September 2007

Citizens for Intelligent Growth town-hall meeting

RAPID URBAN GROWTH WILL REQUIRE RAPIDLY WIDENED STREETS. IS YOUR LIVING ROOM SAFE? FOUR AND SIX LANE EXPANSIONS ARE PART OF THE MASTER PLAN OF THE CITY OF LIVINGSTON AND WILL BE ONE OF THE KEY TOPICS WHEN CITIZENS FOR INTELLIGENT GROWTH HOSTS AN INFORMATIVE TOWN HALL MEETING SEPTEMBER SIXTH AT THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS HALL IN LIVINGSTON. FARMLAND PRESERVATION, WASTEWATER ISSUES AND AVAILABILITY OF GROUND WATER WILL ALSO BE DISCUSSED. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT JIM ALVERNAZ AT 394-3337.

Hun meets environmental Typhoid Mary

The Hun Our Governor panicked a few weeks back when a bunch of young activists did some demonstrating in front of the Fresno offices of the San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Control Board, which had just decided to forestall pollution cleanup, accept the worst designation of air quality the federal government has to offer until 2023, to keep its viability with the Federal Highway Authority.

Stressors

State officials and water contractors said the pumping reductions would do little to help the 2- to 3-inch-long, silver-colored fish, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
"Clearly the judge is focusing on a particular stressor in the delta," Snow said. "There are so many other stressors in the delta system that we still have to address."

Some thoughts on Daniel Cassidy's How the Irish Invented Slang

This book is a great gift, a revelation, a genuine invasion of one's speech patterns (I’ll be looking over my tongue's shoulder for the Irish from now on). Cassidy beautifully handles the problem of our unconsciousness of this, or as I used to put it in high school, my "street" rather than "home" (proper grammatical English) language. What a pain it was to have to speak only the one at college. It made working on peach loading docks in the summers a deep relaxing into the rhythm and twang of Oklahoma speech. And there were words that fit with our work that had no utility in college.

Behind the curve

Politics attracts all sorts. In fact the personalities in politics are probably as complicated as a number of the systems in nature. However, politics never resembled a Sunday school class.

One of the many rough distinctions one can make about people in politics is between those who read and those who don't.

Growth robs water from existing residents

Until our water authorities base their new commitments on an actual -- legally sound -- surplus we will continue to subsidize new development while we experience rationing, reduced use forced by rate increases, cost-prohibitive landscaping and a gradual decline in agriculture.-- Glenn Carroll, North County Times, Sept. 11, 2006

9/11/07

North County Times

Proximity to a boom-doggle

We thought UC Merced's First Chancellor Carol "Cowgirl" Tomlinson-Keasey's late-Nineties slogan --"Proximity is destiny" -- was about the finest piece of UC Merced Bobcatflak in an era of budget surpluses we ever heard. For those uninitiated in the Fabulous UC Bobcatflak or merely forgetful, the Cowgirl used the slogan to emphasize that -- although no one has yet figured out exactly why -- proximity to a UC campus raises the percentage of the population who goes to college. This percentage is supposed to be the best measure mankind has found for Truth and Beauty.

Antidote to Petraeus Week

“From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service,” Taguba said. “And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values.

East Merced Resource Conservation District not lookin' too good

The Badlands Journal editorial board believes it is necessary to clarify some matters. We are aware, from reports of people who fear reprisal and whose anonymity is safe with us, that there is quite a propaganda campaign going on against the Merced River Stakeholders, claiming they are “obstructionists.”

Badlands replies to local lit doyenne's bad vibes

The Badlands Journal editorial board received this e-mail from Ocean Jones, director of the Valley Voices Writers Project and partner in the unsuccessful grant application by the East Merced Resource Conservation District for a half a million dollars to turn the Merced River into a public relations extravaganza. The people of California would have paid staffers with the Merced River Alliance a large part of that grant for the benefit of this hoopla.

The real Merced River Stakeholders agenda, time and place

Merced River Stakeholders Meeting

September 24, 2007

6 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

Washington School

4402 W. Oakdale Road, Winton

AGENDA

6:00 Introductions, Minutes Approval, Agenda Review

6:15 Updates

Merced Irrigation District Ted Selb

Merced County Planning Department Jeff Wilson

Grant Reporting

DOC II: Watershed coordinator update:

Reports from Gwen Huff, Cindy Lashbrook

Prop. 13: Merced River Alliance:

Merced River Stakeholders protest letter to East Merced Resource Conservation District grant proposal and a chonology of e-mails

Stefan Lorenzato
Watershed Program Manager
Resource Restoration & Project Support
(916) 651-9617
(916) 651-9607 fax
stefanl@water.ca.gov

Kristyne Miller, Grant Manager
Resource Restoration & Project Support
(916) 651-9621
kmiller@water.ca.gov

Merced River Stakeholders protest letter to EMRCD grant proposal

BETTENCOURT FAMILY PROPERTY
TELEPHONE 209/358-9400; FAX 209/812-1818
11570 Shaffer Road, Winton CA 95388
e-mail: pferrigno@elite.net

June 2, 2007

State of California
Department of Water Resources
Division of Planning and Local Assistance
DWR Watershed Program
P. O. Box 948236
Sacramento, CA 94236-001

Re: CalFed Grant Application: Lower Merced River Watershed Management Plan

To Whom It May Concern:

Points of Order concerning the East Merced RCD meeting at UC Merced, Sept. 24, 2007

To: East Merced Resource Conservation District Board of Directors

From: San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center; Protect Our Water; San Joaquin Valley Conservancy; Merced River Valley Association; Planada Association; Planada Community Development Co.; Le Grand Association; Stanislaus Natural Heritage

Re: Points of Order concerning the East Merced RCD meeting at UC Merced, Sept. 24, 2007

Date: Sept. 24, 2007

East Merced RCD Board of Directors: Via: email and Hand Delivered

California Public Records Act Request for Watershed Coordinator ( DOC II), Merced River Alliance (Prop. 13) Grants, NFWF Vernal

FROM: Lydia Miller
San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
(209) 723-9283, ph. & fax
raptorctr@bigvalley.net
sjrrc@sbcglobal.net

Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
(209)489-9178

TO: Board of Directors East Merced Resource Conservation District
2145 W. Wardrobe Ave.
Merced , CA 95340
209-723-6755 ph
209-723-0880 fax