Badlands Journal
Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger probably didn't fire California Air Resources Board Chairman Robert F. Sawyer because Valley citizens spent the last several months looking for win-win, public-private solutions to air pollution in the Valley while the regional board voted to extend the deadline for air cleanup 11 more years.
Mr. Carter will give us the BIG picture on the Merced River - where it comes from and where it goes - as well as the importance of the river to our communities. Lloyd Carter is very knowledgeable about water issues and will also be speaking at the later in the day...Lloyd Carter continues his exploration of water and river issues in the San Joaquin Valley context. 1.5 hour talk at Heartland Festival/River Fair, Riverdance Farm, 2007.
The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition recently sent a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, urging him to terminate his opposition to the Williamson Act. The text of the letter appears below.
On a related note: despite claims from state officials that Delta smelt are no longer in the vicinity of the export pumps, DWR acknowledged it collected 327 smelt at the salvage facilities yesterday. The actual number of smelt killed is likely 30 times that number. -- Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, June 29, 2007
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, continues to deny he is a Nancy Boy and fiddles with the controls on his home solar system while the Delta Smelt goes extinct for subsidized cotton.
A rouge pall, like the Delta peat fires of old at twilight, hangs over Merced County.
According to Supervisor Mike Nelson, the "socialists" were out this morning at the supervisors' meeting. A group advocating agricultural preservation were arguing against parcel splits for ranchettes between Gustine and Santa Nella.
And I thought I saw Eugene Debs highballing down the Santa Fe tracks last night.
The Valley seems frozen at the moment, although its credit is leaking from subprime loan foreclosures and the milk price is up so people are buying replacement heifers. Perhaps, the leaders have been shaken somewhat by the consequences of their rapacious land-use decisions, by which local lenders, developers, realtors and landowners gained enormously to the detriment of larger financial institutions that bought so much locally generated bad debt. And to the detriment of so many others, closer by, hung out to dry by the big swindle.
vanitas vanitatum dixt Ecclesiates, vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas ... omnia tempus habent et suis spatiis transeunt universa sub caelo ... tempus destruendi et tempus aedificandi...
-- Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3.
The chamber needs to move forward and advocate for business, including the planned Wal-Mart distribution center. Good-paying jobs are needed in Merced, with people here making money to fill all the vacant homes, Wells said. -- Merced Sun-Star, June 19, 2007
6-22-07
Modesto Bee
Rules Committee position gives Blue Dog's bark more bite...Dennis Cardoza, 18th Congressional District, which includes part of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties and all of Merced County
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/13715696p-14302358c.html
...McNerney's bill would authorize $90 million a year between 2008 and 2012 to support geothermal research at two centers, one in the West and the other in the East.
"There's definitely a chance that one of the plants would be located in Northern California," McNerney said. "It's important that the rocks are suitable for this. They must have fissures and cracks so you can circulate water through them."
"It's tough to get any particular issue dealt with in a very rapid fashion short of declaring war on somebody," Cardoza told CBS 5 on May 31st. "We don't move that fast in Congress." -- CBS5.com, June 19, 2007