November 13, 2010 11:00 AM
Brooke Edwards

VICTORVILLE • Though Victorville has repeatedly promised federal officials that its wastewater treatment plant would create 12 jobs, city documents show only three people are employed at the plant now.

Questions over job creation are at the center of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ recent decision to terminate Victorville’s EB-5 Regional Center. That program allowed the city to accept $500,000 loans from foreign citizens to finance construction of its wastewater plant, so long as those loans could be tied to establishing 10 local jobs.

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By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/14/2010 12:00:00 AM PST
Updated: 11/14/2010 05:20:30 AM PST

SACRAMENTO — Near the end of his fall campaign for governor, Jerry Brown had to tamp down the fervor building among his supporters, who sensed a big victory, and with it, big changes.

“There’s too much expectation around here,” he told an enthusiastic Sacramento crowd. “We all got to take a deep breath. We don’t want to get too exuberant, because this is real life and real life gets messy.”

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Consider this factoid of California political history: In the last 70 years, just one governor finished his term of office and handed it off to someone of the same party.

Voters’ habit of switching parties in gubernatorial elections has created a cycle. While governors must work with the Legislature to achieve their policy goals, they can unilaterally veto bills and appropriations.

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Kevin McCarthy went out of his way to campaign for colleagues, something they aren’t likely to forget.

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times
November 14, 2010

Reporting from Washington —

Rep. Kevin McCarthy wasn’t content to stay in his Bakersfield district this campaign season. Instead, he traveled to Frog Jump, Tenn., Lake Oswego, Ore., Sioux Falls, S.D., and dozens of other places to help elect fellow Republicans.

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The president and GOP House leaders agree that curtailing or eliminating the provisions would be a step toward restoring fiscal responsibility.

By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau
November 14, 2010

Reporting from Washington —

President Obama and House Republican leaders may actually have found something to agree on: Eliminating congressional “earmarks” from the federal budget.

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