SPENDING BILL WOULD AID STATE SENATE PLAN BOOSTS BORDER SECURITY, TERROR FUNDS.Byline: LISA The first personal computer to include integrated software and use a graphical interface. Modeled after the Xerox Star and introduced in 1983 by Apple, it was ahead of its time, but never caught on due to its $10,000 price and slow speed. FRIEDMAN Washington Bureau California would get $30 million for a controversial fence along the Mexican border under a Senate plan that allocates $288 million for border construction nationwide. The measure, which also sets aside $65 million for border security -- including 1,000 new border patrol agents -- is one of several spending bills the Senate is expected to consider this week that would provide billions of dollars to California for everything from food stamps and wildfire protection to perchlorate perchlorate: see chlorate. treatment. But the $31.7 billion Department of Homeland Security Noun 1. Department of Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States measure is by far the largest and would provide some of the most direct funding for California's anti-terrorism efforts and its attempts to block illegal immigration. The measure includes $139 million to safeguard containers coming into ports including Long Beach and Los Angeles, and $210 million for other port security initiatives. It also carves out more than $3 billion for a range of state and local terrorism prevention grants. It remains unclear how much Los Angeles or the rest of California would get from that pot. In a separate spending bill for nationwide energy and water projects, Sen. Dianne Feinstein secured $75.5 million for levee levee (lĕv`ē) [Fr.,=raised], embankment built along a river to prevent flooding by high water. Levees are the oldest and the most extensively used method of flood control. restoration. Noting that a collapse of the San Joaquin Delta levees could threaten two-thirds of the state's drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. -- including Los Angeles' supply -- Feinstein said federal protection is long overdue. The money comes on top of $30.4 million that Congress provided for the state's levee system earlier this year. The water bill, which also pays for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects, includes $4 million for water recycling in the South Bay; $5.5 million to help restore the Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. ; $1 million to deepen the Los Angeles Harbor; and $5 million for a deepening project around the Port of Long Beach. There's also $450,000 to study the restoration of Ballona Creek's ecosystem; $500,000 for ecosystem restoration in the Cornfields area of Los Angeles, plus $4 million for other projects in the larger L.A. County drainage area; $562,000 for Los Angeles River watercourse improvement; and $743,000 for a demonstration project in the San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. . A final bill doling out money for land management and other Department of Interior projects targets $1 million for perchlorate treatment in the Inland Empire. ``The true scope of perchlorate contamination is still unknown. But the more we look for perchlorate contamination, the more we find it,'' she said. About 350 of California's water sources have been contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. with the rocket fuel substance, and Feinstein said this money will go specifically for cleanup in such Inland cities as Rialto Rialto, city (1990 pop. 72,388), San Bernardino co., S Calif., a residential suburb of San Bernardino; inc. 1911. The city has greatly expanded as a result of the economic and demographic growth of the southern California area. , Colton and Fontana. In a Senate Appropriations Committee debate on the bill late last month, Feinstein won approval for an amendment disqualifying oil companies from bidding on future leases if they refuse to renegotiate existing leases from 1998 and 1999. Companies have not been paying royalties to the government under those old leases, due to what lawmakers described as an administrative error that has cost $10 billion in lost revenue. ``With oil prices sky-high, it's long past time for Congress to end royalty `relief' for Big Oil and stop lining the industry's already-deep pockets,'' Heather Taylor, deputy legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, said in a statement. A similar amendment passed the House earlier this year. The bill also prohibits drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf In the federal United States, the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) consists of the submerged lands, subsoil, and seabed, lying between the seaward extent of the States' jurisdiction and the seaward extent of Federal jurisdiction. in California. lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com (202) 662-8731 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion