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Prop. 30 explained: The numbers you need to know

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Prop. 30 explained: The numbers you need to know


A prescribed burn in 2019. Picture courtesy of Lenya Quinn-Davidson, College of California Cooperative Extension/Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Affiliation

$1 billion

Efforts to deal with wildfires would obtain solely 20% of the funds raised by way of Prop. 30, however there’s loads of methods to spend the cash. The Legislative Analyst’s Workplace estimates that if permitted, the proposition would doubtless enhance wildfire response by $700 million, to about $1 billion a 12 months. 

That’s on prime of the brand new state price range that gives a one-time allocation of almost $1 billion from the final fund for wildfire-related actions.

Residing with wildfires requires massive cash in California: The state has spent as a lot as $4 billion a 12 months to battle wildfires, relying on the severity of the hearth season. Most of that comes from the state’s emergency fund.

Vital to understanding how this new cash is perhaps used is to clarify the excellence between two elements of the proposition: allocating funds for “response” and funds for “prevention.”

$26 million

The per-unit price of a brand new technology of firefighting helicopters. Response typically means suppressing fires which have already ignited. In California, which means using the most important civilian fleet of water and retardant-dropping plane on this planet, spinning up choppers and calling in scores of bulldozers, water vehicles and almost 8,000 firefighters and assist personnel.

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State officers might select to allocate the brand new funds to buy extra tools that helps put out fires. Or Cal Hearth might rent extra personnel, an effort already underway. The state might additionally select to make use of a number of the cash to higher assist Cal Hearth’s behavioral well being unit to deal with what fireplace officers have referred to as a psychological well being disaster amongst hard-pressed first responders.

$582 million

The present state price range allocates $582 million over three years for initiatives that both search to stop fires or increase the resiliency of forests to resist blazes. 

It’s an enormous chunk of the prevention piece, the place researchers argue the majority of the brand new cash ought to go — doing what we will to stop fires from beginning and minimizing the dimensions and harmful capability of those who do. 

The overall time period for this methodology of fireside prevention is fuels remedy, and this strategy, too, is expensive and tough to handle. Typically, the cash may very well be spent eradicating issues that burn — bushes and brush. To make an impression, that must occur on a big scale. So-called mechanical thinning, eradicating vegetation by hand or with machines, is efficient, but additionally costly and time consuming.

Extra environment friendly and cost-effective are prescribed burns, rigorously deliberate and executed small fires, whose low depth removes the extra flammable crops and small bushes, preserving massive bushes and leaving a more healthy and fewer weak panorama.

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There are political, bureaucratic and societal causes that extra prescribed burns aren’t undertaken. And, as California stays within the grip of a devastating drought, there’s additionally an ever-narrowing window to securely set bushes on fireplace.

For quite a lot of causes, California is just not emphasizing fuels-reduction actions. The state has performed fuels discount initiatives on solely 4,000 acres this 12 months.  Its much-touted settlement with the U.S. Forest Service pledging to collectively “deal with” one millon acres within the state by 2025 has not come near getting there.

Ought to Prop. 30 free-up surprising funds to deal with wildfires, will probably be as much as Cal Hearth and state officers to find out how one can prioritize the spending. And, the one positive factor to find out about fireplace in California is that it received’t be almost sufficient.

40%

…give or take. That’s the share of the discretionary spending within the state price range that’s required by regulation to fund Ok-12 training. The precise quantity varies from 12 months to 12 months and is dependent upon a formulation that only a few Californians truly perceive. 

However the cash raised by Prop. 30 can be exempt from that requirement. That’s why the California Academics Affiliation, the state’s largest union of educators, opposes the measure, which it says would “set a harmful precedent.”

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California

Caitlyn Jenner says she'd 'destroy' Kamala Harris in hypothetical race to be CA gov

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Caitlyn Jenner says she'd 'destroy' Kamala Harris in hypothetical race to be CA gov


Caitlyn Jenner, the gold-medal Olympian-turned reality TV personality, is considering another run for Governor of California. This time, she says, if she were to go up against Vice President Kamala Harris, she would “destroy her.” 

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Jenner, who publicly came out as transgender nearly 10 years ago, made a foray into politics when she ran as a Republican during the recall election that attempted to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. Jenner only received one percent of the vote and was not considered a serious candidate. 

Jenner posted this week on social media that she’s having conversations with “many people” and hopes to have an announcement soon about whether she will run. 

Caitlyn Jenner speaks at the 4th annual Womens March LA: Women Rising at Pershing Square on January 18, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)

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She has also posted in Trumpian-style all caps: “MAKE CA GREAT AGAIN!”

As for VP Harris, she has not indicated any future plans for when she leaves office. However, a recent poll suggests Harris would have a sizable advantage should she decide to run in 2026. At that point, Newsom cannot run again because of term limits. 

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If Jenner decides to run and wins, it would mark the nation and state’s first transgender governor.  



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Northern California 6-year-old, parents hailed as heroes for saving woman who crashed into canal

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Northern California 6-year-old, parents hailed as heroes for saving woman who crashed into canal


LIVE OAK — A six-year-old and her parents are being called heroes by a Northern California community for jumping into a canal to save a 75-year-old woman who drove off the road. 

It happened on Larkin Road near Paseo Avenue in the Sutter County community of Live Oak on Monday. 

“I just about lost her, but I didn’t,” said Terry Carpenter, husband of the woman who was rescued. “We got more chances.” 

Terry said his wife of 33 years, Robin Carpenter, is the love of his life and soulmate. He is grateful he has been granted more time to spend with her after she survived her car crashing off a two-lane road and overturning into a canal. 

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“She’s doing really well,” Terry said. “No broken bones, praise the Lord.” 

It is what some call a miracle that could have had a much different outcome without a family of good Samaritans. 

“Her lips were purple,” said Ashley Martin, who helped rescue the woman. “There wasn’t a breath at all. I was scared.” 

Martin and her husband, Cyle Johnson, are being hailed heroes by the Live Oak community for jumping into the canal, cutting Robin out of her seat belt and pulling her head above water until first responders arrived. 

“She was literally submerged underwater,” Martin said. “She had a back brace on. Apparently, she just had back surgery. So, I grabbed her brace from down below and I flipped her upward just in a quick motion to get her out of that water.” 

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The couple said the real hero was their six-year-old daughter, Cayleigh Johnson. 

“It was scary,” Cayleigh said. “So the car was going like this, and it just went boom, right into the ditch.” 

Cayleigh was playing outside and screamed for her parents who were inside the house near the canal.

I spoke with Robin from her hospital bed over the phone who told us she is in a lot of pain but grateful.

“The thing I can remember is I started falling asleep and then I was going over the bump and I went into the ditch and that’s all I remember,” Robin said. 

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It was a split-second decision for a family who firefighters said helped save a stranger’s life. 

“It’s pretty unique that someone would jump in and help somebody that they don’t even know,” said Battalion Chief for Sutter County Fire Richard Epperson. 

Robin is hopeful that she will be released from the hospital on Wednesday in time to be home for Thanksgiving. 

“She gets Thanksgiving and Christmas now with her family and grandkids,” Martin said. 

Terry and Robin are looking forward to eventually meeting the family who helped save Robin’s life. The family expressed the same feelings about meeting the woman they helped when she is out of the hospital. 

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“I can’t wait for my baby to get home,” Terry said. 



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California may exclude Tesla from EV rebate program

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California may exclude Tesla from EV rebate program


California Gov. Gavin Newsom may exclude Tesla and other automakers from an electric vehicle (EV) rebate program if the incoming Trump administration scraps a federal tax credit for electric car purchases.

Newsom proposed creating a new version of the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which was phased out in 2023 after funding more than 594,000 vehicles and saving more than 456 million gallons of fuel, the governor’s office said in a news release on Monday.

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“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong – zero-emission vehicles are here to stay,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future – we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”

The proposed rebates would be funded with money from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is funded by polluters under the state’s cap-and-trade program, the governor’s office said. Officials did not say how much the program would cost or save consumers.

NEBRASKA AG LAUNCHES ASSAULT AGAINST CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday proposed creating a new version of the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program if the incoming Trump administration scraps a federal tax credit for electric car purchases. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

They would also include changes to promote innovation and competition in the zero-emission vehicles market – changes that could prevent automakers like Tesla from qualifying for the rebates.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who relocated Tesla’s corporate headquarters from California to Texas in 2021, responded to the possibility of having Tesla EVs left out of the program.

Tesla automobile plugged in and charging a Supercharger rapid battery charging station for the electric vehicle company Tesla Motors, in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View, California, August 24, 2016.

Tesla and other automakers may not qualify for the proposed tax credits, according to the governor’s office. (Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

“Even though Tesla is the only company who manufactures their EVs in California! This is insane,” Musk wrote on X, which he also owns.

BENTLEY PUSHES BACK ALL-EV LINEUP TIMELINE TO 2035

Those buying or leasing Tesla vehicles accounted for about 42% of the state’s rebates, The Associated Press reported, citing data from the California Air Resources Board.

Newsom’s office told Fox Business Digital that the proposal is intended to foster market competition, and any potential market cap is subject to negotiation with the state Legislature. 

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“Under a potential market cap, and depending on what the cap is, there’s a possibility that Tesla and other automakers could be excluded,” the governor’s office said. “But that’s again subject to negotiations with the legislature.”

Newsom’s office noted that such market caps have been part of rebate programs since George W. Bush’s administration in 2005.

Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Newsom has pushed Californians to replace gas-powered vehicles with zero-emission vehicles. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Federal tax credits for EVs are currently worth up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles. President-elect Trump has previously vowed to end the credit.

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California has surpassed 2 million zero-emission vehicles sold, according to the governor’s office. The state, however, could face a $2 billion budget deficit next year, Reuters reported, citing a non-partisan legislative estimate released last week.

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