Air traffic towards southern California airports was diverted Tuesday as a "radio outage" affected the air traffic control station in Palmdale. The outage occurred at 5:30 pm, and lasted 90 minutes, causing long range flights from as far away as Canada to be diverted to San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco airports. Planes headed towards LAX and San Diego were returned or grounded all along the west coast. In all, 800 flights nationwide were affected by the outage and closure of airports, but all flights in the air safely reached the ground.

The source of the communication outage was not known, or else was not reported as of yet by the Federal Airlines Administration. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown in Washington DC reported that it was not a problem of power. The aircraft could be seen on radar, but ground to air communication was not functional. The Associated Press, however, reported that regional FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer stated the problem in Palmdale was due to a "major power outage". According to the AP, power was restored after 90 minutes when "the backup generator kicked in."

The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) reported that a record amount of power was used in California on Tuesday. The number of megawatts over the previous record was "roughly equal to the output of two medium powerplants." Cal-ISO continues to encourage conservation by all Californians as the heatwave continues across the state, and has warned power generators to try to avoid all maintenance that could reduce in a decrease of megawatts. No power outages were reported by Cal-ISO.

Power availability is a political hot topic in California. The outages experienced a during the gubernatorial term of Gray Davis are often thought to be a major contributor to his eventual recall. In another election year for the governor's office, new power outages in California could be disastrous to Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign. Schwarzenegger early on made power plant construction an issue to focus on.

Time will tell what the actual cause of the communication outage was, but it surely gives one an idea of how a power failure in California potentially leads to catastrophe.
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Sources: www.msnbc.msn.com, www.caiso.com, http://news.airwise.com

Whether a reasonable accommodation for George Maloof or a sad sign of the Valley's NBA future, talks about a new Sacramento arena proposal are ongoing in Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas. The city the family that owns the Sacramento Kings have an expanding presence in. The Maloof family owns the Kings, and they also own the Palms casino in which they are currently hashing out a possible taxpayer funded scheme for a new Sacramento arena.

Southern Nevada? Odd.

Sure, so many have tried and failed to create a winning funding proposal for the arena while actually IN Sacramento. However, it is still odd that the future of Sacramento's arena be decided amongst business leaders (the Maloofs, other owners, and Sacramento sports leaders from the Rivercats) and elected officials from our area in a place unreachable by the public or press. Currently in Nevada, Sacramento city and county are being represented, as well as state legislator Darrell Steinberg, although he is being paid to represent the Maloof's interests.

Sadly, and almost expectedly, the Maloof's interest is to get as much as they can for as little as possible. This in the same month that two of America's richest (Gates and Buffett) have decided to devote the rest of their lives and much of their resources towards charitable undertakings. Alas, the Kings are no nonprofit organization. The Maloofs have no ties to Sacramento, other than those formed since purchasing the Valley's only major league sports organization a few years ago. While Sacramentans see the Kings as a spiritual, emotional experience that they often devote time and prayers to, the Maloofs root more for the Kings, rather than the city they represent. The city could always change.

Here's the plain truth of the matter. If there is an agreement between the Maloofs and officials, a ballot initiative will seek to increase the county's sales tax to at least partially fund a new arena in downtown Sacramento. If there is no agreement, or if the voters turn down the proposal in November, Las Vegas may indeed be the next stop of a franchise that has already existed in Rochester, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Omaha. Left in Sacramento possibly could be the Monarchs, although the Maloofs have such a strong hold on the WNBA Champions that they may also be forced to move out. Arco Arena will still be able to hold the concerts and spectacles it already does, declining each year as the arena becomes increasingly outdated. However, the Maloofs also own Arco arena, so there is no telling what they might do with the Natomas property. It may actually be worth more as a land for housing development than as an arena without a team.

Sacramento could survive without the Kings. It could survive without an arena. However, the quality of life in Sacramento would sink without a civic-pride inducing organization like the Kings or a large space for the people to get together. Once again, sports fans would have to make the drive to the Bay Area they already do for NFL, NASCAR and MLB games. The Warriors would be our team (sort-of). After the 20 year successful run of the Kings in garnering community support and solid attendance, Sacramento would very possibly attract the attention of another major league sports franchise. However, the undeniable truth is that the Kings and Sacramento magically work together. The Maloofs must realize this, and they must realize that moving to Anaheim, San Diego, Albuquerque, or Las Vegas would truly be a gamble.