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Gov. Jerry Brown today signed SB 743, the bill designed to speed up construction of the proposed new Sacramento Kings arena at Downtown Plaza. The law, approved with bipartisan support on the last night of the legislative session Sept. 12, will streamline the court process for any environmental lawsuits that could arise against the $448 million project. It also makes it much harder for judges to halt construction on the project if a suit is filed, and strengthen the city’s ability to use the power of eminent domain, if needed, to buy the Macy’s men’s store to make way for the facility. “It’s another huge step forward in revitalizing the center of our region,” said the bill’s author, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
Anne Gust Brown, the wife of California Governor Jerry Brown, posted a photo to her Twitter account that showed her getting picked up by Shaquille O’Neal While this photo may seem like it captured a fun, spontaneous moment, it’s actually mandated by an obscure law. The law states that once you buy a share of the NBA team that plays in a state’s capital, you have to then go and lift the Governor’s wife above your head. Crazy, I know. But rules are rules.
The fight to build a new arena for the Sacramento Kings is now in the hands of Gov. Jerry Brown, as the Legislature on Thursday night approved a bill to streamline development of a downtown arena for the pro basketball team. The California Senate voted 32-5 in favor of Senate Bill 743, written by Sacramento Democrat Darrell Steinberg. The bill seeks to speed the judicial process for handling environmental lawsuits, limit the courts' ability to stop construction and change the way traffic impacts are measured in environmental reviews. It represents fewer changes to the California Environmental Quality Act than Steinberg originally hoped to achieve but would be sufficient, he said, to develop an arena that would keep the Kings in Sacramento. "The NBA has said... if we don't meet this timeline, if we don't get this project started in 2014, we're at risk of losing it," Steinberg said. "The opponents are still out there."
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping swept into Los Angeles on Thursday for a brief but action-packed visit that will include a stop at a local school, quality time with Vice President Joe Biden and tickets to Friday night's Lakers game. "He's a Kobe fan," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who invited Xi to the game. The mayor and Gov. Jerry Brown welcomed Xi, who is expected to become president of China next year, on the tarmac at LAX. From there, they drove to the Port of Los Angeles for a tour of a shipping terminal.The Chinese official's five-day trip to the U.S. has been met with considerable pomp — he was greeted with a 19-gun salute at the Pentagon earlier this week — and his arrival at the port was no different. A long row of Chinese flags had been lined up alongside a sleek, green China Shipping freighter, and a throng of shipping company executives were there to meet him.
Maloof said the family is waiting for the arena task force ("Think BIG Sacramento") to announce its plans on how to build and finance a new arena. Its report is scheduled to be released Sept. 8. "We're waiting for their proposal, which we should see in the next 45 days," he said. There has been recent speculation that the arena task force had been counting on using some state redevelopment money that was recently eliminated in Gov. Jerry Brown's new budget, but Maloof wouldn't address that. "I've heard so many different things," he said. "Until the report comes out, I'm probably not going to comment on anything."
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