Here's your daily briefing...
Governor Vows to Protect Environment, or Moonbeam II: This Time It’s Personal: Speaking before a scientific convention in San Francisco Wednesday, Governor Jerry Brown vowed to go toe-toe with Donald Trump and his incoming administration should Washington abandon environmental commitments. Brown joked that if Trump carried through on threats to have NASA cease collecting climate data via satellite, that California would launch its own spacecraft, reprising an ultimately unfulfilled proposal from his first term as governor in the 1970s.
Transport Proposal Would Lift Raise Gas Tax/License Fee: Legislative and business leaders are trying to cook up compromise legislation that would provide a huge boost in funding for highways and mass transit, but it’ll cost you. Business leaders are demanding officials speed up studies, approvals and funding saying the process currently takes too long. A proposal in the legislature would lift gas taxes by 12 cents a gallon over three years and boost registration fees by $38 per vehicle.
Thanks, But No Thanks: Hopes that outgoing Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin might lead state Republicans out of the wilderness were dashed Wednesday when Swearengin, considered a rising GOP star said she would not run for governor in 2018.
Rates Rising in Redding: Officials have invited the public to sound off on a proposed rate increase for those served by municipal utilities in Redding, NSPR’s Kelly Frost reports. The proposal would lift costs for an average single family home by $20 over three years. The meeting, in council chambers, begins this evening at 6 p.m.
Above it All?: NSPR's Marc Albert reports that officials in Chico held a public scoping session to discuss pedestrian and cyclist safety near the city’s busy cluster of shopping centers and big box stores. Recent road widening and a bike path being built in phases helped spur the initiative. Officials think a pedestrian overpass might work at the location, adjacent to State Route 99, if Sacramento picks up the bill.
And, on KQED’s California Report: Gov. Brown to Embattled Climate Scientists: 'We Will Persevere'. Bay Area Medical Staff Take Steps to Educate Themselves on Medicinal Cannabis.