10-7-09

 
10-7-09   
Progress?...Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-10-07/007454
10-03-09
Boston Globe
Chamber of overstated horrors
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/
articles/2009/10/03/chamber_of_overstated_horrors/
 IT IS refreshing to see three energy companies - the nuclear power operator Exelon; Pacific Gas and Electric; and New Mexico’s largest electricity provider, PNM - quitting the US Chamber of Commerce over that organization’s increasingly shrill, doom-saying opposition to climate change legislation in Washington. The chamber claims that limits on greenhouse gas emissions by Congress or the Environmental Protection Agency would be “a job killer,’’ would “completely shut the country down,’’ or, even worse, “virtually destroy the United States.’’
The chamber went completely off the rails in August. It proposed to take the climate change debate all the way back to the 1920s, to a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.’’ William Kovacs, the chamber’s vice president for environmental regulation, told the Los Angeles Times that a public hearing on the evidence of climate change “would be evolutionism versus creationism. It would be the science of climate change on trial.’’
The verdict has long been in from the vast majority of climate scientists that humans are changing the atmosphere. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that fighting climate change is good for business, because restrictions on carbon emissions will foster innovations in efficiency and renewable-energy technologies. Last month at a forum in New York - organized in part by the Boston-based business and environmental coalition Ceres - a group of 181 investors handling more than $13 trillion in global assets called for greenhouse gas emission reductions of between 50 percent and 85 percent by 2050.
Going backward eight decades was too much for Exelon, PG&E and PNM. Also protesting somewhat this week was Nike. The sneaker maker did not quit the chamber, but resigned from the board of directors. These are welcome cracks in the stone wall of the chamber. The question is how many more of the chamber’s 3 million members need to quit before the organization alters its retrograde view.
7-19-07
A Change in the Wild
From President James Madison's "Address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle," 1819
http://www.achangeinthewind.com/2007/07/james-madison-w.html
Agriculture, once effectually commenced, may proceed of itself, under impulses of its own creation. The mouths fed by it increasing, and the supplies of nature decreasing, necessity becomes a spur to industry; which finds another spur in the advantages incident to the acquisition of property, in the civilized state. And thus a progressive agriculture, and a progressive population ensue.
But although no determinate limit presents itself. to the increase of food, and to a population commensurate with it, other than the limited productiveness of the earth itself, we can scarcely be warranted in supposing that all the productive powers of its surface can be made subservient to the use of man, in exclusion of all the plants and animals not entering into his stock of subsistence; that all the elements and combinations of elements in the earth, the atmosphere, and the water, which now support such various and such numerous descriptions of created beings, animate and inanimate, could be withdrawn from that general destination, and appropriated to the exclusive support and increase of the human part of the creation; so that the whole habitable earth should be as full of people as the spots most crowded now are or might be made, and as destitute as those spots of the plants and animals not used by man.
The supposition cannot well be reconciled with that symmetry in the face of nature, which derives new beauty from every insight that can be gained into it. It is forbidden also by the principles and laws which operate in various departments of her economy, falling within the scope of common observation, as well as within that of philosophic researches.
The earth contains not less than thirty or forty thousand kinds of plants; not less than six or seven hundred of birds; nor less than three or four hundred of quadrupeds; to say nothing of the thousand species of fishes. Of reptiles and insects, there are more than can be numbered. To all these must be added, the swarms and varieties of animalcules and minute vegetables not visible to the natural eye, but whose existence is probably connected with that of visible animals and plants.
On comparing this vast profusion and multiplicity of beings with the few grains and grasses, the few herbs and roots, and the few fowls and quadrupeds, which make up the short list adapted to the wants of man, it is difficult to believe that it lies with him so to remodel the work of nature as it would be remodelled, by a destruction not only of individuals, but of entire species; and not only of a few species, but of every species, with the very few exceptions which he might spare for his own accommodation.
Such a multiplication of the human race, at the expense of the rest of the organized creation, implies that the food of all plants is composed of elements equally and indiscriminately nourishing all, and which, consequently, may be wholly appropriated to the one or few plants best fitted for human use. Whether the food or constituent matter of vegetables be furnished from the earth, the air, or water; and whether directly, or by either, through the medium of the others, no sufficient ground appears for the inference that the food for all is the same.
Different plants require different soils; some flourishing in sandy, some in clayey, some in moist, some in. dry soils; some in warm, some in cold situations. Many grow only in water, and a few subsist in the atmosphere. The forms, the textures, and the qualities of plants, are still more diversified. That things so various and dissimilar in their organization, their constitutions, and their characters, should be wholly nourished by, and consist of precisely the same elements, requires more proof than has yet been offered.
10-05-09
GE News
GM Flax Contamination from Canada Soars to 28 Countries
But Canadian farmers still have no answers
CBAN
http://co113w.col113.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=1662870526&wa=wsignin1.0
Ottawa - 28 countries, including more European countries as well as Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Thailand, have now been affected by contamination from genetically modified (GM) flax in Canadian exports since contamination was first reported on September 8. 
Mere weeks are left before farmers in Canada finish harvesting their flax and yet farmers still don't know the source or full extent of the GM contamination - and it could be weeks before authorities in Canada confirm any details. Flax prices remain depressed. 
GM flax is not approved for human consumption in the following 28 countries where contamination has now reached: Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Iceland, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Companies are removing products from the market as the GM flax has been found in cereals, bakery products, bakery mixtures and nut/seed products. 9 GM flax contamination notices have been filed so far through the European Commission's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed.  
European authorities have named the source of contamination as the GM flax "Triffid", which was developed in Canada but was deregistered in 2001 and has been illegal to sell since that time. While there is a test for the Triffid flax available from the company Genetic ID, the Flax Council of Canada is delaying confirmation as it waits for the Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon to develop a new test for Triffid.
"Its been nearly a month since contamination was first found, but neither the Canadian government nor industry has come forward with any answers," said Stewart Wells, President of the National Farmers Union of Canada. "The continued uncertainty and unanswered questions show the need for more strict regulation of GM crops in Canada."  
"Farmers face the threat of unwanted contamination from GM crops, even when the crops are not supposed to be grown," said Arnold Taylor an organic flax grower and Chair of the Organic Agriculture Protection Fund of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate. "Someone's going to have to pay for testing our crops for contamination and any required clean-up. Who will be liable?"  
"The Canadian government still refuses to consider market harm when they decide to approve GM crops. This obviously has to change immediately," said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. "The entire regulatory system needs urgent reform or we will see even more widespread market chaos."  
For more information:
Stewart Wells, National Farmers Union of Canada, 306 773 6852 or cell: 306 741 7694; Arnold Taylor, Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, cell: 306 241 6126 or 306 252 2783; Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, cell 613 263 9511 or 613 241 2267 ext. 6  
Comment from Joe Cummins: The Canadian Flax Council is using the GM Triffid scandal to attack the EU's zero tolerance food safety policy for unapproved GMOs.The flax council should realize that they are selling flax to countries in Europe and the world. They are not bureaucrats dictating to all the countries of the world that those countries must consume polluted flax grown by the flax growers of Canada.
According to the Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon, which developed the GMO variety Triffid, which is now causing the trouble, there is no specific test to identify the presence of this material. That is a startling confession. GM crops should not be tested in the openen environment nor should they be deregulated until there is a proven test for the transgenes in the modified crops!
The current incident makes the regulation of GM crops in Canada seem to be haphazard and feckless. Canadian politicians seem to be uneducated or incapable of oversight.  
It's the banks, stupid...Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-10-06/007453
10-5-09
Fresno Bee
Uncertainty looms for west-side farmers...Robert Rodriguez
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1662771.html
This time of year, farmers on the Valley's west side usually have a fairly good idea what they will be planting next season, and if they will be getting a loan to pay for it. But this is not a normal year.
Uncertainty looms for west-side farmers who were forced to fallow thousands of acres in the wake of a third dry year and a dismal water allocation. The situation has put some growers in a holding pattern.
Lenders are worried about farmers being able to pay back loans. And without an adequate water supply, more acres may be fallowed and the problems of high unemployment may get worse.
"I am just kind of waiting to see what my bank has to say," said Todd Allen, a third-generation farmer in the Firebaugh area. "I really can't move forward without it."
Allen is typical of many farmers in the Westlands Water District who were left high and dry this year. The 600,000-acre district provides water for about 600 family-owned farms.
This spring, a lack of rainfall resulted in a zero allocation of federal water, and reduced water pumping to protect dwindling fish in Northern California rivers further cut supplies. Although the allocation was later bumped up to 10%, for many it was too little, too late.
Allen was planning to farm wheat, safflower and cantaloupes on 600 acres. But with a limited water supply, he only harvested 40 acres of wheat, a low-value crop.
Crop insurance helped him limp through the year. It wasn't enough. Now he worries about how he will make a large payment on a drip irrigation system he installed two years ago.
Allen submitted his loan package recently, and he is waiting to hear from his lender. The process used to take several days, but this year it has taken several weeks.
He hopes it's not a bad omen.
"I want to be able to produce crops so I can stay in this game, because right now I am just barely hanging on by a thread," Allen said.
Richard Matoian, executive director of the Fresno-based Western Pistachio Association, said many of his members are evaluating their options for water. Some have been able to bank water they received earlier this year. Others have drilled new wells. Some are making plans to buy water.
Growers of permanent crops like pistachios and almonds face the added pressure of making sure they can keep their trees alive.
"I think every grower is going through that decision-making process right now," Matoian said. "And it's not easy."
Woolf Farms in Huron is planning for another zero water allocation next year.
To stretch its limited water supply, the company bulldozed 450 acres of almond trees at the end of this year's harvest and will shift 250 acres of processing tomatoes outside of the Westlands Water District and into Madera.
"We are budgeting for a worst-case scenario and hoping for the best," said Stuart Woolf, of Woolf Farming. "At this point, we just don't know where the politics will fall on this issue, or what Mother Nature will allow for."
Woolf said lenders also are scrutinizing growers plans and are asking tougher questions about farmers' water sources.
Lenders agree that the uncertainty over next year's water supply is playing into lending decisions.
"We want to have a good understanding of the resources a grower has available and the quality of water they have," said Roger Sturdevant, executive vice president of the agribusiness division for Bank of the West. "The challenge is coming up with what makes sense from a business standpoint."
Growers with adequate wells, water that has been stored or the financial ability to buy water from other sources are in a good position.
"People who have a high debt load, limited acres of production and high water costs are going to be in a real tough situation," said Tom Brown, CEO of Fresno Madera Farm Credit.
At Rabobank, Bob Dingler, agribusiness division manager, said that while the bank is scrutinizing growers' loan requests, it has not denied a loan to anyone because of the water situation.
Dingler said the bank makes of point of talking with its borrowers all year long.
"Like most financing situations, we like to be a partner, and if we are going to be a good partner, we need to be informed," Dingler said. "Surprises are the last thing we want."
Pistachio grower Steve Moore doesn't plan to give his lender any surprises. He is shoring up his plans for next year by drilling a new well on his ranch south of Huron.
The new well cost $1 million.
"We are locked into these trees, and we have to give them water," Moore said. "At this point, we have to hold on and pray for big rains."
10-1-09
Capitol Weekly
Grassroots Latino Water Coalition registered to ag industry lobbyist...Malcolm Maclachlan
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=yb3fzxmc87lqzt
Anyone who works in or around the Capitol has likely seen them in the last few months: clumps of Latino farm workers holding blue and white signs with slogans such as "Farm water=Jobs" or "If you like foreign oil, you'll love foreign food."
The California Latino Water Coalition is one of several groups that have sprung up in recent years as the Golden State has tried to address its water woes. But according to critics, those blue signs are hiding another color: the green of Astroturf. In politics, "Astroturfing" means creating and financing a group to make it appear to be a real grass-roots organization when, in fact, it isn't. It is a common practice in the high-stakes world of Sacramento lobbying and communications strategy.
"The Latino Water Coalition is about as real as Schwarzenegger's hair color," said Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio.
Documents on file with the secretary of state show that the Coalition was formed as a nonprofit and registered by influential Sacramento lobbyist George Soares, whose A-list of about three dozen agricultural clients include the California Rice Commission, the California Cotton Growers and Ginners Associations, the Friant Water Authority, the Nisei Farmers League and The Grape and Tree Fruit League, among others.
The group has been billed as the protector of the jobs of Latino farm workers, although labor leader Dolores Huerta and others have denounced it as a front group.
Mario Santoyo, a top adviser and spokesman for the group, said the coalition receives funding from numerous sources.
"Like any other non-profit, our funding is pretty much dependent on funding we get from individuals, organizations, corporate interests. It's whoever is interested in donating to the purpose and cause of the coalition," said Santoyo, who also is a top executive with the Friant Water Authority.
The Coalition was registered on Dec. 29 of last year by Soares. His firm, Kahn, Soares, & Conway LLP, billed lobbying clients more than $580,000 during the first six months of this year, over 80 percent of it to agricultural clients. The mailing address listed on the Coalition's Web sites is identical to that of Soares' firm, located on L Street across from the Capitol.
Called on Tuesday, an employee of the firm said Soares was out of town until next week, and that he was the only person there who could discuss the Coalition with Capitol Weekly.
Santoyo said growers and other agribusiness interests support the group financially, although he said he did not know exactly who contributed or how much. He also said the group was pushing for $2 billion for "restoring the Delta ecosystem."
Details about the Coalition are not easily obtained. The group's Web site domain, GotWater.org, is registered to DomainsByProxy.com, a company that registers domains for clients who wish to remain anonymous. The Coalition doesn't officially lobby on bills or give money to candidates, so it doesn't show up on the Secretary of State's Cal-Access online database. The Secretary of State's records show that it was registered as a non-profit. On all of those records but one, "Coalition" is misspelled as "Coaltion," which might reflect a single multiplied error if the forms were completed using software with an auto-fill function, according to a representative of the Secretary's office.
The organization does not show up on the online database of non-profits maintained by the State Attorney General, or the Internal Revenue Service's GuideStar system. However, according to Denise Azimi, a spokeswoman for the Franchise Tax Board, it's possible that they have applied for tax exempt status with the state, and also for tax-deductable status with the IRS, but these applications have not yet gone through.
While the Coalition is hardly alone in trying to influence the direction of water policy in the state, no other group has had a more noticeable presence in the public debate. Their rallies are common and often large; an estimated 7,000 people showed up at an event they held in downtown Fresno on July 1.
The Coalition has a celebrity spokesman familiar to many people, Latino actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez. Rodriguez has given numerous rousing speeches on behalf of the group.
While he grew up in East Los Angeles, his family has roots in farming in the Central Valley, something he has often referred to in appearances. In June, he showed up on KFSN-TV News in Fresno, engaging in a shoving match with a white dairy activist-a confrontation that ended with Rodriguez being held back while yelling, "What have you done?!"
Rodriguez has rarely been quoted in press reports about the Coalition, a role that has generally gone to Santoyo.  He did appear in an interview with TV commentator Sean Hannity on "The Valley that Hope Forgot," a special Fox News live broadcast from the Central Valley. Rodriguez said President Barack Obama "cut the water off."
According to the Fresno Bee, Rodriguez and Santoyo were to be in Washington, D.C. this week meeting with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.
The Coalition has also had a photo montage promoting its work posted on the wall outside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office since mid-September. When asked about the display, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said it was there as part of the celebrations of Hispanic Heritage Month, though the governor agreed with the group's goals.
Maviglio, a critic of the Coalition, said that Schwarzenegger was "renting" the space. In a Sept. 15 post on the Majority Report blog, where he is the most prominent contributor, Maviglio wrote that "the Latino Water Coalition is a PR front for Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest public relations agencies that has a contract to push dams, canals, and other environmentally-unfriendly 'solutions' in California water policy."
Others have made similar charges. Activist blogger Lloyd Carter has been waging war against the Coalition almost from the moment they came on the scene about two years ago.
"They've got a lot to hide," Carter said. "They're just a front group."
Santoyo did not respond to phone messages requesting further comment this week. The name and telephone number of a Burson-Marsteller employee, Patrick George, has appeared on several Coalition press releases since mid-2007, but he is not identified as a Burson employee. George said the company did not have any current connection to the Coalition.
"We're not doing any work with the Water Coalition anymore," George said. "I've volunteered some of my personal time to help the Coalition because I had a personal interest in the water issue." Asked about his company's past connection to the Coalition, George declined to answer.
According to Carter, the Coalition is funded mainly by large growers and other agribusiness interests in the southern Central Valley. For years, these interests have been fighting for a greater share of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the source of about two-thirds of California's water-a solution that essentially equals dams and a peripheral canal, projects lower Central Valley farmers have been pushing for years. Environmentalists and Delta residents have been fighting against them, seeking to keep a greater share of water for the Delta ecosystem, as well as farmers and residents in northern California.
These growers know that as multimillionaires with holdings ranging into the tens of thousands of acres they don't make the most sympathetic of poster children, Carter said.
This is where the Latino farm workers came in, he said-to add the "human face" and "grassroots" activism that speakers at Coalition rallies often refer to.
A March 27 fundraising letter signed by Rodriguez asked for money "to manage logistics and support marchers including many unemployed farm workers." The fundraising boxes listed were "$1,000," "$2,500," "$5,000 OR MORE," and "Other." Among the group's goals cited in the letter were "to temporarily and immediately relieve severe Endangered Species Act standards that are preventing much needed pumping from the Delta to other regions of California." The letter makes no mention of donations being tax deductable.
Santoyo's employer, Friant, is a "joint powers authority comprised of 22 member districts located in Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties," according to their Web site. He said that Friant has not given any money to the Coalition.
The Coalition's board also includes several other members with water authorities. Treasurer Sylvia Ballin represents the city of San Fernando on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California board. Southern California chairman S. R. "Al" Lopez is president of the Western Municipal Water District of Southern California. Coastal chairman Tony Estremera "has been a Santa Clara Valley Water District director since 1996," according to the website.
The Coalition is hardly the only group that has sprung up around the water issue. The California Water Alliance formed in June as a 501c4. The group said it is largely funded by growers, but has not yet produced a list of its funders.
Another group, the Coalition Coordinator Alliance for a 21st Century Water Supply, launched in August to promote a "balanced solution" that not only includes a peripheral canal and new storage, but also promotes "restoring the Delta," according to their website. While it does not currently list donors on its website, the group did list several in press materials when it launched. KP Public Affairs, which represents the Alliance said they will send out a list of donors upon request, and that this group includes the California Building Industry Association, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Western Growers Association and several other business groups.
"In order to attract the kind of leading statewide groups necessary to help solve the problem, the Alliance has been completely transparent about who we are, what we are asking for and why," said Nicole Ratcliff, a spokeswoman for the Alliance from KP.
Meanwhile, the chair of the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee - a Latino himself - said that he had always disagreed with "inserting the issue of race into the discussion of water," especially if it turns out that Latinos have merely "lent their names" to an effort run by farmers.
"I believe that the folks involved in the coalition are sincere in their desire to have an equitable water plan for California, I just think that these types of discoveries unfortunately distract from their message," said Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter.
He added, "When it comes to water, nothing surprises me anymore."
Merced Sun-Star
UC Merced professor gets grant for solar energy research...Staff reports
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1099776.html
UC Merced professor David Kelley has received a $1.3 million grant for research to make solar energy technology less costly.
Kelley will use the three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to improve a device called a luminescent solar concentrator.
The concentrator works by absorbing sunlight across a wide area and then re-emitting it onto a small photovoltaic cell.
Kelley, along with professors Valerie Leppert and Boaz Ilan, will attempt to develop new kinds of the concentrator, based on nanotechnology.
The goal is to reduce the cost of the process and make it more widely available as an energy source.
Kelley and Ilan are both members of the UC Merced Energy Research Institute, a group that develops and improves sustainable energy processes.
Atwater has spent $55,000 on summer Frago fiasco -- so far
Money has been paid to lawyers as part of racist e-mails fallout during summer...JONAH OWEN LAMB
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/106/v-print/story/1099775.html
ATWATER -- The city of Atwater paid nearly $60,000 in legal fees this past summer to deal with the fallout following the publication of a series of racist e-mails sent by Councilman Gary Frago in late 2008 and early 2009.
The city paid its law firm, Meyers Nave, $55,976 to deal with the legal implications of Frago's e-mails during the last two weeks of July and all of August, according to the law firm. In all, the firm chalked up 228 hours of legal work dealing with the aftermath of Frago's e-mails, said Jose Sanchez, an attorney with Meyers Nave.
That work included going over public information requests, meeting with the City Council and staff, and preparing for and participating in public meetings, among other things.
For some City Council members, that legal bill was a reminder of how much Frago's e-mails have cost the city.
"This is an outrageous cost," said City Councilman Nelson Crabb, who initially requested a price tag on legal fees. "This is basically a police officer-and-a-half that we are dealing with and we are not done yet."
Mayor Joan Faul simply said, "It was very costly."
Indeed, the legal bill for September, for instance, has yet to come in.
In addition, the city has not yet picked a company to administer a series of sensitivity classes the council and city staff are scheduled to take, so the total cost is unknown.
And that's not all.
City Manager Greg Wellman hired an attorney to conduct an internal investigation into whether or not any of Frago's e-mails were sent to any staff members. That bill has not come in either, said Wellman.
Aside from the monetary costs, city staff spent roughly 150 to 200 hours dealing with issues involving Frago's e-mails, estimated Assistant City Manager Stan Feathers. "Most of this does not represent an additional cost to the city. What it represents is a loss of time that we would have spent on other projects," he said. But, he added, any work put aside because of Frago was done after hours.
While Councilman Crabb thinks the costs of the affair have been too much, that is just one concern when it comes to legal matters and Frago. Crabb wonders why the city is expending so much effort to protect itself. If he was arrested for drunk driving, Crabb said, the city would not pay for his lawyers. And they wouldn't be forced to undergo classes on drunk driving, he added.
Faul explained that the city had to take the action it did to protect itself from litigation.
A Sun-Star story on July 17 revealed that Frago sent at least seven racist e-mails to city and county officials from October 2008 to February 2009. The e-mails denigrated President Obama, the first lady and black people in general.
Subsequently, the City Council released even more of Frago's derogatory e-mails and convened two large public meetings on the issue where Frago apologized and the city formally reprimanded him in a letter.
While Frago has apologized, at first he said he didn't regret sending the e-mails.
"I don't see where there's a story, I'm not the only one that does it," he told the Sun-Star in July. "I didn't originate them, they came to me, and I just passed them on."
Frago could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Sacramento Bee
Tribe halts expansion plan at Cache Creek casino...Hudson Sangree
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/v-print/story/2236203.html
Citing the economic downturn, the tribe that owns the Cache Creek Casino Resort in the Capay Valley said Tuesday it had pulled its plans for a massive expansion.
The news brought relief to opponents in the rural valley and eliminated a source of tension between the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and Yolo County officials.
"The plans to expand the casino resort have been withdrawn," said Brent Andrew, a spokesman for the tribe, because of the "risks and uncertainties in the economic environment."
The plan had been to triple the size of the casino complex to 1.2 million square feet - adding a 10-story hotel tower with 467 rooms, a 62,500-square-foot event center and thousands of square feet for dining, shopping and gambling.
Instead, Andrew said the tribe decided to focus on the quality of its existing operations and would weigh its options going forward, depending on what happens with the gambling industry.
Casinos have not been immune from the economic downturn. Patrons are still showing up but spending less, said Doug Elmets, a spokesman for the United Auburn Indian Community.
Earlier this year, the United Auburn tribe, which owns the Thunder Valley Casino, scaled back plans for a 23-story hotel tower and event center, opting for a 15-story tower and no event center, Elmets said.
The decision by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to abandon its plans came as a surprise Tuesday to residents of the scenic, winding valley in western Yolo County.
Some had feared the expansion would overwhelm their almond orchards and organic farms. The casino already dwarfs all other structures along Highway 16.
"It's really wonderful news," said Paul Muller, one of the owners of organic Full Belly Farm in Guinda. "It's nice to know we won't be overwhelmed."
Muller said he hoped the decision wasn't just about economics but a sign that the tribe "is listening to the concerns of the community and rediscovering their cultural values inherent in the valley."
As the expansion plans moved forward, Yolo County officials pressed the tribe for millions of dollars in mitigation funds to offset the impacts. The two sides had reached a stalemate in contentious negotiations and were preparing for arbitration.
County spokeswoman Beth Gabor said the tribe's final offer was for $3.5 million per year to pay for impacts on traffic, air and water quality, and county services. That would have been on top of the $5 million a year the tribe already pays the county, she said.
Officials called the offer insufficient.
"We just didn't agree on the impacts, whose responsibility they were and what the price tag was," said Mike McGowan, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
He said there was no longer a need for the mitigation funds - and no longer a reason for the tribe and county to be at odds.
"I look forward," he said, "to a renewed and enhanced working relationship."
Los Angeles Times
Governor in showdown with lawmakers
Schwarzenegger warns of mass vetoes if legislators don't approve upgrade to state's water system...Eric Bailey and Patrick McGreevy
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bills-veto7-2009oct07,0,7085043,print.story
Reporting from Sacramento
Like the cinematic action hero he was, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a big finish. With little more than a year left in office, he is willing to take hostages to get it.
So as the clock ticks toward a Sunday deadline for signing or rejecting more than 700 bills on his desk, Schwarzenegger has engaged legislative leaders in a game of chicken, threatening a mass veto if lawmakers don't strike a deal to upgrade the state's water system.
By most accounts, Schwarzenegger is acting with an eye on the past, present and future -- in particular, on the legacy of his administration.
"He's a guy who swings for the fences on everything," said Thad Kousser, a UC San Diego political scientist and a visiting scholar at Stanford. "But when there's no money, he has little personal popularity and his relationships with the Legislature are poor, it's hard to find a legacy."
State lawmakers are left to rue the possibility that a year's worth of legislative work could be squandered.                      
Among the 700 bills are bids to help California war veterans reap more benefits, provide extra funding to low-performing schools, protect against predatory mortgage lending, aid foster children, require stricter checks on ammunition purchases, boost construction of toll roads and spur affordable housing in rural areas.
Democrats in the Assembly said they were informed by their leaders in a caucus meeting last week that the governor had threatened to veto all the bills if no water deal was reached.
And state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the governor's office raised the possibility last week that the Senate leader temporarily withdraw the bills. The implication, legislative officials said, was that otherwise they would be vetoed.
"The threat is silly," Steinberg said Tuesday.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) said a mass veto would be "extremely inappropriate and irresponsible."
Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) upped the ante by sending a letter to Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown calling for an investigation of the administration's warnings.
"These threats are akin to extortion or vote trading, which is illegal," said Torrico, who is a candidate for attorney general. "The governor should be very, very careful."
Republicans are standing fast with the GOP governor, saying the push for a water deal is the year's paramount legislative effort.
"Honestly, I think the governor has to use every tool in the toolbox," said Assemblyman Michael Villines (R-Clovis).
Aaron McLear, the governor's spokesman, stepped around questions from reporters about the mass-veto threat, insisting instead that Schwarzenegger will "consider every bill on its merits."
The governor met with legislative leaders for 80 minutes Tuesday.
Bass and other leaders emerged to say headway had been made and a water agreement could be at hand by Friday -- just enough time for Schwarzenegger to address the hundreds of bills on his desk before the Sunday midnight deadline.
The task of solving the state's water problems, including the environmental collapse of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, has bedeviled policymakers for more than a generation.
A special legislative panel met weekly for most of this year, and lawmakers pressed hard into the closing days of the legislative year to cement a water deal, but an accord eluded them.
As the governor presses for a solution, several sticky issues remain.
They include the size of a financing bond, water rights and environmental issues in the delta, the major source for water exports to Southern California.
If the governor can get a water deal, it would mark a rare major victory.
Schwarzenegger's years in Sacramento have been dogged by budget deficits and electoral defeats of his attempts to change the way state government operates.
"This is the governor's Hail Mary attempt at a legacy," said Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist. "But he should be rolling up his sleeves and working with the Legislature instead of playing playground bully."
L.A.'s NFL stadium bargain
Environmental safeguards must give way to much-needed jobs...Tim Rutten
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten7-2009oct07,0,6572331,print.column
Sometime in the next week or so, the California Senate will decide whether to grant a one-time exemption from provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act to billionaire developer Ed Roski Jr. so that he can proceed with plans to build a new professional football stadium in the City of Industry. Although such a grant would be unprecedented -- and not entirely without risk -- it's something the Senate needs to do.
Industry, which has slightly more than 80 voters, was incorporated years ago out of what was then farmland as a place where manufacturing and other bothersome commercial activities could proceed around the clock without the regulations or business taxes most cities impose. Located in the southeast San Gabriel Valley near the intersection of the 60 and 57 freeways, it would seem to be an ideal site for a stadium and the adjoining 2.6 million feet of office, medical and other commercial space Roski proposes to build. The developer, who put up Staples Center and L.A. Live south of downtown along with Denver-based billionaire Phil Anschutz, has long maintained the headquarters of his Majestic Realty Co. in Industry, which is one of the reasons he obtained rights to the 600-acre site.
It's a project whose environmental implications already have been thoroughly studied. Industry required Majestic to do a full environmental report and then a supplemental study to make sure the project complies with the Environmental Quality Act. However, the adjoining city of Walnut and homeowners groups there demanded an additional environmental review and, when Majestic resisted going through the exercise yet again, sued.
Roski, who comes from the when-I'm-pushed-I-shove-back school of local politics, took his case to the Legislature. The Assembly passed a bill granting the exemption, but when the measure moved to the Senate, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg put the vote on hold and asked former state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp to mediate the dispute. It turned out to be a Solomonic step; at Van de Kamp's urging, Walnut dropped its suit in return for $15 million in additional mitigation on Majestic's part.
One homeowners group with just eight members still is holding out.
In the meantime, a number of leading environmental groups have opposed the exemption, arguing that it will constitute a precedent encouraging every other well-heeled, politically savvy developer to seek a similar pass from state environmental laws.
Those are serious reservations, but they ought not to be decisive in this instance. Here's why:
First, the homeowners' suit is so frivolous that it comes close to being extortionate. The proposed 75,000-seat stadium not only has been studied up, down and sideways, but it's far more environmentally friendly than the warehouse complex that was previously slated for the site. If that project had gone forward, there would have been diesel trucks rolling into the facility 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Moreover, if Roski complied with the homeowners' major demand that the stadium be domed, the necessity for lights and air conditioning would increase its carbon footprint exponentially. Trucking in the additional steel would dramatically enhance the particulate pollution during construction.
More important, Los Angeles is in the grip of an unemployment crisis, and independent estimates say the stadium project will create 12,000 construction jobs and 6,732 permanent positions in the adjacent facilities -- 100% of them unionized, paying good wages with real benefits.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich pointed out this week that the national jobs picture is the worst in seven decades. In Los Angeles, it's the darkest since the Depression. "The economy may be in a technical recovery, but this is not a real recovery and the 'green shoots' or 'positive signs' that Wall Street cheerleaders love to shout about are phantoms of their ever-optimistic imaginations," Reich said in a essay on the Huffington Post. "Before the stimulus, we were losing more than 500,000 jobs a month. Now that 40% of the stimulus has been spent, we are losing more than 250,000 jobs a month."
If you're employed, those figures are a problem; if you're underemployed, they're a crisis; if you're jobless, they're a tragedy.
Walnut, a relatively affluent and leafy community, has a population of just over 30,000 and, according to the most recent figures, a median family income of $105,387. In many of its blue-collar neighbors -- such as La Puente and El Monte -- unemployment is fast approaching 20%.
For these reasons, Steinberg, who has bent over backward to do the right thing by everyone involved, should press for early approval of the exemption. Just as we've long recognized that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, we can't let our environmental laws become a straitjacket.
Washington Post
EPA to review health risk from popular weed killer...DINA CAPPIELLO, The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100701438_pf.html
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it will re-evaluate the health effects of a popular weed killer that has been found in drinking water supplies.
The EPA will take another look at the science on atrazine, a herbicide commonly used on corn and other crops, and decide whether further restrictions are needed to protect human health. Research has shown that runoff after rain storms can wash the chemical into streams and rivers, where it can enter drinking water supplies.
EPA monitoring of 150 drinking water systems in the Midwest, where the chemical is most heavily used, have not detected it at concentrations that would trigger health problems, including cancer. But new studies have shown that even at low levels atrazine in drinking water can cause low birth weights, birth defects and reproductive problems.
In 2003, under the Bush administration, the EPA allowed atrazine to continue to be used with few restrictions.
"We are taking a hard look at the decision made by the previous administration on atrazine," said Steve Owens, an assistant administrator, in a statement released Wednesday. "Our examination of atrazine will...help determine whether a change in EPA's regulatory position on this pesticide is appropriate."
Environmentalists said they hoped the new review would lead to the chemical being phased out.
"The hope is that they will decide at the end of the day that they should be regulating it more stringently, or they will just take if off the market," said Mae Wu, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued the EPA in 2003 for failing to adequately evaluate atrazine's effects on endangered species.
More recently, operators of drinking water systems in six Midwestern states sued manufacturers, seeking reimbursement for the cost of removing the chemical from their water supplies.
The Swiss company Syngenta, the largest manufacturer of atrazine, said Wednesday it stands behind the herbicide's safety.
"There's probably not another herbicide on the market that has undergone as much as evaluation as atrazine has," said Sherry Ford, a spokeswoman for the company, which introduced atrazine in 1958. "For 50 years, through 10 administrations, and all the EPA administrators since the agency's founding, sound science has governed regulatory decisions on atrazine." 
On the Net:
Environmental Protection Agency:http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/atrazine/
New York Times
EPA Air Chief Offers 'No Apologies' for Greenhouse-Gas Permitting Rule...ROBIN BRAVENDER of Greenwire
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/07/07greenwire-epa-air-chief-offers-no-apologies-for-greenhou-73773.html?sq=epa&st=cse&scp=10&pagewanted=print
U.S. EPA air chief Gina McCarthy today defended the agency's controversial proposal that limits greenhouse gas emissions only from the nation's largest industrial sources, calling it an appropriate strategy for curbing heat-trapping emissions while Congress works to develop a climate bill.
The draft rule unveiled last week would require facilities that release more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year to demonstrate that they have used the best available pollution controls to curb those emissions (E&ENews PM, Sept. 30).
EPA proposes to "tailor" the Clean Air Act permitting programs to limit the number of facilities that would be required to obtain Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V operating permits under the programs. The Clean Air Act requires facilities to obtain those construction and operating permits when they emit more than 250 tons of harmful pollutants.
"The PSD rule was not about what we're exempting. It's about what we're capturing and the opportunities," McCarthy told EPA's Clean Air Act Advisory Committee. "I make no apologies for PSD being triggered. It is a good thing."
EPA says the rule will cover nearly 70 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions sources by regulating large emitters like power plants, refineries and cement production facilities.
Since its release last week, the rule has come under fire from industry groups and many clean air experts, who argue that EPA does not have the legal authority to raise the threshold for greenhouse gas emissions. Many observers fear that courts will overturn the rule, leading to strict regulatory requirements for small sources like hospitals and schools.
McCarthy defended the rule's legal foundations. "We made, we think, a very strong legal argument," she said. "We also made, I think, a very strong common-sense argument on why we would want to have PSD apply to the larger facilities, why it makes the most sense there, why it's not the most appropriate tool for smaller facilities."
Still, she echoed other top Obama administration officials' calls for Congress to pass a comprehensive climate bill.
The best thing, McCarthy said, would be for Congress to pass a comprehensive piece of legislation that allows a flexible cap-and-trade program. But in the meantime, she said, EPA and other stakeholders should continue to look at the best available control technologies for larger facilities and to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions do not continue to increase as facilities are built and modified.
"I can't imagine that it makes sense for EPA to stand still while debates are happening on rules for reducing greenhouse gases," she said.
McCarthy said EPA's rule would be concurrent with the agency's proposed nationwide standard to control greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, expected to be finalized early next year.
"Its timing will align with the light-duty vehicle rule because -- as you all know -- if the light-duty vehicle rule is finalized in March, then greenhouse gases are a regulated pollutant under the interpretation, the current interpretation of the EPA, which is already out for comment and discussion, as well."
EPA also announced last week that it is reconsidering a George W. Bush administration memorandum detailing when the government should regulate carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities, known as the Johnson memo (Greeenwire, Oct. 1).
Will E.P.A. Climate Rules Pre-empt States?...Kate Galbraith
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/will-epa-climate-rules-pre-empt-states/?pagemode=print
Even if the Environmental Protection Agency goes forward with its rules – proposed last week – for regulating the greenhouse gas emissions of large polluters, that will not be the end of the story for affected businesses.
An article by the Martin Law Group, an environmental law firm in the Northwest, notes that at least 18 states have adopted greenhouse gas reporting rules of their own. And federal rules do not obviate state rules.
The authors, Alyssa Moir and Svend Brandt-Erichsen, report:
E.P.A.’s reporting rule does not preempt states from requiring their own G.H.G. emission reporting. Indeed, neither the House nor Senate versions of comprehensive climate change legislation preempt states from adopting their own enforcement of G.H.G. emissions.
The most recent state to outline greenhouse gas reporting rules is Washington, which covers industrial landfills and food processors that are not affected by the federal rule. The Washington draft rule also covers smaller emitters than the E.P.A. proposes to do, and has stricter verification requirements.
California and Oregon require reporting of greenhouse gases already, the Marten Law Group authors note. Since January, Oregon has required certain facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. California’s rule requiring greenhouse gas reporting went into effect last December; affected industries include cement plants and utilities.
In the Northeast, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative requires ten states to report their greenhouse gas emissions, which are subject to an overall cap.
Anti Corruption Republican
A Fifth Takes the Fifth...10-6-09
http://anticorruptionrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/10/fifth-takes-fifth.html
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that four people, David Ayres, Laura Ayres, David Lopez and Peter Evich had all invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Tonight, we learn the name of another individual who refused to testify on grounds that she may incriminate herself.
From a court filing today:
During the trial, the defense made repeated attempts to call other witnesses to testify including Mr. and Mrs. Ayres, Laura Blackann, David Lopez, and Peter Evich. These attempts were based on the fact that these witnesses had made many exculpatory statements in their interviews with the FBI. However, each witness invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
Emphasis added
Mrs. Blackann was spokesman for Tom DeLay, and later, John Doolittle. The Justice Department entered an email exchange between Mrs. Blackann and Kevin Ring into evidence in Mr. Ring's trial:
Exhibit 421: 02/10/2004 Email from Blackann to Ring, "RE: Senate FSC/ETI bill"
Laura Blackann (nee Laura Brookshire), while serving as Rep. John Doolittle's Communications Director, was helping Mr. Ring with tax legislation benefiting one of his clients when she and Mr. Ring exchange emails:
    Text of Email
    Laura Blackann: "Haha! [J]ust earning my Sigs Sushi ;)"
    Kevin Ring: "Exactly. I will keep you occupied."
    Laura Blackann: "Keep it coming -- this is the fun stuff."
The defense did not object to this exhibit. RESULT: Admissible.
It certainly made sense that Mrs. Blackann had asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. We now have confirmation.