Stephan: Have you ever wondered why the MAGAt Republicans don't like policies that reduce student debt and help young men and women of limited means get a college education? Here's where it started and why.
Ronald Reagan one of the first christofascists to begin the transformation of the Republican Party
In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California. He had first won in 1966 with confrontational rhetoric toward the University of California public college system and executed confrontational policies when in office. In May 1970, Reagan had shut down all 28 UC and Cal State campuses in the midst of student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. On October 29, less than a week before the election, his education adviser Roger A. Freeman spoke at a press conference to defend him.
With the vociferous debate over President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government will cancel a portion of outstanding student debt, it’s important to understand how Americans came to owe the current cumulative total of more than $1.6 trillion for higher education.
Freeman’s remarks were reported the next day in the San Francisco Chronicle under the headline “Professor Sees Peril in Education.” According to the Chronicle article, Freeman said, “We are in danger of producing […]
Stephan: Here is some more good news about preparing for climate change. I have been following this trend for some time (see SR archives) and am really struck by what California is doing compared to what Mississippi hasn't done, and isn't doing concerning climate change. And I think one should note that California has been governed by Democrats for years, while Mississippi has concurrently been governed by Republicans. California as a state is one of the leading economies in the world, Mississippi in contrast is a failed state that if it were a country would be considered third world.
California solar panel covered canal Credit: AquaGrid
State utilities in California are preparing to launch a pilot project to cover California’s irrigation canals in solar panels.
The decision was influenced by a landmark 2021 research paper, where scientists at Univ. of California Santa Cruz crunched the numbers and figured that the panels would save 63.5 billion gallons of water from evaporation annually by shading the flowing water.
Turlock Irrigation District Water & Power is preparing two pilot canal projects: a 500-foot (152-meter) curved canal section near the town of Hickman, and a second mile-long (1.6-km long) straightaway in nearby Ceres.
GNN reported last year that the UC Santa Cruz investigation found that for every megawatt of solar energy generated during Turlock’s 290 days of average sunshine, the pairing of panels over canals could replace 15-20 diesel generators used to pump water along the canals.
Called Project Nexus, the work is slated to begin this October with funding of $20 million from the state’s coffers.
