Badlands Journal
Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
Supervisor John Pedrozo disagrees. The county took action by prohibiting more work without filing the proper paperwork, he said. "If someone wants someone to file a grand jury investigation, more power to them" Pedrozo said. "The county has done everything we've been asked to do." Merced Sun-Star, Dec. 1, 2006
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We need to step back from the chicanery of the County and Riverside Motorsports Park with regard to environmental law and regulation to understand what happened in the past week on three evenings – in Ballico, Delhi and on the Merced River. County Supervisor Diedre Kelsey, whose district encompasses the three venues, called meetings to “discuss” the racetrack.
The Riverside Motorsports Park/Merced County government pitch for a world-class motor sports facility met a political pitchfork from the nation’s second-largest dairy county on Dec. 5, at the county Board of Supervisors public comment period.
In a short, prepared address concluding the comment period, board Chairman Mike Nelson abused a privileged moment by attacking the public. Nelson’s pitch was that the “leadership of the opposition to the racetrack” had a right to its opinion, but RMP also had a right to its opinion.
Castle Farms, Toronto-based Brookfield’s stake in Merced County, has a big interest in a vote the Merced County Board of Supervisors will be taking on Dec. 12. If the noise zone of Castle airport is diminished from two miles to one mile, Castle Farms may be able to develop the back part of its property, which it has claimed would be left in open space.
THE OPPONENTS OF RMP WANT YOU TO KNOW:
The attitude of Riverside Motorsports Park and Merced County government toward your environment, health and public safety is: Gentlemen, start your engines, put your pedal to the metal and pass every law and regulation protecting public health and safety on the right as fast as you can.
RMP Chief John Condren claims he’s got your elected officials in his pocket.
This letter was submitted to the Merced County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, along with 23 supporting documents. -- Editor
Lydia Miller, President
San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
(209) 723-9283, ph. & fax
raptorctr@bigvalley.net
Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
(209) 523-1391, ph. & fax
One of the amusements of the recent series of town hall meetings, the last held in the Merced County Supervisors' chambers, was listening to people stumble over the ugly name of the project, Riverside Motorsports Park.
The preferred mispronunciation was "Riverside Motorsparts Pork," although many people, realizing they has erred on the "sparts" tried desperately to avoid the "pork," which is the right name for the project, however mumbled.
Shortly after the midterm congressional elections last month, a group of farmers and domestic manufacturers met in Colorado Springs to voice their mutual discontent with US foreign trade policy. Their leaders included US steel manufacturer, Nucor, the National Farmers Union, the American Corn Growers Association, the California Farmers Union and the California Dairy Campaign.
MARSHA A. BURCH
ATTORNEY AT LAW
131 South Auburn Street
GRASS VALLEY, CA 95945
Telephone:
(530) 272-8411
Facsimile:
(530) 272-9411
maburch@onemain.com
December 19, 2006
Mr. Gene K. Fong
Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
980 Ninth St, Suite 400
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-498-5014
gene.fong@fhwa.dot.gov
Invisible hand
Definition
A former federal prosecutor, Elizabeth de la Vega, has just published a book called United States v. George W. Bush et al. The book is a formal indictment for fraud. Below is a flyer for the book.
De la Vega's columns on TomDispatch.com concerning the Scooter Libby prosecution cut through the political flak about the case and explained the points and the prosecutor's direction. However, these excellent articles gave us no hint of what lay ahead, a book-length federal indictment for fraud against the George W. Bush administration.
A day after triumphantly ramming the Riverside Motorsparts Pork project through the Merced County Board of Supervisors, the Merced public was amused -- what else could it be? -- to learn that Board Chairman Mike Nelson had been appointed chair of something called the San Joaquin Valleywide Air Pollution Study Group. He already serves on the governing board of the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District.
The Badlands Journal antidote for recession and bloody-minded blithering idiots at the wheel will not: