EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

April 11, 2017 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL

• Edison agrees to negotiate new home for nuclear waste from San Onofre (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• San Diego’s Rapid Bus System Doesn’t Meet the Standards of Regular Buses in Other Cities (Voice of SD)
• San Diego County’s 10 worst funded pension plans (Voice of San Diego)
• Missing 17-year-old swimmer presumed dead (Patch.com)
• San Diego is mostly a no-drone zone, at least according to the rules (SD Union-Tribune)
• Sempra has paid no corporate taxes in recent years...and it's all legal (SD Union-Tribune)
• San Diego's new minimum wage already may be killing jobs (SD Union-Tribune)
• Sempra projects double-digit gains, plus a 'mountain of cash' from an LNG project (SD Union-Tribune)
• Audit: San Diego pays electric bills for 3,712 nonexistent street lights (SD Union-Tribune)
• Tests shows elevated lead levels at San Diego campus (SD Union-Tribune)
• Report: Homicides in Tijuana Rose Sharply in 2016 (KPBS)

STATE

• ‘Buying’ the votes for a gas-tax hike: is it illegal or just good politics? (Sacramento Bee)
• California Legislature votes to raise gas taxes, vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year for road repairs and transit (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Appeals court upholds California’s cap and trade system (Sacramento Bee)
• State Senate Approves Bill to Make California A 'Sanctuary State' (KPBS)
• California Wants to Make Itself Even Less Competitive (Reason)
• California bill stops Trump border wall builders from getting state contracts (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• This Self-Taught Programmer is Bringing Transparency to California Politics (Reason)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

Edison agrees to negotiate new home for nuclear waste from San Onofre (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Owners of the failed San Onofre nuclear plant agreed Friday to begin negotiations aimed at relocating tons of radioactive waste from the San Diego County coastline. The dramatic announcement came in the form of a brief filed in San Diego Superior Court, where a showdown hearing was looming next...

San Diego’s Rapid Bus System Doesn’t Meet the Standards of Regular Buses in Other Cities (Voice of SD)

…Cities have learned they can improve public transit, without spending the massive sums to improve their rail systems, by instead improving their bus networks. The umbrella term for such improvements is bus rapid transit, or BRT, and in San Diego MTS has taken this on with its “Rapid” branded bus lines. But San Diego is also part of another global trend: BRT creep. That’s when a transit agency sells an improvement to the public as BRT, but due to cost considerations or political opposition, it ends up providing something only marginally faster than a regular bus.

San Diego County’s 10 worst funded pension plans (Voice of San Diego)

San Diego’s county and city pension funds are losing ground in their pursuit of a fully funded plan, but 10 other local government pension plans are just as bad or worse off.  The Valley Center Municipal Water District, Otay Water District, city of El Cajon’s safety plan, the city of San Marcos and six other local pension plans are only 60 to 70 percent funded. That means the agencies lack 30 to 40 percent of the money ultimately needed to fulfill retirement promises for current and former employees…

Missing 17-year-old swimmer presumed dead (Patch.com)

…The El Cajon teenager, whose name was withheld, was in the surf with a group of friends near the foot of Windemere Court about 6 p.m. Sunday when he and one of his companions got caught in a strong rip current. Lifeguards rescued one of the youths, but the other could not be found.

San Diego is mostly a no-drone zone, at least according to the rules (San Diego Union-Tribune)

It’s no secret San Diego’s airspace is different than the rest of the nation: A downtown airport, multiple military bases and an international border make airspace limited.

Sempra has paid no corporate taxes in recent years ... and it's all legal (San Diego Union-Tribune)

... between 2008 and 2015 Sempra earned $7 billion in profit but actually received $34 million back in federal taxes, equating to an effective tax rate of minus 0.5 percent… “If you look at the current laws, they are really incentivizing companies to invest in renewable energy facilities and infrastructure,” said Maria McGregor, Sempra corporate communications manager. “And that’s a huge part of our business.”

San Diego's new minimum wage already may be killing jobs (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Evidence has emerged of an economic dark side to San Diego’s decision last year to vault over the state minimum wage — it may have already destroyed thousands of jobs for low-wage workers even as higher pay helps tens of thousands of others.

Sempra projects double-digit gains, plus a 'mountain of cash' from an LNG project (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Addressing financial analysts on Wednesday morning, officials at Sempra Energy projected double-digit earnings growth as it expects to invest about $14.2 billion in its utility and energy infrastructure business over the next five years.

Audit: San Diego pays electric bills for 3,712 nonexistent street lights (San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego taxpayers have been overcharged millions of dollars for energy in recent years, including the San Diego Gas & Electric bill for 3,712 street lights that don’t exist

Tests shows elevated lead levels at San Diego campus (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Drinking fountains at two Southcrest schools had more than twice the acceptable lead level set by the state, according to tests by the City of San Diego.

Report: Homicides in Tijuana Rose Sharply In 2016 (KPBS)

A new report shows there were 871 homicides in Tijuana last year, making 2016 the third deadliest year in the border city in the past decade.

STATE

‘Buying’ the votes for a gas-tax hike: is it illegal or just good politics? (Sac Bee)

It wasn’t the sort of vote any politician likes to cast. So the measure’s success on Thursday relied on a collection of eleventh-hour sweeteners offered by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders to reach the necessary two-thirds super-majority… it’s clear they doled out nearly $1 billion in district-specific transportation projects, with a popular commuter train system linking the valley and Bay Area headed to new locales. It also appears architects could get legal indemnity in construction lawsuits… Brown, who says he will sign the measure when lawmakers return from their spring recess, was unapologetic. Asked about the deal-cutting following the vote, Brown told reporters that all of the money was being spent on worthwhile projects.

California Legislature votes to raise gas taxes, vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year for road repairs and transit (San Diego Union-Tribune)

After a week of fierce debate between opposing interests, the state Legislature on Thursday approved a plan to raise gas taxes and vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year to pay for the repair of California’s pothole-ridden, decaying system of roads, highways and bridges.  Final details were unveiled last week for the legislation, which will raise the base excise tax on gasoline by 12 cents per gallon, bringing it to 30 cents. Another variable excise tax will be set at 17 cents. The excise tax on diesel fuel will jump 20 cents per gallon and the sales tax on diesel will go up four percentage points. Electric car owners will pay a $100 annual fee. The package also creates an annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000, to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more.

Appeals court upholds California’s cap and trade system (Sacramento Bee)

A state appeals court handed a major victory to California’s signature climate-change program on Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the state’s ability to collect revenue from auctions its sponsored over the last five years. The 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld the California Air Resources Board’s program in a 2-1 decision, ruling that its auction sales do not equate to an illegal tax because the purchase of pollution credits by businesses is voluntary and the credits they buy are “a thing of value.”

State Senate Approves Bill to Make California a 'Sanctuary State' (KPBS)

California is one step closer to becoming the nation's first "sanctuary state." Lawmakers in the state Senate voted along party lines Monday to pass a bill that would prevent state and local law enforcement from using their resources to aid federal immigration enforcement.

California Wants to Make Itself Even Less Competitive (Reason)

Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who ironically has a reputation as being pro-business, has introduced Senate Bill 726. If approved by the legislature and then voters, it would impose a California estate tax that's identical to the federal one, but only if the federal tax is repealed.

California bill stops Trump border wall builders from getting state contracts (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A California state senator plans to introduce a bill next week that would prevent the state from doing business with any company — or person — that works on President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.

This Self-Taught Programmer is Bringing Transparency to California Politics (Reason)

Rob Pyers didn't set out to bring transparency to establishment politics. In fact, he didn't even have any programming experience before he built the electronic systems for the California Target Book, a go-to resource for political transparency in the state. He initially came to Los Angeles with aspirations of becoming a screenwriter, but ended up stuck in his day job, bagging groceries. Then Walgreen's laid him off, and he needed something else to do.