Orange County toll roads under review by California

When it opened during the 1990s, Orange County's $2.4-billion tollway system was touted as an innovative way to build public highways without taxpayer money.

Today, the roads offer smooth sailing for gridlock-weary commuters willing to pay the price. But far fewer people are using the turnpikes than officials predicted, which means the highways generate far less revenue than expected to retire their debts.

There have long been questions about the long-term financial viability of the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill-Eastern corridors. But those concerns have now heightened, and a government oversight panel chaired by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer has launched a formal inquiry into whether the roads can cover mounting interest payments to private investors who purchased tollway bonds.

The review was prompted by former Orange County Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer, who questions whether the debt-laden toll road agency is “viable as a going concern.”

“I think they are in trouble,” Brewer said. “I don’t believe there is malfeasance, but it’s no way to run a railroad or a toll road.”

The roads, which rely on motorist tolls and fees from new developments in the area, have been battered by economic recessions, lower-than-expected population growth and competing public highways, such as Interstates 5 and 405, both of which have been widened and improved by Caltrans.

Wall Street ratings agencies have reduced the San Joaquin Hills toll road's bonds to junk status and the notes for the Foothill-Eastern corridor to the lowest investment grade.

To meet expenses and debt payments, the corridor agency has refinanced the San Joaquin Hills bonds, raised tolls more than originally planned, slashed administrative costs and obtained repayment concessions from bondholders. Early next year, officials plan to refinance about $2.4 billion in notes issued to build the Foothill-Eastern tollway.

In 2011, ridership on the San Joaquin Hills, which has never performed as predicted, was only 43% of original forecasts, and its revenue was 61% of projections. The road parallels the Orange County coast, slicing south from Irvine through Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo to the San Diego Freeway.

Motorists on the Foothill-Eastern last year numbered 33% less than projected, and revenue was 75% of forecasts. Previously, the part of the corridor between Yorba Linda and Rancho Santa Margarita had a revenue surplus and ridership that was often 8% to 10% ahead of projections. The extra money was used to help shore up the finances of the San Joaquin Hills road.

Last year, the San Joaquin Hills restructured about $2.1 billion in debt and pushed back the retirement of its bonds to 2042, meaning motorists will have to pay tolls for an additional six years before the road becomes a free highway. It is the second time the original deadline of 2033 has been reset.

"Extending the payment time to make sure we can make our debt payments is a necessary step," said Amy Potter, the Transportation Corridor Agencies' chief financial officer. "We have to be flexible."

Overall, the agency has borrowed about $4.4 billion for the two roads and faces at least $10.5 billion in debt payments by the time its bonds mature, according to financial statements.

Despite the roads' sagging ridership, the agency has increased tolls repeatedly to keep pace with expenses and debt payments—at least 12 times since 1996 on the San Joaquin Hills alone.

The tolls on both corridors are now among the highest in the nation per mile. A round trip at peak travel times on the San Joaquin Hills costs $11, almost three times what it was in 1996. The maximum toll for a round trip on the Foothill-Eastern has roughly doubled to between $3.40 and $4.90 during peak times, depending on the section.

Tollway officials acknowledge the financial duress but say that they have never missed a debt payment and that the latest traffic figures show revenue has been increasing this year, though less than had been hoped.

"We have a responsibility to make sure this works," said Lisa Telles, acting chief executive of the Irvine-based toll agency, which operates 51 miles of highways. "Tolling is being talked about more and more throughout the country as a way to build infrastructure. People still look at us today as a model, but we have had to adjust with the times and the recession, which has hit everybody."

In addition to being reviewed by the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, the toll roads also are receiving scrutiny from a major Los Angeles law firm that helped to defeat plans to extend the Foothill-Eastern corridor through San Onofre State Park.

Among other things, SNR Denton found that the tollway agency renegotiated an agreement with San Joaquin Hills bondholders in 2011 that lowered by almost 23% the amount of revenue the agency had promised to take in for every dollar of debt.

In exchange, the agency agreed to increase debt payments to bondholders by more than $850 million based on the deferral of $430 million in principal payments for up to 19 years.

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Morsi Spokesman Tries to Clarify Military Order

Petr David Josek/Associated Press

Demonstrators camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday.

CAIRO — A day after President Mohamed Morsi formally directed the military to help keep public order and authorized soldiers to arrest civilians, a spokesman on Monday sought to draw distinctions between the order and the forms of martial law that the Egyptian Army had previously imposed.

The spokesman, Khaled al-Qazzaz, said the president empowered the military for the limited purpose of protecting polling stations during Saturday’s constitutional referendum. He also said the president had instructed the army to refer any civilians arrested by soldiers to a civilian court for trial, instead of military tribunals, reversing the blanket authorizations that the Egyptian military has long demanded when it takes on a policing role in the streets.

“This is very different from what happened under the SCAF,” said Mr. Qazzaz, referring to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which ruled Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted and until Mr. Morsi took office. “There will be no military trials.”

But Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, noted that the text of the order allowed the military to keep taking civilians to military courts. “Had he wanted to,” Ms. Morayef said, “President Morsi could have stipulated that the military’s jurisdiction would have been limited in this case and that every civilian will be referred to a civilian court, but he chose not to.”

Mr. Morsi’s latest assurances were unlikely to comfort his growing cast of opponents, who have taken to the streets in large numbers repeatedly since late November, when he issued a decree putting his decisions above the law. The president was forced to rescind most of his decree, but he has not budged on a central opposition demand: that he cancel the Saturday referendum on the constitutional draft.

Faced with the possibility of the vote, Egypt’s opposition parties on Monday were weighing their approach to the referendum and said they would continue to hold large protests. The biggest opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, said it would announce Tuesday whether it would call for a boycott of the referendum, or instead urge the public to vote down the draft charter, which opposition groups have criticized as deeply flawed and written by a panel representing narrow, Islamist interests.

There appeared to be divisions and flux within the opposition. On Sunday, the opposition used language that seemed to favor a boycott, saying in a statement that it rejected “lending legitimacy to a referendum that will definitely lead to more sedition and division.” But in an interview broadcast Monday, the coalition’s coordinator, Mohamed ElBaradei, said, “We might go to the vote.”

During the interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Mr. ElBaradei, the former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged Mr. Morsi to delay the referendum for a few months, saying that the draft constitution — a “sham,” he called it — did not adequately protect women, freedom of expression or religion.

Mr. ElBaradei asserted that at least half of the country harbored similar reservations about the charter, and insisted that the opposition’s tactics — holding large protests and raising the possibility of a boycott — were not just obstructionism by groups who have struggled to mount a credible challenge to the better-organized Islamist groups.

“We are at a cross in the road,” he said. “It’s not that we’re fighting for the sake of fighting. It’s not that we’re sore losers.”

Mr. ElBaradei left open several possible courses of action, including a boycott. “If need be, we probably will go to the polls and make sure the document will not pass. Even if it will pass, we will continue to fight.”

There were other signs of momentum toward a highly contested vote on Saturday. The April 6th Revolutionary Youth Group, which is not a member of the coalition but coordinates activities with the National Salvation Front, began a campaign urging a no vote, called “Your Constitution does not represent us.”

A group representing administrative court judges said its members would supervise the referendum, under certain conditions, demanding a secure environment and even life insurance policies for judges, possibly smoothing the way for a credible contest. Other judges’ groups have said they would boycott the vote. A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist party that forms the primary base of Mr. Morsi’s support, said on Monday that they believed a sufficient numbers of judges had agreed to supervise the polls, ensuring that the vote could go forward.

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo.

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The Wii U uses less than half the power of the Xbox 360 and the PS3

Nintendo’s (NTDOY) Wii prided itself for being a super energy-efficient console that ran nearly silent and sipped very little electricity. And although Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 was originally a loud monster with a penchant for Red-Ring-of-Death-ing itself, the amount of power it consumed was never as much as Sony’s (SNE) launch PlayStation 3, which used more power than a refrigerator. Eurogamer took it upon itself to pit the Wii U against the Xbox 360 S and new super slim PS3 and concluded that Nintendo’s new console “draws so little power in comparison to its rivals that its tiny casing still feels cool to the touch during intense gaming.” Most impressive is that the Wii U maintains its low-wattage while fitting in a chassis that’s smaller than both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

According to Eurogamer’s tests, the Wii U draws only 32 watts of power during gameplay of games that are as graphically intensive as the 360 and PS3, with both consoles using 118% and 139$ % more power, respectively.

To achieve such “green” levels, Nintendo clocks the Wii U’s CPU to 1.24GHz and “uses far fewer transistors than the competition.” While there are still some mysteries as to how the hardware remains cool, Eurogamer also discovered that the AMD-built GPU increases performance by “40 per cent per square millimetre of silicon – another big leap in efficiency.”

Most disappointing in Eurogamer’s analysis is that they weren’t able to get the Wii U’s wattage to spike more than 33 watts, suggesting that the console can’t be over-clocked in the future to pump out more polygons.

If you’re still on the fence on which console you should buy or play games on, the Wii U looks to be the one that’ll keep your electric bill nice and low.

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Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hayden Panettiere Splits with Scotty McKnight

12/10/2012 at 07:50 PM EST

Hayden Panettiere and Scotty McKnight

Splash News Online

Is there a tear in her beer?

Nashville star Hayden Panettiere has broken up with her boyfriend of more than a year, New York Jets wide receiver Scotty McKnight, a source confirms to PEOPLE.

But the split doesn't appear to be the stuff of a sad country song. The actress, 23, is still friends with McKnight, 24, and one source tells TMZ that their pals wouldn't be surprised if they got back together.

This is Panettiere's second go at a relationship with an athlete. Before dating McKnight she was with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko for about two years.
– Julie Jordan

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program.

Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees.

The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.

But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage.

"This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues.

Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect.

But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

"It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer.

The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it.

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L.A. panel backs new rules for boardinghouses, group homes

A key Los Angeles City Council committee unanimously backed new regulations for boardinghouses and group homes Monday, one week after four people were shot to death in an unlicensed boardinghouse in Northridge.

Known as the Community Care Facilities Ordinance, the proposal would crack down on unlicensed group and boarding homes in neighborhoods with single-family homes throughout the city. If passed by the full council, the ordinance would increase oversight of licensed group homes serving seven or more people and change the city code's definition of a "boardinghouse" to include any home with more than three renters — requiring them to obtain a license.

The measure would not affect licensed facilities serving six or fewer people, which state law prohibits the city from regulating.

The ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Mitchell Englander, aims to enable police and code enforcement officers to rid single-family neighborhoods of unlicensed boardinghouses, in which dozens of people are sometimes crammed into a few bedrooms and that in some cases become havens for crime and drugs.

Praised by more than 40 community groups and neighborhood associations, the ordinance has come under fire from anti-poverty advocates and those who oversee group homes for those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

"This ordinance limits options at a time when people need options," said Fernando Gaytan, of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, in his statement to the committee.

Englander and many of the speakers in favor of the ordinance cited last week's shooting of four people at what police believe to be an unlicensed boardinghouse in Northridge where as many as 17 people were living in a single-family home.

"This does come on the heels of a heinous tragedy in Devonshire," Englander said, noting that now is the time to update "out of touch" and "antiquated" sections of the city's municipal code that prevent authorities from adequately monitoring boardinghouses.

By requiring a license to be obtained by homes serving seven or more people or where residents are living under more than three leases, Englander said city officials will be able to conduct routine inspections and shut down problem houses that are unlicensed. Leaders of various homeowners associations addressed the committee, pleading for the ordinance's passage, citing overcrowded homes in their neighborhoods.

But critics of the ordinance say that it could force group homes that service the drug-addicted, disabled, parolees and the chronically homeless to shut their doors and send residents out onto the streets. They say they would be required to get a state license and that would formally define them as "boardinghouses." That would mean they could not operate in areas that are zoned for "single-family housing."

Opponents say that by forcing all homes with more than three leases to register as boardinghouses it will force group homes now operating in neighborhoods not zoned for boardinghouses to relocate or close their doors.

"If it has too many leases, it becomes a boardinghouse, regardless of whether it provides acute care," said Greg Spiegel, of the Inner City Law Center, after the ordinance was passed by the committee. "That means that 85% of residentially zoned land in L.A. is off limits to people who need to or prefer to share housing, a disproportionate number of who are people with disabilities."

"No one supports 20 or 30 people in a single-family house," said Michael Arnold, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. "L.A. is a city with a critical shortage of affordable housing. This ordinance will violate fair housing laws."

Before voting unanimously to pass the ordinance on to the full council, the committee broadened its language with respect to leases. Though a previous proposal would have required any home with more than one lease to apply for a license, Englander amended it with wording to allow up to three leases before requiring a license. He also instructed the city attorney to research the effect the ordinance could have on domestic violence shelters and provide a possible exemption for them.

"We've taken a lot from all sides of this to try to craft good public policy," Englander said. "It's not my intent, nor will this ordinance have the effect, to push out those in need."

Englander also added to the ordinance a provision that would automatically reopen public comment on the matter one year after its implementation — a provision he said was suggested by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to hear out any unintended consequences.

The council is expected to vote on the ordinance in January.

wesley.lowrey@latimes.com

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Morsi’s Concessions Fail to Quiet Egyptian Opponents

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

Egyptian Republican guards stood in front of a barrier near the presidential palace in Cairo, as protesters demonstrated against President Morsi on Sunday.

CAIRO — The political crisis over Egypt’s draft constitution hardened on both sides on Sunday, as President Mohamed Morsi prepared to deploy the army to safeguard balloting in a planned referendum on the new charter and his opponents called for more protests and a boycott to undermine the vote.

Thousands of demonstrators streamed toward the presidential palace for a fifth night of protests against Mr. Morsi and the proposed charter, and the president, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, formally issued an order asking the military to protect such “vital institutions” and to secure the vote.

With the decision to boycott the referendum, the opposition signaled that it had given up hope that it could defeat the draft charter at the polls, and had opted instead to try to undermine the referendum’s legitimacy.

The call for new protests — with major demonstrations expected at the presidential palace again on Tuesday and Friday — ensures that questions about Egypt’s national unity and stability will continue to overshadow debate about the specific contents of the charter. Opponents say the proposed constitution, rushed through an assembly dominated by Islamist allies of the president, fails to adequately protect individual and minority rights and opens the door to greater religious influence over the state.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have poured into the streets to oppose the charter, crowds have attacked 28 Muslim Brotherhood offices and the group’s headquarters, and at least seven people have died in clashes between Islamist and secular political factions.

The opposition “rejects lending legitimacy to a referendum that will definitely lead to more sedition and division,” said Sameh Ashour, a spokesman for a coalition that calls itself the National Salvation Front. Holding a referendum “in a state of seething and chaos,” Mr. Ashour said, amounted to “a reckless and flagrant absence of responsibility, risking driving the country into violent confrontations that endanger its national security.”

Whether to ask voters to vote no or to stay home has been the subject of heated debate in opposition circles in the week since Mr. Morsi announced the referendum, to be held on Saturday.

Now the question is whether opponents can translate the energy of the protests against the charter into more votes and seats in parliamentary elections that are expected to take place two months after the referendum.

Both sides acknowledge that President Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, has hurt himself and his party politically with the act that first touched off the protests: a decree giving himself authoritarian powers and putting his decisions above the reach of judicial review until the new charter is passed. He suffered even more, they say, when the backlash against the decree and the new constitution led to a night of clashes between his Islamists supporters and their more secular opponents that left at least six dead and hundreds more injured.

Mr. Morsi surprised his critics after midnight on Sunday by withdrawing almost all the provisions of his decree, a step he said he took on the recommendation of about 40 politicians and thinkers he convened on Saturday for a “national dialogue” meant to resolve the crisis. Leading opposition figures were invited to take part, but nearly all declined; according to a list broadcast on state television, most of the attendees were Islamists of various stripes, and the only prominent secular politician on hand was the former presidential candidate Ayman Nour.

A spokesman for the group said at an authorized news conference that, Mr. Morsi was issuing a new, more limited decree that would give immunity from judicial scrutiny only to “constitutional declarations,” a narrow if hazily defined category of actions. His actions under the previous decree would also be protected, including dismissal of the public prosecutor appointed under Hosni Mubarak.

Through the spokesman for the “national dialogue” group, Mohamed Salim el-Awa, Mr. Morsi even signaled a willingness to allow his opponents and allies to negotiate a package of amendments to the constitution that all sides would agree to enact once the draft is approved.

Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from New York.

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Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Kick Off Special Series of Las Vegas Shows

By Mark Gray

12/09/2012 at 05:00 PM EST

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Denise Truscello/WireImage

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill looked at each other, their hands on each others knees and shared a passionate kiss just after midnight Sunday morning.

The moment was a long time coming – it capped off their first weekend as a Las Vegas headlining act.

Earlier in the 90 minute show, McGraw told the crowd at the Venetian that he and his wife were going to "have fun tonight" and it genuinely seemed like they did, singing with each other for several songs while still letting the other perform their solo hits. Though the show – called the Soul2Soul series – is technically not the same "residency" show Las Vegas is known for, the couple will perform for 10 weekends through April.

At a press conference several months ago, McGraw and Hill promised a "personal" show, and they delivered in a big way. In fact, it got very personal as McGraw complimented his wife on her flowing black dress, saying, "It's gonna look good on the floor later."

The duo also took a moment to sit down and speak with the crowd. Though they didn't field any questions, they spoke about the most common questions they get asked. "We always get asked what was the music we heard first, who influenced us," Hill said.

Rather than answer it, the duo then sing a few of their main influences – Hill sang George Strait; McGraw sang The Eagles.

"I love doing other people's music, better than my own," McGraw joked.

With few bells and whistles, the show puts the focus squarely on it's two superstars, and considering the rousing ovations McGraw and Hill received Saturday, that's perfectly fine with their fans.

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.

Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.

A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.

"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"

Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.

Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.

In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.

King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.

Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."

Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.

In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.

Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"

"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."

Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.

The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."

The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.

That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.

"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Water bond needs slimming down

SACRAMENTO — Barrels of excess water have been tumbling down the Sacramento River with nowhere to go except the San Francisco Bay and out to sea.

To be precise, 58,000 cubic feet of water per second — think of one cubic foot as a basketball — have been rushing past California's capital en route to the Golden Gate.

Normal winter flow when it's not storming is around 20,000 cubic feet per second, according to the state's chief hydrologist, Maury Roos.

Some of that extra water is needed to flush out the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and bay. And 11,000 cubic feet is being pumped south from the delta, mostly into the San Luis storage reservoir off Pacheco Pass in the San Joaquin Valley.

But it would make sense to stash even more of the runoff in some basin for use during the upcoming, inevitable drought. You could pour the storm volume into a surface reservoir. Then, from there, inject it slowly into an aquifer.

And it would be smart to transfer the Sacramento River water into the southbound California Aqueduct through two proposed gravity-flow tunnels running under the brackish delta. That way, there'd be much less need to use giant fish-killing delta pumps that have been messing up California's salmon industry.

It also would stabilize delta water deliveries, since the pumps periodically are shut down to protect the fish.

The recent storm that hammered Northern California was a good soaker, but not an extraordinary water producer. A better example of why California's waterworks badly need updating came in March 2011. In that deluge, roughly 200,000 cubic feet per second cascaded through the river system, but the delta pumps had to be turned off because all the reservoirs were full.

"We need another water parking lot," says Tim Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

Those old delta levees, of course, are gradually crumbling and vulnerable not only to flooding but also to an earthquake. A severe quake could shut off delta water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California indefinitely, bashing the state's economy. A tunnel system would bypass the delta levees.

All this has been chewed over for decades in the Capitol. But there has only been incremental progress.

"Water is the most challenging issue facing the state — legally and politically," says state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), veteran chairwoman of the water committee.

Now water policy is back on the priority list for Gov. Jerry Brown and the new Legislature.

"I'm going to get this done," Brown adamantly told reporters in July while proposing the delta tunnels. "All right? We are not going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs and stare at our navel."

OK, but the governor was preoccupied during the summer and fall in selling voters his tax increase. And lately he has been focused on budget writing. Water has gotten little attention.

The big water decision facing the governor and lawmakers next year will be what to do with a proposed $11.1-billion bond that the Legislature passed in 2009. The measure reeked so badly of rancid pork that the politicians twice wisely pulled it off the state ballot.

But there's a consensus that they can't just keep shelving the measure. They either have to fix it or dump the thing and start anew. Put something on the 2014 ballot.

There are some very good ingredients in the proposed bond, including $2.3 billion to upgrade the delta and restore its ecology, $3 billion potentially for a dam or two and $1 billion for water recycling and well-water cleanup.

But there's at least $2 billion worth of fatback, including $455 million for "drought relief." That drought ended long ago. There's also $100 million — at U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's insistence — for the Lake Tahoe watershed, which feeds Nevada. There are goodies such as bike trails, open space purchases and "watershed education centers."

"Obviously we have to revisit the pork projects," says Pavley, whose district was in line for a bite or two.

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