Tag Archives: California

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The Final Tally (CA Bay Area)

November 14, 2012 NEWS » ELECTION 2012
Oakland

    City Council At-Large (Ranked-choice voting) Rebecca Kaplan: 71,038 (61.15%) Ignacio De La Fuente: 45,133 (38.85%)
    City Attorney Barbara Parker: 79,825 (68.52%) Jane Brunner: 36,218 (31.09%)
    Council District 1 (RCV) Dan Kalb: 11,378 (51.97%) Amy Lemley: 10,574 (48.03%)
    Council District 3 (RCV) Lynette Gibson-McElhaney: 8,243 (53.33%) Sean Sullivan: 7,215 (46.67%)
    Council District 5 (RCV) Noel Gallo: 5,098 (55.35%) Mario Juarez: 4,113 (44.65%)
    Council District 7 Larry Reid: 7,686 (58.90%) Sheryl Walton: 4,074 (31.22%)
    School Board District 1 Jody London: 18,716 (76.33%) Thearse Pecot: 5,602 (23.35%)
    School Board District 3 (RCV) Jumoke Hinton Hodge: 10,348 (61.26%) Richard Fuentes: 6,545 (38.74%)
    School Board District 5 Rosie Torres: 5,273 (54.70%) Mike Hutchinson: 4,329 (44.91%)
    School Board District 7 James Harris: 6,874 (56.69%) Alice Spearman: 5,182 (42.73%)
    Measure J (Needed 55%) Yes: 110,908 (83.80%) No: 21,434 (16.20%)

Berkeley

    Mayor Tom Bates: 26,912 (54.89%) Kriss Worthington: 10,601 (21.62%) Jacquelyn McCormick: 5,640 (11.50%)
    Council District 2 Darryl Moore: 3,166 (59.28%) Denisha DeLane: 1,493 (27.95%)
    Council District 3 Max Anderson: 2,946 (61.35%) Dmitri Belser: 1,843 (38.38%)
    Council District 5 Laurie Capitelli: 4,170 (54.59%) Sophie Hahn: 3,453 (45.20%)
    Measure M (Needed 66.67%) Yes: 35,409 (72.98%) No: 13,113 (27.02%)
    Measure N (Needed 66.67%) Yes: 29,620 (62.23%) No: 17,976 (37.77%)
    Measure O (Needed 66.67%) Yes: 28,228 (59.87%) No: 18,924 (40.13%)
    Measure R Yes: 29,835 (65.83%) No: 15,486 (34.17%)
    Measure S Yes: 24,170 (48.31%) No: 25,857 (51.69%)
    Measure T* Yes: 23,256 (49.50%) No: 23,728 (50.50%)
    Measure U Yes: 9,665 (22.74%) No: 32,801 (77.26%)
    Measure V Yes: 15,992 (37.96%) No: 26,132 (62.04%)

Alameda

    City Council (Top 3 win) Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft: 11,762 (25.13%) Tony Daysog: 8,396 (17.94%) Stewart Chen: 8,178 (17.47%) Jeff Cambra: 7,315 (15.63%) Jane Sullwold: 5,947 (12.70%)
    Measure D Yes: 22,297 (79.34%) No: 5,807 (20.66%)

Albany

    City Council (Top 3 win)* Peggy Thomsen: 3,976 (22.04%) Peter Maass: 3,094 (17.15%) Michael Barnes: 2,904 (16.10%) Nick Pilch: 2,851 (15.80%) Tod Abbott: 2,489 (13.80%)

San Leandro

    City Council District 2 (RCV)* Ursula Reed: 11,060 (50.93%) Morgan Mack-Rose: 10,654 (49.07%)
    District 4 (RCV) Benny Lee: 11,778 (60.99%) Chris Crow: 7,534 (39.01%)
    District 6 Jim Prola: 11,887 (55.58%) Hermy Almonte: 9,400 (43.95%)

Alameda County

    Board of Supervisors District 2 Richard Valle: 27,684 (36.48%) Mark Green: 23,135 (30.48%) Mary Hayashi: 18,231 (24.02%)
    Measure A1 (Needed 66.67%) Yes: 316,752 (62.31%) No: 191,582 (37.69%)
    Measure B1 (Needed 66.67%)* Yes: 326,276 (65.83%) No: 169,334 (34.17%)

Peralta Community Colleges

    Trustee Area 2 Meredith Elayne Brown: 8,357 (41.47%) Jurena Storm: 7,726 (38.33%)

Richmond

    City Council (Top 3 win)* Nat Bates: 10,972 (17.91%) Tom Butt: 9,576 (15.63%) Gregory Bell: 9,297 (15.17%) Eduardo Martinez: 8,669 (14.15%) Marilyn Langlois: 6,883 (11.23%)
    Measure N Yes: 8,397 (33.09%) No: 16,983 (66.91%)

Assembly

    15th District Nancy Skinner: 146,244 (86.9%) Eugene Ruyle: 22,080 (13.1%)
    16th District Joan Buchanan: 109,727 (58.8%) Al Phillips: 76,984 (41.2%)
    18th District Rob Bonta: 70,745 (51.1%) Abel Guillen: 67,716 (48.9%)
    20th District* Bill Quirk: 64,027 (50.6%) Jennifer Ong: 62,465 (49.4%)

Senate

    7th District Mark Desaulnier: 191,347 (60.6%) Mark Meuser: 124,148 (39.4%)
    9th District Loni Hancock: 270,946 (85.9%) Mary Catherine McIlroy: 44,438 (14.1%)

AC Transit

    At-Large Chris Peeples: 222,627 (62.2%) Dollene Jones: 138,331 (38.0%)
    Ward 1 Joel Wallace: 36,370 (54.1%) Yelda Bartlett: 30,515 (45.4%)

BART

    District 3 Rebecca Saltzman: 65,756 (53.0%) Anthony Pegram: 38,751 (31.2%)
    District 7* Zakhary Mallett: 31,264 (35.6%) Lynette Sweet: 28,495 (32.1%)

State Propositions

    Prop 30 Yes: 54.1% No: 45.9%
    Prop 31 Yes: 39.3% No: 60.7%
    Prop 32 Yes: 43.8% No: 56.2%
    Prop 33 Yes: 45.4% No: 54.6%
    Prop 34 Yes: 47.3% No: 52.7%
    Prop 35 Yes: 81.12% No: 18.8%
    Prop 36 Yes: 68.7% No: 31.3%
    Prop 37 Yes: 47.1% No: 52.9%
    Prop 38 Yes: 27.7% No: 72.3%
    Prop 39 Yes: 60.3% No: 39.7%
    Prop 40 Yes: 71.9% No: 28.1%

Congress

    11th District George Miller: 161,611 (69.2%) Virginia Fuller: 71,934 (30.8%)
    13th District Barbara Lee: 231,528 (86.5%) Marilyn Singleton: 36,057 (13.5%)
    15th District Eric Swalwell: 113,889 (52.4%)Pete Stark: 103,489 (47.6%)

* Too close to call.

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Solar: It’s not just a California thing anymore

BY Todd Woody

The United States solar businesses boomed, as usual, in 2010, growing 67 percent to $6 billion, according to an annual report [PDF] released Thursday by an industry trade group. That’s been the story for the past several years, but what’s notable is that solar is no longer just a California thing. The industry is expanding to the East. Back in 2004-2005, California accounted for a whopping 80 percent of the U.S. market. In 2010, that share fell to 30 percent, with 258.9 megawatts of the 878.3 megawatts of photovoltaic power installed that year, according to the report prepared by the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research.

Texas installed 22.6 megawatts of photovoltaics last year. Photo: Duke Energy

New Jersey is now the nation’s second solar state, with 16 percent of new photovoltaic installations in 2010. And while it is no surprise that sun-soaked states like Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada are also in the top 10, the list also includes states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Texas, the country’s No. 1 wind power state, made the top 10 with 22.6 megawatts of photovoltaics installed in 2010. The rest of the country collectively put 135.2 megawatts of solar on its roofs.

Back in 2007, only four states installed more than 10 megawatts of solar. Last year, 16 states did. The U.S. now is generating a total of 2.6 gigawatts from photovoltaic panels. But the domestic market was a relative laggard as the solar boom continued overseas.

“U.S. demand growth was, however, outpaced by a global market boom driven primarily by the German and Italian markets,” the report noted. “Over 17 GW were installed globally in 2010, more than 13 percent growth over 2009. As a result, despite U.S. demand expansion, the U.S. market share of global installations fell from 6.5 percent in 2009 to 5 percent in 2010.”

That could change in the years ahead, though, as subsidies subside in Europe and solar companies look to the U.S. as the big growth market. The report predicts the U.S. solar market will double in 2011, but warns that expiring federal subsidies make growth in 2012 and beyond uncertain.

At least one Chinese solar company is betting the solar boom will continue. On Thursday, JA Solar announced it will begin construction this year of a new factory that will have a capacity to manufacture 3,000 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic cells a year, thanks in part to a government loan.

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Wars will be fought over water

‘And During the Wet Years They Lost All Memory of the Dry Years’: Time For a New Water Ethic

We’ve acted as though there was no drought until it was too late and we failed to take steps to reduce our water use by serious efforts to improve efficiency and cut waste.

from: Pacific Institute / By Peter Gleick

In 1952 John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden, a monumental book about the lives of a community, families, and individuals living in the Salinas Valley of California from the late 1800s through the Great War. The scope of the book is vast, taking on the themes of love and hate, good and evil, the sweep of human emotions, frailties, and strengths, all in the context of a California that no longer exists. And while the book isn’t about water, themes of water flow through it as a metaphor for the cycles of life, drought and flood, and in images of California alternatively parched and quenched. I’ve just had the enormous pleasure of reading it, and near the very beginning, amidst the grand truths woven through the book is the following prose, as true today as a century ago:

    “And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

Read the article here.