7-20-09

 
7-20-09
Badlands Journal
Nunes, the tragic hero…Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-07-19/007327
You have to hand it to Rep. Devin Nunes, Tragic Hero-Visalia, he’s a performer. In fact, you have to stand in line to hand it to him, behind national PACs, agribusiness and oil and gas to hand it to him. He’s raised nearly a million dollars for his campaign next year and if some strong Democrat contender lurks in Nunes’ district, that contender lurks below the surface so far.
The Costoza, representatives Jim Costa, D-Fresno and Dennis Cardoza, Fairy Shrimper- Annapolis/Merced, are not in Nunes’ league. The political theater-going public, knowing this, has dispensed a mere $350,000 and change to each of these chorus boys. . The fourth member of the Valley congressional delegation, Jerry McNerney, Goose Egg-Pleasanton, who represents the actual Delta, tries to keep the Altamont between him and the Valley as much as possible. Closer to Mother Nancy, McNerney gets nearly half a million.
Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, has only raised $124,572.. The last good thing that happened in Radanovich’s congressional district, one is tempted to say, was the Gold Rush. Although he represents parts of the original Mariposa County, these parts now have other county names. Aside from that, all his district’s natural resources have been more “rationally deployed” by everyone from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Land Management to Valley agribusiness, facts that perhaps inform his understated, bitter political utterance. Radanovich is a bit the messenger that brings no good news. The audience throws him pennies on the dollar.
The Costoza chorus hurls impotent epithets at Nunes:
On Tuesday, the simmering conflict boiled over as two Valley Democrats blasted Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia for "grandstanding" in zealously pursuing water-delivery amendments. Nunes, in turn, asserted his Valley colleagues were "mesmerized" by liberal environmentalists.
While prevalent on Capitol Hill, the outright partisan spear-throwing is rare among Valley lawmakers who once prided themselves on working across party lines. It's already starting to hinder how the members work together.
"This is baloney, to be doing this (sort) of thing," Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, said of Nunes' approach. "I have had a number of my colleagues tell me they are fed up with it." – Merced Sun-Star, July 15, 2009.
Nunes’ face, gesture, words and actions are alive with the passions of his people, that great seat of Hellenic civilization in Tulare County, now under attack by the combined forces of commie radical environmentalists from San Francisco, ancient center of Macedonian excess. Nunes strides the stage, bellowing imprecations against the invading hordes of godless, materialistic enviros that threaten the noble virtues of Big Dairy, Big Citrus Big Cotton, and Big Oil and Gas in his sacred congressional district, California’s own little chunk o’ Texas, south of where the dry bed of the San Joaquin River wanders across the Valley from the Sierra to the Coast Range before turning north to flow in the opposite direction of the state and federal aqueducts flowing south from the Delta.
“Man-made drought!” Nunes cries from the stage. 
Costoza chorus:
Today, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) announced that a grant of $378,600 has been awarded to the Sanger Unified School District to help establish and expand elementary and secondary school counseling programs…. Congressman Cardoza announced today that nearly $15.5 million will be spent on three transportation-related projects for the San Joaquin Valley and the 18th Congressional District.
Radanovich: 
“Judging from his actions, President Obama does not understand the importance of agriculture to California’s Central Valley.  Clearly, President Obama doesn’t understand rural farmers and farm-workers who cherish their guns, religion, and water.”
McNerney:
Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) announced today that Lodi Unified School District will receive a $235,137 grant from the Department of Education to improve school emergency preparedness. 
Nunes:
“Today’s action is not progress, it is politics. There are a lot of people in public office searching for a public relations victory and they hope this will buy them time. But the people deserve to know the truth and the truth is that this action will not ease our region’s suffering,”
Costoza chorus:
Today, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) announced that a grand total of $8,214,230 million has been released to the Cities of Fresno and Bakersfield and to the Counties of Kern and Fresno to rapidly re-house families who fall into homelessness, or prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.  Funding was released through the Department on Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “The release of this funding is spectacular news for our Valley,” Costa said.  “These CDBG program funds will help revitalize our communities that have been ravaged by the nationwide recession, the housing crisis, and the drought conditions in our area.  In addition, these projects will provide jobs for our Valley residents and help get us back on the path to recovery."
… At the request of Congressman Cardoza , U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan toured the City of Merced Thursday. During his time here, he informed the San Joaquin Valley that there will be increased eligibility for mortgage refinancing under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program. “I am grateful for Secretary Donovan’s time and visit to our community,” said Congressman Cardoza. “I also am optimistic that our pleas are being heard. My hope is that Secretary Donovan and I will return to work on this issue in Washington with a renewed sense of urgency.”
Radanovich:
“Environmental restrictions on federal and state water deliveries have wrecked havoc on farmers and farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley.  Unemployment in the Valley is at 20% and in some towns as high as 40%. We've lost 40,000 jobs and almost a billion dollars in agriculture revenue. Crime and homelessness are skyrocketing as is alcohol and drug abuse.
“Speaker Pelosi has ignored and actively worked against every attempt that I and the rest of the Valley delegation have made to fix the current man made drought in California and relieve the San Joaquin Valley of a humanitarian crisis that is a result of oppressive environmental regulations that value the lives of fish over humans.” 
McNerney:
 “Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the new generation of veterans that have served our country since September 11, 2001,” said Rep. McNerney.  “The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill honors these brave young men and women for their service by providing much needed educational benefits.  I’m hosting this event so that our area’s veterans have access to the information they need to apply for these benefits.”
Nunes:
One of the amendments Democrats killed on Tuesday was identical to language approved by House Democrats and Republicans in 2003. That language dealt with New Mexico’s silvery minnow – which looks nearly identical to the delta smelt. I have challenged my Democratic colleagues on this matter and demanded to know what has changed since 2003." 
Costoza chorus:
Earlier in the week, the House of Representatives passed two amendments authored by Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) by voice vote.  The two amendments will provide $10 million in funding toward the Intertie and Two-Gates projects, direct the Secretary of the Interior to diversify sources of water for refuges to free up more water for agricultural water users, ease the ability for the state to do inter-county transfers, and expedite a plan to deal with the Giant Garter Snake, which has been an impediment to critical water transfers.  The bill was passed today by the House and now moves on to the Senate for consideration.
Radanovich:
“Temporary solutions such as the Two Gates and the Canal Inter-tie projects in addition to the voiding the biological opinions are necessary to keep our farmers in the San Joaquin Valley farming.  These projects must be constructed and online by this fall in order to provide any relief to this terrible drought. 
“Unfortunately, yesterday House Democrats on the Rules Committee denied consideration of three additional amendments offered by Mr. Nunes that would have gone a long way to helping fix our regulatory drought.
“Solving one of the worst crises the San Joaquin Valley has ever seen should not be a partisan issue and I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to allow all solutions to our current problems to be debated and voted on by the full House.”
McNerney:
Today, a bill authored by Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) to address the needs of veterans who have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) has been incorporated into the comprehensive Veterans’ Insurance and Health Care Improvements Act of 2009 and passed by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
“Many service members who have been wounded in Iraq have experienced a traumatic brain injury.  In fact, traumatic brain injuries are the hallmark injuries of this war,” said Rep. McNerney.  “It is our responsibility to ensure that the Veterans Administration is equipped and ready to provide the ongoing services necessary to fully address the impact of traumatic brain injuries.”
Nunes:
“The drought Californians are suffering is a drought of leadership – a shortage of the political courage necessary to relieve the suffering of communities across our state…
The hypocrisy of this situation is that the Democratic majority champions the working family but backs the radical environmentalists instead. For the San Joaquin Valley, the majority in this House has chosen fish over working families …What we are witnessing, is the greatest elected assembly in the history of the world starving its own citizens of water, acting like a despot, who tortures the innocent just to stay in power. And make no mistake, raw power is what we are witnessing.  Power that injures and wounds, exercised at highest levels of government, straight from the Obama White House and the Democratic leadership in the Congress. They will say and do anything to keep hold of the reins of power. And their victims are my constituents, the people of the San Joaquin Valley, who have done nothing to deserve such cruelty at the hands of the government…”
McClatchy:
The energy and water bill is one of a dozen appropriations measures needed to fund the federal government each year. This year's 348-page committee report is packed with earmarks steering funds to favored local projects. – Merced Sun-Star, July 16, 2009.
Thus, the Costoza chorus of the Party-in-power brings in the crisis pork, the man from Mariposa mutters darkly to no avail, the congressman who represents the Delta, in fact the object of the entire tragedy, can’t say the word in public, and Nunes thunders on to the approbation of the adoring tribe of special interests that dispense the mother’s milk of politics, the very politics the Great Nunes defames, despises and curses from the stage.
Nunes knows the ancient secret of politics: it makes absolutely no difference how effective the politician is or what the consequence of his words and deeds are, as long as the sentiments they represent are shared by his district. Performance is all. 
Just when you think there’s no hope for American politics and both Broadway and Hollywood are doing reruns, we get Devin Nunes, Tragic Hero-Visalia, right here in the Valley. We must live right or something.
7-19-09
Modesto Bee
Campaign cash puts politician dead last...Michael Doyle
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/786756.html
WASHINGTON -- Mariposa Republican George Radanovich is raising money, but his campaign war chest remains smaller than that of his San Joaquin Valley colleagues, new filings show.
Radanovich reports having $124,572 in cash as of June 30. That's less than the veteran House member had on Dec. 31, and less than half the amount stockpiled by any other valley lawmaker.
Still, Radanovich's once-lackluster fund raising has picked up. He reported raising $121,029 in the past three months, twice as much as he raised between January and March.
"Congressman Radanovich has always raised what he needs to be re-elected," Radanovich's spokesman, Spencer Pederson, said Thursday, adding that "in the next quarter, we'll start ramping it up a bit."
Republican Devin Nunes of Visalia again topped the region's congressional delegation, with a reported $943,359 in cash.
Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced reported having $376,682, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, had $320,058.
Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, who toppled a powerful San Joaquin County Republican in 2006, has $519,170 available.
Lawmakers and political operatives alike carefully scrutinize the quarterly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The money raised, stockpiled and spent can shed light on a politician's prospects, campaign commitment and ability to deter challengers.
But the time-consuming task of raising money can interfere with other priorities, and it's not everyone's cup of tea.
For the past several fund-raising cycles, Radanovich's total has lagged behind his colleagues.
"His focus has been on doing his congressional job and on taking care of his family," Pederson said.
Radanovich's wife, Ethie, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2007 and has since undergone a series of treatments. Earlier this year, Radanovich had to miss some House votes because he and his wife were consulting with doctors at the National Institutes of Health.
Sometimes lawmakers hold special events, like the fund-raiser Cardoza held in May at the Pimlico Race Course in Maryland. Donors were also invited to a June 9 "Casino Night" reception for Cardoza at Washington's Phoenix Park Hotel, according to an invitation posted on the non-partisan politicalpartytime.org Web site. Costa hosted an "agricultural reception" last month for donors paying up to $5,000.
All of the valley members raise money through a combination of political action committees and individual contributors.
Cardoza raised 70 percent of his funds between April 1 and June 30 from PACs representing such entities as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Mortgage Bankers Association.
Radanovich, too, raised about 70 percent of his money from PACs, AT&T and Chevron among them.
Merced Sun-Star
UC Merced vice chancellor agrees to stay on three more years...DANIELLE GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/959502.html
UC Merced Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Keith E. Alley has been asked by Chancellor Steve Kang to continue serving in those positions for an additional period of up to three years.
The extended appointment was made public in paperwork released for the Board of Regents meeting this week at the University of San Francisco Mission Bay Community Center.
Alley was appointed to the post in June 2006 when the former chancellor and former executive vice chancellor resigned their posts within a two-month period, according to a "report of interim actions" distributed to the regents by UC President Mark Yudof.
UC Merced conducted a national search to fill the position last fall, but the search process ended after the leading candidate withdrew interest.
Alley will receive a salary of $240,500 for his continued appointment. The appointment is effective July 1 through June 30, 2012, "a time frame that will enable UC Merced to further mature and achieve a strengthened financial base," Chancellor Steve Kang said in an e-mail to the campus community.
"Within that period, I will initiate a search to identify his successor," Kang continued.
The reappointment allows for a three-month overlap in service by Alley and his replacement when one is hired.
"At this point, the agreement is that he will stay on for the next three years," campus spokeswoman Patti Waid Istas said. "We are very pleased."
Alley's decision provides much-needed continuity in leadership, she added.
"I am delighted that we will continue to benefit from Keith's leadership," Kang said. "And his extended service will provide continuity as the campus continues to grow and develop."
Under the new contract, Alley will also receive standard pension, health and welfare benefits, in addition to UC's "standard senior management benefits" which include senior management life insurance, executive business travel insurance, and executive salary continuation for disability.
A $743 monthly cash allowance for an automobile is also included.
Alley has worked at the university since 2002, when he became the founding vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies.
In 2005, with the departure of Lindsay Desrochers, Alley took the interim position as vice chancellor of administration.
When former executive vice chancellor and provost David Ashley left in 2006, Alley stepped up as interim provost.
Alley also briefly operated as the campus' interim chancellor -- though he never took such a title -- when founding Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey left the university in September 2006.
Fresno Bee
HOT ISSUE: Should we deliberately move species?...ALICIA CHANG,AP Science Writer
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/v-print/story/1544999.html
LOS ANGELES On naked patches of land in western Canada and United States, scientists are planting trees that don't belong there. It's a bold experiment to move trees threatened by global warming into places where they may thrive amid a changing climate.
Take the Western larch with its thick grooved bark and green needles. It grows in the valleys and lower mountain slopes in British Columbia's southern interior. Canadian foresters are testing how its seeds will fare when planted farther north - just below the Arctic Circle.
Something similar will be tried in the Lower 48. Researchers will uproot moisture-loving Sitka spruce and Western redcedar that grace British Columbia's coastal rainforests and drop their seedlings in the dry ponderosa pine forests of Idaho.
All of this swapping begs the question: Should humans lend nature a helping hand?
With global warming threatening the livelihoods of certain plants and animals, this radical idea once dismissed in scientific circles has moved to the forefront of debate and triggered strong emotions among conservationists.
About 20 to 30 percent of species worldwide face a high risk of becoming extinct possibly by 2100 as global temperatures rise, estimated a 2007 report by the Nobel-winning international climate change panel. The group noted that current conservation practices are "generally poorly prepared to adapt to this level of change."
Deliberating moving a species has long been opposed by some, who believe we should not play God with nature and worry that introducing an exotic species - intentionally or not - could upset the natural balance and cause unforeseen ripple effects. It has happened before with dire results. Two decades ago, zebra mussels were accidentally introduced into the Great Lakes and millions are now spent every year removing the pest from water pipes.
Others counter that given the grim realities of a warming planet, it would be irresponsible not to intervene as a conservation strategy. Otherwise, trees may suffer from ravaging disease epidemics while critters unable to head north may find themselves trapped in a declining landscape.
"A tree that we plant today better damn well be adapted to the climate for 80 years, not just the climate today," said Greg O'Neill, a geneticist with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range. "We really have to think long-term."
O'Neill is heading the government-funded experiment that will transform certain North American forests into climate change laboratories. The large-scale, first-of-its-kind test involves purposely planting seeds from more a dozen timber species outside their normal comfort zone to see how well they survive decades from now.
It's more than just a brainy exercise. The findings are expected to guide the British Columbia government on forest management policies. While the experiment deals with moving seeds long distances into unaccustomed climates, O'Neill said any real-life action will not be as drastic.
Outsiders are also keenly watching the experiment as a test case for what is professionally known as "assisted migration."
"We'd all prefer species to move naturally," said Duke conservation biologist Stuart Pimm. But "sometimes you just can't get there from here. Some species are going to be isolated and they're going to get stuck."
The notion of relocating species as a pre-emptive strike against climate change has been largely theoretical. In recent years, some groups have tried assisted migration on a limited basis, most notably the effort by volunteers who last year planted seedlings of the endangered Torreya tree found in Florida to the cooler southern Appalachians.
The Canadian experiment currently under way will cover a broad swath, with tree plantings dotting the Yukon near Alaska to southern Oregon.
Past warmings have forced species to migrate to survive without human help. While some have learned to adapt to new surroundings, other have gone extinct. Faced with the possibility of much more rapid climate change, scientists say, some species may not be able to move fast enough to their new destinations and may need a little power boost to preserve biodiversity.
In North America, some critters have already started their march north. The Edith's checkerspot butterfly, which vanished from its southern range, is now fluttering 75 miles higher in elevation. Red foxes have encroached farther into northern Canada and evicted the arctic foxes.
On the plant side, spruce forests are invading the Arctic tundra and impacting caribou and sheep that live there. In the past century, aspen trees in Colorado have moved into the cold-loving spruce fir forests.
How trees will fare in a warmer world is a concern because they tend to be less flighty than animals. Trees depend on wind and pollinators to spread their seeds. And once a tree is planted, it's harder to move it.
Last year, the British Columbia government took the first steps toward ensuring that trees in the province are adapted to future climates by relaxing its seed rules for timber companies when they replant on logged land. Seeds of most tree species can now be planted up to 1,600 feet higher than their current location.
The government's latest experiment will study how humans can help trees move to more northerly spots where they do not currently grow, but may find themselves existing there years from now. It will not deal with introducing foreign tree species, O'Neill said.
This spring, crews fanned across rugged mountains and began the first dozen plantings on cleared forest land in British Columbia's southern interior and on a private plot near Mount St. Helens in Washington state.
Each test site contains some 3,000 seedlings, on average a foot tall, planted side-by-side on five acres. Fluorescent pin-flags and aluminum stakes dot the corners so that scientists can come back every five years to document their health.
The project will eventually include 48 plots around British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, Montana and Idaho. It will test the ability of 15 tree species to survive in environments colder and hotter than they're used to.
O'Neill knows that some trees will die and others will go through erratic growth cycles. In fact, he estimates about 50 percent of the plantings may die, but he needs to collect the data to get an idea of how much they can tolerate.
"It will take several extreme climatic events to find out the winners and losers," he said.
STEVE POIZNER: We need action, not talk
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/v-print/story/1545852.html
My time in both public service and the private sector has shown me that you cannot sit by hoping for Washington, D.C., or Sacramento to solve problems. When it comes to the current water crisis in the Central Valley, it is clear that the time for talk is over.
It is time for action, and I stand with those who are willing to push until action is taken. Bold and immediate steps are needed to restore the flow of water to drought-stricken parts of California, saving jobs and revitalizing our state's struggling economy.
The water debate comes down to one core issue: a state's right to protect its citizens in an emergency.
We are in an emergency where a recession is being made into a catastrophe in the Valley as jobs and livelihoods are being lost due to a lack of federal action. This battle is not a dispute between environmentalists and business owners. This is about the right of a state to do what is best for its residents, versus bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., imposing blanket regulations upon us.
The irony is that though we must develop and enact an innovative strategy to solve the water crisis, there is one Californian who will not come to our aid.
I sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding she support legislation to waive the application of the Endangered Species Act during this drought emergency in California, ensuring the free flow of water to those who need it. Speaker Pelosi has voted for a similar exemption to aid New Mexico in the past, yet she stands as a major obstacle in solving this issue for the very state she represents.
In the meantime, and because Speaker Pelosi has fought against her own California delegation's proposed solutions to this problem, we must be creative in developing both short- and long-term objectives to end the overall strain on farmers and workers in the Valley.
In the immediate future, we must build the "Two Gates" project, which has the potential to increase the amount of water that is delivered through pumps at the south end of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, while protecting endangered fish.
The project is ready to be constructed, can be completed in as few as six months, and should be eligible for at least some of the $40 million in federal drought relief contained in this year's stimulus package or existing state bond money.
Our state must also invest in new infrastructure, promote water conservation and efficiency, and commit to innovative strategies that ensure the sustainability of California's natural resources.
We must increase surface and groundwater storage to provide stability during long dry periods. This increased storage capacity will allow the state to protect against droughts and ensure greater predictability and reliability in our water supply.
California also needs to invest in a new conveyance system that avoids further damage to the Delta ecosystem while ensuring that water gets to those who need it. Waterways designed and built for the 1950s simply cannot meet the needs of a growing population, continuing agricultural innovation, and our increasing awareness of the natural world.
Water recycling is a cost-effective means for local agencies to increase their water supplies. In some areas, desalination is also an effective strategy for reducing reliance on imported water. These technologies must play a substantial role in our water system.
In the end, our state's water system cannot function on a one-size-fits-all approach. Currently, regulatory and financial obstacles make it difficult for local agencies to innovate or build new infrastructure. By modernizing the regulatory framework, we can reduce financial constraints, expedite approval processes, and give local agencies the tools they need to meet diverse challenges.
Let me assure you of one thing: I will not let Washington, D.C., get away with stripping away our right to act in the case of an emergency like this. I urge every reader to join me and let your voice be heard in Washington by sending letters, e-mails and calling Speaker Pelosi's office to demand action. You can even go to my Web site, stevepoizner.com, to find out how to contact her.
I have taken cases all of the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. I'm willing to do the same to ensure that water gets to Californians who desperately need it.
Stockton Record
Hernandez weighs political arena
Astronaut considers future after scheduled August space shuttle flight...Jennie Rodriguez...7-19-09
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090719/A_NEWS/907190320/-1/A_NEWS
Jose Hernandez has gone from farm laborer to college graduate to astronaut-in-waiting - and already he's wondering what the future holds.
As a child, he worked the fields of San Joaquin County. As a young man, he graduated from Franklin High School and University of the Pacific. As an adult, he's an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Florida.
On Aug. 18, Hernandez, 47, is scheduled to board space shuttle Discovery as part of America's 159th manned space flight. "This is what I've been working for all my life," Hernandez said.
Even as he makes final preparations for next month's launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Hernandez is looking ahead to a career in politics and the possibility of representing county residents in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"A lot of people say I ought to think about going into politics," Hernandez said. "If they redistrict the Stockton area, maybe I'll run for Congress."
Hernandez, who considers himself a Democrat with conservative values, will watch closely the outcome of the 2010 census - and what reapportionment might do to the county.
For now, two congressional districts include portions of the county. Both are represented by Democrats - Rep. Dennis Cardoza in the 18th and Rep. Jerry McNerney in the 11th. Neither man lives in San Joaquin County.
Hernandez foresees that the county could be split into three districts because of population growth, and that would open an opportunity for another representative. "Those changes will benefit someone like me, who is homegrown and understands the issues in the community," he said.
"If I see any inkling that the possibility may exist, because I have some good ideas for our district, I would take it," Hernandez said. "By being in such position, I can give a lot more back to the Stockton community."
If reapportionment doesn't change things, Hernandez said he would most likely not run against McNerney since their backgrounds and positions are similar. In regard to Cardoza, he said there is some possibility.
He said waiting until after the census count is a chance for him to start building support.
He has several other options when he returns from space, Hernandez said, including applying for an administrative position at NASA, trying the private sector or vying for another mission in a Russian spacecraft.
If he chooses to run for office, Hernandez wouldn't be the first astronaut to enter the political arena.
Former Sen. John Glenn Jr., D-Ohio, was the first American to orbit the Earth, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was a crew member aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986.
Hernandez said he's had an interest in politics since high school, when he was student body president at Franklin. His later civic involvement includes having served as vice president of the national League of United Latin American Citizens. He also recently assisted Mexican officials in creating legislation for starting a space station.
Hernandez, who is married with five children ranging in ages 6 to 14, said one of his main concerns is education.
"Our high schools were being labeled "dropout factories," Hernandez said referring to a 2007 Johns Hopkins University report. "Those are things we need to address."
He said low student achievement scores are one of his reasons for establishing the Jose Hernandez Reaching for the Stars Foundation, which promotes science, technology, engineering and math careers to youths in San Joaquin County. The foundation awards scholarships to low- and moderate-income high school seniors who want to attend University of the Pacific.
Hernandez also has ideas for the local economy. He said the county has potential for increasing employment opportunities in high-tech industries. The area, Hernandez said, needs to become more attractive to companies that may want to relocate from the Bay Area in exchange for government incentives.
"In the long run, the community would be a lot better. Understanding the value of technology is one of the things people underestimate," Hernandez said. "At the same time, coming from a farming background, I wouldn't turn my back on agriculture. I understand what the issues are in both of those areas."
Hernandez, the son of former migrant farm laborers, has spent more than 20 years in engineering.
During the Cold War, Hernandez helped develop a defense laser intended to disable missile strikes from the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hernandez was one of the scientists who oversaw a project in Russia to change its nuclear weapons material into fuel grade material that was sold to the United States. This process allowed Russia to reduce its weapons stockpile while benefiting the U.S. nuclear reactor industry.
Hernandez also helped develop the first full-field digital mammography imaging system to detect the early stages of breast cancer while he was at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Hernandez, who longed to become an astronaut, applied to NASA numerous times before he was finally hired in 2001 as chief of the Materials and Processes Branch. In 2004, he was selected for astronaut training.
Hernandez's waiting ended when he was selected as flight engineer for the Aug. 18 mission.
Hernandez, who will operate the robotic arm and be on alert for any mechanical malfunctions, will go into quarantine a week before the scheduled date.
He has yet accomplish his childhood dream, but Hernandez already is looking beyond space.
"Those experiences and memories will never go away," Hernandez said. "But ... when a higher calling calls you, take it, because it's not only the best thing for yourself, but also for others around you."
San Francisco Chronicle
Drought spotlights region's patchwork water supply...Kelly Zito
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/20/MN0S17MKN8.DTL&type=printable
Ana Sarver jogs 5 miles along the Contra Costa Canal every day. But water from the 10-foot-wide channel, just a few steps from Sarver's front door in Pleasant Hill, doesn't flow through her taps.
Her water comes from the Mokelumne River basin - 100 miles away in the Sierra Nevada.
Confused?
Unlike Southern California, where one giant agency - the Metropolitan Water District - oversees the distribution of water from a few sources across 26 cities from San Diego to Santa Monica, the nine-county Bay Area landscape is a broad patchwork of local, state and federal water systems - with various jurisdictions controlling each.
Most times the hodgepodge works. But, as California moves into a third year of drought, disparities among the region's complex water systems are becoming more apparent. Residents of one city, for instance, are forbidden from washing their cars or watering gardens, while in the neighboring community, swimming pools and emerald lawns sparkle in the sun. Rates go up for some, not for others.
"It's funny - I pay a lot more attention to water now with the drought," said Sarver, 44.
Sarver's water originates in the Mokelumne basin on the Amador-Calaveras county border. From there, it cascades through a series of reservoirs, dams and canals operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District to 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Contra Costa Canal sends water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to 550,000 customers in Antioch, Martinez and parts of Walnut Creek.
That's just the start.
Varied sources
Bay Area residents wash, irrigate and swim in water from varied, sometimes far-flung sources - from the mighty Sacramento River to tiny Vasona Reservoir in Los Gatos - with very different hydrological conditions and regulatory controls.
While that autonomy allowed many parts of the region to grow at their own speeds and create their own identities, it also limits how water can be used in times of need. In the Bay Area, for example, when parched Marin County needed water in 1977, a temporary pipeline had to be built over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to supply water from the East Bay.
In Southern California, by comparison, "you can move a molecule of water from any corner of Southern California to any other corner - it's very integrated physically," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. "The Bay Area evolved much more independently. Although they are realizing that they have many common concerns right now."
After three critically dry years and increasing alarm about the ecological impacts of pumping so much water out of rivers and underground aquifers, California water managers have one major worry: supply.
While Southern California relies mainly on two sources of water - the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - the Bay Area draws from the delta, Russian River, Tuolumne River and Mokelumne River, as well as various reservoirs and wells.
Decent rain
Each watershed, in turn, has its own set of characteristics.
San Francisco's vaunted, yet controversial, Hetch Hetchy water system, for instance, pulls from the Tuolumne River watershed, which originates inside Yosemite National Park. In recent years, that area has benefited from a decent amount of rain, translating into just 10 percent voluntary water reductions in the city. Because the 167-mile-long system isn't physically tied to the delta, San Francisco has also escaped the water cutbacks forced by federal rulings designed to protect the endangered delta smelt and other species.
The same can't be said of Contra Costa Water District, Zone 7 Water Agency in Alameda County, or the Santa Clara Valley Water District, where 15 percent mandatory conservation is in place.
Contra Costa Water District is the largest municipal customer of the Central Valley Project, the huge network of federal pumps and canals built in the 1930s to deliver water from the delta to millions of acres within California's fertile interior. To cope with the federally mandated cuts, Contra Costa customers face penalty pricing for exceeding allotments.
"Water is taken for granted by everybody, until everyone is parched," says Jeff Weir, spokesman for the Contra Costa Water District.
Water pipeline
In recent years, planners have begun knitting the physical systems more closely together. In 2002, for instance, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission created a 1.5-mile-long link between their pipelines in Hayward. Five years later, EBMUD completed a similar project with the Contra Costa Water District.
Experts say these are steps in the right direction for a state where urban, agricultural and environmental interests must begin to cooperate in order to stretch existing - or develop new - supplies.
"People don't pay a lot of attention because they turn on their taps and water comes out," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan. "But we can't dam more rivers, and we've picked a lot of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to conservation - low-flush toilets and short showers. Now comes the hard, expensive stuff like desalination, recycling and building something to fix the delta. People are going to see their prices going up - they're going to start paying a lot more attention."
Contra Costa Times
Questions linger about Pittsburg hillside work...Paul Burgarino, East County Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12871981
More than a year after an investigation into grading work by a prominent local developer in the hills southwest of Pittsburg, it remains unclear whether any legal action will be taken.
In January 2008, the California Department of Fish and Game and city of Pittsburg investigated the reshaping of the hills high atop the western portion of the San Marco subdivision by homebuilder Albert Seeno III's Discovery Builders, including possible destruction of a seasonal stream. Results were brought to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office and state Attorney General's Office in July 2008.
No decision has been made about filing a case, Contra Costa deputy district attorney Lon Wixson said last week. That office is handling the matter.
"We haven't filed anything, but we haven't closed the case, either. We're trying to close the loop on some additional information," Wixson said. "It's not a simple case; there are a lot of factors, which is part of the problem in making the decision."
Once the additional information is assessed, the district attorney's office can decide whether to proceed with a case or drop the matter, he said.
If a case is filed, the district attorney's office would pursue civil but not criminal charges, he added.
The state Department of Water Resources has not ruled out taking legal action regardless of the district attorney's decision, department spokeswoman Katie Hart said.
Last year's investigation examined whether the stream bed was improperly altered, sustained erosion and habitat damage, and whether Discovery Builders violated permit conditions, said Nicole Kozicki, a warden with the Department of Fish and Game. The investigation was prompted when Kozicki discovered grading activity while driving on Highway 4 in the winter of 2007, noting that it violated a stipulation of a 1997 agreement for when work can be done.
That agreement between Albert Seeno Jr.'s West Coast Home Builders and Fish and Game allowed some fill work on wetlands, provided that a new, larger wetlands be created. That permit expired in December 2005.
The grading work added subdrains — or underground piping to collect excess water — behind a series of dams that "changed the hydrology of the watershed," she said.
No additional information or record of any valid permit under which Discovery Builders was operating was found, said Joe Sbranti, Pittsburg's assistant city manager. As a result, Pittsburg retroactively collected a $7,086 fee from Discovery for a grading permit, he said.
Discovery understands the requirements regarding permits, but in this case failed to obtain one in advance of the grading work, he said.
Other permits for grading the streambed would be issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Water Resources. Those agencies found the permits to be expired as well, Kozicki said last year.
The lack of action by the city and district attorney's office is "unconscionable," said Seth Adams, land programs manager for regional environmental group Save Mount Diablo.
"Nobody appears to be willing to move forward or do anything," he said. "The reality is there is a mile of illegal grading from Highway 4 to the ridge line overlooking Concord. It's not like there's a lack of evidence."
Further, he said, Pittsburg has "set a bad precedent that developers can ignore their regulations and get away with it."
Seeno representatives could not be reached for comment. An attorney for the Seeno companies said last year that they think they have been in compliance with all applicable laws.
Pittsburg has been working with officials from Discovery Builders on a policy for dealing with future issues, Sbranti said.
A periodic review of the San Marco subdivision will come before the Pittsburg City Council soon, covering more than 75 conditions of requirements and memorandums associated with the project and what Discovery is doing to meet the requirements, Sbranti said.
Language in the March 1990 development agreement between Pittsburg and Seeno's Seecon Financial Construction Co. allows for some permitted grading, but grading in excess of Pittsburg hillside regulations requires further approvals.
The Seeno family of homebuilders has been investigated and fined multiple times over the past several years for suspected environmental violations, including a $3 million settlement in January 2008 concerning grading work at an Antioch subdivision in 2005. The Seenos did not admit fault or liability in settling that case.
The company also agreed to pay $1 million in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to violating the federal Endangered Species Act in 2001 for killing threatened red-legged frogs and destruction of the frog habitat at San Marco.
San Marco grading looking west on Highway 4. The center area was a creek and a canyon. (Photo by Save Mount Diablo)...Image
http://www.contracostatimes.com/portlet/article/html/render_
gallery.jsp?articleId=12871981&siteId=571&startImage=1
Flawed program for protecting Livermore lab workers from beryllium comes under federal scrutiny...Suzanne Bohan
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12871963
Kelye Allen still speaks with pride about her 18-year career with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where she worked as a machinist helping to build components for nuclear weapons.
A feeling of patriotism and duty animates the workforce there, Allen said.
"You want to protect the country," she said. "Stuff we do there directly affects national security."
Along with her enduring pride, however, Allen is left with a permanent health condition from her work with a prized but hazardous metal called beryllium.
The Department of Energy, which oversees the lab, is currently conducting an enforcement investigation into whether the lab violated health and safety regulations related to its chronic beryllium disease prevention program.
On Aug. 3, lab officials will respond during an enforcement conference to preliminary findings by the National Nuclear Security Administration that the lab violated Energy Department regulations. If the agency determines enforcement actions are warranted, the lab could be subject to fines or penalties, or both, said John Belluardo, a spokesman for the nuclear security agency's office at the Livermore site.
"The LLNS system for beryllium hazard identification, assessment and abatement is not as comprehensive or thorough as it should be," Belluardo said.
LLNS refers to the Lawrence Livermore National Security, a partnership including the University of California and several companies led by Bechtel, which operates the lab under contract with the Department of Energy.
The enforcement investigation follows an October 2008 report from the nuclear security agency, which found lapses throughout the beryllium worker-protection program. The agency demanded the lab launch a corrective-action plan, which lab officials implemented earlier this year.
The lab takes the nuclear security agency's findings seriously, stated an e-mail response by lab spokesman Jim Bono.
"The lab has a sound hazards control system in place," he wrote. "However, some mistakes were made with regard to beryllium exposures. We have since taken steps to prevent such events from happening again."
Since a voluntary employee testing program began at the lab in 1999 for beryllium exposure, 1,068 people have been tested, Bono wrote. Of those, 32 were positive for beryllium sensitivity, and three had developed chronic beryllium disease.
Beryllium sensitivity is triggered by inhalation of beryllium dust or possibly through contact with skin. A small percentage of those with the condition develop chronic beryllium disease, which causes scarring of lung tissue and can prove fatal. Beryllium is also considered a human carcinogen.
In September, Allen discovered she had beryllium sensitivity through a free screening program for former lab workers to find out if they were exposed to radioactive or toxic substances. That program began in 2007 for former Livermore Lab and Sandia National Laboratories California division workers, and expanded this past week to cover previous Berkeley Lab workers.
"I was absolutely floored, shocked," said Allen, 49, a San Ramon resident who was laid off in 2008 from Livermore Lab. "I had gone through blood tests at work and had come up negative."
As a machinist, she regularly handled the metal.
The dangers of beryllium, a lightweight metal that stays stable at high temperatures, has long been known. In 1949, the now-defunct United States Atomic Energy Commission set the first workplace standards for beryllium exposure, which are still in effect today. Beryllium is used in a number of industries, including the automotive, electronics, aerospace, medical and defense industries.
And national weapons labs such as Livermore have in place programs to protect workers from beryllium exposure.
Protections at Livermore Lab, however, have been inadequate, concluded the October 2008 report, and possibly in violation of Department of Energy regulations.
The report sought to assess the lab's program for protecting workers from adverse health effects while working with beryllium. It also assessed if the lab had effectively analyzed the reasons behind 11 new cases of beryllium sensitivity found between 2006 and 2008, as well as the factors behind the four "reportable events" of beryllium exposure since 2006 at the lab, such as the discovery that at least 178 contract workers may have been exposed to the metal during a seismic retrofit project.
The report authors noted "deficiencies" and "overall program weakness" in all those areas, backed by observations during lab inspections.
In addition to conducting the enforcement investigation, the National Nuclear Security Administration is monitoring the Livermore lab's corrective action plan for preventing chronic beryllium disease.
"They appear to be making good progress," Belluardo said.
Bono said that after the release of the 2008 report, the lab "temporarily halted beryllium operations last fall to re-evaluate beryllium work controls, procedures and training." It also expanded its beryllium communication and education program for employees, among other measures, in addition to developing the comprehensive plan for improving the lab's chronic beryllium disease protection program.
"The laboratory is committed to improving our ability to protect the health and safety of all workers at the lab, and the NNSA assessment has helped us do that," Bono said.
Mercury News
Internal Affairs: Fawning over farmers, fighting against fish...By the Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/internalaffairs/ci_12862313?nclick_check=1
There's little doubt that the No. 1 issue in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign will be the state's fiscal mess. But No. 2 just might be water.
This year has been a terribly thirsty one for farmers, especially those in the western part of the drought-stricken Central Valley. Farmers there have fewer rights to the water from the Sierra snowpack, and thousands of jobs have been lost as fields lie fallow.
So it's no coincidence that gubernatorial candidates are flocking to the valley — particularly the hard-hit Fresno area. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom held a town-hall meeting there in late April, soon after announcing that he was running for governor. During the meeting, he refused to rule out building more dams — something farmers love and environmentalists hate.
Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner, has been to Central Valley farming towns 12 times — six to Fresno alone — since he became a candidate in fall 2008. Fellow GOP hopeful Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, has been to the valley six times since March.
"Water'' is an enormously complex issue involving environmental problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, plunging groundwater levels and an aging system of dams, canals, pumps and reservoirs. But the real red meat for farmers and politicians is the delta smelt, a finger-long fish being protected by pumping restrictions mandated by the Endangered Species Act, or ESA.
In short: More water for the fish means less for farmers.
In early June, Whitman was the first to say publicly that she favored easing the pumping restrictions. Her message: "Let the water flow."
Last week, Poizner traveled to Firebaugh, west of Fresno, and demanded that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi support legislation to exempt California water projects from ESA requirements.
The third major Republican candidate, Tom Campbell, three weeks ago also called for easing ESA rules.
But a lot of how the issue plays next year might depend more on the rain gods than on Pelosi. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is now saying conditions are shaping up in the Pacific for an El Niño year, which usually means lots of rain. If that's the case this winter, drought might no longer be the problem. Instead, politicos might be railing against the inadequacy of California's flood-control system.
Los Angeles Times
Utility reverts to the long ago and not-so-far-away
Inland Empire agency bucks a century-old Southern California tradition by using local water sources to meet 70% of local demand. Its innovative programs could be replicated elsewhere, officials say...Bettina Boxall
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water-local20-2009jul20,0,120965,print.story
Thick clouds veiled the peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains. Not far away, just south of East Riverside Drive in Ontario, water gushed into an earthen basin the size of 10 football fields.
It had washed up there from the rain-filled gutters of East Merion Drive, Doral Court and South Grove Avenue. Most parts of Southern California would have shunted the storm runoff to the sea as fast as they could.
But here, on the southwestern edge of San Bernardino County, a local utility hoarded it, letting it sink into the earth and into the future drinking supplies of the Inland Empire.
The simple act defied a century of Southern California tradition.
Ever since cold Sierra meltwater first tumbled into the San Fernando Valley from the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Southland has been addicted to water from someplace else.
But as the big straws that carry that water hundreds of miles from the Eastern Sierra, Colorado River and Northern California all shrivel under long-term environmental forces, water managers are shifting their gaze homeward, toward sources that Martha Davis calls "overlooked, mistreated or underutilized."
Davis is executive manager of water policy for the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, a district at the forefront of the emerging local-is-good movement. About 70% of the agency's water comes from its own backyard: a patchwork of dairies, industrial parks and planned communities overlying the big Chino Groundwater Basin.
In Los Angeles, local sources make up less than 15% of the city supply. The Southern California region overall gets more than half its water from afar. In a typical year, the L.A. Basin sends the equivalent of three-quarters of Los Angeles' annual water demand into the ocean in the form of runoff and treated wastewater.
"We're going to have to live within our means," says Richard Atwater, chief executive of the Inland Empire agency. "Do you really want to wait until we all go over a cliff?"
Davis, 55, and Atwater, 57, are at first glance an unlikely management team.
Atwater grew up in Long Beach, wears white button-down collar shirts and spent a decade working for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California -- powerful agencies that move water around California and the West as though it were a railroad box car.
As an MWD official in the late 1980s, he helped kill a state water board proposal to cut water shipments from Northern California for environmental reasons, decrying the plan as a recipe for drought "forever" in the Southland.
Davis grew up in Marin County and worked for Greenpeace after college.
For much of the 1980s and '90s, she headed the small but tenacious Mono Lake Committee, which took on L.A.'s mighty water brokers and won, eventually forcing the city to give up much of its water from the ecologically fragile Mono Basin on the edge of the Eastern Sierra.
A state lawmaker once described her as "a baby-faced killer" who possessed the endearing looks of a cocker spaniel and the jaw hold of a pit bull.
When Atwater left the MWD in 1990 to become general manager of two water districts in Los Angeles County, their interests converged. He was developing recycled water -- a.k.a cleansed sewage -- to inject into coastal aquifers as a seawater barrier.
Davis' group, meanwhile, was exploring water recycling as a way for Los Angeles to make up for its Mono losses. The two wound up working together to pursue federal funding and Atwater came out in support of the "Save Mono Lake" campaign.
When Atwater was hired to run the Inland Empire agency in 1999, he called Davis -- though she had never envisioned herself as a water utility executive. "Heavens no!" Davis exclaims.
Since then, she's learned it's easier to tell public agencies what to do than to do it herself from the executive suite.
"Particularly when you're on the outside looking in, you say, 'Why aren't you doing this? Isn't this obvious?' " she says. "But to put together the combination of resources, engineering design, political support -- that's very complicated. Very doable but very complicated."
In early February, days of storms had filled the 25-foot-deep catchment south of East Riverside Drive, where rainwater began to seep into the sand and gravel at a rate of a quarter-foot a day, starting a years-long, subterranean journey to the utility's well fields a few miles south.
By the time it arrives, it will have mingled with natural drainage from the San Gabriel foothills, as well as treated wastewater, other storm runoff and some imported water the district uses to help replenish the aquifer.
At the wells, pumps suck the brew into desalting plants that strip out contaminants, including the nitrates and salts left by a century of farming. From there, the purified water goes to the bathrooms and kitchens of Chino, Norco, Ontario and Chino Hills.
The utility's reliance on homegrown supplies is partly an artifact of geography. It overlies one of the biggest groundwater basins in Southern California, nourished by runoff from the mountains that tower in the background.
But Atwater argues that parts of the Southland can do much the same, weaning themselves from an imported water habit that is getting harder to satisfy.
Climate change threatens the Sierra snowpack, while environmental restrictions -- including those Davis fought for -- have slashed the amount of water Los Angeles can suck from the Owens Valley and neighboring Mono Basin. Drought has cut Colorado River flows, while rising demand from up-river is ending the surplus deliveries that helped fill the Colorado River Aqueduct.
Shipments through the 444-mile-long California Aqueduct could be permanently constricted by the ecological collapse of the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, the heart of the state's waterworks.
When the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. studied potential water sources for the region last year, it concluded that increasing conservation, capturing storm water and recycling could yield roughly as much water as the Southland is getting from the delta.
"I'm not going to say it would be easy, or could be done overnight or would be cheap," said Gregory Freeman, the corporation's vice president. But "there are all these great opportunities for us to do self-help projects.
"The water solution of the next 100 years will be different from the water solution of the past 100 years," he said.
Last year, the Orange County Water District began operating what it calls the world's largest water reclamation plant, which purifies sewage that then is pumped into a groundwater basin supplying 2.3 million people. In Oxnard, a desalination plant is cleaning up local groundwater. Cities in San Diego County have contracted with a private firm that hopes to break ground this year on a seawater desalination facility in Carlsbad.
Even the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is getting the message. Last year, the utility drew up a plan that calls for more outdoor water conservation, collecting storm flows and expanding the city's recycled water pipeline system.
H. David Nahai, DWP's general manager, calls the document "revolutionary" in its departure from L.A.'s historic water hunts.
Among the ideas: reviving a proposal to pump treated wastewater into the San Fernando Valley aquifer, a project that died nearly a decade agounder a fusillade of "toilet-to-tap" criticism by Valley residents.
The plan would also require a $1-billion cleanup of the Valley's groundwater basin, heavily contaminated by industrial pollutants.
And Nahai would like to see new developments built with porous parking lots, landscape swales and water-holding cisterns to retain more of the rain that sheets down streets during winter storms.
In the wet winter of 2004-2005, enough water poured from the mouth of the Los Angeles River into the Pacific Ocean to supply the city for more than a year.
When a master planned community called The Preserve was approved in Chino six years ago, developer Randall Lewis recalls, Davis and Atwater asked if he would mind "trying some things."
Lewis installed pipes to carry reclaimed water to common areas, median strips and parks, all of which are irrigated with recycled water supplied by the Inland Empire agency's sewage treatment plants.
Many lots are landscaped with drought-tolerant plants rather than grass. Runoff from streets lined with two-story houses flows into a 20-acre basin.
The area doubles as a burrowing owl sanctuary and a wetland, filtering the drain water before it flows into creeks and percolates back into the aquifer.
When the development is finished, Atwater says, none of its roughly 10,000 homes will need a drop of imported water.
Port 'casuals' have sinking feeling amid cargo woes
Jobs are scarce for the last-in-line nonunion dockworkers. Nearby communities also feel their pain...Louis Sahagun
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports-jobs20-2009jul20,0,7143653,print.story
At a hiring hall in the seaside community of Wilmington, a handful of job hopefuls reminisced about boom times, when the place was mobbed night and day by nonuniondockworkers seeking employment and vendors selling tacos and work gloves.
That was 2004 through 2007, when the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex was enjoying record-breaking gains in shipping that generated an abundance of work for "casual workers" designated to take jobs unfilled by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Now, facing the steepest declines in maritime trade on record, work on the waterfront has dwindled, leaving casual workers including Robert Denson, 55, "just a few steps away from the poorhouse," he said.
"I come here every day, hoping for something," he said, shaking his head. "The last time I worked was one day in May. They say, 'Hold on, things will improve.' But they don't."
A few yards away, Phyllis Wade, 40, sat in her car, also waiting for a chance to work. "Just a few years ago, things were booming around here," she said. "Now the place feels like a 747 that lost its wings at 30,000 feet."
Wilmington and neighboring San Pedro, both tightknit, ethnically diverse communities strongly associated with dockworkers and their culture, have been hit hard by the downturn in U.S.-bound cargo.
"When movement of cargo slows down, it hurts everybody," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes the Port of Los Angeles. "Dockworkers make good money and they tend to spend it in the local economy. If they aren't working, a lot of people suffer because they're less likely to fix their cars, change their tires or go to a restaurant."
"My son is a casual," Hahn added. "He got work on Saturday. His last dock job before that was in November."
Experienced longshore workers earn about $31.68 an hour. Less-experienced workers including casuals earn roughly 28% less -- still more than double the state minimum wage.
Over at Eat at Rudy's cafe in Wilmington, a few blocks away from the casuals' open-air hiring hall, business has dropped about 20% since April. The cafe has reduced prices on many items, and its nine employees have started contributing to an in-house "hardship fund," a few hundred dollars given to a different employee at the end of each month.
"We started the fund in April," said cafe waitress Arlene Rose Hernandez, 40, who also is a casual dockworker. "The first person to get the fund was a busboy with nine children."
Hernandez figures her turn for the fund will come around December. In the meantime, she said, "many of our customers are dockworkers. To save a few bucks, some are ordering a glass of milk instead of steak and eggs, and I've lost 20% of my tips."
Even some senior union members, who still enjoy some of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation, are relying on financial benefits drawn from a trust fund to make ends meet.
Under terms of the union contract with shippers and stevedore companies, roughly 6,000 members categorized as Class A get first crack at the best jobs and overtime. Next in line are about 1,700 Class B workers. Remaining jobs go to the roughly 9,700 casuals, who hope to join the union when there is an opening.
But pickings are slim even for Class A workers, who are just trying to get a week's worth of work. Class B members are left with about four to five days of work a month, on average.
"I get calls three times a day from union members saying: 'Please. I'm on the verge of losing my home. Is there a job out there for me?' " said Chris Viramontes, 42, secretary-treasurer of union Local 13. "There's nothing I can say. The latest economic forecasts suggest things won't change for the better until late 2010 or early 2011."
On a recent weekday, there were 300 jobs available at the port complex and 658 Class B workers hoping to land one.
Among those inside a cavernous union dispatch center was Micki Kirkland, who only a few years ago was getting all the work she could handle as a truck driver and equipment operator.
"Right now I'm looking at a $40,000 loss of income this year," she said.
"I'm cutting corners," added Kirkland, who bought a three-bedroom town house in 2007. "Over the past two years, I've gone from taking a cross-country vacation to praying for good weather so I can vacation on the backyard patio."
Casuals wish more union members would take a day off and free up a job.
"The few jobs trickling down to casuals are a measure of the health of the nation's economy," said Tony Pomella, a union dispatcher at the casuals' hiring hall. "But the situation is also impacting the area's historic waterfront labor culture because ascending generations of dockworkers now may have to look elsewhere for work and careers."
In any other July, Pomella said, the casuals' hiring hall parking lot would have been crowded with men and women jostling for a chance to move containers laden with imported Christmas inventory including toys, clothing, DVD players, kitchenware, tools, televisions and automobiles.
"A few years ago, I dispatched 1,800 jobs in a single shift," Pomella recalled. On Tuesday morning, however, the place was, as one casual described it, "a ghost town."
After two hours of waiting, Wade decided to call it quits.
"I'm out of here," she said. "Nobody's hiring."
It was 9 a.m. Wade drove down the block and turned left, merging into rush-hour traffic on bustling Anaheim Street.
CNN Money
The commercial real estate time bomb...Carla Fried
http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/07/20/the-commercial-real-estate-time-bomb/
There’s a new main character moving to center stage in the great real estate meltdown. Underwater homeowners vying to refinance or score a loan modification have grabbed much of the headlines (and bailout attention) to date. But now commercial real estate is moving into the spotlight as the next potential body slam for the economy.
Last week The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Treasury department has begun to contemplate what can muck things up for the economy and the recovery beyond what is currently being bailed out. This effort has come to be known as Plan C. As in, “Yikes, Plan B might not do the trick, so what do we need to focus on next?”
Reports the WaPo, “The officials in charge of Plan C — named to allude to a last line of defense — face a particular challenge in addressing the breakdown of commercial real estate lending.”
The story line reads like a sequel to the residential debacle: Commercial property owners are sitting on loans that need to be refinanced. The Real Estate Roundtable estimates that about $400 billion a year in commercial loans will need to be refinanced over the next decade.
But with commercial property values way down, vacancies way up, and the recession making it unlikely there will be a demand pick-up anytime soon, banks haven’t been inclined to offer refinancing deals. If they do open the spigot at all, the terms are nowhere near as cheap as what commercial property owners had enjoyed during the boom. Sounds familiar, eh?
Earlier this month, in testimony before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, Jon D. Greenlee, the Fed’s associate director of banking supervision and regulation, summed up the Plan C worry: “At the end of the first quarter [of 2009],” he testified, “about seven percent of commercial real estate loans on banks’ books were considered delinquent.  This was almost double from the level a year earlier.”
Greenlee says there is about $3.5 trillion of outstanding debt associated with commercial real estate, and banks had about $1.8 billion trillion of that tidy sum on their books. That computes to about $126 billion (so far) in delinquent commercial mortgages on the banks’ books.
Now if you’re Goldman Sachs, you might be able to absorb commercial real estate writedowns (reportedly of more than $1 billion) with record trading profits elsewhere. And, to be sure, the vultures are already circling in the hopes of picking up distressed commercial property.
But if the squeeze on commercial real estate is as persistent and pernicious as what we’ve seen in the residential market, it wouldn’t exactly be a shock if the government beefs up its support/bailout. Get your taxpayer dollars ready for Plan C.