June 2008

"Chinatown" and "Day of the Locust"-level flak

The drama! The panic! The fear! Visions of people dying of thirst in yet-unnamed Southern California suburbs. Millions of acres of farm crops disked under.

DROUGHT!

At the Monday meeting in Los Banos with farmers, Bureau of Reclamation staff and Rep. Jim Costa is reported to have said that California has a perfectly good water system for 20 million people, the problem being that we have now around 38 million people and rising.

Burch letter on Robinson subdivision application appeal, June 10, 2008

We are posting a letter from Attorney Marsha Burch, representing San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center and Protect Our Water (POW) on a proposed subdivision on the Robinson Ranch, which straddles the Merced River above the Shaffer Bridge on Highway 159, because it raises important issues concerning this apparently innocuous application. We will post a report on this public hearing soon.

Badlands Journal editorial board

Marsha Burch
Attorney at Law
Grass Valley CA

June 10, 2008

Via Email and Facsimile

Public minutes on the Merced County Board of Supervisors public hearing on the Robinson minor subdivision application

“Give me a break.” -- Merced County Supervisor Gerry O’Banion

Merced County Board of Supervisors

Board Agenda Item PM #2
June 10, 2008

Appeal of Planning Commission approval of Minor Subdivision Application/Parcel Map Waiver No. 07-058 – Chris Robinson

You just can't make our Bud

You just can't make our Bud
By T-bone Gristle, Oakdale CA

In honor of Utah Phillips and the InBev bid to buy Anheuser-Busch

You can take our lathes and drills
and tractor factories
You can take our flour mills
and auto factories

You just can't make our Bud

You can make our blue jeans
You can make our toys and dolls
and all our I-beams
Until every working family falls

You just can't make our Bud

Lloyd Carter on drought and aridity in California

6-15-08
Sacramento Bee
Lloyd G. Carter: Much of California is a desert, we should live in it as such
By Lloyd G. Carter - Special to The Bee

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1012762.html

That dreaded word drought has again intruded into the California public consciousness following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's June 4 declaration that a drought is officially under way.

Butte Environmental Center sues federal resource agencies over approval of Shasta Co. project

Press Release:

For Immediate Release June 12, 2008

Butte Environmental Council • 116 W. Second St., Suite 3 • Chico, CA 95928 • 530/891-6424

AGENCIES SUED TO PROTECT WETLANDS AND CRITICAL HABITAT

Chico, CA – On Wednesday, June 11, 2008, the Butte Environmental Council, an enduring advocate for vernal pool protection in California, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over their approvals of the Stillwater Business Park in Shasta County.

Epitaph

What first undermines and then kills political communities is loss of power and final impotence; and power cannot be stored up and kept in reserve for emergencies, like the instruments of violence, but exists only in its actualization. Where power is not actualized, it passes away, and history is full of examples that the greatest material riches cannot compensate for this loss.

Judgment Entered in Favor of Raptor, POW and Citizens Group in RMP suit

MERCED, CA (June 20, 2008) --Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Humphreys signed this week the judgment for the lawsuit between San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, Protect Our Water, Citizens for the Protection of Merced County Resources (petitioners), against the County of Merced and real party of interest Riverside Motorsports Park (respondents).

Judge Humphreys ordered in favor of petitioners that the following approvals of the Merced County Board of Supervisors on the RMP project be voided and vacated:

Loose Cheeks, June 24, 2008

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT

Loose Cheeks: Hot Tips
By Lucas Smithereen
Loose Cheeks Senior Editor

Got a hot tip for Loose Cheeks? Call the Loose Cheeks hot-tip line: (000) CHE-EEKS. We’ll get back to you whenever.

Item #1

Revolt!

Public comment on the Felix Torres Project

On behalf of San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center and Protect Our Water, two local environmental groups, attorney Marsha A. Burch filed the following letter to the Merced Local Agency Formation Commission on June 26, regarding Planada Community Services District proposals to extend its sphere of influence to annex the new Felix Torres farm worker housing project.

In addition to Ms. Burch's letter, Maureen McCorry, on behalf of San Joaquin Et Al, submitted the following documents in addition to oral testimony: