The Sacramento Bee reports:
The federal government is spending more than $2.8 million in stimulus funds for the right to flood two riverfront properties near Sacramento. But it's unclear what the government is buying, since the owners already planned to flood the parcels.
The federal government is spending the money for flood easements, or the right to submerge land when the river rises. In this case, the sellers are environmental groups that bought the land intending to restore it as floodplain habitat themselves.
There is conflict in the statist movement:
"It doesn't make any sense," said Huey Johnson, president of the Resource Renewal Institute, a Mill Valley nonprofit that monitors land acquisition by environmental groups. "We cannot afford to move acquisition of questionable easements ahead of teachers being laid off."
Democratic party struggles.
