Free Republic

Actress Bo Derek may be a "10," but state lawmakers Wednesday indefinitely put off a decision on whether to confirm her appointment by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a state board. The Senate Rules Committee delayed action on the governor’s appointments of Derek, Keith Brackpool, David J. Israel and Richard A. Rosenberg to the California Horse Racing Board. If confirmed, they would all serve well into the administration of the next governor, who takes office in January.

People who say that nothing's harder to get rid of than a bad penny must never have met Keith Brackpool. The British-born promoter, who has spent the last dozen years pushing a scheme to pump water to Southern California from beneath 35,000 acres his Cadiz Inc. owns in the Mojave Desert, just won't go away. ... In the past his posse has included ex-Gov. Gray Davis and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Now he has added Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last week publicly endorsed the scheme as "a path-breaking, new, sustainable groundwater conservation and storage project." The endorsement was embedded...

Let us today hoist a glass — preferably of cool, clean Colorado River water — to Keith Brackpool, a walking illustration of how the generous bestowal of campaign donations and other largess can keep a man cozy with California politicians, even in the face of evidence that what he's selling may not be worth buying. Brackpool is the chairman and chief executive of Cadiz Inc. For years, Cadiz tried to entice the Metropolitan Water District into a $150-million scheme to store surplus water from the Colorado in the Mojave Desert. The skeptical MWD, which serves most of Southern California, finally...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Thirsty, Growing States Turn to New Sources to Meet Demand CADIZ, Calif. -- This is one big, dry state, and Keith Brackpool wants to slake its thirst. The politically connected British wheeler-dealer is pressing ahead with an ingenious plan to sell billions of gallons of drinking water to Southern California from his company's aquifer, buried here beneath the broiling badlands of the Mojave Desert. Contentious? They don't call them "water wars" for nothing.

SACRAMENTO -- A British-born water mogul who has directed more than $250,000 to Gov. Gray Davis is drawing conflict of interest complaints as he pushes a massive Southern California water project that could earn his company half a billion dollars over 50 years. Davis has turned to Keith Brackpool repeatedly for advice on water issues, and the governor's aides have asked him to weigh in on key policymaking sessions, even when Brackpool's companies stood to gain. An early Davis supporter, Brackpool is a prominent example of the entrepreneurs who have contributed heavily to Davis and been rewarded with high-profile appointments...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new chief of staff, who is spearheading a $9-billion plan to improve California's water system, was paid $120,000 last year by a Los Angeles developer seeking to build a massive water storage project under the Mojave Desert. According to interviews and her financial disclosure statement, Susan P. Kennedy earned $10,000 per month in 2005 as a consultant to Cadiz Real Estate, operated by her longtime friend Keith Brackpool. For nearly a decade, the British-born Brackpool has tried unsuccessfully to put together a public-private partnership that would use the aquifers under his San Bernardino property to...

<p>Keith Brackpool, chief executive of Cadiz Inc. and the man who would be king of California's new private water industry, has spent much of his career swimming in controversy.</p> <p>He once resigned as CEO of a company after loaning himself money from the firm's treasury. He was linked indirectly to a spectacular corporate collapse in his native England.</p>