First Land Park farmers
market draws big crowd
Hyde’s late TD pushes
49ers past Washington
SPORTS | Page C1
OUR REGION | Page B1
THE SACRAMENTO BEE
Monday, November 24, 2014
Manny Crisostomo Bee file
A Valero proposal would bring
two 50-car crude oil trains a
day to its Benicia plant.
Mayor’s
remarks
could
derail
oil vote
sacbee.com
• • • •
$1
Business interests spend
to mold Dems in their image
IN TOP-TWO RACES, GROUPS INVEST
MILLIONS IN PREFERRED CANDIDATES
By Jeremy B. White
[email protected]
Hoping to reshape the Democratic
coalition governing the California
Legislature, business-backed outside
groups spent millions during the 2014
election cycle to elect Democrats they
believe will be more sympathetic to
their interests.
Newly elected Democratic candidates aided by business-funded
groups posted an impressive record.
In seven out of 10 races to fill open
seats, the Democratic candidate who
benefited from independent spending by business groups prevailed.
Those results have prompted talk
of a new generation of business-
friendly Democrats assuming office.
Some groups that spent lavishly on
behalf of those Democrats are touting
their success.
Californians for Jobs and a Strong
Economy, for example, spent $1.1 million on the effort, and the group’s
leader predicted that “economic
Democrat” lawmakers will have considerable clout in the coming session.
Fifteen years ago, “there were six
(such Democrats) in the Assembly,”
said David Townsend, who oversees
Californians for Jobs and a Strong
Economy. “When they get sworn in
for the next session, exactly one-half
of the Democratic caucus will be
mods.”
Others take issue with Townsend’s
use of the term “moderate” to describe those Democrats. Some of the
newly elected members support policies such as raising the minimum
wage or extending temporary tax increases enacted via Proposition 30.
Many also received money from reliable bastions of Democratic support,
DEMOCRATS | Back page, A12
I-5 BUS CRASH KILLS 1 NEAR SHASTA LAKE
BENICIA LEADER
SAYS SHE WON’T
RECUSE HERSELF
By Tony Bizjak
[email protected]
The hot national debate over crude oil train safety has
taken an unusual twist in the
Bay Area city of Benicia,
where a blunt-talking mayor’s right to free speech is being pitted against an oil company’s right to a fair public
hearing.
This summer, amid tense
public debate over a Valero
Refining Co. proposal to
bring crude oil on trains to its
Benicia plant, Mayor Elizabeth Patterson revealed that
the city attorney had privately advised her that her frequent public comments
about oil transport safety
could be seen as bias against
the Valero project.
The mayor said the city attorney advised her to stop
talking about
the oil trains
and sending
out
mass
emails containing articles and other
Elizabeth
information,
Patterson
and to recuse
was advised herself from
to stop
voting when it
talking about came before
oil trains.
the council.
Patterson, a longtime community planner and environmental activist, is refusing to
step aside, saying she has a
duty to share information
with constituents about the
city’s pivotal role in the crude
oil debate, one of the biggest
environmental fights in the
state.
The situation in Benicia
provides an unfolding civics
lesson on the sometimes-surprising legal tightropes cities
and public officials must
walk when dealing with highstakes issues. The trains in
question would pass twice
daily through downtown Sacramento and other Northern
California cities en route to
the Benicia refinery.
Patterson points out she
has never said she would vote
against the Valero project and
said she hasn’t yet made up
her mind. “I am providing information. I am letting people know what is going on,”
MAYOR | Back page, A12
Alayna Shulman The Record Searchlight
A Los Angeles tour bus bound for Washington state crashed Sunday morning on Interstate 5 near Pollard Flat in Shasta County, killing a 33-yearold man and injuring at least 30 people, three critically. It was the second crash in one day for the bus, which also bumped into a Denny’s restaurant in Red Bluff, according to the CHP. Investigators suggested driver fatigue may have caused the second crash. Story, Page B1
Amid wait to hear about charges,
lives are put on hold in Ferguson
BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS SUFFER
AS UNCERTAINTY DRAGS ON
Clean fuels’ boosters
fight federal plan
to halt gas mandate
By Evan Halper
Tribune Washington Bureau
By Manny Fernandez and Alan Blinder
The New York Times
FERGUSON, Mo. – At Spencer’s Bakery near the
barricaded police station here, there have been fewer Thanksgiving orders, including for pumpkin pie.
Across the region, school administrators are debating whether to start their holiday recesses early
because of the potential for unrest.
And in Clayton, the affluent hub of the St. Louis
County justice system, guests at the Crowne Plaza
hotel coped with heightened security precautions:
restricted access to the building, and the shuttering
Whitney Curtis The New York Times
of the restaurant that faces the street and the courthouse. The breakfast buffet was relegated to an out- St. Louis County police officers stand guard outside
a laundromat along West Florissant Avenue in Ferof-the-way ballroom.
FERGUSON | Page A2 guson, Mo., as protesters march Saturday night.
WASHINGTON – As biotech masterminds
and venture capitalists scramble to hatch a new
generation of environmentally friendly fuels that
can help power the average gasoline-burning car,
they are confronting an unexpected obstacle: the
White House.
Yielding to pressure from oil companies, car
manufacturers and even driving enthusiasts, the
Obama administration is threatening to put the
brakes on one of the federal government’s most
ambitious efforts to ease the nation’s addiction
to fossil fuels.
The proposed rollback of the 7-year-old green
energy mandate known as the renewable fuel
standard is alarming investors in the innovation
economy and putting the administration at odds
FUELS | Page A2
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Western and Iranian
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Sunny,
breezy
63 | 43
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