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California-s Dilapidated Levees

Last week, a 500-foot section of a levee in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Stockton gave way, flooding a six-mile square island where farmers had planted asparagus and other crops. This week, state officials called for irrigation cutbacks across a million acres of the San Joaquin Valley, the nation-s most productive farm belt, and have replaced the usual fresh-water flow with water from the San Luis Reservoir in Merced County. At an estimated cost of $75 million, plugging the dyke will require the cooperation of dozens of private landowners and government agencies responsible for 6000 miles of crucial but dilapidated levees. We hear how the chain of events occurred and how vulnerable the water supply really is for 20 million southern Californians. Reporter-s Notebook: The Cost of the Reagan Funeral After lying-in-state in Washington, Ronald Reagan-s remains will be coming home Friday for a private funeral at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered most state offices closed that day, just as Reagan did when former Presidents Eisenhower, Truman and Johnson died while he was Governor. Ann Marimow of the San Jose Mercury-News reports that the honorary shutdown won-t come cheap.