12-6-08

 12-6-08Merced Sun-StarRMP's land is for sale but backers are forging aheadThe company still hasn't paid the county what it's owed for months...CORINNE REILLYhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/581603.htmlThe land on which Riverside Motorsports Park planned to build a massive, quarter-billion-dollar racetrack complex is up for sale.RMP is also months late in paying Merced County more than $300,000 in planning and legal fees. Others to whom RMP owes money have moved to seize the company's assets, but so far they've been unable to recoup their losses because RMP appears to be broke. These are the latest in a long series of developments that suggest the RMP project will never be built, and it now looks possible that Merced County taxpayers will end up footing some of the company's unpaid bills. Despite all of this, the small team of businessmen behind RMP says the project is still moving forward. Most of what RMP now owes the county stems from a lawsuit filed against the county over the Board of Supervisors' 2006 decision to approve the RMP project. A judge ruled against the county and RMP in February, canceling RMP approvals on environmental grounds and awarding attorney and court fees to the suit's plaintiffs, the California Farm Bureau Federation and two environmental groups. Under an order signed by all the parties in September, RMP agreed to pay the plaintiffs $279,000 for their legal costs. The order stated that if RMP failed to pay within 60 days, Merced County would have to put up the money. RMP indeed defaulted, and on Nov. 24, the county cut two checks totaling $279,264 to the Farm Bureau and the attorneys who represented the environmental groups. The county originally insisted on some protection for taxpayers: As a condition of RMP's project approval, the county required the company's CEO, John Condren, to sign an indemnity agreement saying RMP would cover the cost of any lawsuits stemming from the county's decision. That agreement still stands, and the county can use it to lay legal claim to RMP's assets. But whether RMP has anything left to claim is uncertain.Besides the $279,000, RMP owes $50,800 to the county counsel's office and the county public works department for time they spent reviewing and processing the company's proposal, county officials said this week. They said the county has been demanding payment for several months. "We're committed to pursuing any and all legal means to recover all the money that's owed," said Katie Albertson, a county spokeswoman.But the county isn't the only creditor that's been calling Condren, and at least one other party that RMP stiffed has moved to seize the company's assets, though it's had little success finding any. A law firm that used to represent RMP sued the company last year after Condren failed for months to pay an overdue $143,000 legal bill. The firm, Sacramento-based Somach, Simmons & Dunn, won a judgment against RMP for that amount in August. So far the firm has recovered about $600 by levying and emptying an RMP bank account, said Michael Vergara, an attorney with Somach, Simmons & Dunn. The firm also is looking to Merced County to recoup some of the money. Concerned about RMP's financial stability, the county told RMP earlier this year that the company would have to prepay for certain services. RMP and the county set up a $50,000 trust account to satisfy the county's demand.Somach, Simmons & Dunn has attempted to levy the trust. The county says it's empty. The law firm says it has proof the account still held $44,000 when it first presented its seizure order. Somach, Simmons & Dunn has filed a claim against the county for the $44,000. If it's denied, Vergara said, the firm will sue the county for the money. Besides those two places, Somach, Simmons & Dunn hasn't found any other money in RMP's name to seize, Vergara said. "It looks like all that's left to pursue is their land," he said. "It looks like that's all they have."That land -- where RMP planned to build its project -- is now up for sale. The 1,289-acre property was listed Sept. 30, with an asking price of $16.5 million.But it's unclear how much equity RMP has in the property, if any. The company has at least one outstanding mortgage on the land and it's behind in paying its property taxes, public records show.At this point there are no public documents that reveal how much RMP owes to all its creditors.Condren didn't respond to interview requests this week.Steve Nasser, an investment banker and shareholder in RMP who is working to find funders for the project, acknowledged in an interview Thursday that RMP is out of cash and that its land is up for sale. But he said RMP still plans to build and is "incredibly close" to announcing new financing deals that will keep the company alive. He said RMP only put its land on the market as a backup measure in case the financing deals fall through and the company can't pay off its mortgage when the loan matures around the end of the year. "We're incredibly close," Nasser said. "We have all the pieces now. We have the money. We have the experienced senior track management people. We just need to get everyone to sign off on a few last details."For nearly a year RMP officials have been saying they are close to finishing financing deals for the project. Before that, Condren said the money to build RMP had already been secured, some of his former partners have said. Nasser declined to name the latest potential investors and lenders. He added that RMP has scaled back blueprints for the project to four racetracks from eight. He said RMP intends to repay Merced County and that he thinks the company has equity in its property, though he couldn't say how much."It'll be really sad if the taxpayers end up paying for RMP's mistakes," said Deidre Kelsey, the only county supervisor who voted to stop RMP's proposal two years ago. "I kept asking, 'If this goes bad, will the county be protected?' Well it turns out we really might not be ... I've never seen anything like this."Kelsey said she thinks the county should consider restructuring the way it processes development applications to better guard taxpayers. "A lot of people just saw dollar signs when they saw this project, and common sense went right out the window," she said. "We have so many families in this county struggling to make ends meet every day, and they shouldn't be asked to pay for this."RMP has made no progress toward regaining its project approvals since they were canceled by a judge in February, county officials said this week. Condren first proposed plans in 2003 for what he has billed as the world's largest motorsports facility. The project's original blueprints called for a 1,200-acre, eight-racetrack motorsports park to be built on a swath of farmland near Castle Airport. Condren has argued that RMP would remake Merced County's struggling economy.Over the past two years the Sun-Star has published several stories calling into question Condren's credibility and poking holes in RMP's claims that its project was on a sure path to fruition. The newspaper has reported that Condren made up or exaggerated a lot of the information he posted on RMP's Web site about his qualifications and professional background; that he has filed for bankruptcy twice before; and that early investors in RMP say Condren misled them about having secured the project's construction money. In March, the Sun-Star reported that a group of investors that provided some of the earliest capital to launch RMP had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with Condren, alleging that he has badly mismanaged the company and betrayed their trust.SPECIAL REPORTSOWING HOPE: UC Merced's quest for a medical schoolMed school faces long odds...DEBORAH SCHOCH, Center for California Health Care Journalism and DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/v-print/story/581586.htmlThe road to campus is flanked by half-built suburban homes that would seem ideal for a faculty family or a young doctor putting down roots in Merced.Just a minute up the road is the youngest campus of the University of California -- and the future headquarters of a potential medical school that could radically improve health care throughout the San Joaquin Valley.But construction has stopped. Instead of young professional families lounging on their lawns, wood-framed skeletons and weedy vacant lots scar the landscape. Orange mercury-vapor lights cast shadows on empty dream homes.Victims of the credit crunch and fiscal crisis, these residential shells symbolize the economic currents that have washed over Merced and most of the San Joaquin Valley. In their wake, worries have surfaced that the plan for the UC Merced School of Medicine, too, will face its own form of foreclosure as the state budget crisis worsens fast."We don't know the depth of the crisis yet. We don't know when it's going to turn around," said biochemist Maria Pallavicini, dean of the UC Merced School of Natural Sciences and a prominent champion of bringing a medical school here.Looming UC budget cuts are planting seeds of doubt that a UC Merced School of Medicine -- initially set to enroll its first students in 2013 -- will open within the next decade. In the best of times, launching a new medical school is a monumental task, requiring the mustering of huge amounts of money and political will. In the worst of times, it can seem nearly impossible.Still, Valley residents -- whether bankers, politicians, farmers, business people or potential patients themselves -- cling to the dream. Every meaningful constituency in the Valley remains committed to making the med school a reality.Some people are so confident it will happen, they're looking forward to being part of it. Tran Nguyen is 23 and in her last semester at Merced College. She will be transferring to UC Merced as a biology major in the Spring semester. When she finishes her undergraduate degree, she hopes the cards will fall so that she can be a part of the inaugural medical school class. She thinks a medical school will bring to the area doctors "who really, deeply care."A new day in health care for the ValleyWhatever happens with UC Merced's med school, a new day in health care services may be on the horizon for the Valley. Take Merced, for example. In the northern part of the city, on G Street, two major medical buildings are going up right across the street from another -- a modern hospital and a new allied health education building at Merced College.Those two buildings also rise from bare land as a symbol of hope. The new hospital will be up and running in the first half of 2010, and could draw potential medical school faculty members. The allied health building broke ground in 2007, funded by private donors and a generous bond measure passed by local voters.Dr. Hanimireddy Lakireddy, a local cardiologist, contributed $1 million toward the building -- which carries his name -- and the college's health sciences program. "I was born in a poor, Third World country. Just because of education I became someone in this world," Lakireddy said in a recent interview about his donations. "Education is the easiest way to make someone, to make their life better."Other changes in local health care are also in motion. In 2007, Southern California-based Loma Linda University moved services into the Valley, creating a rural health family-practice residency program in Hanford. UC Irvine School of Medicine is working with a Visalia hospital on a program that could bring even more residents to Tulare County.And, as paradoxical as it may seem, a federal designation as a Health Professional Shortage Area, or HPSA, will improve access for a number of patients in the area. The designation is common in the Valley and gives those areas more opportunities for grants and loan repayments to attract new doctors, John Alexander, executive director of the Merced County Health Care Consortium, said."It is an exciting time to live in Merced. Sure it is depressing to see the health care problems and the foreclosed homes and the stories about crime, but on the other hand, there are enough of us here that see the diamond in the rough," Alexander said. "The people here have heart."Money problems prompt Plan Bs as fallbackThe drama playing out in Merced in many ways reflects tensions unfolding on public and private campuses nationwide as public funds and endowments dry up. Projects that seemed doable in richer times only a year or so ago now are threatened with delays or even oblivion.In the case of California campuses, the drama pits research faculty against those favoring primary care medicine; better endowed campuses versus cash-starved start-ups, local legislators against those 500 miles away with their own favored education projects.Some in the UC system and state government are already sketching out potential "Plan Bs" to reduce costs while attempting to improve health care in the Valley:Focusing the Merced medical school more on educating doctors than expensive research, an approach favored by Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a UC regent.Moving medical studies 54 miles to the Fresno campus of UC San Francisco, with its brand-new medical education building.Expanding the Valley-based medical residencies of existing UC medical schools in San Francisco, Davis and Irvine to attempt to meet rural needs.Yet many in the Valley say they're not ready to be shunted aside again, especially in favor of what they view as long-favored UC campuses in more flush metropolitan areas.Regional support for a Merced medical school runs so deep that it crosses political and economic lines and includes virtually every interest group: business, government, health care advocates, farmworkers and farmers. "It will be the pulse of new technology, new techniques, new teaching methods. Our residents will be the recipients of that knowledge; they will become healthier. Everyone in our community will become healthier," said Deidre Kelsey, a member of the five-seat Merced County Board of Supervisors.Jerry Callister, local attorney and chairman of the board at County Bank, is another staunch supporter of the school. He's familiar with the UC Davis Medical School in Sacramento because his son is finishing his final year there, and he remains confident that a medical school will still rise in Merced. "I can see what medical schools have done in communities like Davis and Irvine. It would help our community too -- medically and economically," Callister said.Budget battles fray nerves on many campusesSo a battle looms in coming weeks, possibly playing off Valley leaders against Sacramento budget slashers and rival UC campuses. In May 2008, the UC Board of Regents gave the campus authority to continue planning efforts for the medical school. While the board would make the ultimate decision whether to move ahead, it probably would look to the UC Office of the President in Oakland for guidance.Others look to the campus of UCSF Fresno as a model for why UC Merced is needed.They include Joan Voris, associate dean of the UCSF Fresno medical education program. She recalls that the school was established 30 years ago because of a citizen's committee in Fresno that fought for more doctors. Both the Fresno school and the proposed Merced campus, she said, were forged by similar forces: community pressure, a damning report on medical access, poor economies. Even though UCSF Fresno has helped give Valley residents access to better medical care, more needs to be done, Voris said."There are other things we need to think about more than just getting doctors," she said. "We want to make sure they reflect California diversity and understand the issues of people who live in this area."She is convinced that a new medical school in Merced is the only way to do that. "I don't think we get that kind of physician if we send students off to San Francisco or L.A. or Chicago or wherever. I think we get that when we have a medical school here in the Valley that is dedicated to producing that type of doctor," Voris said. But some disagree about the best model for that school.Lt. Gov. Garamendi, who supports the school, questions if planners should look for a new model rather than the classic UC paradigm that both educates new doctors and conducts top-drawer research.He wants Merced to take one step at a time "so that the early emphasis is on education, preparing physicians for the Central Valley -- and then, as the school matures, add the research to it."Merced campus administrators are reluctant to jettison the UC devotion to research. Pallavicini, herself a biochemist and leading stem-cell researcher, says repeatedly that the school must have a strong research base.One leading skeptic, however, is one of the UC Merced's own research scientists, UC biology professor Dr. Henry Forman, a senior faculty member who doesn't think the medical school belongs in Merced at all."It should be in Fresno. Or Modesto. It needs to be in a big place," said Forman, who calls himself one of the few faculty on campus, Pallavicini included, with a medical school background. Faculty physicians aren't going to move to Merced, he said. And without a clinical research arm, the medical school would be relegated to a third-tier school, too low in stature to help raise the stature of UC Merced."Getting more physicians in the Valley is not going to be accomplished by putting a medical school in a tiny place where half the population lives below the poverty level," he said. Another new UC medical school is first in line ahead of Merced. UC Riverside plans to open a medical school of its own, enrolling its first class in 2012. It has formal regents' approval, depending on the UC president's decision that funding is available. "They're much further along in the process," said Dr. Cathryn Nation, UC associate vice president for health sciences.Still strivingOne cool mid-November afternoon, Pallavicini asked a visitor to wait while she had a telephone conversation with the UC Merced chancellor. Her expression was somber when she emerged from her office in the striking new headquarters of the UC Merced School of Natural Sciences that she helped create and now oversees.Just a few weeks before, she had spoken more confidently of the medical school that she hoped could be enrolling its first students by the middle of the next decade. Now, her tone was more subdued as she walked past laboratories occupied by current UC Merced students. Someday they are to be used by future medical students and top-drawer faculty.UC is confronting serious state budget problems, she acknowledged that afternoon. Its endowment has been shriveling in the Wall Street stock freefall. Just that day, the Dow plunged 434 points. The following Thursday, UC would announce a possible decrease in the number of students accepted in the 2009 freshman class, because of a lack of funding.Minutes later, the worry in her voice was gone. A re-energized Pallavicini, poised and smiling, began an interview that amounted to a stump speech on why the San Joaquin Valley deserves a UC Merced School of Medicine. "There's no denying that there is a very compelling need to increase the number of physicians in the Valley," she said. "I care deeply about the Valley."Ground zeroWhatever happens in the complicated kabuki unfolding in boardrooms, classrooms and in the state Capitol, the health needs of the Valley's people aren't going anywhere. Sometimes lost in the tactics and strategy of administrators, academics and politicians are those who suffer the most from a lack of ground-zero medical solutions. In Newman, Rosario Cisneros cradles her 1-year-old son Adrian. His chest scar is a lingering reminder of the health battles he and his family must face later in his life. He got his pacemaker in August. Sitting in his plastic Deluxe Jumperoo chair, which lets him bounce up and down, Adrian does just that. He bounces. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.January a pivotal month for medical shool's prognosis...Deborah Schochhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/v-print/story/581581.htmlA report due in January from three nationally known medical consultants will help determine if a medical school will be developed anytime soon at the Merced campus of the University of California.One of those leaders is Charles E. Young, who spent 29 years as chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles, home of the UC system's largest medical school. All three have led or worked at large urban medical schools or teaching hospitals, and two are graduates of Harvard Medical School.The recommendations from the Washington Advisory Group, a consulting firm, will guide the next steps in planning the San Joaquin Valley's first medical school, UC officials said Friday. Key findings of the report will be made public, said Brandy Ramos Nikaido, spokeswoman for UC Merced medical school planning and for UC San Francisco at Fresno.Top UC Merced administrators hope to develop a medical school that they say would break from the traditional UC model of medical education and improve health care in the Valley.It wouldn't incorporate a major new teaching hospital but instead would train students in existing community hospitals and clinics. Rather than focusing mainly on medical specialties, it would teach primary care and rural medicine. A diverse student base would include many students from the Valley.The so-called "WAG" report is being prepared by the Washington-based consulting firm made up of prominent figures in higher education, science and government and corporate work.UC Merced commissioned the report from the 16-member Washington, D.C.-based consortium.The three members preparing the UC Merced report:Young specializes in advising schools on management and program analysis. After leaving UCLA, he became president of the University of Florida and headed the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Technology. He graduated from UC Riverside and received his master's and doctoral degrees from UCLA.Dr. Jordan J. (Jordy) Cohen is a consultant on academic medical centers. The former medical school dean of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he spent 12 years as president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He graduated from Yale University and Harvard University Medical School. Dr. Mitchell T. Rabkin consults on health care delivery. He was CEO from 2006 to 2008 of Boston-based Caregroup, comprised of Beth Israel and Deaconess hospitals, and earlier was long-time head of Beth Israel. He graduated from Harvard and Harvard Medical School and now teaches at Harvard.Merced College student wants to be first at medical school...Deborah Schochhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/v-print/story/581572.htmlMartin Lopez Diaz knows the scene well. A pickup rolls up to a rural house as the afternoon wanes, and out leap five, 10, a dozen men who immediately break into a run.Fresh from the farm fields where they've worked all day, they want to be first in the shower, first at the stove to cook what is often a starchy dinner fried in lard and washed down with sugary energy drinks. That's the sort of food regimen that helps drive the San Joaquin Valley's high obesity and diabetes rates. It's something he has vowed to change -- preferably at the UC Merced School of Medicine, if it opens soon enough to train him. Lopez Diaz, 35, oversees a program that literally delivers health information to farmworkers as they pick tomatoes, lettuce and other crops throughout the Merced area. At night, he studies for premedical courses at Merced College. He's determined to go to medical school and maybe business school so that he can open a clinic aimed at improving health care for Valley residents.UC medical schoolshttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/v-print/story/581583.htmlUC Merced School of Medicine would be seventh in a series.1. UC San Francisco School of Medicine:UC San Francisco founded 1864, became UC campus 1964Total enrollment: 2,932 studentsSchool of Medicine founded 186, affiliated with UC 1873Enrollment: 594 M.D. students 2. UCLA School of Medicine:UCLA opened in 1919Total enrollment: 39,626 students School of Medicine opened 1951Enrollment: 750 M.D. students 3. UC Davis School of Medicine:UC Davis founded 1908Total enrollment: 31,426 students School of Medicine founded 1965Enrollment: 401 M.D. students 4. UC San Diego School of Medicine UC San Diego opened 1960Total enrollment: 28,500 studentsSchool of Medicine opened 1968Enrollment: 520 M.D. students5. UC Irvine School of MedicineUC Irvine founded 1964Total enrollment: 26,984 students School of Medicine founded 1896, joined UCI campus 1968Enrollment: 416 M.D. students 6. UC RiversideUC Riverside founded 1954Total enrollment: 18,079 students School of Medicine Planned to open 2012 7. UC Merced UC Merced opened 2005Total enrollment: 2,700 students School of Medicine (proposed)No opening date setSources: University of California Schools of Medicine at Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco; UC Irvine, UC Merced Audio slideshow: Interview with Martin Lopez Diazhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/401/story/581694.htmlOur View: Let's make dream realThere are many obstacles to UC Merced medical school, but they can be overcome.http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/581620.htmlAre we a Valley of dreamers? As our three-part series "Sowing Hope," which wraps up today, shows, there are many obstacles and harsh realities that stand in the way of any dream.The dream the series looks at is a medical school at UC Merced. But 10 to 15 years ago, UC Merced was a dream, too.Even in the best of times, starting a new medical school would be a massive undertaking, requiring both money -- lots of it -- and a political will. But these aren't the best of times. The state has a multibillion-dollar deficit. Cities, counties and school districts aren't certain of their funding.Credit is not just tight, but nonexistent. The U.S. government is pumping $700 billion into the banking, investment and mortgage markets to get the economy back on track. The big 3 automakers drove in hybrid cars from Detroit to Washington, hats in hand, begging for $34 billion.And we are in a transition period, with President Bush on autopilot and President-elect Obama waiting in the wings. Economists told us this week what everyone already knew: we've been in a recession for the last year.Maybe this is a good time to be dreaming.Maybe it is a better time to be "Sowing Hope." This series was done in partnership of the Sun-Star with the independent, nonpartisan Center for California Health Care Journalism. It included our Executive Editor Mike Tharp and reporter Danielle Gaines. The center provided reporter Deborah Schoch, photographer Anacleto Rapping and editor Richard Kipling, all formerly of the Los Angeles Times.The series showed that Maria Pallavicini, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and who is leading the planning, has a sensible and realistic dream for the medical school.It will use existing hospitals and clinics in the Valley to reduce start-up costs.It will put more emphasis on primary care and rural medicine, in hopes of keeping graduates in the Valley.It will draw the largest share of students from the Valley and will work with local school districts to prepare an enlarged pool of diverse candidates.It will reduce costs and complement its own faculty by having experts from other UC medical schools rotate teaching classes by long distance using new technologies."If you don't have a vision and a plan for the future, then it is never going to happen," Pallavicini said. "It is what the Valley wants and the Valley deserves."There will be problems ahead. There will be naysayers.But this medical school at UC Merced is our dream. Let's work together to make it a reality.Fresno BeeLand for Valley motorsports park for saleCompany that planned huge complex in Merced Co. appears to be broke...Corinne Reilly, Merced Sun-starhttp://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-printerfriendly/story/1057626.htmlThe land on which Riverside Motorsports Park planned to build a massive, quarter-billion-dollar racetrack complex is up for sale. RMP is also months late in paying Merced County more than $300,000 in planning and legal fees. RMP CEO John Condren first proposed plans in 2003 for what he has billed as the world's largest motorsports facility. The project's original blueprints called for a 1,200-acre, eight-racetrack motorsports park to be built on a swath of farmland near Castle Airport. Today, RMP appears to be broke and it looks possible that Merced County taxpayers will end up footing some of the company's unpaid bills. Despite all of this, the small team of businessmen behind RMP says the project is still moving forward. Most of what RMP now owes the county stems from a lawsuit filed against the county over the Merced County Board of Supervisors' 2006 decision to approve the RMP project. A judge ruled against the county and RMP in February, canceling RMP approvals on environmental grounds and awarding attorney and court fees to the suit's plaintiffs, the California Farm Bureau Federation and two environmental groups. Under an order signed by all the parties in September, RMP agreed to pay the plaintiffs $279,000 for their legal costs. The order stated that if RMP failed to pay within 60 days, Merced County would have to put up the money.RMP indeed defaulted, and on Nov. 24, the county cut two checks totaling $279,264 to the Farm Bureau and the attorneys who represented the environmental groups. The county originally insisted on some protection for taxpayers: As a condition of RMP's project approval, the county required Condren to sign an indemnity agreement saying RMP would cover the cost of any lawsuits stemming from the county's decision. That agreement still stands, and the county can use it to lay legal claim to RMP's assets. But whether RMP has anything left to claim is unclear. Besides the $279,000, RMP owes $50,800 to the county counsel's office and the county public works department for time they spent reviewing and processing the company's proposal, county officials said this week. They said the county has been demanding payment for several months. "We're committed to pursuing any and all legal means to recover all the money that's owed," said Katie Albertson, a county spokeswoman. But the county isn't the only creditor that's been calling Condren, and at least one other party that RMP stiffed has moved to seize the company's assets, though it's had little success finding any. The land where RMP planned to build its project is now up for sale. The 1,289-acre property was listed Sept. 30, with an asking price of $16.5 million. But it's unclear how much equity RMP has in the property, if any. Condren didn't respond to interview requests this week. Steve Nasser, an investment banker and shareholder in RMP who is working to find funders for the project, acknowledged in an interview Thursday that RMP is out of cash, but said the land is for sale only as a backup measure if financing falls through. He said RMP still plans to build and is "incredibly close" to announcing new financing deals that will keep the company alive. Deidre Kelsey, the only county supervisor who voted to stop RMP's proposal two years ago, said, "It'll be really sad if the taxpayers end up paying for RMP's mistakes. I kept asking, 'If this goes bad, will the county be protected?' Well it turns out we really might not be. ... I've never seen anything like this." ROBERT MERRILL: Water issues more than just fish versus jobs...Robert Merrill, emeritus professor of geology at California State University, Fresno.http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/valley_voices/v-printerfriendly/story/1057602.htmlRecent articles regarding the need to increase water supplies in the San Joaquin Valley and the political response to the judicial decision shutting off the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have carefully avoided several important issues. Those articles also contain some untruths regarding water-related issues. First, water that flows to the ocean is not lost. Water flowing to the ocean is returned to the land via the hydrologic (water) cycle as rain and snow. Freshwater entering the Delta reduces the salinity, dilutes contaminants and is very important to the Delta's ecosystem, which is a major nursery for marine life. The Delta is the hub of water transfer from north to south in the state. It is not just the Delta smelt and the ecosystem that are at risk, it is also water quality. If the Delta ecosystem collapses, and salinity increases, the supply of clean water for both the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles will be compromised. Constant criticism of "environmentalists" and "judicial decisions" may provide sympathetic press coverage, but it does not offer any protection to the Delta, and its marshes, which play a crucial role in sustaining what remains of a once more viable fishing industry. Valley agriculture is important, but so too are California's fisheries. It should not be a case of Valley agriculture being more important than coastal fisheries. Repeatedly castigating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by pitting human beings and their livelihoods against the ESA, may create a scapegoat, but does not encourage public understanding of why the ESA is important and why Congress passed the law. It is important the public understands that the ESA is part of an attempt to retain biologic diversity at the highest level possible. Keeping biologic diversity high is important because as diversity decreases, ecosystems are more at risk of collapse. Mankind is part of the ecosystem, not separate from it. Yes, it might be possible to construct a Delta smelt "conservation fishery," but how, where and at what cost, not only in terms of dollars, but in terms of vulnerability to disease, or other factors beyond those presently impacting the smelt population? We also need to examine whether the decline in the Delta smelt population is impacting or matched in other parts of that ecosystem. Building a peripheral canal and Temperance Flat Dam give the appearance of making more water available in drought years, but not under projected climate change models. Today much of California's precipitation is stored in the Sierra/Cascade snowpack and gradually released as snowmelt during warmer months. Climate change models project that California will experience more intense rainstorms and less snowfall. Severe rainstorms will produce more floods, requiring water to be released from dams for flood control, thus reducing the number of times those reservoirs can be filled for water storage. A better solution for drought protection is increased groundwater banking combined with increased efficiency in how we use water in both agricultural and urban settings. Groundwater banking is less expensive than building dams, tends to keep the water in the Valley and reduces evaporative losses typical of surface reservoirs. Large construction projects like dams are very expensive, and in our current financial condition may be unaffordable, given the "no new taxes" mantra. Another item often ignored when considering water needs of the Valley is which soils are most suitable for agriculture. Much of the Westlands area contains selenium and other salt problems that yield contaminated drainage water requiring disposal somewhere, and at some cost. This is not environmentalism vs. jobs, these are real issues that need solution and cost analysis, before continuing to deliver water to such areas. Finally, we cannot continue to support a business model based on the "growth" myth. Our growing state is ill-equipped to cope with the decreased rainfall and reduced snowpack of dry years. Perhaps it is time to ask how large a human population California's environment can sustain and under what standard of living. Decades of following the growth myth have allowed cities to sprawl onto some of California's most productive soils, pushing agriculture onto more marginal soils requiring more water distribution infrastructure. As cities grow, people compete with agriculture for water. As taxpayers, we have subsidized much of both activities. It is time we as citizens, together with our political leaders, examine all the facts listed above before making a decision as to how we address the water needs of California. Our decisions should not be based on emotional responses to various lobbying groups or antiquated economic models, but on the facts and affordable long-range solutions. It's not just a matter of fish and ecology vs. jobs and economic growth. Protecting the environment is the means by which we assure ourselves a sustainable future, and protect our quality of life. Proposed Truck Clean-Up Rule Will Save Billions in Health-Related Costs for Truckers and Other Californians...Environmental Defense Fundhttp://www.fresnobee.com/556/v-printerfriendly/story/1057222.htmlThe Schwarzenegger Administration's proposed truck clean-up rule, which the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will vote on next Friday, will provide a much-needed boost to the economy and cut billions of dollars in health care-related costs each year for truckers and other Californians. "The death and disease toll from diesel truck pollution represents an enormous burden of human suffering," said Dr. John Balbus, chief health scientist for Environmental Defense Fund and a member of EPA's Science Advisory Board and Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. "CARB's proposed rule will clean up the most polluting trucks and save lives and money in the process." One of the most common causes for families to hit hard times is their inability to deal with chronic illness and high medical costs. A leading contributor to chronic heart and lung disease in California is highly polluted air, and toxic diesel pollution is a core component of that health-threatening pollution. In California alone this year, diesel truck pollution was responsible for about 4,500 deaths, 1,100 hospital admissions, worsening of respiratory symptoms in more than 76,000 people and 450,000 lost workdays, according to CARB. Truck and other air pollution results in about $28 billion in health-related costs in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles region combined each year, according to a recent economic study conducted by the Institute for Economics and Environmental Studies at California State University, Fullerton, and Sonoma Technology, Inc. Complying with the truck rule over its 15-year life will cost less than $6 billion spread over a period of 15 years, according to CARB. "Uncontrolled diesel trucks cause too much illness and too much unaffordable cost," Balbus concluded. "The Schwarzenegger Administration is right to say enough is enough. We applaud the Administration for its strong stand in favor of reducing air pollution and protecting public health." About Environmental Defense Fund A leading national nonprofit organization, Environmental Defense Fund represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.     CONTACT:    Lori Sinsley    (415) 308-6970 (cell)    lsinsley@edf.org   John Balbus, M.D.    (301) 908-8186    jbalbus@edf.org   Camille Kustin    (916) 752-2834 (cell)    ckustin@edf.orgSOURCE Environmental Defense Fund Sacramento BeeNovember job losses could set off new wave of foreclosures...Jim Wasserman and Dale Kaslerhttp://www.sacbee.com/103/v-print/story/1452952.htmlEvidence that the recession is feeding on itself grew Friday as the U.S. Labor Department reported the worst monthly job losses in a generation, and economists warned of a resulting wave of foreclosures from homeowners now out of work.The government said November unemployment reached its highest level in 15 years as 533,000 people lost jobs in a deepening recession. The biggest number of monthly layoffs in 34 years drove the nation's jobless rate to 6.7 percent, up two-tenths of a percent.The numbers raised alarms in the financial sector that a foreclosure crisis originally rooted in subprime lending is widening as more creditworthy borrowers lose their jobs. "I see a growing delinquency problem among prime mortgages, among mortgages driven by these job loss factors," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.Brinkmann predicted that growing jobless numbers are likely to fuel a fresh wave of loan delinquencies in 2009. If so, it would further aggravate a cycle in which foreclosures damage the larger economy and the damaged economy triggers more foreclosures. It was the first time the bankers association has focused so squarely on the new threat to the housing market.The MBA said almost 10 percent of the nation's outstanding mortgages were delinquent or at some stage of the foreclosure process during July, August and September.Brinkmann said Friday that "absent a recession" it would have been easy to predict a leveling off of U.S. foreclosure activity next year."We can pretty much throw that out the window now," he said in a conference call with reporters.He said that even as subprime loan foreclosures are waning, loan defaults are rising now among "prime" borrowers with good credit and the more traditional fixed-rate or safer adjustable-rate loans.While job losses started with lower-skilled employees who don't own homes, Brinkmann said layoffs are moving up the food chain.Jobless rates for people with technical backgrounds climbed from 3.3 percent to 5.5 percent the past year. For the college-educated, unemployment rose from 2.2 percent to 3.1 percent, he said."Those are the groups most likely to be homeowners," Brinkmann said.That phenomenon was on display Thursday in Sacramento when 2,050 struggling borrowers – four times more than expected – showed up for a foreclosure prevention workshop sponsored by the Hope Now Alliance and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Task Force on Nontraditional Loans.Many attending said they were in trouble because they or members of their households had lost jobs or owned small businesses where revenue has fallen.Roxene Rice of Meadow Vista said her family's loan troubles started "when disaster struck and my husband lost his job for nine months."Margarita McWhorter traced part of her troubles to recently losing her sales job at a Sacramento jewelry store.Friday's job report showed that jobs disappeared in practically every sector of the economy, including manufacturing, leisure and hospitality. Retailers hired half as many workers for the holiday shopping season as they did last year, according to consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.To make matters worse, the government revised the September and October data to show that an additional 199,000 jobs had disappeared.Economist Sung Won Sohn of California State University, Channel Islands, said the layoffs will get worse."The economy is headed downhill and the brakes are not working," he states in a report.Sohn said in an interview that the real U.S. jobless rate is 12.5 percent if you count people relegated to part-time jobs and those who aren't looking.In October, unemployment reached 7.9 percent in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties – up from 5.6 percent a year ago. Statewide, the October jobless rate was 8.2 percent compared with 5.4 percent a year earlier. The state will release its November job statistics in two weeks.The 101,000 job losses in California over the past year stress a housing market already reeling from "a combination of too many houses, speculation and weak (loan) underwriting," Brinkmann said.Sacramento, already weakened by one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates, is especially vulnerable. The stumbling state economy has prodded Schwarzenegger to propose that state employees take off one day per month without pay."What I'm seeing now are state workers who are panicked … who are living paycheck to paycheck and are saying, 'Once I'm forced to take one day off a month I can't make my mortgage payment,' " said Jonathan Stein, an Elk Grove bankruptcy attorney.Scott Anderson, a Wells Fargo & Co. economist, believes this recession, which at one year already is longer than the eight-month recessions of 1991 and 2001, will outlast the recessions of 1973-75 and 1981-82. Each lasted 16 months."Many people in the work force today have never experienced a recession of this magnitude and have little clue of what it means or what to do," he states in a report to clients.Wait until after the holidays, said Sohn."After the shopping season I think we will see more announcements of layoffs and the bankruptcies," he said.Some won't be working that long. According to the layoff notices filed with the California Employment Development Department, Mervyns will lay off nearly 11,000 Californians two days before Christmas, including more than 700 in greater Sacramento. Merced medical school would produce local doctors...Deborah Schoch, Center for California Health Care Journalism and Danielle Gaines, Merced Sun-Starhttp://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1452855.htmlMERCED – The 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 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.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 4 years old. UC Merced won't hand out degrees to its first full undergraduate class until next spring.It 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 a recent interview 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." Stockton RecordForeclosure pain mounts10% of U.S. homeowners are affected...Bruce Spencehttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081206/A_BIZ/812060306Mortgage woes continue to worsen, with one in 10 homeowners across the country either behind on monthly payments or in foreclosure - an increasing part of that because of growing problems with the economy and unemployment.According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's third-quarter national survey of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, one in every 14 homeowners is behind on mortgage payments. That's 6.9 percent of all outstanding mortgage loans.And new figures from a company that tracks the foreclosure market show that single-family homes in San Joaquin County are repossessed at a faster pace.The mortgage bankers' report released Friday said the number of mortgages somewhere in the foreclosure process hit a record high of nearly 3 percent of all loans, up from 1.7 percent from a year ago."As for what is driving the national numbers, it is still a case of product and location," Jay Brinkman, the association's chief economist, said in the report. "Prime and subprime ARMs continue to have the highest share of foreclosures, and California and Florida have about 54 percent and 41 percent of the prime and subprime ARM foreclosure starts, respectively. Until those two markets turn around, they will continue to drive the national numbers."Brinkman projected about 2.2 million foreclosure-action starts this year nationwide.He noted a shift in what is driving foreclosure problems.California and Florida consistently have had among some of the highest foreclosure start numbers in the nation, Brinkman said, largely because of massive overbuilding, improper underwriting and speculation during the housing boom.Problems with the economy there have changed the scene as both states struggle with major job losses - California losing more than 101,000 jobs and Florida losing more than 156,000 jobs over the past year, he said."Clearly, job losses in California and Florida are adding to the problems stemming from housing fundamentals," he said.The country hasn't gone into past recessions with the housing market this weak, Brinkman said, so it is likely that a much higher percentage of delinquencies caused by job losses will go to foreclosure than has been seen in the past.The number of foreclosure starts would seem to indicate at least a leveling off of foreclosures, he said. The percentage of borrowers entering the foreclosure process stood at 1.07 percent in the third quarter, compared with 1.08 percent the previous quarter and 0.78 percent in the third quarter of 2007.But those numbers are being influenced by various types of moratoriums on foreclosure filings instituted by some states and by mortgage companies holding loans past 90 days delinquent while working on mortgage modifications, he said.For example, there was nearly a half-percent increase in loans 90 days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure, the survey said. Nationwide, 2.2 percent of all loans were more than 90 days delinquent, the report said.Twenty states showed declines in the rate of foreclosure starts between the second and third quarters, while every state showed an increase in the 90 days or more delinquent category with the exception of Alaska, Brinkman said, and all increases were greater than expected.Future foreclosures will be driven not by monthly payments resets for adjustable-rate mortgages, he said, but by homeowners having trouble paying fixed-rate loans.Brinkman said that without a recession, he would have expected the foreclosure rates to fall, even with growing problems with prime, fixed-rate loans."We can pretty much throw that out the window now," he said during a media conference call Friday morning.Meanwhile, new numbers from Irvine-based RealtyTrac, which tracks the foreclosure market, indicate that the number of single-family homes actually repossessed by banks and mortgage companies is growing at a faster pace in San Joaquin County.In the first six months of this year, a total of 5,643 houses were repossessed countywide, RealtyTrac said. Compare that with 10,478 from January through October.That means the monthly average of repossessed homes is up from about 940 per month in the first six months of the year to more than 1,200 per month so far in the second half of the year - a nearly 28 percent jump.Cameron Pannabecker, owner of Cal-Pro Mortgage Inc. in Stockton, said that a California foreclosure law that went into effect in early September, requiring a 90-day written notification before a notice of default can be recorded, has made a big difference in the number of foreclosures being filed.That will result in a large decrease in the number of sales on the courthouse steps for a 90- to 120-day period, he said.Despite rising foreclosure numbers, existing home sales have never been hotter in San Joaquin County, primarily because ever-falling foreclosure-home sales prices continue to drop. Brokers estimate that nine out of 10 home sales are foreclosure properties.Existing home sales in San Joaquin County slipped in October to about 1,200 closed sales, down from a record high of 1,254 in September, according to sales figures from Grupe Real Estate-TrendGraphix monthly sales report, based on Multiple Listing Service data.That was still the second-best sales month so far this year, which has been booming primarily because of foreclosure sales.November sales numbers aren't in yet, but sales remain strong, said Ben Balsbaugh, residential sales manager for PMZ Real Estate in Stockton."We had anticipated November and December to be down, but we only sold 10 less homes in November as we did in October - our strongest month in 60 years," he said.San Francisco ChronicleNew rule lifts ban on firearms in national parks...MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer. Dina Cappiello contributed to this story.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/05/national/w103754S84.DTL&type=printablePeople will soon be able to carry concealed, loaded guns in most national parks and wildlife refuges.The Bush administration said Friday it is overturning a 25-year-old federal rule that severely restricts loaded guns in national parks.Under a rule to take effect in January, visitors will be able to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge — but only if the person has a permit for a concealed weapon and if the state where the park or refuge is located also allows concealed firearms.The new rule goes further than a draft proposal issued last spring and would allow concealed weapons even in parks located in states that explicitly ban the carrying of guns in state parks. Some states allow concealed weapons but also ban guns from parks."If you can carry (a gun) on Main Street, you are allowed to carry in a national park," said Chris Paolino. a spokesman for the Interior Department.The Interior Department rule overturns a Reagan-era regulation that has restricted loaded guns in parks and wildlife refuges. The previous regulation required that firearms be unloaded and placed somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk.Assistant Interior Secretary Lyle Laverty said the new rule respects a long tradition of states and the federal government working together on natural resource issues.The regulation allows individuals to carry concealed firearms in federal parks and wildlife refuges to the same extent they can lawfully do so under state law, Laverty said, adding that the approach is in line with rules adopted by the federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Those agencies let visitors carry weapons consistent with applicable federal and state laws.The National Rifle Association hailed the rule change, which will take effect next month before President-elect Barack Obama takes office."We are pleased that the Interior Department recognizes the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families while enjoying America's national parks and wildlife refuges," said Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist.The rule will restore the rights of law-abiding gun owners on federal lands and make federal law consistent with the state where the lands are located, Cox said. The NRA led efforts to change gun regulations they called inconsistent and unclear.A group representing park rangers, retirees and conservation organizations said the rule change will lead to confusion for visitors, rangers and other law enforcement agencies."Once again, political leaders in the Bush administration have ignored the preferences of the American public by succumbing to political pressure, in this case generated by the National Rifle Association," said Bill Wade, president of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees."This regulation will put visitors, employees and precious resources of the National Park System at risk. We will do everything possible to overturn it and return to a commonsense approach to guns in national parks that has been working for decades," Wade said.The park rule will be published in the Federal Register early next week and take effect 30 days later, well before Obama takes office Jan. 20. Overturning the rule could take months or even years, since it would require the new administration to restart the lengthy rule-making process.Nick Shapiro, a spokesman for President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, said no decision had been made on the gun rule."President-elect Obama will review all eleventh-hour regulations and will address them once he is president," he said.Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, hailed the new rule. Crapo and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., had organized letters to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne complaining about the gun restrictions. The letters were signed by half the Senate — 41 Republicans and nine Democrats."I congratulate Secretary Kempthorne for taking this stand. The rule as it has come out is what we asked for with regard to handguns," Crapo said. "It's a very, very significant improvement."Crapo called the current rule confusing and complex and said it "literally resulted in different standards as you traveled through the same state."But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the new rule was a mistake."The Reagan-era rules have stood the test of time and make our national parks safe for all who visit them," Feinstein said. "The Bush administration changes will make our national parks more dangerous and will upset the delicate balance that exists between park visitors and wildlife."Interior spokesman Paolino said the rule would not affect a ban on guns in federal buildings. Guns will still be prohibited in national icons such as Independence Hall and the Statue of Liberty, he said. Guns also will be banned in visitor centers and other buildings at national parks.Interest in water management blossoms...Deborah K. Rich, Special to The Chroniclehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/06/HOTB14967B.DTL&type=printableBrock Dolman signs off his e-mails this way: "Mostly Water, Brock." He considers storm water a crop to harvest just like sugar snap peas. He talks about how sediment running off a landscape into a creek affects salmon as well as the neighbors, and mends creeks eroded by water dumped from culverts with plugs of fir branches thinned from overgrown forests. He's a watershed poet and advocate, though he didn't set out to be either. After studying biology and environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, Dolman was working with endangered species when he experienced his "watershed moment."In trying to understand what caused their extinction, he realized "that, in addition to the basic issue of human land use and habitat loss, the final blow for so many species was when we compromised the hydrology of a place - dehydrated or polluted it - such that the carrying capacity for biology was accordingly diminished."Today, as the director of the Water Institute at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Sonoma County, Dolman fosters watershed moments for the hundreds who attend his lectures or workshops each year."Brock has a real gift for articulating a vision that we can all share about water," said Paola Bouley of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) in Marin County.Bouley first heard Dolman speak during a rain garden building workshop in 2004. Through SPAWN, Bouley is now involved in the installation of 12 rainwater harvesting projects at schools, homes and environmental education centers. At home, Bouley has installed a permeable driveway, a rain garden, and a cistern and rain barrels that together harvest 1,000 gallons of rainwater off the roof of a shed. She uses it to irrigate her vegetable garden. This winter, she's installing an additional 1,500-gallon rainwater cistern. "It gets addictive," Bouley said. Understanding waterNo water, no life, Dolman reminds people. The abandoned orchards and walls of civilizations that forgot, refused or became unable to balance their water use with their water supplies mark the course of our past 10,000 years, he said, adding that we should call it planet Water instead of planet Earth. Other planets have soil; what they lack is water. Disrupt the water cycle to too great an extent and communities fragment, governments topple, and the quality, abundance and diversity of life diminishes, Dolman said.He gives 50 to 60 talks a year to groups ranging from the Audubon Society to the Rotary Club, where he attempts to increase understanding of how water moves through urban and rural landscapes and how humans can participate wisely in its course. Dolman and his co-workers teach workshops on how to install rain gardens and roof water harvesting systems, how to reduce sediment flow into creeks and rivers (which compromises fish habitat while washing valuable topsoil downstream) and how to mend eroding waterways. The Water Institute's signature four-day "Basins of Relations" seminar promotes collective action.Each of us lives in a watershed - though we might not be able to quickly define our own - that runs from ridgelines to river mouth. How water rushes or wends (or no longer finds) its way to the ocean affects and connects cities, farmers and ranchers, developers, fishermen, storm and wastewater managers, and plants and animals."You rapidly, within seconds, reach global questions when discussing water in any system," said Kathleen Kraft, who lives outside Occidental in the Salmon Creek watershed. "Every stakeholder in a watershed has a right to be there. Who's allocated less; who doesn't get any?" Kraft, a baroque flutist, was a member of the Water Institute's first Basins of Relations seminar nine years ago. Since then, Kraft and others have secured nearly $2 million in grants for various Salmon Creek watershed studies and water conservation and watershed rehabilitation projects. On the property she leases, Kraft is using a grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention to thin a forested slope and remove the lower 12 feet of branches ("fire ladders") from trees. The goal is to maintain forest health, reduce the potential fuel load in the event of a fire and prevent catastrophic sediment flow into the creek.Getting everyone involvedOne of the most important benefits of the Basins of Relations seminar for Angie Stuart, a conservation program specialist with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County, was learning to look for who should have input on a conservation project. "Dolman stresses bringing everyone together prior to there being a problem," said Stuart. "Don't forget the landowners and contractors, the local associations and agencies. Make sure you're always talking to everyone who should be participating."Watershed problems and solutions run downstream. "The fun part about water is that it is so interrelated," Dolman said. "As soon as you make a decision to do right by storm water - slowing it, spreading it, sinking it - you solve multiple problems. You reduce flooding in the winter. That reduces the impact on the creeks and creek downcutting and improves water quality, which is better for the fish. "You reduce how frequently storm water overwhelms your wastewater systems. At the same time, you're putting more water in the ground, which improves water supply. There is a lot of opportunity to think how we redesign human civilization from a water-literate angle."People are listening. Seventy signed up for a recent roof water harvesting class at the Water Institute, for which there were only 30 spots. "The demand is up like we've never seen it," Dolman said. "In the past, it was hard to fill some courses. Now we're wait-listed on everything." In August, Bouley invited Brock to do a presentation titled "Rainwater Harvesting and Blue Landscaping" in Fairfax (Marin County). "There were over 200 people that showed up," said Bouley. "There were people looking in through the windows; the room was just overflowing."To learn moreFor more information on the Water Institute at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center or to order Brock Dolman's 20-page guide to protecting and restoring watersheds, go to www.oaecwater.org or call (707) 874-1557.Contra Costa TimesPort air pollution riles regulators, neighbors...Denis Cuffhttp://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_11150757Community groups and clean air advocates and regulators were counting on big commitments from the Port of Oakland this fall to slash diesel truck pollution that has contributed to a higher cancer risk in West Oakland.Now they are fuming, saying the city-owned seaport has pulled back rather than pay out for cleaner air, and public health as well as the port's long term financial health may suffer as a result.The tensions are ramping up as ports and truckers struggle to meet new California pollution requirements in the midst of hard economic times sweeping over the shipping industry.Oakland port commissioners voted Nov. 19 to indefinitely postpone a planned $5 million contribution to a government pool of grants for owners of old trucks to install diesel soot filters required by the state for trucks that want to keep visiting ports after Jan. 1, 2010.Without enough clean trucks, port business could be severely disrupted, air quality regulators say, because hundreds of the 2,000 trucks that use the port are believed to need pollution upgrades.Port commissioners also postponed a Dec. 2 vote on a master plan to cut port pollution, and a container fee that would make companies that ship the goods pay millions of dollars annually to finance pollution reduction measures for diesel trucks, ships and trains."We see the port as essentially pulling back from their commitments to deliver cleaner air," said Jack Broadbent, chief executive officer of the nine-county Bay Area Air Quality Management District. "We are extremely disappointed that the port did not follow through." One environmental leader was harsher."These delays in reducing pollution protect the interests of shipping companies and their customers, like Wal-Mart and Costco, at the expense of public health in Oakland," said Brian Beveridge, co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.Port officials said the troubled economy is hitting the shipping industry so hard that the port, a landlord for many interrelated maritime businesses, has a fiscal responsibility to reassess how it spends to reduce pollution."We haven't any way abandoned our commitments to air quality," said Richard Sinkoff, the port's manager of environmental programs and planning. "The central issue for the port is its financial health and making sure that the benefits from it can accrue."The port is the region's biggest concentrated source of diesel soot, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and contribute to a variety of health problems, including asthma, cancer and heart disease, regulators say.In March, the California Air Resources Board released a risk analysis that concluded the 22,000 residents of West Oakland face a cancer risk some three times higher than the rest of the Bay Area because of air pollution, much of it from traffic on local roads and freeways, but some from port traffic. The pollution also escalates cancer risk to a lesser degree in much of western Alameda and Contra Costa counties, officials said.Vowing to cut pollution risks quickly, the California Air Resources Board, the Bay Area air pollution district and the port each planned to chip in $5 million to create a $15 million pool for grants to clean up diesel truck models from 1994 to 2003 . The maximum grant would be up to $15,000 per truck for soot filters that can cost up to $20,000, leaving a large share for truckers to pick up.The grant program will go ahead, but if the $5 million in port money is not restored, fewer trucks will receive help to upgrade, When they balked at approving the money last month, port commissioners discussed the dark cloud over port finances, and a dispute arose about who should bear the burden of truck filter costs not covered by grants.Some of the many independent truckers who do business at the port complained the filter costs are an extreme hardship on their modest incomes.To solve the problem, the truckers and Teamsters union representatives have urged the port commission to require trucking companies to put the independent truckers on their payroll as full-time employees. If that is done, it's up to the trucking companies to absorb the costs.But other truckers have told the port commission they want to remain contractors to keep their freedom as independent businessmen, even if it means absorbing the cost to clean up trucks. As independent contractors, the truckers cannot legally be organized by labor unions.The labor issue remains unresolved as the port waits for a study to be issued next year on how to address the truckers' status. In the meantime, air pollution officials said they are growing more anxious that trucks using the port may not be ready for the 2010 deadline to clean up."We need the port to show leadership instead of coming up with more reasons for delays," said Mark Ross, a Martinez city councilman on the Bay Area air pollution board. "They have lagged behind Southern California ports in cleaning up." Port officials acknowledge they are concerned about the clean truck deadline, but they said that some cargo owners are considering giving financial assistance for truck upgrades or replacements."I think we'll hear more about partners that are receptive to helping," said Tim Leong, a port environmental scientist. "They understand that operating green is part of doing business at the port."Lab retirees cry foul at health coverage switch...Suzanne Bohanhttp://www.contracostatimes.com/localnews/ci_11151014LIVERMORE — One by one, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory retirees took the microphone at a forum this week, and described their confusion, anxiety and anger over dramatic changes under way with their retiree health care benefits. The crowd of nearly 300 retired scientists, engineers, mechanics and other lab workers, along with some spouses, took to occasional taunts during a Wednesday morning presentation here by the new plan administrator and applauded at pointedly critical remarks. "We feel very shaky about this whole process," said Carolyn Ralston, a lab retiree anxious about her share of costs."We do not feel Lawrence Livermore is protecting us," she added, as audience members clapped.This year, nearly 4,200 lab retirees and their spouses lose the group health coverage plan they have had. It was first provided by the University of California, which formerly managed Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. They then joined a group plan with virtually identical benefits offered by Lawrence Livermore National Security, or LLNS, a partnership including UC and Bechtel Corporation, which took over lab management in 2007. And some 2,400 who took early retirement from the lab will also lose the lab's group coverage when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. In its place, this year the lab's Medicare-eligible retirees will join, a new trend in the provision of health care benefits — called "defined contributions" — that allows employers to shift the cost of rising health care premiums onto recipients. "We're keeping up with the industry best practices," explained Lynda Seaver, spokeswoman for LLNS. "That's where the lab absorbs some of the costs, and the retirees are absorbing some of the costs, too." In 2008, laboratory costs increased $35 million for health care benefits, according to an Oct. 6 letter to retirees from lab director George Miller. And without changes, they were poised to increase another 13 percent in 2009, or nearly $20 million, he added. With defined contributions, an employer lays out a limited pot of money, typically annually, and the recipient uses it to purchase health care insurance on the open market, and to cover co-payments, deductibles and other health care expenses. Livermore lab retirees, and their spouses, will each get $2,400 annually. Any amount unused rolls over into the next year. But any costs beyond that are paid by the retiree. The former lab workers also receive coverage for pharmaceutical benefits under Medicare, as well as dental and vision coverage, paid for by LLNS from a separate fund. Medicare recipients make up the primary test group for this approach. They're spared the worst aspect of purchasing on the open market — rejection due to pre-existing conditions — because insurers offering Medicare must accept all applicants. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, 3M, John Deere, Kellogg Company are among other companies that have switched to these defined contributions for retirees. Extend Health Inc., which is partly owned by America Online founder Steve Case's Revolution Health, is now the contact point for lab retirees on Medicare. The firm acts as a health insurance broker, offering more than 170,000 plans nationwide from an array of insurers. Trained advisers work with retirees to sift though the options to find the best plan. Retirees then pay their premiums directly and are reimbursed from their $2,400 yearly allotment. "Change, even if it's good change, is hard, and there's a lot of trepidation," concurred Noel Obourn, executive vice president of national accounts for Extend Health. But the lab, she said, is providing a "gold-plated package" by covering pharmaceuticals and other benefits. She views the anxiety expressed by retirees as "a pre-experience perspective" that will ease with time. "In general terms, my bias is they're far better off," Obourn said. The retirees will have more choices than with the group offering, Obourn said, and if they move, or live in different locations during the year, they can find a health plan that travels with them. Alain Enthoven, an emeritus professor with Stanford University's Graduate School of Business who sits on Extend Health's advisory board, sympathized with the trauma of changing health plans but said the movement toward defined contributions is essential for controlling costs by making recipients more conscious of health care expenses, which have been rising every year since the late 1990s."What most people have is too good to be true," said Enthoven, one of the early pioneers in the managed care movement. "People are not going to go on having what they had in the past," Enthoven continued. "It's just not a sustainable model." Mark Beach, a spokesman for the AARP's California office, agreed that health care reform requires more sharing of costs by individuals. "Any intellectual worth their salt will say that's a part of containing costs," he said. But Beach said it should be done on a broader scale, rather than focusing containment efforts on certain groups. For the lab retirees, who expected a lifetime of UC health coverage — a benefit still enjoyed by other non-lab UC retirees — the reality still feels brutal, despite the economic rationales. "I feel like we retirees are being abandoned and just dumped off the group health insurance policy," said Bill O'Connell, a lab retiree and former president of the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers, a union representing the Livermore lab workers."And I don't know what the future will bring."Health care flap· WHAT: A health benefits change is upsetting retirees at Livermore Lab who may have to shoulder more costs. · REASON: Rising health care costs -- a $35 million increase for the lab in 2008. A projected $20 million increase for 2009 if no changes were made. · AFFECTED: Some 4,200 retirees this year. Another 2,400 who took early retirement will lose it and switch to the new plan when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. · NEW PLAN: Retirees will get $2,400 a year to buy Medicare plans on the open market. Out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and the like are paid by retirees from that account or from their own wallets if annual costs exceed $2,400. (Pharmaceuticals are covered by a separate fund.)Los Angeles TimesLivestock industry raises stink over EPA report on air pollutionThe document may have consequences for farmers: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if the federal government decides to charge fees for air-polluting animals....Associated Presshttp://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-fi-cowtax6-2008dec06,0,6729812,print.storyReporting from Montgomery, Ala. — For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if the federal government decides to charge fees for air-polluting animals.Farmers are turning their noses up at the notion, which they contend is a possible consequence of an Environmental Protection Agency report after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases from motor vehicles amount to air pollution"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks.EPA officials insisted Friday that the report, which mostly focuses on other sources of air pollution, does not include a proposal to tax livestock.But the American Farm Bureau Federation said, based on federal agriculture department figures, it would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.The executive vice president of Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-size cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."Farm groups say the fee would apply to farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.EPA officials said the agency hasn't taken a position on any of the matters discussed in its response to the Supreme Court ruling. John Millett, spokesman for EPA's air and radiation division, said the EPA report was oversimplified "to the point of distortion.""EPA is not proposing any type of tax on livestock," he said.Farmers have expressed outrage over the EPA report, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week. "It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause of the American Farm Bureau Federation.Oil lays waste to the WestThe greed, speed and scale of development in wild lands is an open wound on America...Terry Tempest Williamshttp://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-williams7-2008dec07,0,3458737,print.storyOn election day, the Bureau of Land Management in Utah quietly announced its last round of oil and gas lease sales for the year. On Dec. 19, close to 400,000 acres of America's redrock wilderness -- much of it adjacent to Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument -- were to be sold for drilling to the highest bidders. Public outcry was fierce. The National Park Service had not been consulted, as it usually was, and much of the land listed for auction had long been proposed for wilderness protection. The BLM succumbed to the pressure and met with the National Park Service, which asked that 93 oil and gas leases be removed from the list. The BLM backed off 22 parcels, and then later deferred other leases in sensitive areas. From a cynical perspective, the lease sale announcement could be seen as a fire the BLM set intentionally around the edges of Utah's most precious natural treasures, knowing it could extinguish the flames, emerge as a reasonable land steward and still get what its current boss, the Bush administration, wants -- more and more public land in the American West to exploit. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, riding bareback and backward in the last gasp of their fossil-fuel governance, are holding fast to their dictum that what is good for the oil business is good for the country. In the interior West, we know this is a lie. Just look at Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah and see how they have been laid to waste, a wide-open wound in America's failed energy policy. The long horizon, emblematic of our wide open spaces, is disappearing. Thousands of oil and gas rigs interrupt the sea of sage. Public lands are pumped and pimped. Pronghorn antelope, known for their agility and speed, are no longer running but sitting in the midst of a cobweb of roads -- an act of defiance or resignation, it's hard to know. When you walk onto an oil patch, instead of a night sky of stars, oil derricks are lit up like marquees in Las Vegas, and you can forget you are in Boulder, Wyo., or Vernal, Utah, or Rifle, Colo.Consider the Jonah Field, an oil and gas development in southwestern Wyoming where, this year, the town of Pinedale experienced its first ozone alert and where water wells have been found to be contaminated, some with benzene. Or the Powder River Basin, just outside Gillette, Wyo., where a knock on your ranch-house door may be followed by the news that while you own the surface rights to your land, the federal government has the mineral rights, and it just sold them to an oil company. Within days, a road is cut, drilling begins, and the wellheads, compressor stations and processing plants are constructed, regardless of your sentiments, livelihood or well-being.Among many Westerners, the consensus is this: We are not against oil and gas development. We are against the greed, speed and scale of it. This is not about energy independence but the oil and gas industry's dependence on an oil-loyal administration to do its bidding. The integrity of our public lands depends on the integrity of our public process within the open space of democracy. This process is being abused and violated.The Dec. 19 lease sale in Utah is just the latest symptom of the problem. The parcels were chosen under the cover of new BLM management plans that will guide the state's land policy for the next 20 years. To witness these plans is to witness a governing mind wedded to fragmentation, not wholeness. According to such environmental groups as the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the plans were finalized in October and November with an eye to fast-tracking the lease sales before Bush's term runs out. In addition to allowing oil and gas drilling, they open 20,000 miles of backcountry trails to off-road vehicle use, putting in jeopardy wildlife habitat, rivers and streams and important cultural and archaeological sites. Once parcels are leased, a new administration would find it hard to undo the deals. And once parcels are developed, their possible wilderness designation would most likely become moot. These acts of greed would come at the expense of a geography so stark and arresting that it renders one mute. The hands of erosion cut windows in sandstone; a spire, an arch or a natural bridge framing a sunset. The curvature of the Earth is not only seen but felt. Burnished and bronzed through time, this geologic architecture has inspired our American character, where self-reliance is predicated on humility, not arroganceInherent in these wild lands is an intact ecosystem and ecological resiliency in the face of climate change -- plant and animal diversity, functioning watersheds and soil conservation. This natural wealth is in stark contrast to the negligible resources the oil companies want to extract: The federal Energy Information Administration says that Utah holds less than 1% of the United States' known oil reserves. The BLM has been forced to curtail the Dec. 19 lease sale, but 275,000 acres are still slated for the auction block, and the new management plans are still in place. "Deferred" leases can just keep appearing on quarterly sales for decades, and the fight over Utah's wild lands will go on unless we, the people, act. We should see to it that Congress passes America's Redrock Wilderness Act in 2009. It would once and for all put 9.4 million acres of Utah redrock wilderness in reserve, where it belongs.The last-minute land grab in Utah's spectacular desert must be seen for what it is: not a boon for business but a bankruptcy of the imagination. What is actually being sold is the soul of a nation, one public parcel at a time.Terry Tempest Williams is a writer who lives in Utah and Wyoming. Her most recent book, "Finding Beauty in a Broken World," was published in October.