Citing the need for more deliberation, California regulators delayed publication of a report that will outline their preferred plan to fund and manage a statewide program to help poor residents pay their water bills. As water rates increase in the United States, governments and utilities are exploring new forms of financial aid. Some utilities run water bill assistance programs, but California is marking unexplored territory. It would be the first state in the nation to operate a state-funded program for water.

The torrential rains that ripped through the state earlier the state earlier this year and created the destructive and deadly mudslides in Montecito may make California’s drought seem like ancient history. But much of California has, in reality, suffered through an unusually hot — and somewhat dry — winter. A heat wave baked Southern California this week, breaking temperature records across the region. And officials say it has been warm in Northern California, too, causing much of the area’s precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced on Thursday that California public schools built before 2010 must test for lead in drinking water.  Last year, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 746, which requires community water systems statewide to complete lead testing in these older schools by July 1, 2019. “Students need fresh water, nutritious meals, and regular physical activity to be ready to learn and succeed in class,” Torlakson said. “Cooperation with local water systems is critical to ensure proper testing.”

Tucked away in a book in my Capitol office is a letter addressed to Kenneth William Cooley whose return address is stated simply as The White House.  A 4 cent stamp on the envelope shows a Mercury space capsule floating above a luminous Earth with the words “US Man in Space.” Its cancellation mark shows it was mailed on May 4^th 1962 in Washington, D.C. I had written President John F. Kennedy at the age of seven, and received that response shortly after I turned eight.