POLITICS/TRANSPORTATION: California high-speed rail project, report, CHSRA proposed new policy to destroy emails after 90 days, to purge five years' worth of email communications....

* California Watch:  "Rail authority policy to purge e-mails draws critics' ire" - From California Watch:

   A congressional committee is investigating California’s $68 billion bullet train project. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is investigating, too. Meanwhile, this proposal for the largest public works project in California history is the target of a flurry of lawsuits filed by local governments and opposition groups.

   All those investigators, lawyers and bullet train critics want to pore over the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s trove of documents, looking for evidence. So it's an unusual time to purge five years' worth of bullet train project e-mails, critics say. Nevertheless, that what the agency is contemplating.

   In February, the rail authority filed papers with the state saying it intended to enact a new policy to destroy its e-mails after 90 days. Then, on May 1, in response to a request for information from a project critic, the rail authority said it could not produce e-mails that were older than 90 days, citing the new policy.

   The rail authority’s lawyer downplayed the issue’s significance, but it has caused concern among high-speed rail critics, who say they fear the authority is jettisoning important information about how the expensive project is being shaped...................