dcummings

Dad & college sports aficionado.

[Marc Joffe @marcjoffe]

Defund the unaccountable high-speed rail project and turn the funds over to local transit. Then we won't need more sales tax measures like RTM.,

[Tim Latimer @TimMLatimer]

Big news at Fervo today. https://t.co/bW8WiTQXNb

[Susan Crabtree @susancrabtree]

Climate-driven?? The Paradise fire was deemed a PG&E manslaughter of 84 people because of its negligence in maintaining a hook that held an enormous transmitter that fell, sparking the devastation and burning people alive in their cars.

Internal PG&E docs showed the utility had identified the hooks as needing replacing yrs before - but never acted on it.

Climate change is a lame catch-all excuse for getting utillities literally off the hook for the death and devastation they cause - all while making record profits and paying their CEOs tens of millions $$$$ and showering Newsom, his wife’s nonprofits and others politicians with political donations.

You’re a commissioner on the public utility commission charged with protecting consumers. What are you doing to hold utilities accountable for the death and destruction and astronomical utility bills they cause??

This is truly shameful.

[Alex “Trey” Robertson, Esq. @415FirePhoto]

The "consequences" Newsom refers to is the fact that SCE and PG&E collectively lost $20B yesterday in market value following a massive stock sell off when the Legislature rejected Newsom's proposal for a $6B cap on a utility's liability, elimination of insurers' right of subrogation against utilities, and limitations on fire victims' right to recover economic and non-economic damages.

The “consequences” that fire victims have had to endure from the fires caused by these utilities is unspeakable. Over the past ten years, SCE & PG&E have caused the following devastating wildfires:

Pacific Gas and Electric:
Wildfire Deaths Structures
Camp Fire85 ~18,804
Tubbs Fire22 5,643
Dixie Fire 1 1,329
Zogg Fire 4 204
Kincade Fire 0 374

Southern California Edison
Wildfire Deaths Structures
Eaton Fire 19 9,418
Woolsey Fire 3 1,643
Thomas Fire 2 1,063

To recap, PG&E has destroyed a total of 26,359 structures and killed 112 people. SCE has destroyed 12,124 structures and killed 24 people, plus an additional 22 persons who died in the Montecito debris flow as a result of the Thomas Fire.

These utilities already benefit from Newsom's existing bailout with the California Wildfire Fund, which provides $21B to pay for wildfire damages and an additional $18B on top of that for post 2025 wildfires. And by law these utilities are guaranteed a 10% rate of return each year.

You want to know the simplest and least costly solution to California's wildfire problem? Utilities need to stop causing these massively destructive and deadly fires! Every one of the fires listed above was determined by Cal Fire to have been caused by one of these two utilities.

Yet despite causing so much devastation, these utilities continue to focus on paying dividends to their stockholders instead of upgrading their equipment and performing badly needed maintenance on their aging infrastructure. For example, SCE has paid quarterly dividends for the past 20 consecutive quarters without interruption between 2021-2026. Meanwhile, SCE’s CEO Pedro Pizarro enjoyed a 21.5% salary increase in 2022-2023 and a 19.5% increase in 2024-2025.

The only way these utilities will embrace a systemic sea change in preventing wildfires is if economic pressure forces them to do so. Hopefully, Monday’s “consequences” are the catalyst for that change. @spencerpratt @ZavalaA @joelpollak @Hotshot_Movie @JeremyCom

[Stephen Moore @StephenMoore]

Data centers helped resurrect Quincy, Washington.The poverty rate fell from 29.4% to 6.2%. 

Tech tax revenue funded a new high school, hospital, library, police and fire stations, while residents’ property tax rates decreased.

Build data centers in communities that want jobs, investment, and economic revival!

[sloan @Sloanstweets]

Dolly Parton performing her cover of the Collective Soul song "Shine"
❤️🕊

(📺:Austin City Limits, 2001)

[Ashley Zavala @ZavalaA]

Dunlop Tires North America CEO Darren Thomas on CA's new tire rules:

"Generally when you attempt to regulate something you don't understand or don't care much about, you create bad policy and that's probably what we have here."

[Susan Shelley @Susan_Shelley]

There's a common misconception about Proposition 13 that people who "have it" are paying the same property taxes they paid in the 1970s. In fact, ALL property in California is protected by Prop 13 from what had been annual reassessment to market value. Increases are capped at 2%.

[Ashley Zavala @ZavalaA]

Tire dealer in Sacramento says budget friendly tires will be wiped out with new California rules.

"Save money. You're going to need it to buy these tires."
https://t.co/M1aHuw8txV

[James Gallagher @J_Gallagher4CA]

The new California anthem!

[Ashley Zavala @ZavalaA]

Dunlop Tires sends lengthy press release tonight re: new rules around replacement tires in California.

The company urged policy makers to carefully assess the long-term effects on consumer safety, choice, affordability and competition:

[Jeff Vaughn @JeffVaughn]

Goodyear reports the new California law on replacement tires would add hundred of dollars to the cost of a set of tires. The California Energy Commission disputes that, estimating a cost increase of $6.50 per tire.

Okay, not that I trust government reporting, but let's go with it: $6.50 X 4 X average household has 2 vehicles = 52 dollars. That's a tax that hits every California resident, poor or rich. And adds to the affordability crisis in the state, created by leaders and its politicians.

California, like ammunition and guns, is trying to price you out of your legal purchases.

More @onlaca: https://t.co/nJGyCTmYJW

[dcummings @DanMCummings]

@ZavalaA @rpyers This is an affordability issue. Lower income consumers already are struggling to pay for gas and this adds another expense. What will become of the used tire market? Does this blow up/make this market illegal so you can only buy new tires?

[dcummings @DanMCummings]

@LorenzoTheCat Phobos

[dcummings @DanMCummings]

@Will_Schryver Yes - but as a co-founder of Microsoft - the Allen Family got both the upside over that time and 2 Super Bowl rings.

[dcummings @DanMCummings]

@Lady_FanAccount John Paul Jones of Led Zep did the string arrangement. https://t.co/DS2RiC5vsm

[Bari Weiss @bariweiss]

Incredible investigation today from @CBSNews. Our reporters visited "ground zero" for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California. One building had 89 registered hospices . . .

Read it here:

https://t.co/cHuzIo4Xec

[dcummings @DanMCummings]

@KarluskaP @ComfortablySmug @RuthlessPodcast

[Chris Daniels @ChrisDaniels_TV]

Adam Silver says NBA expansion decision coming in 2026, with Las Vegas and Seattle the focus

Via @theathletic

https://t.co/cEgI8ExQAa

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

In 2014, California passed a bill mandating that all gasoline storage tanks in the state of California be upgraded from single wall tanks to double wall tanks. The law will go into effect on January 1, 2026.
As a result of this law, across the state 473 gas stations will close.
The law was passed because the single wall tanks during an earthquake would crumble, and then the gasoline would seep into the groundwater or the soil contaminating it. While the law sounds reasonable, the average cost to upgrade a gas station from a single wall tank to a double wall tank is around 2 Million dollars. For many small and independent gas stations, that is out of reach as that is more than the facility is worth.
RUST was a program, which stood for removing, replacing and upgrading underground storage tanks. The loans were supposed to help finance 100% of the replacement of the tanks. The loans are slow to be dispersed, and as a result many shop owners never got the money to fix them. Here is where this will be an issue, in many of those communities those gas stations not only serve the public but first responders like the fire department and the police departments, and in case of natural disasters may be the only facility open to help fuel vehicles. Now they will be shut down, and no replacement is in the works. The stations that are going to close aren't the big ones, they can afford it and will pass the prices on to the consumers. The small mom and pop are going to close, which means that you will drive further and might have to go 20-30 miles to fill up and pay more at the pump. Distribution points are now going to shrink, and make it harder to fill. Gasoline in California is now going to cost more, and filling your tank will get harder and more expensive.
With about 10,000 gas stations in California this will probably hit rural and poorest areas the hardest