8-30-08

 8-30-08Merced Sun-StarDairyman gets five-star rating by national quality-control organization...CAROL REITERhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/427594.htmlTony Machado wanted more than to just be a successful dairyman. He also wanted to be a good steward of the land.Because of his love of the land, Machado opened his dairy to an independent environmental evaluation by the Milk & Dairy Beef Quality Assurance Center in Stratford, Iowa. Machado was recently awarded a five-star rating by the center.Earning five stars is based on a series of self-audits, participation in local education programs and a walk-through of the dairy itself..."Machado went through a process of verification with his veterinarian and his feed manager," said Colette Johnston, associate director of the center.The program is voluntary, and Johnston said that dairies all over the United States are having their operations inspected.In California, there are more stringent laws governing what dairy owners can and can't do. J.P. Cativiela, program coordinator for Dairy Cares, an environmental coalition for the dairy industry, said that there is a lot more focus lately on the environment of dairies...Teaching dairy owners to use natural fertilizer like the nutrients in the lagoon instead of chemical fertilizer is not just good for the environment, it's good for the dairies, too."We all share the same water resources and the same air resources," Cativiela said. "A lot of the water in California is underground."It's imperative that the underground water resources are not contaminated, he said. And it's not just the ground that dairy owners are trying to save, it's the air too."Everything that a dairy owner does impacts the air," Cativiela said. "Any type of combustion engine, or even dust from the tractors makes a difference."Keeping the land that they live on as environmentally sound as possible is the goal of every dairyman. In Machado's case, his life on a dairy has shown him that he can be good to the land while making a living."I'm protecting the soil and taking care of the land," Machado said. "We have pride in doing what we can for the environment and for our animals.Crop dusting: A fading artIndustry shrinking as costs of equipment escalate...DENNIS POLLOCK, The Fresno Beehttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/427606.htmlBob Gudgel, 77, is grounded now, his crop-dusting days behind him.Gudgel flew his final flights over cropland this spring, forced to give up the controls after 54 years because of macular degeneration in his left eye.But even as the industry shrinks around him -- and the romanticized notion of pilots as barnstormers goes the way of canvas-covered biplanes -- Gudgel has no plans to shut down his operation, Gudgel's Aero-Ag in Chowchilla.Tucked into a corner of the tiny Chowchilla Municipal Airport, Aero-Ag has younger pilots in training and Gudgel says he believes aerial applications for agriculture will continue.But it's a new world: Operators are fading as costs of equipment escalate. "It takes a lot of cotton rows to get a million-dollar airplane," Gudgel says...Ralph Holsclaw, president and owner of Growers Air Service in Woodland, says there has been a lot of consolidation in recent years.His is three businesses combined, he says. "Two competitors went by the wayside," he says.Ground rigs have evolved as competitors, and when it's dry as it was this past spring, they may be the preferred option. It can be easier to control drift from the ground, and the rigs can apply material to the undersides of leaves.Charlie Witrado, who owns American West Aviation in Five Points, says he purchased a ground rig business to diversify.Most powdered chemicals have been replaced with liquids as the term "crop duster" fell out of fashion. And the number of pilots who apply agricultural materials has declined...Local colleges appear to benefit from state's sour economy...DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/427578.htmlThere are more students strolling around town than ever before this fall. UC Merced and Merced College are both experiencing record enrollments at a time when stories about growth are mostly negative in Merced County. At Merced College, there is a 10 percent increase in the number of full-time students."Across the country and the state as the economy has taken a downturn, many people have come back to community colleges," Merced College President Benjamin Duran said. "Starting last year we have seen a surge that has taken us to an enrollment that is over 10,000."And after some disappointing years, UC Merced is attracting more transfer students and high school graduates than everContinued growthMerced College has seen a steady increase in enrollments for two years... When the college surpassed 10,000 full-time students, it officially became labeled as a medium-sized college. That occurred in the spring semester of last year and led to $1 million in official state funding.A buzz about campusUC Merced is also celebrating increases in student interest...Of the 2,956 institutions California test-takers sent their scores to, UC Merced ranks 22... UC Merced dining hall gets even greener...DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/427613.htmlUC Merced students can now watch their food grow, and eat it too. This week, the college unveiled a new, landscaped terrace at the Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center on campus. The terrace features a culinary herb garden where dining center chefs can pick rosemary, lavendar, basil, thyme and mint, among other things."We felt the dining terrace and herb garden were a natural complement to the dining center," said Elizabeth Wallace, who funded the terrace and garden through a donation with her husband Joel... The dining hall is going green in another way, too. Diners will now be served on plastic and metal dinnerware, as opposed to the disposable dishes of the past. For students taking their food to go, eco-friendly recyclable containers are available... Our View: At last, a plan for the bypassAfter waiting 40 years, work in three phases will start to run Highway 152 around Los Banos.http://www.mercedsunstar.com/177/story/427605.htmlSo, Los Banos is going ahead with a 10-mile freeway bypass that will put the much traveled Highway 152 around that busy eastern Merced County city.Plans for the bypass have been around for more than 40 years. But finding funding for the project has always been a problem.The team of agencies looking into the bypass has finally come up with a plan they think will work: Breaking the $450 million project into three phases...Highway 152 for many has been a popular route for truck drivers and commuters crossing the Valley from Highway 99 to Interstate 5 and over the Pacheco Pass into Gilroy and southern Santa Clara County.The Pacheco Pass has been upgraded over the last few years to the Highway 156 turnoff to Hollister where a flyover is being built to smooth out traffic flow. Also, if Proposition 1A is passed in November, it looks like the Pacheco Pass may be the eventual route for high-speed rail into the Bay Area.This plan for the Los Banos bypass by breaking it into three pieces could drive up the cost by the time it is finally completed. Each year the project is delayed will add $5 million to $10 million to the costs, experts say. But it will provide a lot of construction jobs that the Valley needs.Also, that section of 152 has been the site of many accidents, including fatalities, over the years. The growth of Los Banos has only worsened the problem. With a start date of 2013, the bypass should quickly start easing the congestion because the phases will be opened as soon as they are built.Most jurisdictions in the county have approved increases in transportation impact fees that developers pay to fund the bypass.There is really no downside to the Los Banos bypass. Let's get going. Fresno BeeBuilder files for Chapter 11 planWoodside Homes has subdivisions in Fresno area, South Valley...Sanford Naxhttp://www.fresnobee.com/business/story/832442.htmlThe worst home-building climate in decades is buffeting another developer, forcing Woodside Homes into bankruptcy court in Riverside. The company, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, has subdivisions throughout California, including three in Fresno and Clovis and five in Visalia and Tulare. A group of five insurance companies holding more than $155 million in notes filed an involuntary petition, asking a judge to force the builder into bankruptcy.Instead, Woodside agreed on Wednesday to file a Chapter 11 reorganization petition by Sept. 16. In the interim, the company agreed to operate in a normal manner without making any large transactions or selling any assets, said Jennifer Mercer, a company spokeswoman.She said creditors wanted a structured reorganization and weren't seeking to put Woodside, which has 500 employees, out of business. The company is listed in BigBuilderOnline as one of the top 10 private builders in the nation...Woodside is the latest builder to fall on hard times. Lafferty Homes of San Ramon and Dunmore Homes of Roseville left the Fresno marketplace, and Beazer Homes of Atlanta said it will stop building here Sept. 30.Statewide, builders are constructing a record-low number of homes in the midst of a deteriorating economy and a huge inventory of foreclosures. "It is challenging for any builders operating in this climate," said John Mahoney, who heads the Real Estate Institute at California State University, Fresno. "Home builders who are well-positioned with liquidity will be the ones to survive this downturn."Sacramento BeeSpawning salmon traumatized by fishing technique...Matt Weiserhttp://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/1197426.htmlFishermen are targeting salmon returning to spawn in the American River and other Central Valley streams, despite a virtual ban on all salmon fishing this year.Even worse, some anglers are using a technique called "flossing," intended to hook salmon in the body, fin or face. The method is considered unethical by many fishermen. It appears to slip through a loophole in regulations designed to protect salmon."They're traumatizing these big fish," said Alan Weingarten, a state Department of Fish and Game warden who has observed the practice on the American River.He said flossing is also happening on the Feather, Yuba and Sacramento rivers.Flossing is generally done for sport; most fish are returned to the river. Yet game regulators are upset that salmon are being harassed...Rules adopted in May ban anglers from keeping salmon from Central Valley rivers. The unprecedented emergency rules followed predictions of the worst salmon run in history this fall.Commercial and recreational salmon fishing at sea are also banned.However, officials did not ban catch-and-release salmon fishing. They urged anglers in a July 2 press release to "use a very conservative approach" and "refrain from any catch-and-release fishing that specifically targets salmon."......Salmon don't eat during their spawning run, but constantly open and close their mouths while parked, to breathe and clean their gills.Flossing is designed to take advantage of this behavior:..."If the practice continues … the harassment will cause some problems for the spawning family (of fish)," said Larry Barnes, tackle manager at Elkhorn Outdoor Sports...He said it is difficult to regulate because anglers can say they're not going after salmon...Studies have shown that routine catch-and-release fishing in the ocean kills about 15 percent of salmon caught. A similar estimate for in-river fishing has yet to be developed...Stockton RecordGeneral Plan lawsuit settlement draws specific criticismLively discussion precedes vote to postpone decision...David Sidershttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/A_NEWS/808300312STOCKTON - It was a rare scene Tuesday when, during consideration of Stockton's landmark General Plan, it was builders and developers, not environmentalists and slow-growth activists, who fidgeted in their seats at City Hall, jaws agape and eyes rolled.The City Council was meeting to consider settling a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club in a bid to undo the plan. The club said the General Plan's call for subdivisions at the city limits and for Stockton's population to about double by 2035 blessed sprawl and would harm the environment and the economic standing of downtown. And California Attorney General Jerry Brown, similarly concerned, had threatened to join the environmentalists in court.Stockton Mayor Ed Chavez opened the hearing by recounting his first meeting with Brown in March in Sacramento."The three of us, the city manager, the city attorney and I, went up and met with the attorney general," he said. "And I will share with you, as I've shared with others before, that that first meeting was not encouraging. He had our General Plan map laid out on his conference room table. He looked at it and he looked at us and he said, 'This map is bad.' "That meeting was followed by more meetings between City Manager Gordon Palmer and City Attorney Ren Nosky, and Brown and his staff, the two sides negotiating for months before making public on Aug. 22 terms of a proposed deal. It would require the council to consider a number of environmental protections, among them reducing greenhouse gas emissions, forcing construction of new homes to meet green building standards and amending the General Plan to ensure suburban growth is not "out of balance" with infill development.On Tuesday, Palmer and Nosky were recommending the deal. Developers and builders opposed it, saying the provisions were too burdensome and impractical, or were at least too uncertain to act on that night. They had lobbied council members over the weekend and early last week to put off the settlement's adoption to afford time for review.But Chavez forced the matter to a hearing. He supported the proposal, saying it would both allow for growth and help make Stockton green.One of the first to speak in opposition was attorney Steve Herum, who represented A.G. Spanos Cos., one of the city's largest and most influential developers."The first point is that I would respectfully ask on behalf of my clients that this matter be continued," said Herum, who also was representing the Martin Dairy and the Committee for Jobs, a committee he said was formed to address the matter at hand. "Issues of due process and fairness require us to take more time on this."The terms of the proposed settlement had only been made public Friday, Herum said.Second, he said, the settlement would not end litigation over the General Plan. A lawsuit by the Morada Area Association, a group of east San Joaquin County residents, remains in court."This would be different - it would be San Bernardino (San Bernardino County settled a dispute with Brown over its General Plan last year) - if indeed it made all the land-use challenges to the General Plan go away," he said."But it doesn't. You're buying a pig in a poke."The city would gain little by settling and has no reason to "run scared from the attorney general," he said. "With all due respect to the attorney general, let's not forget he did flunk the bar the first time he took it."Third, Herum said, the settlement would undo five years of work. City staff said in December, when the council adopted the General Plan, that the document was legally sound, and officials have said as much since. Nothing has changed, he said."If I were a client, I would be very unhappy about having my attorney and my staff advise me one way, you make a decision and then months later they turn around and say, 'No, it's really something else,' " he said. "That's not the way it's supposed to work."Reasons to delayAnd then he went nuclear. Not only would provisions of the proposed settlement have a "chilling effect" on business and increase the cost of housing, but they also would cause a "chain of events that's going to lead to urban decay," destroy neighborhoods and debilitate attempts to solve high unemployment and low high school graduation rates, he said..."What this agreement does is create a new policy in the city of Stockton, which is that all of our efforts will be directed to that downtown area, and if you're south of Charter you don't count, even though your needs may be as great, if not greater, than the downtown area," Herum said...Predictably, he had set Councilwoman Susan Eggman off.She tapped her finger on the dais and said the settlement would not undo the General Plan, only add "concrete policies that will actually put some teeth into the fluffy language we had."Furthermore, said Eggman, who cast the dissenting vote in the council's 6-1 adoption of the plan last year, "The things you're trying to say to scare council member Nabors about south Stockton just is not true." Infill housing, she said, would be spread across the city, not just downtown.Favoring the settlementThose who filled council chambers Tuesday were mostly of that mindset. On the other side - in favor of the settlement's adoption - were the Downtown Stockton Alliance, the Sierra Club and a representative of Brown. The questions raised by developers and builders would be addressed when the council considered implementing specific provisions of the settlement, not the settlement itself, they said...Postponing the vote...The council voted 4-2 to defer the matter until its next meeting, Sept. 9. Chavez and Eggman dissented. Councilman Steve Bestolarides was absent.State plans to audit Delta bond spending...The Recordhttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/A_NEWS/808300317SACRAMENTO - The state Controller's Office announced Friday that it will conduct an audit of San Joaquin Delta College's management of $250 million in voter-approved bond money.The audit was requested by state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden.In a letter to Delta administrators, Jeffrey Brownfield, chief of the Controller's Office Division of Audits, said he would examine whether bond proceeds were properly managed and spent, among other things.Delta trustees were told in June that they must cut $62.5 million worth of projects that were to have been funded by the 2004 Measure L bond.A satellite campus in Mountain House has been scaled back, and officials are considering significantly altering a proposed campus in Lodi, because there's not enough money left.Among other problems, the San Joaquin County civil grand jury reported in June that Delta trustees squandered millions when they decided to build that south county campus in Mountain House rather than Tracy.The college has blamed past consultants for underestimating the cost of a number of bond-funded construction projects.Inside Bay AreaDelta College board under more scrutiny...Mike Martinez, Tri-Valley Herald...8-29-08http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_10338035STOCKTON — It appears the San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees isn't out from under the microscope just yet.State Controller John Chiang's office is preparing to audit the board at the request of state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden.In a letter dated Friday, the college's vice president of business services was informed about a review of bond-money expenditures relating to the San Joaquin Delta College Facilities Master Plan...According to the letter, the primary objectives of the audit are to determine:· Whether Proposition 1D, the Measure L Bond Program, and other funding sources were properly and legally spent; · Whether bond proceeds and interest were accounted for properly, and not used to fund unauthorized projects; and · Whether the college adequately managed and monitored the bond programs and bond project managers...The audit team is also expected to examine the causes of any shortfalls and why costs exceeded budgeted amounts and if any projects were cancelled or delayed as a result of overspending. The audit is expected to begin Thursday.The announcement comes a little more than two weeks after Machado called for a review of the board."Delta Community College Trustees have disappointed the public,'' Machado said in a prepared statement. "The people deserve to know how the bond money was spent and this fiscal audit by Controller Chiang will provide that information and so we can resolve the issues and move forward with the much needed educational facilities.''The college is still bruised from a critical grand jury report... The board was crafting a response to the civil grand jury report claiming it wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and violated open government laws by discussing closed-session matters outside its meetings. On Tuesday, it sent the response back to staff for some "fine-tuning'' of the language before forwarding the document to the presiding judge.According to the grand jury report, which was released in June, at a closed-session board meeting on Feb. 9, 2006, the college's attorney and administrative team said a developer would be missing the deadline for delivery of letters of credit, resulting in a breach of contract. The board then discussed returning to a deal offered by the city of Tracy to put the campus on the corner of 11th Street and Chrisman Road.The day after the closed-session meeting, the report says, phone calls and a faxed letter indicated that one or more board members had relayed confidential information about the breach-of-contract' discussion to the developer, Gerry Kamilos, and his consultant, Dean Andal, the Republican nominee for the 11th Congressional District seat in November. Andal has denied receiving any closed-session information despite detailed journal entries from one board member saying Andal called him the night of the meeting.Two months later, on April 12, Kamilos donated $500 to Trustee Dan Parises' campaign for San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, according to campaign finance reports.At their regular meeting two weeks ago, board members and the public wanted someone to identify themselves as the source of the leak, but no one did.San Diego Union-TribuneReservoir's renovationSan Diego, water agency officials work to resolve concerns...Michele Clock http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080830-9999-1m30vicente.htmlA massive project to increase water storage at East County's San Vicente Reservoir has taken on added importance as the region copes with tightening water supplies.Starting Tuesday, the reservoir will close to the public for up to nine years so crews can complete what the San Diego County Water Authority is calling the largest dam raise in the country. The reservoir will continue to supply water to San Diego residents during construction, though boaters, wake-boarders and water-skiers will have to find somewhere else to go. San Diego city officials have questioned whether the region will have enough storage during the project and whether plans are adequate for maintaining water quality...The $568 million effort is part of a $1 billion-plus project by the water authority to create new emergency storage and pipeline connections if the region's imported water supply is cut off.When the project is complete, the reservoir will hold enough additional water to supply 40 percent of the county's population for a year in case of emergency or drought. The reservoir's capacity will more than double. In the meantime, the reservoir's water level will drop to about half-full so crews can raise the dam from 220 to 337 feet...San Diego's water supplies are already tight. Mayor Jerry Sanders last month declared a water emergency due in part to historic dry conditions in the areas from which San Diego imports its water, such as the Colorado River basin and Northern California. Since the beginning of this year, the region has seen a 30 percent cut in agricultural water supplies. Depending on pumping restrictions and this winter's rain and snowfall, the region may face further reductions and even mandatory water restrictions as early as spring, said John Liarakos, a spokesman for the water authority... The heart of the San Vicente project – placing concrete for the bigger dam – is expected to take about seven months. But with a list of other tasks including building a new marina and refilling the reservoir, the project could take until 2017, water authority officials said...