Free Republic

California has approved 18 power plants to be built in the next few years, but only two are under construction and will cover only half of the expected growth in peak energy demand state officials are predicting by 2008. Five years after the state's power crisis, anxiety over insufficient supply stems from a more cautious power market in which generators want to be sure they can sell the energy they produce before spending billions on new plants. Energy experts warned that the record-setting heat wave alone should not spur a power plant boom. The two plants being built will add...

The California economy added 5,200 jobs in March but failed to keep pace with the rest of the country in employment growth, according to state figures released Friday. Nationally, the number of jobs grew by 308,000 last month. "The March numbers were certainly disappointing compared to what the nation has done in the last couple of months," said Stephen Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. "It sure would be something to worry about if it persisted," he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a year after the Columbia disaster, NASA (news - web sites) is only beginning the sweeping changes recommended as conditions for the space shuttles' return to flight, an independent task group reported on Tuesday. "Detailed plans for many of the recommendations have not been forthcoming," the group said in an interim report. "NASA has not been timely in some of their responses to task group requests for information." The independent panel, called the Return to Flight Task Group, was charged with monitoring NASA's progress in complying with recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which probed...

<p>California's process of picking new judges has come to a halt, as Gov. Gray Davis grapples with the state's intractable budget crisis and the prospect of a recall election.</p> <p>The governor has not appointed a single judge in the state for more than three months and has added only a scant number overall to the bench since the beginning of the year, allowing vacancies to persist in courthouses from San Jose to San Diego. While the dearth of appointments is far from a crisis, the inaction has the legal community concerned because the number of judges retiring grows by the month.</p>