There are lots of insane things about California, like going ahead with a $100 billion high-speed rail project — while running a $16 billion budget deficit — designed to run, in the first phase, from above Fresno to Corcoran, apparently for those tourists interested in visiting at high speed Charles Manson in the Corcoran prison at the end of the proposed line. Here is another disconnect from the Wild West. While driving today, I heard two announcements on the local radio: one was the usual daily fare about another “wanted parolee” caught about two miles from my house, and the other was a Bay Area scheme to tear down one of the key dams and reservoirs in the drought-plagued state
1) From the Fresno Bee:
Fresno police on Sunday arrested a Sanger gang member who allegedly kidnapped, robbed and carjacked a Fresno man in June.
The victim, who had a side business of purchasing gold jewelry, met with the Sanger man at McKenzie and Abby avenues on June 28. That’s when the suspect kidnapped the man at gunpoint, then took all his money and his car, Fresno Police Sgt. Carl McKnight said.
After an investigation of the incident, detectives identified the suspect as a wanted parolee and validated Sureno gang member, McKnight said. Sunday, officers learned that the man was hiding out in a motel in Selma, where they arrested him. After a search of the suspect, they found a .45 semi-automatic handgun, police scanners, binoculars, two-way radios, drug scales, methamphetamine packaged for sale and meth pipes, McKnight said.
The man was booked into Fresno County Jail on suspicion of armed robbery, armed carjacking, kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking, being a member of a criminal street gang and felony child endangerment.
And 2) From the Bay Area Council:
The threat of losing the Hetch Hetchy clean water and power system that serves 2.5 million Bay Area residents and businesses took a dangerous step closer to reality with supporters launching a petition drive to qualify a measure for the November ballot in San Francisco.
The message? We have no money to keep behind bars a dangerous convicted felon, but apparently about $10 billion to tear down the dam at Hetch Hetchy that supplies a considerable portion of the drinking water of San Francisco. This news follows the proposal at Yosemite to destroy the near-century-old historic stone bridge (along with two other such landmarks) across the Merced River to let the river reach its natural potential to flow where it sees fit.