liberate democracy' as Border Patrol agents stormed the rally and President Donald Trump seized control of law enforcement in Washington, D.C. Newsom is calling for a special Nov. 4 election, and the Legislature will return from summer break Monday to swiftly pass a constitutional amendment and related ballot language by next Friday. Organized labor, reproductive rights groups and House Majority PAC, the leading fund for Congressional Democrats, are all backing his campaign. The California Republicans whose districts Democrats are targeting are Reps. Kevin Kiley, David Valadao, Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, and Darrell Issa. If successful, the effort would net Democrats 48 of the state's 52 congressional seats; the party currently controls 43. Other districts that Democrats have narrowly won would also be consolidated into friendlier terrain. Political data scientist Paul Mitchell, a redistricting veteran, drafted the maps. 'Our proposed map was created using traditional redistricting criteria, consistent with guidelines laid out by the California's Citizen Redistricting Commission,' according to a cover letter from Julie Merz of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee included with the map. 'It allows for more compact districts than in the current Commission-drawn map, keeps more communities and neighborhoods together, splits fewer cities, and makes minimal disruptions to the Commission-drawn map so as to impact as few residents as possible,' Merz wrote. 'This is a striking contrast from Texas' proposed gerrymander which redrew all but one of their 38 congressional districts to minimize the state's growing minority voting strength.' What would change? The draft maps, which leaked online ahead of their official release Friday, would shrink most Republican districts. It would shift much of the North State into the coastal 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman while including parts of northern Marin and Sonoma counties. Kiley's district would also shrink and encompass part of the greater Sacramento area, shift the bulk of voters to Republican Rep. Tom McClintock's district and remove a broad section of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Proposed congressional districts Valadao's district would also shrink, as would that of Issa, who trumped his Democratic opponent in 2024 by almost 19 points to be reelected to his San Diego-area seat. Per a chart that leaked Thursday, all of those districts would shift from being 'safely' Republican to either lean Democrat, or be considered safe for any Democratic candidate if voters approve them in November. Calvert and Issa currently represent parts of Riverside and San Diego counties and Valadao represents a Central Valley district. LaMalfa currently represents much of the North State from Yuba City to the Oregon border. Kiley, arguably Newsom's arch rival within the state, currently represents much of the northern Sacramento suburbs, northern Sierra Nevada, and the Nevada border down to Death Valley. 'Make no mistake, I will win reelection regardless of Newsom's attempt to gerrymander my district,' Kiley said on X, linking to a photo of his newly redrawn district. 'But I fully expect that the beautiful 3rd District will remain exactly as it is. We will defeat Newsom's sham initiative and vindicate the will of California voters.' LaMalfa's district has voted for every Republican presidential candidate since 2012, the year LaMalfa first won election. At a town hall held Monday in Chico, a veteran criticized him for not pushing back on Trump's staffing cuts at the Department of Veteran Affairs, forcing the man to seek mental health care in San Rafael, three hours away. Hours before the maps were published, a handful of Democratic candidates who had previously lost to Republican incumbents said they were considering running in newly drawn districts. That included Chico ag consultant Audrey Denney, who previously ran against LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020, and confirmed she would run again for his seat if voters approved temporary redistricting in November. 'With this map, my home in Chico is now in a district that Democrats can win. And if Californians vote for the map, I plan to run to replace Rep. Doug LaMalfa and take on this administration in 2026,' she said in a statement. 'We will step up and fight back when Trump and MAGA Republicans break the rules. We will not allow them to rig the system against working people any longer. Our message is clear: If you take away our freedoms, we will take away your seats.' Lawmakers debate Outgoing Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, said he had heard speculation leading up to the maps' release that Democrats were considering redrawing LaMalfa's district to draw more liberal voters in from the coast, as far down as parts of Sonoma and Marin counties. 'There's no justification for it,' he said earlier this week. 'It will drown out more rural voters.' 'We're going to focus on how corrupt this process is. It won't result in more fair representation,' he said of Republicans' opposition efforts. 'We decided that the voters would decide, that we'd do things differently, and not let politicians draw the lines. Either you believe in the principle or not.' A handful of congressional Democrats said normally, they were opposed to letting politicians rewrite districts, but that Trump's request that the GOP maintain its hold on Congress so it could continue enacting his agenda without opposition demanded an extraordinary response. Polling numbers reviewed by lawmakers show voters are still strongly in favor of letting redistricting remain independent. Rep. Adam Gray, who won his Merced-area district by 187 votes, put the onus back on Republicans. 'It's difficult to take my colleagues across the aisle seriously when they crow about election rigging and deep state plots and then turn around and do things like what we're seeing in Texas,' he told The Bee. 'It's unserious and it's damaging to our democracy.' 'If Congressional Republicans had a record they were proud of, they wouldn't need to rig the next election. Congressional Republicans' plan to suppress the voices of voters is an existential threat to our democracy,' Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, told The Bee. 'California isn't going to stand by and let it happen. I'm a longtime supporter of non-partisan redistricting, but extraordinary threats like this one require extraordinary action. If redistricting is on the table in Texas, it must be on the table here in California, too.' Newsom, who is reportedly eyeing a run for higher office after he's termed out in 2026, said the maps would be temporary through the 2030 election. After that, redistricting power would revert back to the nonpartisan Citizen Redistricting Commission, a 14-member state body that voters approved in 2008 to redraw state legislative maps, and later congressional ones in 2010. Advocates across the political spectrum, from Republicans to progressives to good governance groups, have opposed the effort. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the redistricting commission, are backing an opposition coalition funded by Charles Munger Jr., a former Santa Clara GOP chair who has tapped his family fortune to support Republican causes, including the 2008 initiative establishing the commission. 'These maps were drawn by politicians and party insiders behind closed doors with no transparency and no input from the public. Several elected politicians with open congressional committees will vote on these self-serving districts. That is a clear conflict of interest and undermines public trust in the fairness of our elections,' said Munger spokesperson Amy Thoma Tan. 'Californians deserve district lines that are drawn in the open, by our citizens' independent commission, which the voters elected to do , and with full opportunity for public review and comment — not maps engineered by politicians to serve themselves or their partisan agenda. Citizens, not politicians or partisan party insiders, should not only hold the power at the ballot box but also the power to draw the lines.' The Assembly and Senate elections committees have set hearings for next Tuesday ahead of the election, which is expected to cost at least $200 million. The California State Association of Counties, Rural County Representatives of California, and the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials asked the governor Thursday for funding in advance to prepare for added costs associated with printing more ballots and envelopes, staffing more poll volunteers, and booking voting centers.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Proposed congressional maps in California could help Democrats flip 5 seats
Proposed new congressional maps in California that are expected to be put to voters in a special election this fall indicate the redrawn district lines could help Democrats flip five Republican seats and bolster around five Democratic incumbents in toss-up districts. The new maps, posted on the California State Assembly website on Friday evening, are draft proposals and are subject to be changed or reworked by the state legislature, which is set to start working next week. The legislative action follows California Gov. Gavin Newsom's call on Thursday for a special election on new maps, in an attempt to counter mid-decade redistricting being pushed by Republicans in Texas. MORE: California will move forward with redistricting vote to counter Texas, Newsom says The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of House Democrats, took credit Friday for submitting the maps to the California legislature, saying in a statement they believe they will have widespread support among California legislators and voters. "We anticipate this proposal will have widespread support both among California office holders and various stakeholders across the state," DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz said in a statement. "We will not stand by as Republicans attempt to rig the election in their favor and choose their voters. It's increasingly clear that Republicans will do anything to protect their narrow majority because they know they can't win on their disastrous legislative record which has raised costs and rips away health care for millions, all to give the ultra-wealthy a tax break." Paul Mitchell, a redistricting and data expert who drew the maps, told ABC News San Francisco station KGO-TV in an interview on Friday afternoon before the draft maps were posted online that eight of the proposed redrawn districts are unchanged; another 20 are changed very little, and that overall the goal was "pushing back on Texas without doing something that would radically disrupt the congressional district lines." MORE: Texas Democrats to return after governor ends special session that included redistricting, sources say Mitchell added that beyond making five Republican-held seats favor Democrats -- as a counter to the proposed congressional maps in Texas that could flip five seats to favor Republicans -- the proposal also strengthens the districts of around five Democratic "frontline candidates" who face more difficult challenges from Republicans. "[The legislature has] got some time next week to put it together, along with all the other language for a statewide ballot measure. And I think the point for voters is, this is a way to push back on what Texas Republicans are doing, on what Trump is doing," Mitchell told KGO-TV. Republicans continue to cry foul, saying that Newsom's gambit for new maps is politically motivated. NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) wrote in a statement before the proposed maps were posted: "Gavin Newsom failed to solve the homelessness, crime, drug, and cost epidemics plaguing the Golden State. Now he is shredding California's Constitution and disenfranchising voters to prop up his Presidential ambitions. "Californians oppose Newsom's stunt because they won't let a self-serving politician rig the system to further his career. The NRCC is prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks."
