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Two Former Governors Weigh In on California’s Bullet Train

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Two Former Governors Weigh In on California’s Bullet Train

Perhaps you haven’t thought a lot about California’s plan to construct a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco because you voted for (or in opposition to) the practically $10 billion bond measure to get the undertaking began in 2008.

Perhaps you didn’t stay in California on the time, otherwise you had been too younger to grasp the instinctive attraction of an electrified transportation system that may change gas-guzzling slogs up Interstate 5 with bullet prepare rides that may whisk riders between cities at speeds of greater than 200 miles per hour.

If any of that’s true for you, it’s going to in all probability come as no shock that turning that grand imaginative and prescient right into a actuality has been monumentally tough. The value tag of the hassle has ballooned, and the route has shifted amid political squabbling and authorized challenges. The way forward for the undertaking has develop into unsure, at the same time as development continues within the Central Valley.

However now, as I reported this week, there’s additionally heightened urgency across the effort, as the USA struggles to noticeably tackle local weather change and to overtake crumbling roads, bridges, tunnels and railways.

President Biden, in his State of the Union tackle this month, advised People that the nation was embarking on an “infrastructure decade,” meant “to place us on the trail to win the financial competitors of the twenty first century.”

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Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his State of the State tackle not lengthy after, mentioned that California had “no friends” when it got here to local weather coverage — however that the state nonetheless should lower its dependence on fossil fuels and thus free itself from the “grasp of petro-dictators.” None of that may occur in a single day, he mentioned.

“We’ve realized we will’t resolve large issues like local weather change situationally, with short-term pondering,” he mentioned.

Consultants and supporters of high-speed rail advised me that the know-how, which has been utilized in international locations around the globe, suits the invoice for such a sweeping change. The ambivalence round constructing high-speed rail, they mentioned, tells us so much about what appears to be an alarming incapacity to tackle transformative tasks in the USA, irrespective of how badly they’re wanted.

Yonah Freemark, a researcher with the City Institute who has been following California’s high-speed rail undertaking, put it this manner: “The truth that California is the one place in the USA the place high-speed rail is being constructed is just not an indictment of California however of the USA.”

On its face, this can be a cash drawback. The complete line is now projected to price $105 billion, and the state legislative analyst’s workplace mentioned in a current report that it’s unclear the place lots of that may come from.

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However individuals who have been following California’s bullet prepare plan for a very long time mentioned that on the subject of large authorities tasks, it’s in the end a matter of political will.

That was a perspective shared by two of California’s high statesmen: Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who each championed the undertaking whereas serving as governor.

Brown, a Democrat who has been governor twice, recalled driving Japan’s bullet prepare within the early Sixties, not lengthy after it was constructed. As somebody who has fond childhood reminiscences of driving Southern Pacific Railroad’s Coast Daylight and Lark trains, he was intrigued.

Throughout his first tenure as governor, Brown recalled, officers within the administration of his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, instructed that shifting high-powered weapons round on new prepare strains would make it harder for enemies to focus on them. However Brown mentioned he had one other thought: Use high-speed rail for passengers.

“That was 1979,” he mentioned. Brown requested lawmakers to check the problem.

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By the point he turned governor for the second time in 2011, after the bond measure led by Schwarzenegger had handed, different international locations, together with France, Spain and China, had constructed 1000’s of miles of electrified high-speed rail strains.

Right now, Brown mentioned, there’s yet one more issue at play.

“We’re within the scenario of an more and more aggressive relationship with China,” he mentioned.

However Schwarzenegger mentioned the undertaking had gotten slowed down by political provincialism that was chipping away at a desperately wanted widespread good.

“It wants a cheerleader,” he mentioned. “It wants somebody that actually is overlooking the entire thing.”

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He added that it’s irritating to listen to opponents of the undertaking dismiss it as a result of it gained’t generate income.

“You have a look at the world and really not often is any system very worthwhile,” Schwarzenegger mentioned. “Once we construct faculties, we don’t appear like, ‘How will we make a giant buck out of this entire factor?’”

For extra:


A groggy Senate authorised making daylight saving time everlasting. If the laws had been to cross the Home and be signed by President Biden, there could be no extra springing ahead or falling again.


Right now’s tip comes from M. Ronald G. Kirchem:

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“Essentially the most stunning place in California is the Large Sur — it incorporates extra magnificence per sq. mile than anywhere on earth, and I’ve traveled nearly in all places.”

Inform us about your favourite locations to go to in California. E mail your recommendations to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing extra in upcoming editions of the e-newsletter.


As you all know, California has among the world’s most stunning and diversified pure environments — from the jumbo rocks and Joshua bushes within the desert, to the (generally) snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, to the teeming, colourful tide swimming pools of Monterey Bay.

Many of those areas are a part of nationwide parks or monuments. However there are additionally 279 California state parks, and this 12 months, for the primary time, Californians can rejoice them with a sequence of occasions and packages modeled after Nationwide Park Week, together with a land acknowledgment day and a youngsters’s profession day.

You possibly can be taught extra right here about California State Parks Week, which is ready to run from June 14 to 18.


Thanks for studying. We’ll be again tomorrow.

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P.S. Right here’s at the moment’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: In form (3 letters).

Soumya Karlamangla, Briana Scalia and Mariel Wamsley contributed to California Right now. You possibly can attain the crew at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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Revolutionary Guard commanders vow response to Israel attack on Iran

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Revolutionary Guard commanders vow response to Israel attack on Iran

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The top commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards issued a stark warning to Israel on Thursday, vowing that Tehran would deliver a harsh response to last week’s Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic.

Major General Hossein Salami, the head of the guards corps, warned in a speech that Iran’s retaliation would be “unimaginable” as Iranian officials stepped up their rhetoric against Israel.

“Israelis think they can launch a couple of missiles and change history,” he said. “You have not forgotten . . . how Iranian missiles opened up the sky . . . and made you sleepless.”

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Separately his deputy, Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, told Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese television channel close to Iran, that a response would be “inevitable”. In more than 40 years, “we have not left any aggression without a response”, he said.

The belligerent comments came as the Islamic regime weighs its options following Israel’s attack on Saturday, during which Israeli war planes launched three waves of strikes at Iranian military installations. The targets included missile factories and air defence systems in three provinces, including Tehran.

Regime insiders told the Financial Times that the options being considered include a possible strike before next week’s US presidential election, or Iran’s leaders could decide to hold off for now.

“The winner of the US election could take an Iranian attack personally and act against Iran. So, if Iran wants to respond to Israel, the best time is before the US election,” one insider said. “The only thing that could change this would be a fair breakthrough in ceasefire talks between [Hizbollah in] Lebanon and Israel which does not seem very likely.”

The US has this week stepped up efforts to broker a deal to end the conflict that has lasted more than a year between Israel and Hizbollah, Iran’s most important proxy.

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But there was little optimism of a breakthrough as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel retain the right to unilaterally enforce any agreement that would lead to Hizbollah withdrawing from southern Lebanon.

Another Iranian insider indicated Tehran might opt to maintain psychological pressure on Israel rather than launch a direct assault.

“With Hizbollah launching tens of rockets into Israel daily in a legitimate war, a direct response may not be necessary right now,” the insider said. “What benefits us is not a direct war with Israel. We need to keep the level of people’s stress low so that they can live their lives. This is the top priority.”

But an Iranian analyst said the dilemma for Tehran was “that Israel would take any delay in Iran’s response as a sign of weakness and would feel emboldened”.

Iran’s initial reaction to Israel’s strikes — which were in retaliation for an Iranian missile barrage fired at the Jewish state on October 1 — suggested that Tehran’s response would be measured and not immediate, Iranian analysts said.

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Speaking on Sunday, a day after Israel’s attack, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader and ultimate decision maker, refrained from vowing to retaliate.

Instead, he said the strikes should neither be “overestimated or underestimated”. Iranian state media played down the impact of the attack, which killed four soldiers and a civilian, saying the damage was limited.

But Tehran has shown a willingness to risk an escalation with Israel as regional hostilities triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack have spread across the Middle East, thrusting Iran’s years-long shadow war with its regional enemy into the open.

In April, it fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel in a clearly telegraphed retaliation for an Israeli strike on the republic’s embassy compound in Syria, which killed several senior guards commanders.

It gave little notice before launching 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, a more severe attack that was in response to the Israeli assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s leader and a close confidant of Khamenei.

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“Only a shock can stop Israel from its aggressions and free the region from the current stalemate,” the first regime insider said. “Iran might even go for a big bang and do something totally outside Israelis’ calculations as there is no other way to stop it.”

The US, which has pledged an “ironclad” commitment to the defence of Israel, has warned Iran not to retaliate as western nations have sought to contain the crisis amid heightened fears of all-out war.

“We will not hesitate to act in self defence. Let there be no confusion. The United States does not want to see further escalation,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said this week.

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Harris says Trump 'devalues' women's ability to make their own choices

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Harris says Trump 'devalues' women's ability to make their own choices

PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that former President Donald Trump’s remarks this week about protecting women whether they “like it or not” is another sign of how he “devalues” women.

“His latest comment is just the most recent in a series of examples that we have seen from him in his words and deeds about how he devalues the ability of women to have the choice and the freedom to make decisions about their own body,” Harris told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

The vice president also argued that most Americans “believe that women are intelligent enough and should have and be respected for their agency to make decisions for themselves about what is in their best interest,” rather than the government or Trump “telling them what to do.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately provide a comment on Harris’ remarks.

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Trump on Wednesday said that his “people” had instructed him not to say that he wanted to “protect the women.”

“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not.’ I’m going to protect them,” Trump said during his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was asked if she can see how Trump’s comments about doing something “whether the women like it or not” might make women uncomfortable.

“No, I can’t. Because if you look at the full context of President Trump’s remarks, he brought this up in the context of illegal immigration and protecting women from the illegal immigrant criminals,” Leavitt said Thursday.

Harris on Thursday also talked about President Joe Biden’s “garbage” remark from earlier this week, in which he appeared to criticize either Trump supporters or a comedian who delivered racist jokes at Trump’s rally in New York, and reiterated her view that “we should never criticize people based on who they vote for.”

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In addressing Biden’s comments, Harris pointed to Trump’s rhetoric about “the enemy from within” and comparing the U.S. to a “garbage can.”

“He does not understand that most people are exhausted with his rhetoric, exhausted with that approach, exhausted with an approach that Donald Trump has that’s trying to divide our country and have Americans point fingers at each other,” she said. “They’re done with it, and they’re ready to turn the page.”

Harris’ comments came before her rally in Phoenix. Her next campaign stops on Thursday are in Nevada, where she will hold rallies in Reno and Las Vegas.

The Sun Belt blitz comes as polling indicates a neck-and-neck presidential race less than a week before Election Day.

When asked by NBC News what Harris thinks her late mother would say to her in the final days before the election, Harris smiled.

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“‘Just go beat him,’” she said, laughing. “That’s probably what she’d say. Yeah, that’s my mother.”

Yamiche Alcindor reported from Phoenix, and Megan Lebowitz from Washington, D.C.

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Election 2024 Polls: Senate Races

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Election 2024 Polls: Senate Races

About our polling averages

Our averages include polls collected by The New York Times and by FiveThirtyEight. The estimates adjust for a variety of factors, including the recency and sample size of a poll, whether a poll represents likely voters, and whether other polls have shifted since a poll was conducted.

We also evaluate whether each pollster: Has a track record of accuracy in recent electionsIs a member of a professional polling organizationConducts probability-based sampling

These elements factor into how much weight each poll gets in the average. And we consider pollsters that meet at least two of the three criteria to be “select pollsters,” so long as they are conducting polls for nonpartisan sponsors. Read more about our methodology.

The Times conducts its own national and state polls in partnership with Siena College. Those polls are included in the averages. Follow Times/Siena polling here.

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Maine and Nebraska award two electoral votes to the statewide winner and a single electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district. (Maine has two congressional districts, and Nebraska has three.) Historical election results for these districts are calculated based on votes cast within the current boundaries of the district.

Sources: Polling averages by The New York Times. Individual polls collected by FiveThirtyEight and The Times.

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