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Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Discovery Bay) presented his Delta protection bills to the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. Assembly Bill 732, on Delta levee maintenance, passed on a 10-4 vote. Assembly Bill 791, for Delta transparency and ratepayer protection, passed on an 8-6 vote.

Two bills that would protect Delta levees and ratepayers were passed in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on Tuesday.

Assemblyman Jim Frazier’s two bills — AB 732 and AB 791 — passed through their first hurdle. AB 732, which extends reimbursements for levee maintenance, passed on a 11-to-4 vote. AB 791, which requires Delta project leads to provide anticipated rate information, passed 8 to 7.

Genentech now has one of California’s largest non-utility solar power installations at its facility in Vacaville.

Powered by more than 29,000 solar panels, the massive 8.9 megawatt project will provide 24 percent of the site’s total electrical power. During the course of the system’s lifespan, this equates to powering more than 22,000 homes or removing more than 23,000 cars from the road for an entire year.

Frazier, D-Oakley, offered little in the way of details except to note that the transportation package, in conjunction with Sen. Jim Beall, D-Campbell, will cover the estimated $6 billion in road and highway needs in the state.

“We are right now putting the final touches on it,” Frazier said.

Frazier said his and Beall’s versions should be introduced in the next couple of weeks. He also promised the kind of “reform language” voters want to see to emphasize efficiency.

Framed by red, pink, yellow and white roses, several hundred veterans and their friends and families gathered in Capitol Park on Sunday for the reciting of each of the 5,660 names on the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial – including three new names etched into history.

A bill authored by Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, changed the law in 2013, and the first group of 32 names was added last year.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown kicked off 2016 optimistic on one policy area: After years of stalling, he said it was time for California to finally start making long-overdue repairs to its freeways and bridges.

“If we overlook the maintenance of our roads, it’s going to cost us more to get this done,” said Frazier, who has proposed raising $7 billion a year through higher gas and diesel taxes, a $38 annual registration fee increase and a $165 annual fee on zero-emission vehicles.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California lawmakers have rejected legislation that would have added protections for water contractors in a massive project to ship water from Northern to Southern California through a pair of twin tunnels.

AB2583 by Assemblyman Jim Frazier, a Democrat from Oakley, could have delayed Gov. Jerry Brown’s $15.7 billion water tunnel project by requiring more extensive environmental review.

About half of the funding needed to build an initial operating segment of California's bullet train faces legal, political and financial risks, state analysts told an Assembly hearing Monday — although officials expressed confidence that they could navigate any pitfalls.

"We have to go into this with our eyes wide open," said committee chairman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley). "Proceeding with this project will not be for the faint-hearted."

The chairman of the state Assembly’s Transportation Committee visited Fresno and Madera this week to get a firsthand look at high-speed rail construction less than two weeks before he conducts hearings on a new business plan for the passenger-train system.

Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley), who chairs the Assembly's Transportation Committee, introduced a bill Tuesday that would add one sitting legislator from each house as a non-voting member to the bullet train's existing nine member governing panel.

“It is the Legislature’s job to act in the interest of California’s residents and participate in conversations about a program of this size and complexity,” Frazier said in a written statement.