9-11-09

 
9-11-09
Merced Sun-Star
Foreclosure wave ebbing in Merced County...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1050613.html
Merced's foreclosure rate in August slowed from last year, though it remains one of the highest in California, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac.
Merced County ranks as the third-highest county in the rate that homes are going back to banks. San Joaquin County leads, followed by Riverside County.
One out of every 78 Merced County homes received some sort of foreclosure notice, according to the report. Statewide, one out of every 144 homes received a notice. In the country, one of every 357 homes got one.
RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said in a statement that foreclosed homes are more slow coming on the market, though there's still a steady supply of them.
There were 412 loan default notices filed in August in Merced County. The number of homes going to the auction block was 416. Banks officially took back 233 homes. There are 83,091 housing units in Merced.
The figures are still staggering, though they're down by 16 percent from last month and 30 percent from last year.
Banks reclaimed 338 homes last month and 648 homes in August 2008.
Nationwide, foreclosure activity has swelled from last year. Foreclosure filings were recorded for 358,471 properties in the U.S., an 18 percent increase from last August.
The rate was, however, a 1 percent decline from last month.
Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate of any state, with one of 62 homes hit with a filing.
In California, 92,326 homes were in some phase of foreclosure. It ranked third on the report.
Stanislaus County ranked fifth, and Fresno County was 14th. Mariposa ranked last, with only one home headed for the auction block.
New hospital, possible medical school attracting doctors to Merced...CAROL REITER
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1050623.html
After years of disappointment in efforts to recruit doctors to the area, Mercy Medical Center Merced is on a healing journey.
During the past year, Mercy has recruited a total of 14 medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy and dentists.
The new slate of doctors includes emergency medicine, general surgery, anesthesiology, cardiology, internal medicine, radiology, nephrology, pathology and family practice physicians.
Jill Alley, director of physician relations at Mercy, is in charge of recruiting doctors. She believes the town has a lot to do with the jump in numbers.
"Every single doctor has said that Merced is totally different than what they thought," Alley said.
The promise of a new hospital and hopefully a medical school at UC Merced are also persuasive reasons for the influx.
"I'm looking forward to the new hospital," said Dr. Thanh Nguyen, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician. Mercy is planning to open its new facility on North G Street in May of 2010.
Nguyen left his homeland of Vietnam when he was 8 years old and grew up in Stockton. He said that having grandparents for his two children close by is a major plus for him. But the probable construction of a medical school at UC Merced also means a lot to him. He believes that UC Merced will eventually be an academic school as good as UC Davis.
"Look at Davis," Nguyen said. "It started out as an ag school."
Tina Sogucio, an obstetrician and gynecologist, is originally from Ohio and lived on the East Coast. Her husband, also a physician, grew up in Merced, and the couple decided to bring their two children closer to family. But it's more than just where Merced is that makes Sogucio attracted to the area.
"I like the smaller town atmosphere and the fact that we're two hours from everything," she said.
Sogucio's husband, David Soehnen, an anesthesiologist, said he believes this is an ideal time to be living, and practicing medicine, in Merced.
"It's exciting with the new hospital and UC Merced's medical school," Soehnen said. He finished his training in pain management in June, and coming to Merced is a homecoming for him, since he was raised here.
"I can speak from experience -- I think that this is a good place to raise kids," Soehnen said.
Dr. Rob Streeter, vice president, medical affairs for Mercy, said the hospital has tried hard to bring young doctors to town.
"The medical staff as a rule is not getting any younger," Streeter said. "And the newer graduates are looking for different things than the previous generations."
Serving the underserved is the goal of a lot of new physicians, including Dortha Chu, a general surgeon who has been in Merced since December.
"I wanted a practice that would let me see a variety of cases and a variety of patients," Chu said. "I wanted to come to this community because I want to help
people."
Although Mercy has done well in the last year, Alley isn't hanging up her recruiting cap just yet.
"We still need orthopedic surgeons, gastroenterologists, ear, nose and throat doctors and pulmonologists. Typically, these are hard slots to fill," Alley said.
But she's not too worried.
"All of the new doctors say they really like the people here," Alley said. "I hope that this trend continues."
Sun drenched Valley attracts top solar researcher...MARK GROSSI, The Fresno Bee
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1050604.html
Someday, you might unplug your air conditioner and cool your house on a 110-degree afternoon by cranking up the heat from the sun.
In his laboratory at the UC Merced, physicist Roland Winston says he is nearing a breakthrough that could make it happen in the next several years.
Winston, an innovator in amplifying sunlight for energy, is putting the finishing touches on a solar-concentration array that heats oil to 400 degrees. The oil's heat will be used to power a chilling unit that produces cold water for air conditioners.
He expects to announce a collaboration with a private company in the next several months to produce a solar air-conditioning unit.
"We want to make it economic and practical," said Winston, who heads a research team at UC Merced. "The key is collecting solar energy no matter where the sun is in the sky. The San Joaquin Valley is the perfect place to do it."
Valley sunshine was his main reason for moving to Merced in 2003 from the University of Chicago. Winston, 73, spent nearly four decades in Chicago making a name for himself in particle physics as well as solar research. He has dozens of patents collected in a lifetime of research.
His peers in the research community say he could have remained in Chicago and finished his career as Physics Department chairman, a position he had held for several years. But he knew the sunny San Joaquin was a perfect incubator for solar technology.
Jerry Olson, a principal scientist for 31 years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Denver, said he admires Winston's move to UC Merced.
"Over the years, Roland has really made some very significant contributions," said Olson. "But he really wants this world in a better place, so he moved for solar research."
Winston now is the director of the California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute, which received a $2.25 million grant from the UC Office of the President last month to fund solar research over the next five years. The institute includes researchers at both UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara.
Their goal is to make solar energy more affordable and widespread. UC Merced officials said they were fortunate to land a professor of his stature.
"Roland is a major research presence in the field of solar-energy research," said Jeff Wright, dean of the School of Engineering. "His efforts at UC Merced have already produced groundbreaking innovations."
Solar power has long been coveted as a pollution-free energy from a virtually limitless source. But sunlight is not intense enough to generate large amounts of electricity without massive solar panels.
In his work on energizing particles in the 1960s, Winston found a way to amplify sunlight. He concentrated it by using "nonimaging optics," or mirrors that magnify and focus solar energy.
Winston today is widely accepted as the researcher who invented the field of nonimaging optics. But his ideas were initially met with skepticism, until continued research erased the doubts from the scientific community.
The next task was to develop efficient ways to use the amplified sunlight. Winston and others adapted nonimaging optics for use with photovoltaic cells, converting the energy into electricity.
In the past few years, he has worked at finding ways to channel the energy into devices that heat water or oil -- so-called thermal processes.
Thermal energy -- heat -- is actually used to power conventional air conditioners. They start by heating fluid first. Ordinarily, electricity or natural gas provides the fuel. Winston's approach taps sunlight instead.
Other researchers and companies also are trying to adapt the technology for air conditioning. For instance, Southern California Gas Co. engineers are installing a prototype concentrator unit on the company's building in Downey to power the air conditioning. The sun will heat water, which then powers a thermal-energy process to create cold water for air conditioning.
The gas company's rooftop unit costs about $200,000, including mirrors, pipes and computer-automated solar trackers. The trackers move the mirrors as the sun crosses the sky each day to capture sunlight.
Winston's design does not require trackers. His mirrors are curved to capture the sun's light from almost any angle.
"They never move," he said. "Whenever you get moving parts for tracking, you have maintenance and wear. But with this design, there's no need for tracking, no matter where the sun is."
He uses oil instead of water, he said, because oil can be heated to higher temperatures without boiling. Winston said his goal is to make the process more efficient.
It probably will take several years to produce affordable solar air-conditioning units. Winston said he thinks people would be willing to pay a little extra money in the beginning so they could unplug from the electricity grid powered by fossil fuel.
The solar air conditioner could be designed to fit on the ground next to a home, he said.
Our View: Let's take a timeout on water bills
Protecting delta too important, stakes too high not to think this out carefully.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/1050594.html
With the clock ticking toward the scheduled end tonight of this year's legislative session, lawmakers are closer than they have ever been to adopting a comprehensive plan to protect the state's water supply and restore and preserve the fragile and declining Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Legislators have been prodded and pounded by all sides -- by business interests and labor, farmers and farmworkers, Southern California governments, Silicon Valley computer chip makers and environmentalists.
Legislative leaders, including Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, want desperately to demonstrate that they, and the institution in which they serve, are capable of solving big, seemingly intractable problems.
And so it is with considerable reluctance that we urge a timeout. This issue is too important, and the stakes are too high, to rush it to judgment, even after more than a decade of wrangling.
The package of five bills that has emerged from weeks of mostly backroom negotiations looks promising to us.
But the measures also look too complex and raise too many questions to pass them into law with only a day or two of serious review. And perhaps the most important piece -- the financing -- still wasn't public by Thursday afternoon.
We're not naive. We realize that the pressure of a deadline is usually the only thing that will get lawmakers to act on tough issues such as this one.
Like lawyers negotiating on the courthouse steps as a trial is about to begin, legislators don't want to make difficult compromises until they think they absolutely must do so.
But this is the first year of the Legislature's two-year session, and tonight's deadline is not set in stone. The Legislature can return, next week or next month, either in an extended regular session or in a special session called by the governor.
If they do so, they can address several questions about this package, among them:
How will it protect the water supply and the water quality of the people who live and work in the delta?
How much will it cost to restore and protect the delta, and who is going to pay for it? Will those costs be spread fairly?
Will it allow the state to build a new canal to move water from north to south around and through the delta without a vote of the people, and if so, how will Northern California interests be safeguarded?
What additional water storage, including reservoirs, will be built, and will the people and businesses using the water stored in them be asked to pay the cost of their construction and upkeep?
Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and other key players in this deal deserve tremendous credit for pushing this package to the brink of passage and building consensus on some very tough issues.
But now that their handiwork has seen the light of day, they should take some time to sell it to the people who were not at the negotiating table.
Otherwise, they risk seeing their work bogged down by lawsuits, ballot measures and more years of regulatory infighting.
Modesto Bee
Western plant, toad gain federal attention...MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
http://www.modbee.com/state/v-print/story/849590.html
RENO, Nev. -- Federal officials announced Thursday that a rare plant found in three Western states warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act, and a toad found only in Nevada will be studied to determine if it deserves a similar status.
In response to a request by two environmental groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to study the Amargosa toad, which has a distinctive stripe down the back and is found exclusively in Oasis Valley about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The agency signed a conservation agreement with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy in 2000 to protect the toad's habitat in an effort to avert a listing.
"We've been doing a lot of good things for the toad," said Bob Williams, Fish and Wildlife's supervisor for Nevada. "There are other species I have more concern about in the state than the toad."
But Rob Mrowka of the Center for Biological Diversity said the toad remains threatened by encroaching development, off-road vehicle use, groundwater depletions linked to mining and nonnative species such as crayfish and bullfrogs.
In February, his group and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility petitioned Fish and Wildlife to review the status of the toad that is olive-colored with darker blotches and warts.
"Since these toads were first recognized as needing protection, threats to them have only increased," Mrowka said. "A growing human population, increased demand for water and climate change have placed the toad in immediate danger of extinction."
Williams said the toad's population has varied over the years depending on environmental factors, with an average of 5,600 toads a year. They're only found on a short segment of the Amargosa River in the Mojave Desert near Beatty.
A Colorado environmental group asked Fish and Wildlife to list the toad as an endangered species in 1995 after only 30 adults turned up in one survey. The request was rejected.
Fish and Wildlife will issue a decision on the latest request in about a year, Williams said.
Meanwhile, the agency announced the Goose Creek milkvetch plant warrants protection as an endangered species but won't get it right now because other species have higher listing priority.
A low, tufted perennial with small pink-purple flowers and curved, brownish-red fruit pods, the species is found only in a 10-square-mile area of Cassia County, Idaho; Elko County, Nev.; and Box Elder County, Utah, in the Goose Creek drainage.
Fish and Wildlife was petitioned by Red Willow Research and 25 other parties in 2004 to list the plant. The service and several other agencies then initiated surveys of its distribution and abundance.
A 2007 wildfire burned 25 percent of the plant's occupied habitat in Nevada and Utah, and more than 50 percent of the known individuals of the species.
Agency officials said the plant will be added to the list of candidate species eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act, but they'll work to protect the species and avert a listing.
Fresno Bee
Car dealers appeal ruling on California emissions...KEN THOMAS,Associated Press Writer

http://www.fresnobee.com/state/v-print/story/1633189.html
The National Automobile Dealers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the EPA's decision. The EPA in July granted California's request for a waiver allowing it to push tougher air pollution rules.
The EPA's decision cleared the way for California to implement a 2002 state pollution law requiring tougher fuel efficiency requirements in new cars trucks by 2016.
California's approach serves as a national model for fighting tailpipe pollution linked to global warming, and the Obama administration is expected to release proposed regulations later this month setting fuel efficiency standards at 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
By requiring improved auto fuel efficiency, less carbon dioxide is emitted from vehicle tailpipes because less fuel is burned for every mile traveled.
Environmental groups have backed the tougher requirements and said the appeal was an attempt to undermine the Obama administration's efforts to curb global warming.
"It's very clear that the Chamber of Commerce and the auto dealers hope to flatten the tires of the California car standards," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.
Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, said the groups were pursuing "an outdated course of action designed to obstruct and oppose efforts to move us towards a cleaner environment and greater energy security." She predicted the EPA would win in court.
The EPA said in a statement that it had granted the waiver after a comprehensive analysis of the science and the law involved and that it was "fully confident it will be found by the courts to be entirely consistent with the law."
Robin Conrad, executive vice president for the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber's public policy law firm, said there was "simply no legal justification for giving California waiver authority. Global warming is an international issue, not a local one."
Conrad said the waiver "sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to a confusing patchwork of dual environmental regulation down the road."
The state regulations to implement the law had been in limbo for five years because the Bush administration refused to provide a waiver required by the federal Clean Air Act. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have said they wanted to impose the same requirements as California once the EPA gave the go-ahead.
The petition for review to the appeals court could allow the auto dealers and the Chamber to ask a judge to block the order at a later date. Motions are due in October.
The states that have said they want to follow California's approach include are Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
WASHINGTON Auto dealers and business leaders on Thursday appealed a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency that allowed California to establish the nation's first greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, setting the stage for a potential attempt to block the global warming rules.
Sacramento Bee
Lawsuit targets plan to limit greenhouse gases...JIM TANKERSLEY, Tribune Washington Bureau
http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/2175156.html
WASHINGTON -- Two industry groups have filed suit in federal court in an attempt to keep the federal government and the state of California from moving ahead with new greenhouse gas emissions rules for cars and trucks.
It's a move that, if successful, could scuttle a key piece of the Obama administration's plans to set strict emissions standards for vehicles nationwide.
The lawsuit may be the first of many legal challenges targeting President Barack Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping emissions that scientists blame for global warming, efforts that some industry groups say could damage the domestic economy.
The suit filed Tuesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Automobile Dealers Association seeks to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from granting California a waiver under the Clean Air Act to set vehicle emissions standards.
That waiver was the subject of years of legal battles before the EPA granted it in July. The Bush administration initially rejected the request, but soon after his inauguration, Obama asked the EPA to reconsider.
At issue was how to interpret the Clean Air Act, which allows California to petition to set stricter pollution standards than the federal government.
In May, Obama announced an agreement with California officials, environmental groups and major automakers that would lead to the creation of a national vehicle emissions standard. It would have the effect of boosting fuel-economy requirements by 40 percent over the current 25 mpg level.
The national standards would largely mimic California's; state officials made the granting of the waiver a condition for their final support.
The plaintiffs' arguments in the lawsuit would not undermine that agreement explicitly. Instead they contend that granting the waiver would set a dangerous precedent of allowing a state to create regulations affecting what should be a national issue: global warming.
The chamber made a similar argument in a past court case, filing a brief in support of the Bush administration's decision to deny California's waiver request.
On Thursday, EPA officials released a statement defending their decision to grant the waiver, saying they acted "after a comprehensive analysis of the science and in adherence to the rule of law. The agency believes strongly it was the right decision."
California officials criticized the lawsuit.
"We are very disappointed that these parties continue to pursue an outdated course of action designed to obstruct and oppose efforts to move us toward a cleaner environment and greater energy security," said Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board.
The waiver lawsuit is likely the "leading edge" of a "hurricane of corporate challenges" to climate-related policies from Obama's EPA, said Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch.
Nestle pulls plug on controversial bottling plant...The Associated Press
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/v-print/story/2174599.html
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Nestle company says it no longer plans to build a water bottling plant that created a rift between the residents of a small Northern California town.
Kim Jeffery, the chief executive of Nestle Waters North America, says the company doesn't need to build a plant in the town of McCloud because it will instead bottle municipal water in Sacramento.
Nestle had signed a contract in 2003 to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year from three natural springs in the McCloud region. The Swiss-based company later scaled back the size of the plant and agreed to conduct environmental studies.
The plant had also drawn scrutiny from Attorney General Jerry Brown who threatened to sue Nestle if it did not examine the facility's effects on global warming.
San Francisco Chronicle
UC president recommends huge tuition increases...Nanette Asimov
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/11/MNAB19L7Q9.DTL&type=printable
The price of a public education at the University of California may be going up again - not once, but twice.
UC President Mark Yudof is recommending a 15 percent increase in in-state undergraduate fees that would take effect next spring, and another 15 percent increase on top of that beginning in fall 2010.
The governing Board of Regents will hear details of the proposal - which also includes graduate-level fee increases of 15 percent - at its meeting Wednesday, but won't vote until November.
If approved, the undergraduate fee increases would be the eighth and ninth in seven years, and would send the price of a year at UC above the $10,000 mark for the first time next fall.
"It makes me really angry," said Gracelynne West, 20, a first-generation college student at UC San Diego who expects to graduate in June with years of debt to pay off.
Though West has a job on campus, "I'm already looking to get another job to pay for the increasing fees," she said.
As usual when fees are raised, almost a third of the new money would be set aside for financial aid.
But West said the financial assistance is never enough.
"I still have to take out loans," she said.
The regents last raised UC's annual tuition by 9.3 percent in May, bringing this year's undergraduate fee to $7,788.
Under Yudof's proposal, the new tuition for 2009-10 would become $8,958, an increase of $1,170, or 15 percent. Because most students pay each semester, they would see their spring bill rise by half that amount.
Five-figure tuition
Fees would rise again next fall under the proposal, by $1,344, or 15 percent, setting tuition at $10,302.
Add another $13,000 or so for a dorm, plus the average $938 fee charged by each campus, and the annual cost for a California resident to attend UC would top $24,000 next year.
"Wow. When I hear that number, I think this is going to send yet another discouraging signal to low- and moderate-income students and families about whether college is still within reach," said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit group in Berkeley.
UC Vice President Patrick Lenz will make the case for the higher student fees in an 18-page report he will present Wednesday to the regents' finance committee meeting in San Francisco. The report, prepared by UC finance experts, says efforts to cut spending and raise fees to date have not been enough to close a budget shortfall of at least $753 million anticipated for this year and next.
Lower funding, higher costs
The report blames the shortfall on reduced funding from the state, a higher cost of doing business at the campus level - including soaring costs in retiree health benefits - and a mandatory contribution by UC into the university's retirement plan.
"The President and the Chancellors believe it will be extremely difficult to close the shortfall without severe damage to the University absent additional revenue," the report concludes.
The tuition increase for 2009-10 would generate $117 million, and the increase for next year would bring in $292 million.
Making ends meet
Campuses have already laid off 884 employees this year and expect to lay off 1,006 more, the report says. Almost 2,000 jobs have also been eliminated in the past year, with nearly 2,000 more to go.
Other actions taken to save money have included raising student tuition, increasing class sizes - in some cases up to 25 percent, the report says - reducing nonunion salaries, and deferring hiring and purchasing.
The report compares UC's proposed fees against the fees at four other public schools: the universities of Illinois, Michigan and Virginia, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. When miscellaneous campus costs are added, the cost of attending UC in the 2010-11 school year would exceed for the first time the projected average cost to attend the other four schools.
Regents' meeting
The University of California Board of Regents will meet on Wednesday and Thursday at the Mission Bay Community Center, 1675 Owens St., on the UCSF Mission Bay campus in San Francisco.
-- The meeting agenda can be found at links.sfgate.com/ZIDP
-- The report addressing increased student fees can be found at links.sfgate.com/ZIDQ
CSU, UC executive raises bill up for vote...Nanette Asimov
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/BA5B19KBHD.DTL&type=printable
State lawmakers have brought back to life a bill prohibiting executive pay raises at California State University in bad budget years.
The state Assembly approved a more limited version of the original bill on a 77-1 vote Tuesday. The earlier version died in the Assembly's Appropriations Committee after objections from CSU and University of California officials.
"It doesn't make good economic sense when money is tight for the public universities to increase compensation for executive officers, while furloughing faculty and reducing their salaries," said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee. "Everyone must do their share of shouldering the burden of tight times."
If signed into law, SB86 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would prevent CSU from raising executive pay and increasing perks such as housing or car allowances in years when the university gets less money from the state than the year before.
The bill treats UC more delicately because of the university's unique constitutional autonomy. Lawmakers would merely "request the regents to not increase the monetary compensation" of executives when times get tough.
CSU executives covered under the new bill include the chancellor, vice chancellors, general counsel and presidents of CSU's 23 campuses. In all, about 30 people would be affected, said Clara Potes-Fellow, a university spokeswoman.
That's about 1 percent of the employees covered under the original version, SB217. It sought to extend the prohibition on pay raises to managerial employees and would have impacted 3,000 CSU employees.
University officials have argued that raises and fatter perks are approved only when executives take on new duties or are newly hired at something close to market rate. They have also pointed out that top executives have cut their own pay as part of systemwide furloughs at CSU, and as part of non-union furloughs at UC.
SB86 now goes back to the full Senate, which had passed the earlier version by a vote of 35-3 in May.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declined Wednesday to say whether he would agree to limit executive pay at CSU.
UC Irvine settles lawsuits of stolen eggs, embryos...Los Angeles Times
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/10/national/a195927D66.DTL&type=printable
The University of California, Irvine has settled dozens of civil lawsuits over eggs or embryos stolen by two doctors more than a decade ago, in an effort to end the scandal over its fertility center.
The UC system has paid more than $24 million for 137 separate incidents in which eggs or embryos disappeared or were given to other women without consent in the late 80s, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Thursday.
Two doctors at the school's Center for Reproductive Health, Ricardo Asch and Jose Balmaceda, were indicted by a federal grand jury on mail fraud and tax evasion charges, but fled the country to avoid prosecution.
UC Irvine says it is "honoring its commitment to treat each claim fairly and on its merits." Officials declined to comment further until the three remaining claims are resolved.
Shirel and Steve Crawford got a $675,000 settlement but still wonder about the two embryos who were given to another patient known only as, "Mrs. S," in documents.
"Our children are still out there somewhere. Maybe someday they will find us," Shirel Crawford said. She never had a baby because she ran out of embryos and money to pay for more fertility treatments.
The Orange County Register first reported on the scandal in 1995, which led to investigations and state hearings. Whistle-blowers said the university had ignored early warnings and tried to cover-up problems.
Attorney Dan Hodes, who represented the couples, said many felt the medical misconduct went unpunished.
"The individual doctors who the evidence suggested were most at fault got off without any recrimination at all," he said.
UCLA professor sued over charity...Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/MN9119L0F0.DTL&type=printable
A UCLA medical professor is being sued by the California attorney general for allegedly using money from a research charity he founded to fund personal business ventures and medical research activities.
Attorney General Jerry Brown filed the lawsuit Wednesday against Gerald D. Buckberg and five officers of the nonprofit L.B. Research & Education Foundation, citing California law that bars a director, officer or board member from benefiting from the income or assets of a charity.
The charity's officers improperly used its funds to finance their own medical research and research by companies they had a financial interest in, and to manufacture medical devices they sold, according to the attorney general's office.
Brown is seeking to recover more than $500,000 in misappropriated funds. He also wants to dissolve the charity and prevent the defendants from running the organization until they provide his office with detailed accounting statements.
The investigation, begun in 2007, turned up several inappropriate uses of the foundation's funds, including Buckberg's use of $120,000 in donations to produce an educational DVD. In 2003, Buckberg used $15,000 to pay a company he owns to build plastic heart models, which he then sold.
Indybay
Senator Lois Wolk Withdraws Authorship of Delta Conservancy Bill...Dan Bacher...9-10-09
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/09/18621433.php
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern than the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Senator Wolk withdraws authorship of Delta bill in protest
Groups slam water bill package...Dan Bacher
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern that the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk took this unusual action after being notified by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) that her legislation would be amended in a Water Conference Committee with provisions Senator Wolk and the five Delta counties opposed. Wolk has been replaced with Senators Steinberg and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) as the authors of SB 458.
"When I learned that the Conference Committee intended to alter key provisions of the bill, as well as other pieces of the water package, it was clear I could no longer carry this legislation," said Senator Wolk. "What began as a sincere effort to create a state and local partnership to restore the Delta and sustain the Delta communities and economy is becoming, day by day, amendment by amendment, a tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk's withdrawal of the legislation authorship comes as a huge, diverse coalition of northern California water agencies, Delta farmers, fishermen, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, California Indian Tribes and others are opposing Steinberg's mad rush to push water legislation through the Capitol by Friday, the last day of the legislative session. They are asking Steinberg and the Committee to delay the legislation, a thinly-veiled road road map to the peripheral canal that greatly undermines the public trust and California water rights law, until next session.
Steinberg, in an effort to push a peripheral canal and water bond that would result in increased water exports out of the imperiled Delta, excluded Wolk, Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) and other Delta Legislators from the politically-stacked 14 member Water Conference Committee.
"It is regrettable," said Wolk of the amendments to her bill and the exclusion of Delta legislators and residents from the water bill process. "Without the Delta communities as working partners in this effort it is unlikely to succeed."
The California Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, encompasses five counties, 27 cities and two ports. It provides world class birding, fishing, wind-surfing and hiking—and is home to 500,000 acres of small family farms that produce world class pears, asparagus, wine grapes, and contribute $2 billion to California's economy, according to Wolk.
It provides habitat for 90 percent of California’s chinook salmon, which not only support the West Coast’s $1 billion salmon fishery but are also a critical food source for the southern resident population of killer whales. Unfortunately, record water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California in recent years have resulted in the collapse of Central Valley salmon, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass and other fish populations.
On the same day Wolk withdrew her authorship of SB 458, representatives from Restore the Delta, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network, Friends of the River, Heal the Bay, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and the Environmental Water Caucus issued a joint statement slamming the "closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings" in the California State Legislature.
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem," the groups stated. "It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians."
The following is the joint statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2009
Contact: Roger Salazar (for Restore the Delta) (916) 444-8897
Statement from Delta Community, Environment and Fishing Groups on Results of Joint Water Conference Committee Closed-Door Negotiations
Sacramento - Today, representatives from Restore the Delta; the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance; the California Water Impact Network; Friends of the River; Heal the Bay; Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations; the Winnemem Wintu Tribe; and the Environmental Water Caucus issued the following joint statement regarding the closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings in the California State Legislature:
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem.
“It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians.
“Instead of bringing groups together to find common ground on these complex issues the California Legislature has decided to fall back into an all too familiar pattern that includes:
· Making up the rules as they go along without regard to legislative deadlines.
· Writing the legislation in the dark of night without any public input or review.
· Proposing to abdicate their own oversight authority by allowing an unelected body of gubernatorial appointees to make key decisions regarding tens of billions of dollars on water projects, statewide water fees and management of the Delta.
“We agree that water is one of the highest priority issues for our state, but it must be done right and not just right away.
“The last time the Legislature rushed and put water politics over good water policy, the voters responded by overturning the Peripheral Canal via referendum in 1982.
“In the face of recent surveys showing the public would still overwhelmingly reject the legislative water package should it appear before them in 2010 either directly in the form of a bond or indirectly as the result of another referendum, it is astonishing that the Legislature would continue with this charade.” #####
Contra Costa Times
Tug company settles Delta pollution charges...Hilary Costa
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13316306
A Washington-based tug boat operator has settled with the U.S. Attorney General's office over allegations of illegal dumping near Pittsburg, the company said today.
Brusco Tug & Barge, Inc., has agreed to plead guilty to one charge of improper discharge of dredge spoil in connection with a 2003 incident near Winter Island in the Delta. Brusco will also pay a fine of $750,000 and pay $250,000 toward conservation work in the San Francisco Bay by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Brusco's general manager of Northern California operations had been indicted by a federal grand jury in July on four counts of violating the U.S. Clean Water Act.
In that indictment, Mark Guinn, of Elk Grove, was accused of dumping or causing other company workers to dump dredged materials directly into Delta waters surrounding Winter Island three times in 2003 and once in 2007. The indictment did not specify where the dumping took place.
As part of this week's settlement, the federal government has agreed not to pursue additional charges against Brusco, the company said in a news release.
Monterey Herald
EPA puts limits on 3 pesticides to protect salmon...The Associated Press

http://www.montereyherald.com/state/ci_13316586?nclick_check=1
SEATTLE—The Environmental Protection Agency is placing new limits on three pesticides common on farms and orchards to protect endangered and threatened Pacific salmon. The limits announced Friday apply to the use of three chemicals—chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion—in Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho. Federal biologists say the chemicals interfere with salmon's sense of smell, making it harder for them to find food and avoid predators. The EPA is requiring buffer zones and limits on the pesticide use in certain wind, soil and weather conditions.
Los Angeles Times
William Trombley dies at 80; journalist reshaped The Times' coverage of higher education
He covered the tumultuous Free Speech Movement and the ordeals of the UC system. The veteran journalist and education analyst later founded an influential quarterly for a think tank...Elaine Woo
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-william-trombley11-2009sep11,0,2478007,print.story
William Trombley, a veteran journalist and education analyst who wrote for Life magazine and The Times during a five-decade career, died Sunday at a Davis hospital. He was 80.
Trombley had respiratory and other problems and died after a heart attack in the hospital, said his wife, Audrey.
At The Times, where he was a reporter for nearly 30 years starting in 1964, Trombley was known for reshaping the paper's coverage of higher education, starting on the beat during a tumultuous period when the Free Speech Movement was roiling college campuses from California to New York.
He also covered crucial issues in lower education, from the desegregation lawsuits that brought busing to Los Angeles schools to prickly battles over bilingual education and textbooks.
"He had this incredible perspective that no one in the country could touch," said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a San Jose think tank where Trombley founded and edited an influential quarterly called National CrossTalk after leaving The Times in 1992. "He was thought of as the dean . . . the best higher education writer over that period of time in the country."
At National CrossTalk, Trombley wrote a series of in-depth articles on Kentucky's efforts to reform its higher education system. He also wrote memorably about the obstacles facing the UC system's newest campus at Merced, including its infringement on the habitat of several endangered varieties of fairy shrimp, "microscopic creatures that float on their backs, waving their 11 pairs of delicate legs" at frustrated UC officials.
Trombley was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 18, 1929. With a bachelor's degree in history from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University, he launched an eight-year career at Life in 1953, working in the magazine's New York and Chicago offices before heading its San Francisco bureau.
After brief stints as bureau chief at Hugh Hefner's short-lived Show magazine and associate editor and contributing writer at the Saturday Evening Post, he joined The Times as an education writer and was immediately swept up in coverage of the student protests of the 1960s.
His stories documented the upheaval of the period, including the birth of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley and the firing of UC President Clark Kerr.
He also profiled UCLA Chancellor Charles Young in 1970 when he faced pressure from Gov. Ronald Reagan and UC regents to fire Angela Davis, a philosophy professor and avowed communist who later went on trial for murder and was acquitted. "Bill attached himself to Young during the final days leading up to the regents meeting . . . and wrote a remarkable, intimate account of a university chancellor wrestling with a decision that could have cost him his job," recalled Noel Greenwood, who covered education for The Times before he became Trombley's editor.
Trombley was scholarly and, former colleague Robert Jones said, "a bit intimidating to people inside and outside the paper." Jane V. Wellman, a former UC budget analyst who now heads a Washington nonprofit, recalled that "people in the regents' office called him Trombley . . . as in, 'Watch out, Trombley's out there.' He covered those meetings with gleeful intensity, forgiving them nothing if their work offended his idea of what a public governing board should do, which was to oversee and protect the public interest."
He was also dry-witted, often leavening his stories with humorous observations. "Once upon a time a student could walk to any spot on campus in 10 minutes. Now he would need a personal monorail system," he wrote in a 1965 article for The Times about how unwieldy growth had turned UC's flagship campus at Berkeley into a "vast, perplexing, impersonal" institution and hotbed of student unrest.
He remained on the education beat for 11 years, switching to general assignment in 1975 and urban affairs in 1984. During his last three years at The Times, he reported from the Sacramento bureau. Whatever his official beat, he always returned to education stories and won a number of prizes, including the John Swett Award for Media Excellence from the California Teachers Assn. in 1983.
In addition to his wife of 55 years, Trombley is survived by daughters Patricia Trombley Ball of Montclair, N.J., and Suzanne Rice of Los Angeles, and two grandchildren.
New York Times
Interior Releases New Rules for Disturbances to Bald and Golden Eagles...ALLISON WINTER of Greenwire
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/09/11/11greenwire-interior-releases-new-rules-for-disturbances-to-892.html?sq=endangered species&st=cse&scp=10&pagewanted=print
The Interior Department released new rule today that will allow people to disturb or kill some bald or golden eagles while carrying out otherwise lawful activities, such as operating airports or electric utilities.
The rules seek to fill a hole in regulations created when Endangered Species Act protections were removed for the bald eagle two years ago. Protections under the ESA allowed for some permits to "take" eagles incidentally, as long as it was part of an otherwise lawful activity. But there was no such provision when the eagle moved to protection under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the new permits would still provide stringent protections for the birds but keep the growing population of bald eagles from curtailing other vital human activities.
"We have tried to make this as seamless a transition from ESA to the eagle act as we could," said Paul Schmidt, assistant director for migratory birds at the agency.
The Interior department delisted the eagle in 2007 after its population made a significant rebound -- going from about 400 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states in the early 1960s to an estimate of more than 10,000 breeding pairs today.
But the agency faces a challenge in managing golden eagles. Golden eagles were first protected because of the resemblance to bald eagles, which poachers shot for trophies, but are now facing their own problems. Bald eagle numbers have continued to rise since the ESA delisting, but the golden eagle population is not expanding and may be in decline, according to the service.
There is less scientific data to understand the population trends of golden eagles, but agency scientists estimate that the population is down from 100,000 birds several decades ago to about 30,000 now.
"Those are raw estimates, but it is enough to be concerned about the current status," Schmidt said. "But it is not low enough to be listed [under the Endangered Species Act]."
The new permits will allow people to proceed with real estate development or other activities that could potentially harm or disturb eagles. A more limited permit will allow the removal of nests that create safety concerns, such as those near airports. Deliberate killing of eagles is still outlawed.
The service will cap the permits so that the bald eagle population cannot be reduced by more than 5 percent of the estimated annual regional productivity -- a formula recommended by a peer-reviewed scientific analysis.
Scientists and environmentalists have long agreed that the bald eagle's population numbers rebounded enough to make it qualify for delisting from the ESA. The bird had more than doubled its recovery goals by the time it was delisted. The controversy during the delisting process came as the agency tried to hammer out the plan for how to protect the bird once it no longer came under the wing of ESA.
The 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act prohibits taking or disturbing eagles, but there was some contention over what "disturb" would mean. Much of that was resolved before the delisting of the bird when agency officials released a rule -- hailed by environmentalists -- defining "disturb."
That rule said disturbance would encompass any action likely to cause injury or nest abandonment and any action that might agitate the eagles' normal breeding, feeding or sheltering patterns. That definition does not change under the new rules released today.
For more news on energy and the environment, visit www.greenwire.com.
Bloomberg
Mountaintop Coal Mines Face New Scrutiny Under Obama (Update1)...Jim Efstathiou Jr.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aycnWGTfXIe0
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is starting to dismantle Bush-era environmental rules that have let mining companies like Massey Energy Co. dig coal more cheaply by removing mountain tops and dumping the debris in nearby streams.
Government agencies are reviewing regulations by former President George W. Bush to ensure they haven’t jeopardized water quality around mines, Michael Shapiro, the Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy administrator, said in an interview.
Shearing the peaks off mineral-rich mountains to expose the fuel is typically easier than digging conventional shafts and has grown to supply about 6 percent of U.S. coal demand. That has riled environmentalists who say the debris pollutes rivers.
“There is no question about the ideology of this,” said Kevin Book, the Washington-based managing director for analysis firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC. “They are actively trying to raise the environmental standards and limit the practice.”
As the new policy takes shape, the EPA says it must also decide if any more projects proposed under Bush should proceed under the old rules. An announcement is set for today.
Since Obama took office in January, 12 mountaintop removals were cleared by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, the two main agencies vetting the projects, of about 150 permit applications, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said yesterday in an e-mail. The EPA is headed by Obama appointee Lisa Jackson.
Easier, Cheaper
One permit went to St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc., the second-largest U.S. coal producer. Any new mining policy will affect more companies in an industry that calls the practice “surface” mining. They include Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Consol Energy Inc. and Massey Energy of Richmond, Virginia, the third- and fourth-largest U.S. coal producers.
Dynamiting or bull-dozing peaks is the least expensive method to extract coal and the most damaging to the surroundings, according to the Sierra Club, the San Francisco- based environmental advocate.
Four people protesting Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mining practices were arrested two days ago after linking their arms together with duct tape and plastic pipe, temporarily blocking a private road to a coal company office in southern West Virginia, the Associated Press reported.
Last week, protesters held a six-day “tree-sitting” action that briefly halted blasting operations at the Edwight mine near Pettry Bottom in the same state, the AP report said.
Coal Supply Risk
Of the 150 or so pending applications, the EPA by itself has cleared 42, Jones said. Jeff Gillenwater, a spokesman for Massey, which has a project in West Virginia, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.
Also at stake is the price stability of coal. The dirtiest, least expensive fossil fuel is burned to generate about half of U.S. electricity. A government ban on the practice may shrink the nation’s coal supplies by 5 percent to 7 percent, Book said.
Most mountaintop projects are in the east, particularly West Virginia and Kentucky, though there are a few in Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Local communities have split between the jobs provided by the mines and the perceived environmental impacts of filling streams and rivers with tons of debris left from opening up the earth, said Thomas Hoffman, a spokesman for Consol Energy. He said EPA regulators now are “disrupting” a practice that has worked well for years.
“Their actions suggest that they don’t favor surface mining, at least this particular type of surface mining, and that they intend to use the Clean Water Act to rein this in,” Hoffman said. “You’ve got people’s jobs dependent on the ability to get the next permit.”
That 1972 law is the cornerstone of rules protecting surface water in the U.S.
Water Quality Concern
The EPA is collecting new data on how mountaintop removal affects water quality downstream of the mine and is reviewing efforts to replace buried streams, said Shapiro, who works in the agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. During her Senate confirmation hearing, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said mountaintop mining needed review.
“There has been a lot of learning going on as Lisa Jackson and others in the new leadership have begun to understand the framework that had been used in the past,” Shapiro said in a Sept. 9 interview.
Two rule changes under Bush help guide the Army Corps of Engineer’s review of the permits in the mountainous Appalachia region of the eastern U.S., said Michael McKenna, president of MWR Strategies, a Washington energy policy consultant. One deals with how the federal Clean Water Act applies to filling streams with mining debris. The second covers the distance the mine can be from a stream.
Bush Streamlining
In each case, the rule changes under Bush eliminated gray areas, streamlining the permitting process, McKenna said.
“They took some of that judgment out of the permit writers’ hand,” McKenna said. “It became a checklist. The permit applicant would say ‘I filled out your form, give me your permit.’”
Those two rule changes now are under review, Shapiro said.
Yesterday the Army Corps of Engineers, whose duties run from civil works to environmental restoration, said it will hold public hearings on mountaintop mining permits in October.
In August, the Army Corps of Engineers approved Consol Energy’s request to dump mining refuse into two valleys at its Peg Fork project in Mingo County, West Virginia. Last week, the EPA said it would reconsider a permit approved in 2007 letting Arch Coal fill valleys and streams at its Spruce No. 1 Surface Mine in Logan County, West Virginia.
Jones didn’t say at what time today the EPA may announce its decisions on outstanding permits.
“The end game of all this is what they do with these two rules,” said Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s beyond coal campaign. “That’s what’s going to determine whether mountaintop removal is going to continue on at its current pace.”
EPA Suspends 79 Mountaintop Removal Coal Permits (Update1)...Jim Efstathiou Jr.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aQNSu8BmNXdY
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Environmental Protection Agency said today that 79 permits to mine coal by removing mountain tops and discarding the debris in neighboring streams must be held for further review.
In a preliminary decision involving sites mainly in Kentucky and West Virginia, the EPA found unresolved water quality issues near the mining projects, the U.S. agency said today in a news release. Earlier this year the EPA said it would review all pending permits for mountaintop removal in the Appalachia region, citing concerns over water pollution and the health of nearby rivers, streams and aquifers.
The announcement comes as President Barack Obama takes steps to dismantle Bush-era environmental rules that have made it easier for mining companies to lop the tops off mineral-rich mountains to expose coal deposits. The technique accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. demand for coal, which provides electricity.
“The EPA did not oppose a single permit during the Bush administration and now the EPA is expressing their concerns about 79 permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers,” Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s “beyond coal” campaign said in an interview. “This is a sea change in enforcement.”
Aquatic Ecosystem Concerns
The majority of permits flagged for further review failed to demonstrate how the mining operation would minimize impacts on the aquatic ecosystem, the EPA said. Efforts to mitigate the impact of filling streams with mining debris “may not be adequate to offset proposed impacts,” the EPA statement said.
The EPA within two weeks must issue a final decision on the pending permits. At that point, projects that meet the agency’s environmental criteria may move forward.
Today’s decision will damage economies in the region as they struggle to recover from the recession, according to the Washington-based National Mining Association, a trade group for mining companies.
“EPA’s announcement today to halt 79 coal mining permits continues the moratorium on Eastern coal mining that jeopardizes the livelihoods of tens of thousands of American workers and their communities,” Hal Quinn, president of the group, said in a statement.
The permits are for mountaintop removal projects in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. Dynamiting or bull- dozing peaks is the least expensive method to extract coal and the most damaging to the surroundings, according to the Sierra Club, a San Francisco-based environmental advocate.
Among the projects still pending in the EPA list are ones in Kentucky with Consol Energy Inc., Apex Energy and CAM Mining.
Today’s EPA decision reflects the agency’s concerns over violations of the Clean Water Act, a 1972 law that’s the cornerstone of rules protecting surface water in the U.S.
“Now that the EPA has been freed up to actually do their job, they’re finding that these projects don’t comply with the Clean Water Act,” Hitt said.
CNN Money
Foreclosures: The struggle continues
The number of bank repossessions drops sharply in August, but the pipeline of troubled borrowers remains full. Calm before the storm?...Les Christie...9-10-09
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/10/real_estate/august_foreclosures/
index.htm?postversion=2009091011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The foreclosure crisis grinds on amid signs of hope.
A report released Thursday shows that substantially fewer people had their homes repossessed in August.
Unfortunately, a large number of Americans are still falling behind on their payments.
A total of 76,134 troubled borrowers lost their homes in August, but that is 12.7% fewer than in July, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties.
The pipeline of troubled borrowers remains full, however. Filings of all kinds dropped only slightly, just 0.5%, from July.
According to RealtyTrac spokesman Rick Sharga, there are a couple of possible explanations for the decline in bank repossessions, called REOs in the industry.
"It could be that the government-led mortgage modification programs are finally gaining some traction," he said. "But it could also be that the banks are still delaying repossessions of these properties."
Because banks take big losses on REOs, they may leave delinquent borrowers in their homes, especially where lenders already have a substantial amount of vacant, unsold inventory. Presumably, the borrowers are caring for the properties, which saves banks the time and expense of upkeep and maintenance.
Plus, there is always hope that some of these borrowers will "self-cure" -- or catch up on their loans without assistance -- which is better for banks' bottom lines. In fact, a recent report from the Boston branch of the Federal Reserve found that 30% of borrowers who have missed two mortgage payments eventually become current.
Increases in short sales could also be reducing the repossession statistics, according to Duane LeGate, president of HBN Interactive, a short-sale specialist. These are transactions in which lenders allow borrowers to sell their homes for less than what they owe.
"A lot of banks are delaying the foreclosure process if they see any kind of chance of making a reasonable short sale," he said.
The reprieve in repossessions could be coming to an end, however. Sharga expects a spate of payment problems to start this fall as interest rates reset on some of the exotic mortgage products that proliferated during the boom. Option ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) in particular will be a big problem.
A Fitch Ratings report released last week forecast that of the $200 billion in option ARMs outstanding, $29 billion will reset to fully amortizing loans by year's end, and another $67 billion will recast in 2010. The average payment increase will be 63%, or $1,053 a month -- an impossible hurdle for many borrowers.
These loans are named for the options they give borrowers. They can pay at a minimum rate, which does not even cover interest; at an interest-only rate; at a fully amortizing 15-year rate; or at a fully amortizing 30- or 40-year rate.
More than 60% of all option ARM borrowers, and more than 80% of all option ARMs issued in 2006 and 2007, often pay just the minimum amount, according to First American LoanPerformance.
That means the principal balances of these loans actually grow. And when they get too large, somewhere between 110% and 125% of the original loan amount, the lender will convert the loan into a fully amortizing mortgage. That usually results in payment shock, a huge jump in monthly mortgage costs.
"We're in the soup for at least another year," Sharga said.
That could mean a third dismal year of foreclosures. So far this year 540,222 homes have been lost to repossession, which is on par with the first eight months of 2008.

The list of cities worst hit by total foreclosure filings include many names familiar from past months. Las Vegas had the nation's highest foreclosure rate, with 16,798 filings, or one for every 47 housing units.
California homeowners also lost more properties to repossession than any other state. There were 14,590 in August, twice the number of Florida, which was the second worst-hit state with 6,446.
Six states account for 60% of all foreclosure filings, according to the RealtyTrac report. California, where many option ARMs were issued, leads with more than 92,000 filings, followed by Florida with more than 62,000. Michigan is next with more than 19,000; Nevada, whose foreclosure rate of one for every 62 households was the highest in the nation, and Arizona both had close to 18,000. Illinois recorded more than 13,000.
Still, those figures show month-over-month improvement. In California, the August total was down nearly 32% from July, and Florida showed a 4.6% improvement. REOs also steeply fell in Arizona (down 16.7%) and Nevada (off 23.8%).
The list of cities worst hit by total foreclosure filings include many names familiar from past months. Las Vegas had the nation's highest foreclosure rate, with 16,798 filings, or one for every 47 housing units.
Second was another repeat offender, Stockton, Calif., where one of every 62 homes had a filing. Modesto, Calif. was third with one in 63.

Where it's worst
California homeowners also lost more properties to repossession than any other state. There were 14,590 in August, twice the number of Florida, which was the second worst-hit state with 6,446.
Six states account for 60% of all foreclosure filings, according to the RealtyTrac report. California, where many option ARMs were issued, leads with more than 92,000 filings, followed by Florida with more than 62,000. Michigan is next with more than 19,000; Nevada, whose foreclosure rate of one for every 62 households was the highest in the nation, and Arizona both had close to 18,000. Illinois recorded more than 13,000.
Still, those figures show month-over-month improvement. In California, the August total was down nearly 32% from July, and Florida showed a 4.6% improvement. REOs also steeply fell in Arizona (down 16.7%) and Nevada (off 23.8%).
The list of cities worst hit by total foreclosure filings include many names familiar from past months. Las Vegas had the nation's highest foreclosure rate, with 16,798 filings, or one for every 47 housing units.
Second was another repeat offender, Stockton, Calif., where one of every 62 homes had a filing. Modesto, Calif. was third with one in 63.