12-4-08

 12-4-08Merced Sun-StarUC growth cheered at hearingPublic can continue to comment on expansion through Jan. 5...MICHELLE HATFIELD, The Modesto Beehttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/578075.htmlMERCED -- Overwhelming support was expressed Tuesday night for the expansion of UC Merced and the development of a neighboring village.The statements came during a public hearing on a draft environmental impact report, which enumerates the effect of both projects on the surrounding environment, such as agricultural land, traffic, air pollution and noise.When development will lead to a significant negative impact, officials must show how they will minimize those effects to acceptable levels... The public hearing is a requirement of such projects, providing residents a chance to give input. People who were unable to attend Tuesday's meeting can comment via mail or e-mail through Jan. 5...The Army Corps of Engineers must approve UC Merced's expansion because the campus sits on federally protected wetlands. In the next several decades, the campus could enroll 25,000 students.Today, UC Merced has 2,700 students in its fourth year.The current development outline is much more satisfactory to the Corps."We've taken a lot and they've given a lot," said Nancy Haley, project director with the corps, about UC system officials.To view the draft EIR, go to http://lrdp.ucmerced.edu. To find out how to comment on plans, e-mailbsamuelson@ucmerced.edu or ucmerced@usace.army.mil; or visit www.spk.usace.army.mil/organizations/cespk-co/regulatory/PNs. SPECIAL REPORTSOWING HOPE: UC Merced's quest for a medical schoolUC Merced hopes to bring a medical school to the Valley...DEBORAH SCHOCH, Center for California Health Care Journalism and DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577472.htmlThe medical school would rise like a mirage from the cow pastures and almond groves of Merced County. It would be powered by one of the world's great research universities to serve one of the most doctor-poor regions in the state.As envisioned by its planners, a University of California medical school at Merced would produce a cadre of physicians poised to settle and practice here in the San Joaquin Valley. A large number of its students would come from rural communities. Many would look like the Latino and Asian-American patients awaiting them here in a region of more than 3 million people burdened by poverty and a scarcity of doctors. The goal is not to duplicate the UC system's five other medical campuses, but to offer a new, less expensive model of education geared for rural medicine and research, say the UC Merced officials behind the plan. "We're going to be different from the other UC medical schools," said biochemist Maria Pallavicini, founding dean of UC Merced's School of Natural Sciences and the point person in the proposed school's planning process. "Our structure's going to be different. We're not going to own a research hospital."Despite new delays and mounting financial challenges, Pallavicini and others remain determined to craft a School of Medicine that eventually would enroll nearly 400 medical students to help ease physician shortages in the Valley and throughout California.Those students would train in existing local medical centers and clinics instead of a pricey "Grey's Anatomy"-style teaching hospital. World-class specialists from other UC schools would rotate through the Merced campus or employ new technologies to teach students far from their classrooms. Students would be encouraged to train as primary care physicians as well as specialists, and to remain in the San Joaquin Valley, wedged between the Sierra and the coastal range at California's core.Health care would improve dramatically in this sprawling region of 27,280 square miles — larger than Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont combined — where agriculture is both the economic mainstay and a leading source of medical ills.It is an audacious vision with national ramifications for the treatment of poor and rural populations. It is a vision drawn up at an isolated campus of 2,700 students that's not even four years old. UC Merced won't hand out degrees to its first full undergraduate class until next spring.Storm clouds dim the visionIt is also a plan that may be derailed by a host of financial and political problems: worsening state budget woes, deep-seated social ills in the Valley and a national economy and health-care system both strained to their limits."Nobody denies that we need a medical school. But where's the money going to come from? Without money we can't do it," said UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang in an interview last week at the 104-acre campus seven miles from downtown Merced. Already, officials have moved back the projected year of the medical school's first entering class from 2013 to an undetermined date. Kang acknowledged that he is "not as optimistic as before as (to) when we can make it happen."Wall Street is helping drive that calendar. The fast-weakening economy is sapping money from stock portfolios of would-be donors and from UC's own endowment, which lost $1 billion, or 15% of its value, in the first nine months of 2008.Ever-darkening projections of state revenue already are wreaking massive cuts on state campuses. Potential medical students will probably find dwindling loan and fellowship money. Early this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a "fiscal emergency," saying that without legislative action the state would run out of cash by early spring. Founding dean driving med school plan...DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577508.htmlMaria Pallavicini has the best office on campus. She'll tell you so. As the dean of the school of natural sciences, she flipped a coin against the dean of engineering to determine who got which of the two dean suites in the science and engineering building at the new UC Merced campus. She won, and chose an office with wide views of the entire campus and a front-row seat to every early sunset, Pallavicini remains convinced she made the right choice. Since she moved in to the office, she has racked up another job title: vice provost for health sciences. Translation: it's her job to bring a medical school to UC Merced.When it comes to talking about the medical school, Pallavicini, a youthful 56, is a lot like Barack Obama – a visionary unfettered by obstacles. Her red jacket may scream power, but her words whisper hope.A world-class medical school will come to UC Merced. No doubt in her mind."Ultimately what we want is an independently accredited medical school for the valley," she said. "It is what the valley wants and what the valley deserves."Pallavicini is a relative newcomer to the Central Valley. She was raised in the Bay Area, in Walnut Creek, the daughter of first-generation parents from Poland and Hungary. She earned a BS degree from Berkeley in biochemistry, then a doctorate from the University of Utah in pharmacology.Before arriving at UC Merced in 2002 to take one of the top administrative roles in building the school's natural sciences program, she was a faculty member at UCSF.She has other ties to the UC system. Each of her three daughters graduated from one of its universities. The youngest has plans to apply to medical school. The eldest studied genetics at UC Santa Barbara, but decided to become a teacher instead because "she didn't want to work as hard as mom does," Pallavicini said. Her husband, Guenter Fischer, is an electrical engineering consultant.Pallavicini herself thinks broadly about science. The tall bookshelf on a wall to the right of her desk offers a glimpse into her mind: a vast collection of the journal "Nature;" a book entitled "A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements That Transformed Our Lives;" and two copies of "The Cell." Pallavicini says the key to a successful medical school is cross-pollination of research between genres on campus. That means more because she is still involved as a professor and researcher on campus herself. She teaches a graduate course each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning – "Cancer Genetics and Tumor Biology." In it, she explores with her students the mysteries of molecular aberrations in cancer, tumor development and tumor immunology. She says that the San Joaquin Valley is an interesting place for healthcare issues because it is both urban and rural. "There are a lot more funding opportunities out there for rural health than for urban underserved," she points out.Pallavicini is clearly focused on the planning for the medical school. She chaired the task force that created the medical school plan in 2004. She helped write the committee report and a white paper proposing the estsablishment of the school that was sent to the UC Merced chancellor. That began a series of discussions and the start of a business plan. The school is projected to enroll 32 students in 2013 but, Pallavicini said, after a contemplative pause, "there are a lot of considerations one takes into account when they think about that date and number." It is preliminary, very preliminary. When asked if the university is overreaching, Pallavicini was defiant. San Diego and Irvine started planning for medical schools early in their existence, she explained, and UC Merced is going about the same thing in a careful and deliberate way. Looking out the window of the office she won in the flip of a coin, she said, "If you don't have a vision and a plan for the future, then it is never going to happen." On the front lines, a call for reinforcementsOne doctor sees local med students practicing here...DEBORAH SCHOCH, Center for California Health Care Journalismhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577510.htmlThe man from the Congo came to Dr. Silvia Diego's Modesto clinic with seemingly straightforward symptoms: a fever, a cough. But what appeared to be a simple pneumonia did not ease as quickly as it should, and soon the man was on a hospital ventilator, his condition worsening fast. "I knew he needed a specialist. He needed a pulmonologist," said Diego, 43, chief medical officer for Golden Valley Health Centers, a not-for-profit network of 26 clinics in Merced and Stanislaus counties. So Diego contacted the pulmonologist on call. The doctor didn't come. The patient had Medi-Cal insurance, and the pulmonologist — like a number of other doctors in the valley — didn't take Medi-Cal. Diego is a slight woman, just 5 feet 2 inches tall, with dark hair pulled back from her expressive face. She typically speaks of her patients with passion, but when she remembers the man from the Congo, nearly five years later, her voice still swells with emotion. "I did call the pulmonologist personally, and asked him, ‘Please, can you come see the patient? I don't know what I'm doing with this patient. I know he needs help.'" After practicing family medicine for 14 years in the San Joaquin Valley, Diego is all too familiar with its shortage of specialists, especially those willing to treat the residents who rely on state Medi-Cal insurance for the poor. She has seen Medi-Cal patients with a fracture transported to another hospital because an orthopedist could not be located to treat them. She used to struggle to find specialists to see children in need of simple procedures -- tonsils removed, tubes placed in ears — who were forced to seek treatment two hours away. She negotiated with a group of specialists who now work with her young Medi-Cal patients in the Modesto clinic.A native of tiny San Joaquin, near Fresno, and the daughter of farm workers, Diego would have been a likely candidate if UC Merced was around in the 1980s. Instead, she did her undergraduate work at Cal State Fresno and went to Stanford University School of Medicine as a National Health Service Corps scholar, receiving three years of tuition in exchange for her promise to return to the Valley for three years to practice. The federal program grants awards to students who agree to work in a region under served by physicians. Diego would have returned anyway, she said. She strongly backs plans for a UC Merced medical school, saying it could mean more primary care doctors and specialists for Valley communities. She hopes that some students will train right here in her clinics. "We certainly currently feel that there is definitely a double standard -- that in urban areas, patients may be receiving different care than our patients here in the Valley." As Diego saw patients at a Golden Valley clinic in Modesto in late November, late last month, a nurse noted that she has cared for four or five generations in a single family. Two bulletin boards outside the examination rooms are covered with baby pictures that resemble hundreds of tiles in a pastel mosaic. "My passion is delivering babies. I love to deliver babies. In the middle of the night. In the day," Diego said, her face glowing. She has four children of her own; the oldest is 24, the youngest, 3. As a primary care physician, she cares for the dying, too. That is why she called the pulmonologist repeatedly and offered to pay out of her own pocket for him to come treat the man from the Congo. "Unfortunately, the provider didn't come," she recalled. She appealed to hospital administrators and the insurance company that provided the patient's Medi-Cal coverage. But she couldn't find help. "The patient did unfortunately die, after five days in the hospital," she said. An autopsy would reveal the man, weakened by tuberculosis, was suffering from Valley Fever, a disease caused by fungi imbedded in arid alkaline soils like those in the San Joaquin Valley. In a letter to hospital administrators, Diego would question how the man could have been left without expert care. "The sad part to me was that he was a 38-year-old, he had a teenager and he had a 10-month-old baby. He just didn't have access," Diego said recently. "It took me three weeks before I could walk into that hospital without crying." How a UC Merced school of medicine would differ from traditional urban medical schools...Deborah Schochhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577516.html1. Many traditional schools own or operate large urban teaching hospitals where medical students receive clinical training. The UC Merced School of Medicine plans to use existing hospitals and health clinics in the San Joaquin Valley, significantly reducing start-up costs.2.The traditional medical school model is often geared toward specialization, reflected in its faculty, curriculum and clinical training. Besides educating specialists, UC Merced plans to put more emphasis on primary care and the practice of rural medicine, hoping graduates will remain in the Valley to help meet its health care needs. 3. A number of medical schools in California and nationally draw students from across the country. UC Merced hopes to draw a large share of its students from the valley, and plans to work with local school districts to enlarge the potential student pool and increase its diversity.4. Some medical schools have large faculties flush with experts in sub-specialties. UC Merced hopes to reduce costs and complement its own faculty by having experts from other UC medical schools rotate through its program and teach classes long distance using new technologies.WWAMI: A rural medicine success story...Deborah Schochhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577517.htmlThe WWAMI consortium, started in 1971, has grown into a nationally acclaimed rural medicine program named after its five member states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Based at the University of Washington in Seattle, it emphasizes primary care and decentralized training similar to the approach favored by UC Merced. More than 60 percent of its graduates have stayed to practice within the five states.Dr. Dan Hunt, who headed the consortium for 17 years, is now senior director of accreditation services at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C., which accredits all U.S. medical schools. A longtime advocate of training more rural doctors, he cautions that launching such programs can face an uphill battle. "The rural areas, because they're smaller, they don't have the voice and they don't have the visibility," Hunt said. "The woman who needs to drive a long ways to be treated by an obstetrician just doesn't have that voice that the media can pick up and magnify."Yet these programs can have an enormous impact, training doctors who will seriously consider rural practices rather than more lucrative specialty posts in cities, he said.Hunt urges UC planners to pay special attention to who they admit to the new school. Research has shown that medical students are more likely to stay in rural areas if they want to practice there and are exposed to role models who are themselves rural physicians.Audio slideshow: UC Merced Dean Maria Pallavicini, Dr. Silvia Diego...Anacleto Rapping, Center for California Health Care Journalismhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/577545.htmlTip List: Students who chose long walk over expensive permit may get the boothttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/578077.htmlThe drive down Lake Road toward UC Merced is among the most scenic in Merced County. Rolling pastures on the right, striking ranch homes on the left -- it's quite beautiful. The UC itself is stunning, with architectural marvels jutting into the sky. Perhaps that's why the makeshift parking lot on the corner of Bellevue and Lake roads sticks out like a ... um ... mucky parking lot across the street from a shimmering new campus. Tipster Greg Moore is one voice of a growing chorus or residents concerned about the burgeoning lot, which allows students to park at the price of a long walk to class. In the past weeks, I've heard everything from legal and garbage issues to concerns that somebody might be living in an RV on the property.I drove out to inspect. All the tipsters who contacted me had legitimate concerns. I saw litter on the ground, cars parked in front of the stop sign on Bellevue and, yes, an RV in the rear that appears to house occupants.Perhaps the most troubling problem is the lack of light. With a campus operating nearly all day and night, students who choose to make that walk in the evening are doing so without any light. I wondered, "Is there any oversight?"After a conversation with campus spokeswoman Tonya Luiz and a phone call to the UC police department, it was clear I was parking at the wrong curb. Luiz said the property wasn't owned by the UC; where students park off campus is beyond the school's control, out of its jurisdiction.So, if not the school that all of these students are attending, how about the owner of property? Luiz gave me the name of the man who represents the owners, Sid Lakireddy. Lakireddy is the president of Everest Properties in Berkeley. He said he was unaware that the lot was a problem. "I didn't kick the parkers off because it was just college students, but if the community is complaining then that can change," said Lakireddy. "I would rather people not park there than me make improvements to the property. I am not charging them, and I won't incur any liability."Lakireddy said if he feels it's a problem, he could have the parkers kicked out within a month.If the lot is blocked, are there options for these students?Luiz said yes. The on-campus parking permits are $270 for nine months.The UC currently has parking at Merced College with a free shuttle to the UC. But, as she notes, as long as they can park closer, "students will be students."WHAT'S WRONG: Makeshift parking lot on Lake and Bellevue roads has no oversight, and with the growing number of users it could be a hazard.WHAT'S BEING DONE: The company that represents the owner of the property could close the parking lot to the students.WHO'S INVOLVED: Sid Lakireddy, president of Everest PropertiesModesto BeeEnd of road for Measure SBackers abandon recount in the face of unchanging tally...Tim Moranhttp://www.modbee.com/local/story/519901.htmlProponents of a half-cent road tax have admitted defeat.The Yes on S Committee met late Tuesday and decided to stop the recount after one day and let the results of the Nov. 4 election stand. In the final vote canvass, Measure S came within a quarter of 1 percentage point of the 66.67 percent vote it needed to pass."We didn't see enough opportunity of movement going forward," said county Supervisor Jeff Grover, a proponent of the sales tax measure. "We are satisfied that the count as certified is an appropriate number."The half-cent sales tax proposal would have provided $700 million for road and transportation projects over 20 years.The Yes on S Committee paid $1,875 for the one-day recount, along with $4,000 for a pair of Sacramento election experts to monitor the process. All the money came from private donations, Grover said.Other recount observers Tuesday were a mix of proponents and opponents of the sales-tax measure.After several hours of staring at computer screens to match voter signatures with registration records and hand-counting ballots from precincts, not much had changed in the vote totals.There were a few challenged ballots: a rejected provisional ballot from a voter registered in Stanislaus County but listing a Merced address on the ballot envelope; an "undervoted" ballot with a slight ink mark on the "yes" bubble; and a ballot that appeared to be "overvoted," with the "yes" bubble filled in and then scribbled over, and the "no" bubble filled in.Stanislaus County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Lee Lundrigan examined each challenge and made a ruling as observers and hired election experts watched and took notes.Determining the intent of the voter was the goal. For instance, the slight ink mark on the undervoted ballot shouldn't count, Lundrigan told the observers, because the rest of the votes on the ballot were boldly inked in. That indicates the intent of the voter was to leave the Measure S bubble blank, she said. "They put their pen there, but they didn't fill it in," she said.The ballot that appeared to be overvoted is a "no" vote, Lundrigan said, because the "yes" vote was clearly scribbled over.But the number of questions and challenges was small and nowhere near the number needed to push Measure S into the winner's column."I think we are seeing just some very, very minor changes," said Bill Bassitt, chief executive officer of the Stanislaus County Economic Development and Workforce Alliance and treasurer of the Yes on S committee. "There's no indication of major movement here."Grover agreed. "There have been one or two changes, but most have been exactly right," he said.Bassitt said Stanislaus County's election system works very well, and that's reassuring."It seems to me that the integrity of the system has been proven," he said as four panels of vote counters and almost a dozen recount observers took a break Tuesday.As for the future of the the transportation sales tax, Grover said the economic climate isn't right to try again very soon. Several cities agreed to set aside their own sales tax measures for public safety to push Measure S, Grover said."The discussion should take a back seat to what the cities need to do," he said.Leaky pipe caused sewage spill into Modesto's Dry Creek86,400 gallons discharged...Garth Stapleyhttp://www.modbee.com/local/story/521398.htmlRaw sewage from an alley pipe seeped about a mile down Modesto's Dry Creek for about two weeks before neighbors noticed and contacted city crews, who stopped the flow Tuesday.An estimated 86,400 gallons, about the same as would fit in six average-sized backyard pools, escaped from a private pipe in an alley after a blockage formed in a nearby city sewage line, said John Rivera, regulatory compliance supervisor with the city's public works.A storm drain close to the alley near Pleasant Street, just east of downtown, collected the flow and discharged it into nearby Dry Creek, Rivera said. Some of the sewage was absorbed into the ground. The spill flowed down the creek past Beard Brook Park.City crews cleaned the alley, said Sonya Harrigfeld, Stanislaus County's environmental resources director. She is waiting for test results from Dry Creek to "confirm that the cleanup was appropriate," she said.City and county crews posted signs warning people to keep out and to have no contact with the small amount of water in Dry Creek, which draws few people in cold weather. But resident Cesar Ribera said no signs went up around the alley where the leak originated, in a neighborhood with children. "It's pretty nasty," Ribera said.Stanislaus County environmental officials said they did not believe the spill was a health hazard.Last week, about one-eighth of a mile upstream, soap created a nontoxic foam in the creek. Investigators have yet to pinpoint the cause of that spill, Rivera said.The sewage flowed from a "clean-out" opening provided for homeowners to use a snake tool to clear private lines. Someone had removed a heavy plastic cap over the opening, Rivera said.Otherwise, the grease-and-debris blockage in the larger city line would have caused the sewage to bubble up from a city manhole cover, he said.City officials paid a $152,000 fine to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board for allowing 1.2 million gallons of untreated sewage into Dry Creek in October 2004. They initially blamed vandals, but admitted nine months later that they had known for seven months that poor maintenance was the cause.Fresno BeeConservation group sues for walrus protection...DAN JOLINGhttp://www.fresnobee.com/640/v-printerfriendly/story/1053039.htmlA conservation group is going to court to force the federal government to consider adding the Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Wednesday for failing to act on a petition seeking protection for walruses under the Endangered Species Act. Walruses are threatened by global warming that melts Arctic sea ice, according to the group, one of the parties that successfully petitioned to list polar bears as threatened. The group also has filed petitions to protect Arctic seals. The walrus petition was filed in February. The Fish and Wildlife Service was required by law to decide by May 8 whether the petition had merit, which would trigger a more thorough review and a preliminary decision after 12 months. The agency missed the deadline. Rebecca Noblin, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the delay would harm walruses. "Every day that goes by without protecting the walrus, we're emitting more greenhouse gases, accelerating the ice melt," Noblin said. "In addition to the climate change, the other main threat is oil and gas development that continues to go forward without any consultation regarding walrus," she said. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Bruce Woods said Wednesday the agency anticipates making a decision on the petition soon but has limited resources. Decisions on endangered species listings are driven by litigation, he said, forcing the agency to rank actions by court order rather than species need. Global warming is blamed for Arctic sea ice shrinking to record low levels. The National Snow and Ice Data Center said summer sea ice in 2008 reached the second lowest level, 1.74 million square miles, since satellite monitoring began in1979. The loss was exceeded only by the 1.65 million square miles in 2007. Like polar bears, listed as a threatened species in May, walruses depend on sea ice to breed and forage. Walruses dive from ice over the shallow outer continental shelf in search of clams and other benthic creatures. Females and their young traditionally use ice as a moving diving platform, riding it north as it recedes in spring and summer, first in the northern Bering Sea, then into the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast. Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, shared with the Russian Far East, for the last two years receded well beyond the outer continental shelf over water too deep for walruses to dive to reach clams. In the fall of 2007, herds congregated on Alaska and Siberia shores until ice re-formed. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, warming sea temperatures and sea ice loss may also be reducing walrus prey at the bottom of the ocean. The group hopes a listing could slow plans for offshore petroleum development. Oil companies in February bid on 2.7 million acres in the Chukchi Sea. Other lease sales are planned. The Fish and Wildlife Service, along with its Russian counterparts, has nearly completed a comprehensive population count of walruses. The numbers are anticipated in the coming weeks, possibly by the end of the year, Woods said. Sacramento BeeAnother home builder falls...Jim Wassermanhttp://www.sacbee.com/103/story/1447340.htmlThe prolonged housing downturn has claimed a new casualty, Chicago-based Kimball Hill Homes, a Sacramento and north San Joaquin Valley home builder since 1995.The firm announced Tuesday it is going out of business.The announcement came eight months after the privately held, medium-size builder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It builds houses in Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and Stockton. "We're going to complete any homes that have been started," said company spokeswoman Anita-Marie Laurie. "If you are under contract to have a new home built and we have not begun construction, we will not be able to continue building it. Those people will get back their deposits."Laurie said the business aims to liquidate its assets and shut down in 15 months. Ten-year warranties will be honored by third parties, she said.Kimball Hill, founded in 1969 in suburban Chicago, is the newest corporate failure to rock a Sacramento-area building industry that has already seen several bankruptcies, division closings and massive layoffs as the housing market worsened in 2008.New-home sales are believed to be at 20-year lows in the region. Home construction starts in California are the lowest since the state started keeping records in 1954, the building industry maintains."It's just a sad closing to a pretty long chapter. The conditions for housing right now are just brutal," said Mike Paris, former Sacramento division president for Kimball Hill. Paris recently became an executive with Sacramento-based Inter-Cal Real Estate Corp.Kimball Hill sold 100 homes from January through October in Sacramento County. It ranks 16th for sales in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence of Costa Mesa. The firm also built in Merced and Modesto."Their footprint is in areas that have been particularly hard hit by the downturn," said Dean Wehrli, vice president of consulting firm Sullivan Real Estate Advisors. "It's not uncommon. That's where all the new building was going on. That's where all the people were moving."Nationally, Kimball Hill worked Sun Belt markets in California, Nevada, Texas and Florida, as well as Illinois. The firm ranked as the nation's 20th most successful builder in 2007, with 3,246 sales, according to Builder Online."I always thought of them as a good company, a little above average in terms of their products and homes," said Wehrli.Tuesday's announcement capped a harsh year for the firm, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April, then lost its founder, David Hill, to cancer in July.Hill addressed the North State Building Industry in November 2007, telling builders that 2008 could be a terrible year for the industry if economic conditions did not improve.Other significant industry stumbles this year:• Utah-based Woodside Homes, which had a major presence in the capital region, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September. Locally, it still ranks 18th for sales.• John Rynen and Christo Bardis, owners of Mather-based Reynen & Bardis Communities, have each filed for personal bankruptcy protection. Rynen filed in April. Bardis followed in October. Their company's debts total nearly $1 billion.• Granite Bay-based Dunmore Homes said in February it was liquidating assets and closing. Dunmore filed bankruptcy in November 2007.• California highway contractor C.C. Meyers filed for personal bankruptcy protection in August over $40 million in debts related to his 1,200-acre Winchester Country Club residential project near Auburn.• SunCal Bickford Ranch LLC filed for bankruptcy in November. The partnership on a 1,942-acre residential development near Penryn claimed it couldn't go forward or pay bills after the implosion of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers. My View: Delta water plan is key to California's future...Tom Zuckerman. Tom Zuckerman is the special projects manager of the Central Delta Water Agency. Zeke Grader is the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1446968.htmlThis month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release a draft plan to protect the endangered Delta smelt, which lives only in the Sacramento-San Joaqin River Delta. Last year, a court order to protect the smelt drew protests from water users south of the Delta who are concerned about their water supply. We sympathize, because we also understand the importance of water.We represent, respectively, farmers in the Delta and California's commercial salmon fishermen. Our communities depend on water. Healthy rivers produce healthy salmon runs, sustaining fishermen, their families and fishing communities. Delta farmers also depend on healthy rivers.When others divert too much water from the ecosystem, Delta farmers find their crops damaged by salty water intruding from the bay and the salty San Joaquin River drainage discharges that collect in the South Delta, as a result of the operation of the export pumps. For the past five decades, we have seen steady increases in the amount of water pumped from the Delta – to record levels in recent years. Today, as a direct result, the entire Delta ecosystem is collapsing. In addition to the smelt, some salmon runs, steelhead, sturgeon and other fish are threatened by extinction.This damage is no surprise. The massive pumps in the Delta divert more water than is pumped at any single location in the nation.State and federal agencies ignored the Delta's collapse and failed to act when science showed its cause. That's when a federal court stepped in and ordered the federal government to prepare a new plan to protect the smelt under the Endangered Species Act.Limitations on Delta pumping can protect more than just this vulnerable fish. The plan can also help fishermen and farmers.The futures of our communities are at stake. This year, California's salmon fishery was closed for the first time in state history, putting thousands out of work and costing California's economy a quarter of a billion dollars. The fall run of chinook salmon in the Bay-Delta system is the most important in the state and is the backbone of our commercial and recreational fishery. Unfortunately, the fall run has suffered the same collapse as the Delta smelt. If agencies fail to protect the smelt, we could lose the salmon fishing industry forever, damaging communities throughout the Central Valley, the Delta and along much of the California coast.Delta farmers are also deeply concerned. The State Water Project has indicated that it intends to divert even more water in the future – violating water quality standards and putting the future of Delta farmers at risk. Extensive scientific investigation in the past several years has reached a clear conclusion. We have exceeded the amount of water we can safely pump from the Delta.Recently, the governor's Delta Vision Task Force recommended significantly stronger standards to guarantee more fresh water for the bay and Delta, especially during dry and average years. These conclusions raise an obvious question. How can we restore our salmon fishery, protect the bay, save farmers in the Delta, and meet our water needs?Fortunately, we know the answer. By dramatically increasing efforts to maximize water conservation, to recycle wastewater, and to integrate groundwater replenishment and stormwater management, we can provide water for California's future. By working together, we can protect the futures of the smelt, salmon fishermen, Delta farmers and the millions of Californians who receive water from the Delta.The catalyst for this new direction is the Delta smelt, but the stakes are far higher. The future of the largest estuary on the West Coast is at stake. We urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to require adequate protections for the smelt, reflecting the latest scientific results – thereby also providing a safety net for fishing and Delta farming communities. Stockton RecordChosen watchers descend on regionConservancy board meets in Calaveras...Dana M. Nicholshttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081204/A_NEWS/812040341/-1/A_NEWS14MURPHYS - This is where water comes from, but not much political power.And that's why California's Sierra Nevada Conservancy exists and is meeting this week in the midst of the vast Sierra Nevada Region.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed the Sierra Nevada Conservancy in 2004 as a way to protect "the environmental, economic and social well-being" of the region. Schwarzenegger and other leaders figured it was in the interest of the larger state to set up a special body to look after the region.That's because almost two-thirds of the state's drinking and irrigation water comes from these mountains, even though they only make up about 25 percent of the state's land and are home to only 1.5 percent of the state's population. In other words, state officials don't want uncontrolled wildfires, leaking septic tanks and poorly planned development in the mountains to degrade the water the rest of the state drinks.And that gives Mother Lode counties including Calaveras a chance to leverage a little more political power and money out of Sacramento. Calaveras County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Wilensky, for example, is on the Sierra Nevada Conservancy board and has used his experience to build relationships with Sacramento power brokers. Today, he and state Sen. Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto, will make a joint presentation on future funding for the conservancy.The quarterly meetings rotate among the 22 counties in the region, which means it likely will be a half decade or more before the board returns to Calaveras County.So, this week's event is a chance for Calaveras officials to showcase their achievements - such as a recent compact and pedestrian-friendly mixed-use residential and commercial development in downtown Murphys - while making pitches for more money to address the economic stagnation that threatens efforts to protect the environment.So far, admit conservancy officials and other regional advocates, the money flowing in relatively has been small and focused mostly on water issues rather than infrastructure and the economy."It's more money than the Sierra's had awarded in the past," said Katherine Evatt of the Foothill Conservancy, an Amador County-based group that advocates for conserving the region's natural resources. Evatt said she was among those who lobbied for creation of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy."Just having the structure in place will allow more money to come into the range," she said.And while Sierra Nevada Conservancy board members and others had lunch Wednesday and later toured sites including Murphys, the proposed Arnold Rim Trail near Arnold, and several forestry and carbon-trading projects, they also were having quiet talks with each other on how to lobby for bigger dollars to address the region's infrastructure and forest management issues.Wilensky said that he, fellow Sierra Nevada Conservancy leaders, and representatives of various federal agencies Friday will put together a plan for projects that could be part of an infrastructure and economic stimulus package expected soon after Barack Obama is sworn in as president in January.Meanwhile, the region likely is to get more modest amounts of aid approved during today's Sierra Nevada Conservancy board meeting.Among the items on today's agenda are a proposal to fund a $270,000 study on how Amador County could use the treated wastewater from sewage plants to irrigate crops or supply industrial users. The goal is the study would then provide a model that could help other Sierra counties and cities to make use of recycled wastewater.Another item up for approval today would fund $98,700 for teacher trainings, field trips and educational materials needed to educate 10,000 school children in Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties on topics including water management, wastewater treatment, native plants, and the life cycles of fish and other creatures living in waterways.San Francisco ChronicleCondors, Fire, Energy and Extinction...Peter Fimrite, Village Greenhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=50&entry_id=33242There seems to be more action these days in the area of wildlife management, forest health, alternative energy and global warming. Or maybe people are just talking more. Could it be that, along with a new president, a new attitude is emerging? Or is it just that the environmental community is standing up after eight years of, well, sitting down?The news is both good and bad.On the good front, California condors got an apparent reprieve from lead poisoning this week when environmentalists and the state settled a lawsuit over the use of lead ammunition by hunters. The California Department of Fish and Game and the California Fish and Game Commission agreed to extend limits on the use of bullets containing lead to all depredation hunting throughout the condor's range. Studies have shown that the lead shot in carcasses left by hunters is often ingested by the giant vulture, causing reproductive problems and sometimes killing the endangered bird. A new report by the United States Forest Service on the status of California's forests is a mixed bag. The agency's Forest Inventory and Analysis Report states, among other things, that the state is surprisingly heavily forested, with 19 million acres of the state's 100 million acres of forest under public management. Some 13 million acres are privately held, and much of that land is used for logging. The inventory, which is released every five years, states that most housing growth over the past decade has been on the edge of forested lands and open space. Insects, diseases, air pollution and fire are also taking a toll, with an average of more than 200,000 acres of forested land burning between 2001 and 2005.State Senator Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, was hoping for good things when she introduced legislation this week designed to encourage more production of solar power. Senate Bill 7 would compensate residential electric utility customers who participate in the state's solar program, known as the California Solar Initiative, for all the power they generate from solar panels. Besides subsidies for installing photovoltaic panels, residents are now compensated only for the amount of energy they use.And Friends of the Earth announced this week that they are mobilizing for a fight against the resurgence of nuclear power, a source of energy for which many, including President-Elect Barack Obama, have expressed at least some support. The first order of business, say activists for the organization, is to stop President Bush from opening up Nevada's proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump.Meanwhile, global warming is believed to have claimed its first victim in Australia. Biologists and biodiversity experts claim that a white possum native to the Daintree forest in Australia has not been spotted there since 2005. The lemuroid possum, native to mountain forests north of Queensland, may have died off as a result of record high temperatures that year, according to the experts. Santa Cruz SentinelScientist hired by county to investigate chromium answers allegations...Shanna McCordhttp://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_11135874DAVENPORT -- A handful of Davenport residents have asked the county to replace the environmental scientist hired to investigate chromium 6 over concerns with his past work for industry. The scientist, Kurt Fehling, says he's been up-front with county officials about his job history and believes there's no reason to doubt his integrity or objectivity.Fehling was brought on as an independent contractor by the county Environmental Health Department in October to conduct tests related to chromium 6 as a counterbalance to tests being done simultaneously by the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District.The air district discovered unhealthy levels of the cancer-causing contaminant had been emitted by the 100-year-old Cemex plant in air tests performed from June to August, and has since continued to collect air samples to ensure the cement factory has gotten a handle on the problem.So far, tests by Fehling and the air district have turned out similar results.Fehling has been accused by Santa Cruz resident Nancy Calhoun of favoring industry and having professional ties with the scientist who was an expert witness for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in the famed chromium case that inspired the movie "Erin Brockovich." Calhoun pulled her children out of school in Davenport after the chromium 6 discovery.Calhoun said she searched the Internet for information on Fehling and found he has a professional relationship with Dr. Dennis Paustenbach, the toxicology expert who testified on behalf of PG&E when the company was sued in 1996 by residents of Hinkley for allowing poisonous chromium to leach into the groundwater. Fehling and Paustenbach worked together at ChemRisk -- a scientific consulting firm with offices around the country that specializes in risk assessment -- when Paustenbach was accused of tampering with a report done by a Chinese scientist showing there are nominal health effects from drinking or eating chromium 6. Fehling, a spokesman for ChemRisk at the time, defended the report in an interview with The Scientist in August 2006, but says he had nothing to do with the research or putting the report together. In fact, he said he's never even read the report.Fehling resigned from the company in March to pursue independent consulting work."I'd like the county to hire someone else to oversee and review the studies Fehling's done," Calhoun said. "He has no place on a taxpayer-funded study like this. It's a conflict of interest."A county health official praised Fehling as "a stand-up guy" and said the department was fully briefed on his work history before hiring him in October to test the air, soil and surfaces inside Pacific Elementary School in Davenport. Steve Schneider, the county's environmental health director, said he is confident in Fehling's work, and will not ask him to step down in face of the community's worries."It's not an issue in my mind," Schneider said, pointing out that the data collected is all sent to a lab for analysis and that Cemex has hired its own consultant to double check the data.Fehling and Schneider will attend tonight's Pacific Elementary School board meeting to answer questions from the community and explain Fehling's relationship with Paustenbach.Fehling, who has a biology degree from Southwest Missouri State University, said his most significant science projects have been done with public regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the city of Los Angeles, though he has done extensive work with private companies as well."I'm one of those nerdy scientists at heart," Fehling said. "All I have is my reputation, and I'm going to guard that. I'm here to help with the science, and I want to help the county and air district collect the appropriate data."I welcome anyone to review our work."Noel Bock, a Davenport resident and principal at Pacific Elementary, has received some e-mails from parents concerned about the allegations around Fehling.She said she's withholding judgment of Fehling until hearing him speak tonight."I don't hold anyone guilty by association," Bock said. "All of this concerns me, but if the county stands by him, then I'm pretty willing to trust the county. I'll let Kurt speak for himself."SantaCruz.comCalifornia Salmon and Trout Imperiled Coho salmon in Santa Cruz's backyard said at risk of extinction in 50 years...Traci Hukill...12-3-08 http://www.santacruz.com/News/2008/12/03/California_Trout_And_Salmon_ImperiledTwo years ago UC Davis biologist Peter Moyle set out to document the condition of California’s salmon and trout. The findings took him by surprise.“Basically, two things impressed me,” says Moyle. “One was how many fish were in trouble. I had a feeling things were not good, but I didn’t realize collectively how many were in serious trouble. “The second thing that surprised me, though, is how many of these fish are hanging in there.” Moyle’s research, commissioned by the sportfishing group California Trout and summarized in SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis, found that if present trends continue, 65 percent of California’s native trout and salmon will be extinct within 100 years. Moyle and his fellow researchers applied seven criteria to each of the state’s 32 salmonids (a family that includes trout) and came up with an index. On a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being “extinct” and 5 being healthy, 20 of the fish scored a 2 or lower. Only five scored a 4 or 5. The state’s 12 salmon species are under particular pressure; 83 percent of them could vanish in the next century. “Only two populations of Chinook are at low risk of extinction, but even these are declining,” Moyle told reporters at the Nov. 18 press conference announcing the results. “At the end of the century they’ll be curiosities.” On the other hand, Moyle points out, most of the fish still persist in their native range, albeit in small pockets. “Like the steelhead in Southern California—that’s truly amazing,” he says. “So the fact that these fish are still maintaining marginal populations in so many areas tells you conservation efforts are worthwhile.” California Trout is being careful to relate the findings to human self-interest and to supply suggestions for how government agencies—specifically the Department of Fish and Game—can act to preserve salmonids. “At its core, this report and its findings are really about cold, clean water—absolute requirements for healthy fisheries, but also absolute requirements for our very own livelihoods,” says California Trout CEO Brian Stranko. “The recent Klamath agreement [to remove four dams] and the coming restoration of the San Joaquin [River] all provide hope: we can engage in more large-scale restoration projects, and we can adapt our land use practices—how we farm, how we graze cattle—but we need to start doing this right now.” He adds that California also needs a robust DFG. “We understand that DFG has budget challenges in an economic downturn, but we also understand that if we lose fish, we lose valuable inputs to our economy.” The response from DFG has been a deafening silence that suggests either a lack of enthusiasm for the report or the need for department-wide training in speed-reading. A statement by DFG Director Donald Koch on Nov. 18 said this: “We look forward to reading the 100-plus-page report ‘SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis,’ released by California Trout today. We thank California Trout for their dedication to California’s native fish species. We appreciate their support and look forward to engaging them and other stakeholders in finding solutions to further our efforts to conserve the state’s valuable fish and wildlife resources.” Bleak Outlook for Coho Of the three salmonids rated a 1—meaning highly vulnerable to extinction in the next 50 years—the Central California Coast coho historically had the broadest range, extending from Punta Gorda to the San Lorenzo. The others, pink and chum salmon, exist only in northern California and never in historically large numbers. Coho watchers got a sour surprise earlier this year when adults came back to spawn in pitiful numbers that represented a 70 percent decline from previous years. In Scott Creek—at the southern end of the fish’s range—just 11 fish returned to spawn, and only one was female. Sean Hayes, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, says it’s too early to tell what the coho return will be like this year. It takes a good, healthy rain to breach the sandbar at the end of creeks like Scott and Waddell so the coho that have been feeding in the ocean can make it back upstream to spawn. Hayes says that usually happens in mid-December, with the first serious storm of the season. “We’re probably expecting somewhere on the order of 50 fish if things are mediocre to slightly poor to 100 if things go really well,” he says. “A good year of coho in the creek is 300 or more fish. Two hundred we’re happy with, and 100 we can get by with. And less than that and we’re worried.”Los Angeles TimesBan on hunting with lead ammunition in California condor territory is expandedThe Condor Preservation Act has barred the use of lead in killing big game, but under a settlement between environmentalists and state wildlife officials, it also will apply to non-game species...Louis Sahagunhttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-condors4-2008dec04,0,5774251,print.storyA ban on hunting with lead ammunition within the California condor's 2,385-square-mile range will be expanded to prohibit its use in the shooting of small nuisance animals, according to a settlement announced Wednesday between environmentalists and state wildlife authorities.The Condor Preservation Act already forbids lead for killing big game such as deer, antelope, bear and bighorn sheep, and non-game species such as feral pigs and coyotes within their range. The settlement reached by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity and California Department of Fish and Game aimed to clarify rules regarding shooting of smaller pests.Of particular concern, Fish and Game a year ago announced a new policy requiring that all permits issued for shooting nuisance animals in condor territory include a requirement for using non-toxic ammunition. But the department's regulatory arm, the California Fish and Game Commission, had not yet changed state regulations regarding allowable ammunition for such depredation killings.Under terms of the settlement, the commission has agreed to consider prescribing a similar regulation against using the toxic metal for hunting of small mammals such as rabbits, opossums and tree squirrels, said Adam Keats, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity. "With this settlement, which still requires court approval, we've tied up the remaining loose ends in state hunting laws when it comes to toxic ammo in condor country," Keats said.Scientists have determined that lead poisoning from bullets is one of the leading killers of the majestic scavengers, which ingest the toxic heavy metal while feasting on the carcasses of hunted animals and gut piles in their territory.Exposure to lead was cited as a key factor in the near extinction of the vulture-like bird with a 9 1/2 -foot wingspan. By the time all the wild condors were rescued in the 1980s for a captive breeding program, only a few dozen remained.Some biologists, however, believe that the ban on lead does not go far enough. "Until the supply of lead ammunition is completely choked off, it will be really hard to ensure the safety of condors," said Noel Snyder, a retired field biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "That is because lead will continue to come in as people hunt around the edges of their territory."North County TimesVALLEY CENTER: Egg farm warned over water quality violation...CHRIS BAGLEYhttp://nctimes.com/articles/2008/12/03/news/inland/vc/zb72462bf8685d17888257514007dea7f.prtEnvironmental regulators are threatening fines against one of North County's largest farms, saying it hasn't done enough to prevent chicken manure and contaminated water from flowing onto neighbors' property and into nearby waterways.The California Regional Water Quality Control Board warned Armstrong Farms in a Nov. 21 letter that fines of $1,000 a day and criminal prosecution may follow if the company doesn't act to contain runoff. Inspectors said they didn't see contaminated water leaving Armstrong's egg ranch in Valley Center, near the intersection of North Lake Wohlford and Paradise Mountain roads, during an inspection in late October, but they said they saw evidence of recent runoff.The state's letter also follows six similar warnings that San Diego County agricultural officials issued to Armstrong between April 2005 and August 2008 for allegedly allowing contaminated water to run onto neighboring land and storm drains in Valley Center and from a similar Armstrong operation in Ramona. Most of water comes from egg washers and from sprinklers used to cool the roofs of chicken houses on hot days, according to the citations and co-owner Ryan Armstrong.North County's scenic hinterland is something of a center for egg production because of its moderate climate and demand from Southern California's densely populated coast. A dozen or more farms in the area house a total of 2.5 million to 3 million hens. Armstrong is the second-largest laying operation, with some 500,000 hens."We don't find that many that are out of compliance," San Diego County Agricultural Commissioner Bob Atkins said Wednesday. "Most of the industry is doing its best."Even at Armstrong, the violations aren't for lack of trying, Atkins said. The farm corrected the violations after every inspection, but still the contaminated water continued to run onto neighboring property, according to Atkins and the county agency's notices. One frequent problem was that silt and other debris caused clogs in plumbing at the site, leading to spillover, Atkins and Armstrong said.Armstrong said the farm is applying for a federal grant that will allow them to upgrade a system that collects contaminated runoff. Armstrong said the violations were technical in nature and common in Valley Center.The problems for Armstrong Farms are that some of its equipment is becoming obsolete and that it's being singled out by the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States, its nemesis from the $15 million battle regarding an animal-welfare measure on California ballots last month, he said."We've been farming here for 50 years," Ryan Armstrong said. "The new laws ... are something that we're adapting to."The organization, which isn't affiliated with local humane societies, reported the farm to the state agency in early October, when it and Armstrong were facing off over Proposition 2. Voters passed the measure last month by a wide margin, effectively requiring chicken farms to phase out a common type of cage.The Humane Society and its employees contributed at least $3.5 million to support the measure, which it said prevents cruelly overcrowded pens for chickens, pigs and cattle. Armstrong and other egg ranchers argued that the measure would drive them out of the business, forcing Californians to get their eggs from similar farms out of state.The North County Times obtained a copy of the state agency's letter Wednesday from the Humane Society, whose representatives said they had received it Tuesday.Humane Society attorney Peter Brandt said his organization asked the county agency for records of inspections at Armstrong Farms after a hearing on Prop. 2 earlier this year, when Ryan Armstrong said his business had "nothing to hide."The Humane Society turned over those records to the state water-quality agency on Oct. 7, prompting the Oct. 14 inspection, Brandt said."Someone who's willing to dump contamination on a neighbor is not going to be very concerned about animal welfare," Brandt said. "We at the Humane Society have definitely seen a correlation."San Diego Union-TribuneEPA agrees to exempt wastewater plant a third time...Mike Leehttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081204-1011-bn4loma.htmlSan Diego won a bet worth up to $1.5 billion Thursday when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted the city's main wastewater treatment plant a third exemption from the Clean Water Act.In giving the reprieve, also called a waiver, federal regulators praised recent disinfection improvements at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. They also said the city's voluminous records on water quality around the facility's ocean discharge pipe don't suggest damage to the marine environment. The waiver, which will be good for five years, is expected to be finalized early next year after a public hearing in January.EPA officials said San Diego should not plan to continue receiving exemptions. They want the city to expand water recycling – turning wastewater into irrigation or drinking water – to reduce the amount of waste discharged from the Point Loma plant. “The thinking that we can simply use water once, treat it and discharge it to the ocean is becoming an outdated paradigm,” said Alexis Strauss, the EPA's water chief in San Francisco. Another waiver means the Point Loma plant will remain the nation's largest sewage facility that doesn't meet the federally mandated “secondary” treatment level for removal of solids and other pollutants. John Robertus, the state's top pollution cop in the San Diego area, has said he agrees with giving a third waiver because the plant doesn't harm the ecosystem. Effluent going through the Point Loma facility is treated to the “advanced primary” level and piped about 4.5 miles offshore. The EPA decision will save money for residents across the region because several agencies, including Chula Vista and San Diego County, send sewage to the Point Loma plant and pay for more than one-third of its costs. Local business interests and San Diego's independent budget analysis office supported the city's waiver application. San Diego officials have pegged the expense of retrofitting the Point Loma plant at up to $1.5 billion, partly because the facility is boxed in by federal land and there's little room for expansion. To pay for the upgrades, agencies that rely on the plant almost certainly would have to increase utility rates that already are climbing fast because of other reasons. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders championed the waiver starting in 2007, after an environmental study that he commissioned found no significant harm to the ocean caused by the treatment plant. Strauss said her agency's decision was based on the lack of ecological damage and the city's efforts to control pollutants at the Point Loma site – not the city's budget shortfall. She urged Sanders to use the next five years to “examine really meaningful ways to wean everyone from the dependence on everything going out the Point Loma outfall.” However, Strauss said the waiver does not contain a requirement for the city to increase water recycling. For more than a year, environmentalists have said they would not challenge San Diego's waiver application if city officials committed to secondary treatment at some specified point. But in recent weeks, the negotiations have shifted to address the possibility of forgoing a retrofit at the Point Loma plant in favor of major upgrades to the city's water recycling program, said Bruce Reznik, head of the environmental group San Diego Coastkeeper. He aims to have an agreement in place by the January hearing. “If we don't get there by then, then obviously we are going to have a difficult decision on whether we appeal or whether we litigate,” Reznik said. “I just hope we don't end up there. I'd much rather be walking hand-in-hand with the city.” Washington PostActivists slam EPA decision on mining rule change...VICKI SMITH, The Associated Press. Associated Press writer Brian Farkas in Charleston contributed to this report.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120302475_pf.htmlMORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Angry environmentalists launched an online campaign Wednesday urging President-elect Barack Obama to undo a federal rule that clarifies when coal companies can dump mining waste in streams, calling it a long-awaited "parting gift" from the Bush administration.North Carolina-based Appalachian Voices and others blasted Tuesday's Environmental Protection Agency decision to endorse the mining rule as the death of freshwater streams and the likely start of a new surge in mountaintop removal surface mining across Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.Although the regulation would apply nationwide, mountaintop removal operations are of special interest in Appalachia, where surface mines now outnumber those underground.An EPA study estimated 400,000 acres of forest were wiped out and nearly 724 miles of streams buried between 1985 and 2001 by mountaintop mining, in which forests are clear cut and holes are drilled to blast apart rock. Massive machines, some with buckets big enough to hold 24 compact cars, scoop coal from the exposed seams.The rock and dirt left behind is dumped into adjacent valleys, changing the natural shape of the earth, lowering the height of the mountain and covering streams.The rule, proposed by the federal Office of Surface Mining and expected to take effect next month, would govern how mining companies can encroach into a buffer zone designed to protect streams. The Bush administration finalized the rule Wednesday and it will be published in the Federal Register later this month.West Virginia attorney Joe Lovett, who has filed several lawsuits over mountaintop removal mining, said the rule essentially handicaps Obama, taking away a tool his administration could use to rein in the practice."For the industry, this is a parting gift," Lovett said.But the National Mining Association says environmentalists are misrepresenting the rule as a free pass for Big Coal. It argues operators will have to conduct even more rigorous, time-consuming analyses of their disposal plans before mining begins."The rule does not make it easier to conduct mining activities within the stream buffer zone," said NMA spokeswoman Carol Raulston.Dumping excess rock and soil has always been allowed, she said, as long as operators comply with federal water quality laws."Enforcing a law and removing a law are two different things," countered Naoma resident Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch, an environmental group trying to stop a mountaintop mine and preserve the site for a wind farm."To me," he said, "it's the difference between having traffic cops that are sleeping on the job and having no speed limit."Lawmakers and the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee had urged the EPA to block the regulation.At issue is how to interpret regulatory language that says surface mining operations can't disturb land within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream.Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor said that if mining operations had to stay back 100 feet from every ephemeral stream _ one that grows when it rains and dries up when it doesn't _ or dry ditch, there would be no place to put leftover rock and dirt."The environmentalists are misleading the public into believing that this regulation will allow us to dump waste into rivers and dam up rivers," Caylor said. "I don't know how to respond to that. It's just not true."But Appalachian Voices, which maintains the ilovemountains.org Web site, estimates 470 mountains have already been destroyed.EPA's action this week is "absolutely egregious," said Appalachian Voices program director Matt Wasson. "It's just an exclamation point on what we've been seeing for the last eight years."It's about making it easier for a few coal companies to engage in mountaintop removal."Wasson's group launched a campaign Wednesday urging Obama to stop mountaintop mining during his first 100 days. Comments posted through ilovemountains will go directly to the Obama Transition Team Web site.On the Web:Appalachian Voices:  http://ilovemountains.org/obama/National Mining Association:  http://www.nma.org/modern/5_ws.aspWest Virginia Coal Association:  http://www.wvcoal.com/New York TimesBank of America to Stop Financing Mountaintop Mining...Tom Zeller Jr., Green Inc.http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/bank-of-america-to-stop-financing-mountain-top-mining/?pagemode=printExecutives from the bank were given a personal view of mountaintop mining near Kayford, W. Va. (Photo: Associated Press) The Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation’s most powerful environmental groups, has managed to persuade Bank of America, one of the nation’s leading financial institutions, to take a measured stand against certain surface mining practices. From an announcement released Wednesday by the bank: Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal. While we acknowledge that surface mining is economically efficient and creates jobs, it can be conducted in a way that minimizes environmental impacts in certain geographies. At the N.R.D.C.’s Switchboard blog, Rob Perks, director of the organization’s Center for Advocacy Campaigns in Washington, said the group managed to persuade Bank of America executives to visit several mountaintop mine sites in Appalachia — including Kayford Mountain, which has been laid low by mountaintop mining methods. “NRDC decided we could be more useful engaging BofA in a different way,” Mr. Parks wrote. “By talking to the bank’s executives directly and explaining the great opportunity available to them as responsible corporate citizens to help end this travesty.”The Toronto Star examined the practice of mountaintop mining — and the controversy surrounding it — earlier this year:Instead of extracting coal the old-fashioned way, by burrowing, the mountain is extracted from the coal – blown up sequentially to reveal each black seam. Everything left over – trees, soil, plants and rock – is considered “overburden.” It’s dumped into the valleys below, filling them up.Some say as many as 470 mountains in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia have been flattened this way. For the industry, it’s a financial jackpot – fast, cheap and thorough. But for the mountains, and the communities nestled between them, it’s war.For their part, mining interests have long argued that mountaintop mining and its ancillary effects on the landscape, water flows and other areas of the environment are wildly overblown. Earlier this year, in an op-ed published in The Tampa Tribune, Bill K. Caylor, the president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said of mountaintop mining practices: “Drinking water sources are not being polluted. Appalachian communities are not destroyed. E.P.A. did not rewrite rules to pollute more streams.” He continued: [A]s all the activists who so eloquently and passionately speak of the ills of coal and mountaintop mining get up in the morning, drink their hot coffee, eat some toast, blow dry their hair while watching the morning news, attend their meetings in a room with lights and warm heat and write to their representatives on laptops and computers while calling others on their charged cellphones, please remember who provides the electricity. It is provided by coal.Capital One Buys a Rival Bank for $520 Million...Eric Dash http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04bank.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=printIn the latest sign of consolidation among midsize American banks, Capital One Financial acquired Chevy Chase Bank on Thursday for about $520 million. The deal will allow it to rely more on customer deposits for financing. The cash-and-stock deal, would immediately add to Capital One’s operating earnings, though the purchase would require Capital One to write off $1.75 billion in anticipated losses from Chevy Chase’s big portfolio of toxic mortgage loans. Capital One will pay $445 million in cash and $75 million in stock based on Tuesday’s closing price of $29.29 a share, according to several people briefed on the deal.Capital One will also be eligible to grab a bigger portion of the $350 billion bailout fund the Treasury Department has set aside for financial institutions. In late October, it received $3.55 billion from the government. It now could qualify for Chevy Chase’s allotment of up to $450 million in additional money. Analysts say that Capital One will also be able to take advantage of the lucrative tax loophole from a recent change in the tax code engineered by the Treasury to encourage bank deals. While the deal spawns a new midsize bank, it also shows how hard it will be to generate new national players to rival the likes of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. It also underscores the difficulties for Citigroup, still struggling to improve its business after the government came to its aid last week, to assemble its own domestic retail branch network. Citigroup had previously sought to bid for Chevy Chase Bank in an effort to gain deposits after its bid for the Wachovia Corporation was thwarted in October. But even if Citigroup had acquired Chevy Chase, it would still be far behind other national players.Capital One will gain access to about $11.6 billion in deposits at a time when it difficult to raise money in the capital markets. It will have 244 branches in the Washington metropolitan area. It will now have the fifth largest share of retail deposits in the Washington area, behind Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BB&T and SunTrust Bank. After being frozen out of the credit markets following the last economic downturn in 2001, Capital One embarked on a strategy to transform itself into a consumer bank. It snapped up Hibernia Bancorp in Louisiana shortly in 2005 and then bought North Fork Bank in New York in early 2007 so that it no longer had to rely on fickle investors for money. However, it never had a retail presence in the Washington area, where the company was based. Today, other finance companies, including American Express and CIT Group, have found the current environment so challenging that they recently applied to for bank licenses to stabilize their financing base. For Chevy Chase, the deal gives its longtime chairman and chief executive, B. Francis Saul II, an exit strategy in a turbulent market. As of March, Mr. Saul was more than 75 years old and owned a majority of the privately held bank. Capital One’s bigger balance sheet will also be better positioned to ride out the credit storm. Almost one-fourth of its assets, or over $4 billion, were highly toxic pay-option mortgages that were issued to borrowers in California and Florida, far from the bank’s home turf.CNN MoneyBernanke: More foreclosure help neededFed chief says revitalized housing market key to economic recovery, preventing foreclosures needs more government attention...David Goldmanhttp://money.cnn.com/2008/12/04/news/economy/bernanke_mortgages/index.htm?postversion=2008120413NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that the government must do more to address foreclosures.Bernanke, speaking at a Fed conference in Washington, D.C., said that beyond just keeping homeowners in their homes, the Fed must continue to focus on foreclosure prevention to help stabilize the housing market and economy as a whole."The housing market remains central to the economic and financial challenges that we face," Bernanke said. "Reducing the number of preventable foreclosures would not only help families stay in their homes, it would confer much wider benefits."According to Bernanke, about 15% to 20% of borrowers are "underwater" on their mortgages, meaning their homes are worth less than they owe. In addition, he said, 20% of subprime mortgages are seriously delinquent. Bernanke estimated that 2.3 million foreclosures will be initiated in 2008, compared to an average of 1 million before the mortgage meltdown.Bernanke said the Fed, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have already planned or put in place several measures aimed at stemming foreclosures. The government has, among other things, cut interest rates and announced a plan to buy $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities and $100 billion of debt issued by government-sponsored mortgage financers Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500).But Bernanke said more can still be done and outlined several "promising programs." One was FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair's plan, which would reduce mortgage rates, extend loan terms and offer government insurance against bank losses if borrowers who receive help end up in default anyway. Another proposal includes strengthening the Federal Housing Administration's Hope for Homeowners program by reducing the premiums paid by the lender. Bernanke suggested that Congress could give FHA the ability to set premiums on a case-by-case basis rather than an across-the-board approach. Furthermore, Bernanke said that the interest rates borrowers pay under the program could be reduced from the current level of about 8%, which remains so high because it is hard to find buyers for FHA loan-backed securities. To fund the rate reductions, he said, Treasury could buy up mortgage-backed securities bundled by government-sponsored loan securitizer Ginnie Mae, or Congress could choose to subsidize the rate.Bernanke said that would help put borrowers into mortgages they can afford over the long haul.Industry sources said Wednesday that Treasury is considering a plan to purchase mortgage-backed securities to reduce 30-year fixed mortgage rates down to 4.5% from their current 5.5% level, but it appears the plan would be aimed at helping new homeowners, not borrowers in need of refinancing.He also recommended a plan that would have the government share the cost if the loan servicer reduces the borrower's monthly payment. Current government initiatives have encouraged servicers to lower borrowers' payments, but the plans have offered little incentive to do so. Bernanke said this approach would increase the incentive, which would "improve the prospects for sustainability."Lastly, Bernanke said the government could buy up delinquent mortgages in bulk and refinance them under Hope for Homeowners or a similar plan. He said such a plan could help more homeowners stay in their homes than if the government refinanced individual mortgages in a more selective process.The Fed chief said all of the proposals could be used in tandem and would likely require additional public funding. "Despite good-faith efforts by both the private and public sectors, the foreclosure rate remains too high, with adverse consequences for both those directly involved and for the broader economy," Bernanke said. "More needs to be done."Lower mortgage rates aren't the answerThe Treasury's plan to make home payments more affordable doesn't address the main problems with the housing market...Paul R. La Monica http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/04/markets/thebuzz/index.htm?postversion=2008120413NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government finally realizes that it has to address the problems in the housing market. Unfortunately, it seems officials are considering going at it the wrong way.According to several reports, the Treasury Department is considering a plan to drive down mortgage rates as low as 4.5%. It would do this by purchasing mortgage-backed securities from the now essentially nationalized mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500).Low rates, the thinking goes, would make mortgage payments more affordable and get home sales moving again. The plan misses on a few fronts, however. "The level of mortgage rates is not the main problem in the housing market," said Dean Maki, co-head of U.S. economics research with Barclays Capital. Talkback: Do you think mortgage rates are too high?Low rates might make people want to borrow, but the plan won't inspire banks to start lending again. "You can't just mandate lower rates -- that doesn't work," said Oliver Ireland, a partner in the financial-services practice group with the law firm Morrison & Foerster. "You have to not only encourage rates to go down but more importantly, you have to provide some confidence to lenders that they can sell mortgages." For what it's worth, this latest development from the Treasury comes on the heels of a similar announcement last week by the Federal Reserve that helped drive down mortgage rates. The Fed said it would buy up to $500 billion in securities from Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae, the other government-sponsored mortgage financing firms. It will also buy another $100 billion in direct debt issued by those firms. As a result, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 5.58%, according to Bankrate, down from over 6% before the Fed's announcement last week. And there was a more than two-fold increase in mortgage applications last week.That, of course, is a good sign. And there is no denying that if banks actually start lending more freely to borrowers that are credit-worthy, that will help the housing market. Still, much of the increase in mortgage application activity was due to refinancing, not applications for new-home purchases -- and it's not even clear if the new plan that Treasury is considering will even allow for refinancing at the 4.5% rate.Refinancing will help many existing homeowners, especially those who actually stayed current on their mortgages and are most deserving of lower rates.But even if the government's plan doesn't exclude those who want to refinance, that won't solve the bigger issues plaguing housing: an inventory glut, tight credit for new borrowers and consumer fears that housing prices may still be too high and could fall further. Lower mortgage rates may entice some people who had been waiting on the sidelines to buy a home. But it will be a gradual process. It won't magically cure what is ailing housing since this real estate bust is much worse than the last major housing crisis in the 1990s, according to Daniel Oppenheim, an analyst who covers homebuilders for Credit Suisse. "Lower mortgage rates and better affordability may...help to limit the decline in home prices," he wrote in a report earlier this week. "This will be somewhat similar to the improvement that occurred in the early 1990s, although we recognize that current issues are more severe in terms of the overhang of existing homes for sale (and foreclosures on the market), lack of mortgage availability, and overall negative consumer sentiment toward housing."The inventory glut in particular is a problem that probably can't be solved by lower mortgage rates. For this reason, many economists have argued that the less intervention by the government with the housing market, the better. "The drop in housing prices is actually a good thing. We need prices to drop to deflate the housing bubble and make homes more affordable," said Dr. Nayantara Hensel, a special consultant to Economists Incorporated, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.The best solution: timeAlong those lines, Barclay's Maki argued that time, and not lower rates, is probably the only real solution to the housing mess."There's no single initiative that's likely to put a floor on housing prices. The basic problem was a housing boom that proved to be unsustainable. So in many ways, time is the biggest factor that's needed here to clear some of the excess supply of homes on the market," he said.Hensel added that with the government doing so much to try and stimulate demand for housing, she's concerned foreign investors could grow wary of the nation's ballooning debt levels and dump the dollar in response.In other words, that the government may not be able to afford continuing to spend on programs aimed at buying mortgage-backed securities without doing more damage to the economy. "What I would suggest for the government to do is nothing. Almost every day, some new federal policy is unveiled and it has a big price tag on it. Taxpayers are wondering how the government is going to pay for this," she said. "Too many policies have been unveiled too quickly." Job recovery could be slow and weakAs losses mount, economists fear that hiring could be a problem even after the recession is over....David Goldman. CNNMoney.com senior writer Chris Isidore contributed to this report.http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/04/news/economy/jobs/index.htm?postversion=2008120410NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In the midst of a recession, huge job losses are expected to continue for at least several more months. But what really worries economists is that the job market could be slow to recover even when the economy begins to improve.In the recession that began in December 2007, the economy has shed more than 1.1 million jobs. Economists expect the Labor Department's monthly employment report to show another 325,000 job losses for November when it is released Friday. November's job losses would represent the largest monthly drop in non-farm employment in seven years, if the report meets estimates. A larger decline could represent the biggest monthly drop in more than 26 years. The unemployment rate is expected to reach 6.8%, which would be the highest since February 1993.All indications suggest there's little stopping jobs from continuing to plummet. ADP's monthly employment report showed private sector payrolls fell in November by 250,000 jobs from the previous month. And according to a report by outsourcing agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, planned job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 181,671 last month, the second-highest total on record.A slew of large-scale job-cut announcements came Thursday, with AT&T (T, Fortune 500), DuPont (DD, Fortune 500), Viacom (VIA) and Credit Suisse announcing they would cut a total of nearly 21,000 jobs. All cited the weak economic conditions for the cuts.November's report will be the first glimpse at how the job market reacted after the peak of the credit crisis, reached in mid-October."This report will show the full impact of the credit situation, and it will be very disappointing," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. "We continue to have problems in the construction and durable goods sectors, because there's no credit to finance those big-ticket purchases."The anticipated weak government report will also bring the current recession closer to the level of 1.6 million jobs lost in the 2001 recession. That's noteworthy, because jobs were cut in droves in 2001 during the dot.com bust, which followed a white-hot employment market during the tech boom of the late 1990s.The job gains leading up to the current recession were much more modest, leaving less excess for employers to cut. As a result, job losses earlier in the year were steady but lower than levels typically seen in past recessions. Only in the last several months has the economy shed in excess of 100,000 jobs per month.Economy cannot afford a slow recoveryHefty job losses, though worrisome, are expected in a recession. But the job market typically recovers fairly quickly, helping to grow the economy. However, that didn't happen coming out of the last recession, and economists fear a speedy recovery is unlikely this time around as well."The key thing is we have a sharp recovery, with job gains that put the kibosh on foreclosures," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute. "What we can't afford is to have a jobless recovery like we had the last two times. My fear is not a depression, my fear is we end up with a weak recovery we really can't afford."According to the Economic Policy Institute, the economy took four years to return to the previous peak jobs level after the 2001 recession - an unprecedented amount of time. The recovery took more than twice as long as the 21-month average of all other recoveries after 1945. Jobs weren't helped by weak economic growth toward the end of the recovery cycle.But history will likely repeat itself coming out of this recession as well, as the economy is expected to face a number of headwinds going forward.Lyle Gramley, a former Federal Reserve governor and current Stanford Group economist, said the job market will take a long time to bounce back. He said the credit crunch will thaw very gradually and the past two years' deep housing market declines will yield a drawn-out recovery. An employment recovery may be most affected by lower consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's gross domestic product."Consumers are going through a major change in their spending and savings habits," said Gramley. "Throughout the housing bubble, consumers had a savings rate of zero, relying on the rising price of their homes. Now they're saving money for the future instead of spending it."Furthermore, a speedy rebound in employer confidence seems unlikely after the government spent trillions of dollars in an attempt to rescue the economy from one of history's deepest credit crises. Employers will likely be hesitant to hire even if the economy begins to rebound."If Obama gets his stimulus plan through, we may come out of this a bit quicker in the housing, construction, energy and infrastructure industries," said Silvia. "But those other sectors are going to face a very slow recovery." 12-4-08 Meetings12-9-08 Merced County Board of Supervisor meeting...10:00 a.m.http://www.co.merced.ca.us/boardagenda/webagenda/Posted 72 Hours Prior To Meeting 12-11-08 LAFCo agenda...10:00 a.m.http://www.lafcomerced.org/pdfs/2008/12_11_2008/Agenda/121108.pdf 12-10-08 MCAG Technical Review Board meeting...12:00 p.m.http://www.mcagov.org/trb.html