Morning Jolt: Why Did California Cut Fire Prevention Spending While Keeping a Rainy-Day Fund?

TODAY'S JOLT IS SPONSORED BY
BERKLEY BOOKS

WITH JIM GERAGHTY

January 14 2025

Why Did California Cut Fire Prevention Spending While Keeping a Rainy-Day Fund?

On the menu today: It's not often that this newsletter covers the same topic for five consecutive weekdays, but Los Angeles and Ventura Counties aren't even close to being out of the burning woods yet. In fact, the forecast for the next two days from the National Weather Service is as dire as it can get. An "extreme fire danger" warning stretches from the outskirts of San Louis Obispo to Riverside, a stretch of more than 250 miles with Los Angeles in between. But you can already sense the national media itching to move on to other stories, because the catastrophe keeps proving to be a brutal indictment of California lawmakers and the blue-state model of governance.

Resource Mismanagement

A little-noticed detail in a news item about the California state government budget, dated January 10: "California has $16.9 billion in reserves. Some $10.9 billion ...

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A message from Berkley Books

He'll do anything to save his family.

Josh Duffy is working for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service in Ghana. The whole Duffy family has come, including his wife and two young children. But an African coup may force Josh Duffy to choose between his mission and his family in this intense thriller.

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