December 2014

Merced County Board of Supervisors in their own words: Water Update, October 21, 2014

Posted on Sat, 12/06/2014 — 13:55 by Anonymous (not verified)

Once again and despite the severe drought, our supervisors are out of their depth. They have responded to the groundwater crisis like a concussed, four-man defensive line.
Reference: AB 1739: Groundwater Management, Dickinson, Chaptered Sept. 16, 2014. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2013... -- blj
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The two voices of California agriculture: Bragging and Whining

Posted on Wed, 12/10/2014 — 13:41 by Anonymous (not verified)

Although these "articles" appear in mainstreem media outlets. their true audience is state and federal politicians, agencies and, in general, any public source of funding and any regulator who can be bought, rented or silenced. With the passage of state legislation to begin the process of regulation of groundwater, California agribusiness flakmeisters will be concocting tales of wonder and tales of woe about agricultural forever, as usual, when some public concern slightly impedes the forward march of their commodities' careers in the market. -- blj
 
 
12-9-14

It's Yoo, don't UC?

Posted on Tue, 12/16/2014 — 10:22 by Anonymous (not verified)

 
With the release last week of the heavily redacted 500-page executive summary of the US Senate Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation, the name John Yoo has surfaced again. Yoo, as you remember, was one of two assistant US attorneys general who drafted the infamous "torture memos," (1)which legally justified the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques employed against al Qaeda, Taliban, Pashtuns, and assorted Iraqis and others captured in the maniacal US "war on terror" still raging on.

Merced Development Rodeo: Team "Ol' Hoss" ropes Merced City Council and wins a prize

Posted on Fri, 12/26/2014 — 17:30 by Anonymous (not verified)

 Although landowners would love you to believe that farming and residential development are totally different operations, farmers being salt-of-the-earth, honest, God-fearing Jeffersonian yeomen of rural America, developers being mysteriously powerful, immensely rich city slickers, farming is in fact just as much "development" as residential construction is in terms of its effects on the environment and its returns of investment.
 
In the October 15th Merced City Council meeting, an item appeared under "Reports" that asked for a resolution that the