REBRAND FOR WESTLANDS — For 22 years, Tom Birmingham served as general manager of the Westlands Water District, aggressively lobbying for farmers' water access and making enemies of environmental groups along the way.

He fought for controversial proposals like expanding Shasta Dam, saw longtime lobbyist David Bernhardt appointed as Interior Department secretary under Trump, and earned the sobriquet the "Darth Vader of California water."

Let's begin with something everyone seems to agree upon: Far too many pedestrians are dying on California's streets.

Pedestrian deaths have been rising nationwide over the last decade, and last year they reached their highest level in 41 years. In California, an estimated 1,100 pedestrians were killed in 2022, making the fatality rate in the state 25 percent higher than the national average.

Let’s begin with something everyone seems to agree upon: Far too many pedestrians are dying on California’s streets.

Pedestrian deaths have been rising nationwide over the last decade, and last year they reached their highest level in 41 years. In California, an estimated 1,100 pedestrians were killed in 2022, making the fatality rate in the state 25 percent higher than the national average.

California was so dry and its water supply so precarious by May 2022 that the State Water Resources Control Board issued an emergency order: No drinkable water could be used to irrigate grass that had no function other than to look nice.

The regulation does not apply to residential lawns, although they were already turning brown due to local restrictions on sprinkler use.

Drivers in three Southern California cities may soon be getting automated speeding tickets from speed cameras in the mail if a new bill is approved by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Assembly Bill 645 would authorize the installation of speed cameras in school zones and high-injury streets with speeding problems in six pilot cities: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco.

Several highly trafficked intersections in San Francisco will be getting cameras that can automatically detect and ticket drivers who run red lights.

Once they’re installed, by 2025, the eight red-light cameras will join the ones that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency already operates at 13 locations throughout the city. The cameras take snapshots of front license plates and drivers’ faces when their vehicles cross intersections after the lights turn red, and citations are mailed to violators.

State lawmakers are hoping to get a bill through that will allow some California cities to install speed cameras in traffic zones deemed dangerous.

Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale are the Southern California cities that would potentially adopt the cameras within a pilot program.

Jeff Nguyen reports from Studio City, one of six California locations partaking in a pilot program to help reduce speeds across the state. The recently installed speed cameras were put up in school zones, areas with a history of racing or high injury numbers.

A new program to slow drivers down and curb street racing using speed cameras could soon go into effect in three Southern California cities. The devices would photograph the license plates of drivers going 11 miles per hour or more over the speed limit in any given area.  

While speed cameras are currently illegal in the state, a proposed bill could change all that. If it becomes law, a pilot program using speed cameras would kick off in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach in January.