• The California Strategic Growth Council awarded Resilient Cuyama Valley $1.08 million in funding through the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Program, according to a Feb. 8 statement from Assemblymember Gregg Hart’s (D-Santa Barbara) office. The TCC Program funds community-led development and infrastructure projects that achieve major environmental, health, and economic benefits in California’s most disadvantaged communities. “I am proud of the state’s significant investment to advance economic vitality and sustainability in the Cuyama Valley,” Hart said in the statement. “This funding will allow Resilient Cuyama Valley to enhance energy and water resilience, increase food access, and improve community mobility. I am committed to supporting our Central Coast communities in meeting our collective sustainability goals.” Specifically, the funding will be used for a home retrofit pilot, microgrid electrical upgrade, drinking water assessment, gray water installation pilot, backyard composting pilot, garden demonstration project, food hub feasibility assessment, and all-weather safe routes to school. The projects are rooted in community engagement, promoting workforce education, and displacement avoidance.
• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla helped lead 41 California lawmakers in urging White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young to reverse the budget cuts to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, according to a Feb. 1 statement from Padilla’s office. Padilla and a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers previously sent a similar letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expressing concern over this decision. The MSR mission, led by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, would launch a spacecraft from the surface of another planet and return it to Earth for the first time in human history. MSR will carry samples currently being collected on Mars’ surface by the Perseverance Rover—the completion of a decades-long project at NASA. The scientific community has identified MSR as the highest planetary science priority for the past two decades, and a recently commissioned Independent Review Board assessment of the program’s implementation plan and management approach reiterated that MSR should be a national space exploration priority, given its scientific and strategic importance, according to Padilla’s office. “We write to express our opposition to the administration’s recent unilateral decision to prematurely move forward with budget cuts to the Mars Sample Return mission before Congress has finalized fiscal year 2024 appropriations. This shortsighted and misguided decision will cost hundreds of jobs and a decade of lost science, and it flies in the face of congressional authority,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “If not reversed, this decision would ensure that JPL will not be able to meet the next launch window and will force a dramatic reduction of billions of dollars in contracts as well as the termination of hundreds of highly skilled employees.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are launching a new partnership with Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price to increase the capacity to prosecute suspects involved in violent crimes, serious drug-related crimes, and property crimes—including retail theft and auto burglary—in Oakland and the East Bay, according to a Feb. 8 statement from Newsom’s office. “An arrest isn’t enough. Justice demands that suspects are appropriately prosecuted,” Newsom said in a statement. “Whether it’s ‘bipping’ or carjacking, attempted murder or fentanyl trafficking, individuals must be held accountable for their crimes using the full and appropriate weight of the law.” The partnership aims to deploy deputy attorneys general from the California Department of Justice and attorneys from the California National Guard in Alameda County. “The East Bay is my home, and I’m committed to ensuring that the people of Oakland can live and work in a safe community,” Bonta said in the statement. “The California Department of Justice has legal and law enforcement expertise to bring to bear as we work collaboratively to hold bad actors accountable. I welcome this partnership with local and state law enforcement, the governor’s office, and most importantly, the Oakland community, to ensure that justice is done so that Oakland residents can thrive and prosper.”
This article appears in Feb 15-25, 2024.