11-8-08

  11-8-08Merced Sun-StarUC Merced releases draft of campus development plan...DANIELLE GAINEShttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/537671.htmlUC Merced has set lofty goals for its massive plot of land north of town: housing for more than 12,000 students, a sports complex and a research and development park.But it will be doing it with less space, according to planning documents released by the university."We are extremely pleased to provide this fresh and more comprehensive look at the type of campus and community we intend to build over the next 20 to 30 years," UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang said.The two university documents -- a long-range development plan and a draft environmental impact report -- include extensive renderings of the entire campus, giving surrounding communities their clearest insight to the plans so far.After a series of environmental concerns, the university has decreased the size of its campus and accompanying student neighborhoods to 2,766 acres from 3,025 acres. Buildings have also been relocated farther south and east to create the "environmentally least-damaging alternative," according to paperwork filed with the Army Corps of Engineers. The federal agency has been closely involved with the university's plans to build and expand because by law it oversees the nation's waterways. That includes wetlands near UC Merced."The thoughtfully revised layout makes excellent use of space and natural features of the campus topography while reducing impacts on wetlands by about one-third," Kang said. There will still be substantial impact. More than 76 acres of water-bodies including Cottonwood Creek, Le Grand Canal, Fairfield Canal, and unnamed wetlands, ponds and creeks, will be eliminated by development, according to a Corps of Engineers document. That document -- a permit to build on federally protected wetlands -- also notes that six federally listed threatened or endangered species live on the land of the project area. In addition, 13 other threatened or endangered species may be present. The university will undertake mitigation measures, including the creation of in-kind wetland habitats to fully offset those that are developed, according to a press release. The campus has also set aside 26,000 acres of grasslands next to the campus for conservation. Also as a result of the smaller footprint, the university has preserved lands once proposed to be held for future development. Instead, it will focus on increases in development density as contrasted to expansion.Also included in the plans are some lofty environmental stewardship plans.A new "triple-net zero" goal means the university will consume no off-site or unrenewable energy, produce no net carbon emissions and produce no landfill waste by 2020. Cars will have limited access on campus, and more environmentally friendly forms of transportation will be encouraged, according to the long-range development plan.The academic core of the campus will be about a 10-minute walk from each of the six planned student neighborhoods. About 2,000 to 3,000 students will live in each neighborhood. Buildings will be mixed-use with stores at street level and apartment or dorm housing above. Because the new plans shift the campus and community neighborhood plots, an amendment to the Merced County General Plan is required for the plans to move forward, said Bob Smith, director of special programs at the Merced County Public Works Department. That amendment is expected to go before the county Board of Supervisors in March.A public comment period on the draft environmental impact report started Friday and will run through Jan. 5, 2009. A meeting on the subject will be held on Dec. 2, 2008 at the UC Merced campus. Community members can attend the meeting or e-mail comments to UCMerced@usace.army.mil.Sentencing for UC student delayed...Saturday, Nov. 08, 2008http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/537611.htmlThe sentencing of Jason West was pushed back to Dec. 5 on Friday after his attorney asked for a continuance.West, a chemistry doctoral candidate at UC Merced, pleaded no-contest to stealing about $6,400 worth of lab equipment from the university and using it to manufac- ture methampheta- mine in his home. The sentencing could result in two paths for the defend- ant. Either he will serve a five-year, eight-month sentence or go to an in-custody state rehabilitation facility for substance abusers. Area asking for $30 million in foreclosure helpMoney will be used to buy vacant homes in attempt to stabalize market...SCOTT JASONhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/537646.htmlMerced County's leaders demanded Friday that the state give the area $30 million in foreclosure aid to help it restore neighborhoods wrecked by the housing market collapse.As part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, California was given $145 million by the federal government to disburse to cities and counties. More than $300 million went directly to cities and counties.Merced County and its cities weren't included in the round of funding direcly from the federal government.Area leaders continued to voice frustration that they didn't get included in the first round of funding, but have accepted that they'll be going through the state for help. Grants should be awarded in March and executed in May.The state is in a hurry to get the money to cities so they can buy and renovate foreclosed homes, and tear down ones that are eyesores. "I promise you we'll spend every dime as quickly as possible," Mayor Ellie Wooten said during the meeting.The plan is to help get low-income residents into homes and reduce the number of vacant homes so prices stabilize. Across the county, on average, homes have lost 40 percent of their value.On Friday, the state Department of Housing and Community Development will announce how it will probably divide up the money. Cities and counties will have a couple of weeks to plead their cases before the state sends its final report to the federal government for approval.Congress passed last summer the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, which set aside nearly $4 billion in foreclosure aid for the country.California officials, knowing the state had roughly 25 percent of the country's foreclosures, expected to get about $1 billion. Based on the federal government's formula, fiercely criticized by some, it only received $529 million.As a result, department official Frank Luera said, the state won't be able to help every city and county that needs it.Merced County, along with its six cities, sent a report to Lynn Jacobs, the department's director, highlighting the area's devastation through newspaper articles, unemployment rates and foreclosure figures.The alliance asks the state to keep governments that have already received the aid from double-dipping, to favor cities and counties that are working together and to look at percentages rather than raw numbers, which may be misleading.Smaller cities, compared with larger ones, may have fewer foreclosures but be affected more, they argue."Merced County is the hardest-hit county in the whole nation," Los Banos Mayor Tommy Jones said. "There are families behind these numbers hurting."Now, after delays, there may be some money coming down the pipeline.Attempt at pay boost raises questionsMerced County CEO's wife would have gotten more money...JONAH OWEN LAMBhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/537635.htmlThe wife of Merced County's CEO was on the cusp of quietly receiving a 10 percent raise on her $101,836 salary earlier this week as the Board of Supervisors voted on an item they knew nothing about. They voted on provisions related to her proposed raise that lacked any detailed information about it.Only after the Sun-Star inquired about the issue did county officials concede that the raise was, for now, nonbinding.The proposed pay hike -- embedded in a budget amendment -- would have come as the county grapples with budget woes, job cutbacks and the loss of state funding for several programs.Iris Mojica Tatum, the administrative operations manager for the Mental Health Department, was almost given a raise when and if she started overseeing one additional employee, who runs the Mental Health Services Act program. She's the wife of county CEO Dee Tatum.The budget amendment presented to the supervisors came directly from the county executive's office where Dee Tatum is CEO.The county Board of Supervisors had voted Tuesday to amend the county's budget, and one of the items buried deep in that amendment was Iris Mojica Tatum's "10 percent differential."But on Friday, county representatives, asked about the proposed raise by the Sun-Star, said the absence of the information in public notices and the supervisors' packets had been a mistake. they said Iris Mojica Tatum's potential raise wasn't actually passed.County Legal Counsel James Fincher said that since the board didn't see the resolution, the passage of the resolution with Tatum's pay raise wasn't legally binding. The resolution will now be put before the Board of Supervisors on Nov. 18, said the county's spokesman, Mark Hendrickson. "There was a mistake made in the publication of the agenda and the public materials," said county spokeswoman Katie Albertson. On Thursday, Albertson had said that all the information about Tatum's raise had been provided. "The county is committed to an open and transparent process," she had said before her colleague admitted the mistake.Supervisor Kathleen Crookham knew little or nothing about the raise, and she voted for it. "I don't know if I was aware of that," she said. Supervisor Jerry O'Banion was equally in the dark. "As far as I knew we gave no action to give anyone differential pay," he said.The county denies any conflict of interest involving Iris Mojica Tatum's potential raise. "With any issue like this where there could be a conflict of interest, he (Dee Tatum) always maintains an arms-length distance," said Hendrickson.The Political Reform Act points out the appropriate action for officials if and when potential conflicts become known. It states that if a conflict of interest -- or even the appearance of conflict of interest -- arises, the public official should notify the public of the conflict and then recuse himself, if necessary. "A conflict of interest may occur when an official government decision impacts their personal economic interest," said Roman Porter, the spokesman for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, speaking generally about conflicts of interest.Before the county's realization of Tatum's non-binding potential raise, county spokeswoman Albertson described the raise to Tatum as just a possibility. "There has not been any pay raise that has taken place," she said. "No pay raise has been promised and no pay raise is expected."The raise, had it been applied, while not policy, is a common practice, said Albertson. When additional responsibilities are given to any worker, they may get a raise. Additionally, when pay ranges of a boss is close to a subordinate's, a 10 percent raise can be applied. In this case Tatum's possible subordinate, Sharon Jones, receives $83,782 a year. Therefore Tatum could receive a 10 percent raise. While there is an $18,054 difference, explained Albertson, both employees are at two ends of the same pay range.The path to uncovering the controversial provisional raise began Wednesday when the Sun-Star learned that several agenda items were missing from the county's publicly posted agenda for Nov. 4. In the agenda, published in front of the county building, the item containing Tatum's raise was absent. Under agenda item 43, personnel matters, only 22 items were listed. There were 24. The absent items were listed only in an expanded explanation of the budget amendment, which was found on the third floor of the county building. The item dealing with Iris Mojica Tatum's raise was listed last on a page with 20 other items, each very specific. The prospective pay raise was listed in vague language on two different documents. Iris Mojica Tatum's raise was only specifically mentioned in one item that wasn't immediately available to the public.In an amendment not publicly posted, but requested by the Sun-Star, under "special duty pay," the pay raise was found: "A 10% differential shall be paid to regular permanent or probationary employees in the classification of Administrative Operations Mgr-MH when assigned to be in charge of a Mental Health Services Act Program, Unit or Specialty Service."That, finally, was the language of the resolution that would have given Tatum her potential raise.Now the board will get to vote on something they know about -- a pay hike for the county CEO's wife.COMMENTSIt's not a mistake or accident or an overlook by anyone when it is removed from public disclosure. Quite a few people knew what they were doing and tried to cover it up from the public's eye. How crooked can you get!!! :: 11/08/08 9:27am – busyredhed-----Merced County BOS have voted to lay off 35 Merced County Human Services Employees, this year. Next year there is a project deficit 4X as high as this year. I assume there will be more layoffs to come then. And these idiots are voting for raises? Is there any type of impeachment process for Tatum? I can't believe the gall he has. Everyone should write to the BOS and go to the meetings and call his sorry butt out on this. Who's with me? :: 11/08/08 8:48am – asweetness-----Mr. Tatum needs to leave NOW...he is not helping Merced he is taking from the city. YOU PEOPLE ARE ARROGANT too in that you steal right in front of the voters "convincing" yourselves you deserve it. :: 11/08/08 8:05am – calbax-----You would think that they would read what they are about to vote on. Typical leadership, yade yade yade, ok let go eat or have ***tails. All in favor "I" now lets get outta here. Pats on the back for all. :: 11/08/08 7:49am – Nicodemus-----he is a crook Tatum,same guy selling back his sick leave time,he is out for himself,he is not protecting us,he is not looking out for us,just his interest.Still wonder why a guy like that has this job,he has no knowledge how to make a dollar He needs to be on garbage crew,he is a man with no business common sense,Lets get rid of he creep :: 11/08/08 7:14am – mariposawayne-----WOW, this whole thing smells like old fish, it sounds like the County better have an independant auditor go back through Tatum's past work!! :: 11/08/08 6:20am - unruly58Jobless ranks hit 10 million, most in 25 years...JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics WriterAP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.http://www.mercedsunstar.com/109/v-print/story/537426.htmlWASHINGTON The nation's jobless ranks zoomed past 10 million last month, the most in a quarter-century, as piles of pink slips shut factory gates and office doors to 240,000 more Americans with the holidays nearing. Politicians and economists agreed on a painful bottom line: It's only going to get worse.The unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, the government said Friday, up from 6.1 percent just a month earlier. And there was more grim news from U.S. automakers: Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., American giants struggling to survive, each reported big losses and figured to be announcing even more job cuts before long.Regulators, meanwhile, shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.Barack Obama, in his first news conference as president-elect, said the nation was facing the economic challenge of a lifetime but expressed confidence he could deal with it."Immediately after I become president, I'm going to confront this economic crisis head on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity," he said after meeting with economic advisers in Chicago. "I'm confident a new president can have an enormous impact."Wall Street revived somewhat after two days of big losses. The Dow Jones industrials rose 248 points.Still, the Labor Department's unemployment report provided stark evidence that the economy's health was deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace. The jobless rate was 4.8 percent just one year ago.About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, the most since the fall of 1983. More people have jobs now, since the population has grown, but it's still a staggering jobless figure. With employers slashing jobs every month so far this year, some 1.2 million positions have disappeared, over half in the past three months alone.Like Obama, President Bush expressed confidence that things would get better: "Our economy has overcome great challenges before, and we can be confident that it will do so again."But economists were much less upbeat than politicians."There is no light at the end of the tunnel, and the outlook is pitch black," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research.And Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, said the report "depicts an economy still in free fall and without a safety net anywhere in sight."All the economy's woes - a housing collapse, mounting foreclosures, hard-to-get credit and financial market upheaval - will confront Obama when he assumes office in January. Unemployment is expected to keep rising during his first year in office, while record budget deficits will crimp his domestic agenda.October's jobless rate was the highest since March 1994 and now has surpassed the 6.3 percent 2003 high after the most recent recession. The government also said job losses were worse than first reported for the preceding two months, 284,000 rather than 159,000 in September and 127,000 rather than 73,000 in August.Many economists believe the unemployment rate will climb to 8 percent or 8.5 percent by the end of next year before slowly drifting downward. Some think unemployment could even hit 10 or 11 percent - if an auto company should fail.In any case, the rate is likely to move higher even if the economy is on somewhat stronger footing by the middle of next year as some hope. That's because companies won't be inclined to ramp up hiring until they feel certain that a recovery has staying power.Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at consulting firm MFR Inc., said another reason the unemployment rate can keep climbing - even after a recession is over - is because people tend to flock back to the labor market when they sense their job prospects might be better. "It takes (people) awhile to figure out, 'Hey, there's jobs out there,'" Shapiro said.In the 1980-1982 recession - considered the worst since the Great Depression in terms of unemployment - the jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982 just as the recession ended, before inching down.Friday's report was worse than analysts had expected. They had been forecasting a jobless rate of 6.3 percent with payrolls falling about 200,000.Factories, including auto makers, construction companies, especially home builders, retailers, mortgage bankers, securities firms, hotels and motels and educational services, all cut jobs. As did temporary help firms - a barometer of future hiring. All those losses more than swamped the few gains elsewhere, including in the government, health care and in accounting and bookkeeping.Private companies cut 263,000 jobs, the most since the country was beginning to emerge from the 2001 recession. It marked the 11th straight month of such reductions.The grim numbers spurred calls from Democrats on Capitol Hill to provide fresh relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats, in a lame-duck session later this month, will push to enact another economic stimulus package of around $100 billion, possibly including provisions to create jobs through big public works projects.Obama said if the session doesn't bring passage, the measure will be his first priority as president in January.He has called for about $175 billion in new stimulus spending, including money for roads, bridges and aid to hard-pressed states. He wants a rebate of $500 for individuals, $1,000 for families and a new $3,000 tax credit for businesses for each new job created.Workers with jobs saw only modest wages gains in October. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.21, a 0.2 percent increase from the previous month. Over the past year, wages have grown 3.5 percent, but paychecks aren't stretching far because high food, energy and other prices have propelled overall inflation at a faster pace.The economy has lost its footing in just a few months. It contracted at a 0.3 percent pace in the July-September quarter, signaling the onset of a likely recession. It was the worst showing since the 2001 recession, and reflected a massive pullback by consumers.As consumers watch jobs disappear, they'll probably retrench even further, spelling more trouble. Analysts say the economy is still shrinking in the current October-December quarter and will contract further in the first quarter of next year. All that more than fulfills a classic definition of a recession: two straight quarters of contracting economic activity."The U.S. recession is deepening," said Michael Gregory, economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics. The final quarter of this year is getting off to a "particularly ugly" start. Regulators shut banks in Texas, California...MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writerhttp://www.mercedsunstar.com/109/story/537130.htmlWASHINGTON Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.The bank's failure is a bitter irony because it is the mortgage securitization business of which Ranieri is known as a pioneer - the repackaging of home loans as bonds that are sold to investors - that was at the heart of the mortgage and credit crises. Last spring, the audit committee of the company's board found in an investigation certain weaknesses in accounting, disclosure and other issues relating to residential real estate loans.Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress.The FDIC said all of Franklin Bank's deposits will be assumed by Prosperity Bank of El Campo, Texas. Its 46 offices will reopen as branches of Prosperity Bank with their normal business hours, including those that open on Saturday. In addition to assuming Franklin Bank's deposits, Prosperity Bank also will acquire about $850 million of the failed bank's assets.Parent company Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress.Meanwhile, all of Security Pacific's deposits will be assumed by Pacific Western Bank of Los Angeles. Its four offices will reopen Monday as branches of Pacific Western, a unit of PacWest Bancorp. In addition, Pacific Western will purchase around $51.8 million of Security Pacific's assets.The FDIC will retain the remaining assets of the two banks for eventual sale.The agency said depositors of Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank will continue to have full access to their deposits, which will continue to be insured by the FDIC.The FDIC estimated that the resolution of Franklin Bank will cost the federal deposit insurance fund between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, while that of Security Pacific Bank will cost the fund $210 million.Regular deposit accounts are now insured up to $250,000 as part of the new financial rescue law enacted in early October. The limit on individual retirement accounts held in banks remains at $250,000.The 19 bank failures so far this year compare with three for all of 2007 and are more than in the previous five years combined. It's expected that many more banks won't survive the next year of economic tumult. The pressures of tumbling home prices, rising mortgage foreclosures and tighter credit have been battering many banks, large and small, across the nation.The failures this year include that of Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. in late September, the biggest bank collapse in history. It had $307 billion in assets. In July another big savings and loan, IndyMac Bank based in Pasadena, Calif., failed and was seized by regulators with about $32 billion in assets.The FDIC estimates that through 2013 there will be about $40 billion in losses to the deposit insurance fund, including an $8.9 billion loss from the failure of IndyMac Bank. The FDIC is raising insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its fund, which now stands at around $45.2 billion, below the minimum target level set by Congress and the lowest level since 2003.In addition, the FDIC may guarantee nearly $2 trillion in U.S. banks' debt and deposit accounts in an effort to break the crippling logjam in bank-to-bank lending.Well over half of the roughly 8,500 federally-insured banks and savings and loans are expected to tap the FDIC's temporary guarantees. The agency will provide as much as $1.4 trillion in insurance for more than three years for loans between banks, guaranteeing the new debt in the event the issuing bank fails or its holding company files for bankruptcy.Of the 8,500 FDIC-insured banks, 117 were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter - the highest level in about five years and up from 90 in the first quarter. The agency doesn't disclose the banks' names. Franklin Bank customers seeking more information can contact the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-591-2845. Security Pacific Bank customers can call 1-866-934-8944.Modesto BeeUC Merced of 2038 in new reportProposed layout must be approved...Michelle HatfieldBee staff writer Merrill Balassone contributed to this report.http://www.modbee.com/local/story/491715.htmlMERCED -- An athletic stadium, student union, pool, research and development complex, alumni center and expressway are part of designs for the full 815 acres of the University of California at Merced.UC Merced officials have released the draft version that details what the campus would look like over the next 30 years, including a proposed layout, plans for building environmentally friendly facilities and maps of campus communities.In its fourth year, UC Merced has about 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students. At completion, the campus would have 25,000 students.Called the "Draft Long Range Development Plan," the 135-page report also is an update after university officials in October 2007 agreed to amend blueprints to address environmental concerns and better preserve vernal pool wetlands.UC regents need to approve the document before UC Merced officials can move forward with the expansion.Highlights of the plan include:- Gateway District -- The primary campus entrance on the west and "face" of the campus- Academic Core -- 199 acres of classrooms, laboratories, administration buildings, research and development offices- Town and Gown District -- The center of commercial activity and an interface between the campus and university community- On campus -- 221 acres of student neighborhoods, 110 acres for parking, 140 acres for athletics and recreation, and 100 acres for open spaceAnother document released Friday is the "Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report," which details the effects of expanding the campus and building a neighboring university community to the south.At three volumes totaling more than 1,100 pages, the study investigates the campus's future impact on prime farmland, biological resources, groundwater and surface water quality, and traffic and road safety.It also evaluates ways the development could reduce negative effects. For example, to lower the possibility of air pollution, UC Merced officials will encourage walking and the use of public transit, according to the study.California State University, Stanislaus, has just completed its preliminary plan for updating the layout of its campus over the next 20 years. That blueprint includes a major library expansion, renovation of the original science building into a classroom facility, the addition of a 1,200-seat auditorium in the College of the Arts complex, and another dorm.The revised document, scheduled to go to California State University trustees for approval in January, is the first major update to the master plan since 1968, three years after the campus opened.AT A GLANCETwo reports were released by UC Merced on Friday:٠"Draft Long Range Development Plan" ٠"Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report"They outline plans for expanding the campus over the next several decades to its full 815 acres and 25,000 students, as well as building an adjacent university community of homes, schools and shopping. The reports can be found at http://lrdp.ucmerced.edu. Public comment on the draft environmental report started Friday and runs through Jan. 5. Community members can attend a public hearing Dec. 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the California Room on the UC Merced campus at 5200 N. Lake Road. E-mail comments to UCMerced@usace.army.mil.New Wal-Mart Supercenter readies for its grand opening...J.N. Sbrantihttp://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/491714.htmlModesto's new Wal-Mart Supercenter will open Wednesday, creating 370 new jobs and filling the long-empty anchor position in the North Point Landing shopping center."Everybody in town has been very welcoming to us," said Jatinder Singh, the store's co-manager. He said Modesto needed the new jobs and the shopping center needed a big draw tenant like Wal-Mart. "Business is going to boom really well for the other stores in this strip mall."That would be good news for nearby shop owners like Andy Thai, whose Tip2Toe Nails salon has been struggling to survive the tough economy."We've lost money so far. We make only enough to cover the rent," said Thai, whose shop opened four years ago.New owners took over the shopping center two years ago, renovated it and began courting new tenants like Wal-Mart. "My rent has doubled up here. It looks nice, but people don't spend money here now. We've been waiting for Wal-Mart to open."Thai said he's been told Wal-Mart should attract 5,000 to 7,000 new customers per day.This will be the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in Stanislaus County and the 35th in California. The Arkansas-based discount chain plans to replace its Ceres store with a new supercenter elsewhere in town, and to expand its Los Banos store into a supercenter. It also submitted government applications this week to build a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Livingston.Not without controversyWal-Mart Supercenters have been controversial in many cities -- including Turlock, where they prompted a virtual ban -- because of their impact on competitors and use of nonunion labor.Wal-Mart secured the necessary approvals for the Mo- desto store early on in the process. Because the Modesto store is filling what previously was two large retail spaces, city officials have said, the project had few hurdles to clear, especially compared with building a store on undeveloped land.The new Modesto store at 3848 McHenry Ave. covers 98,315 square feet. It fills two adjoining spaces that were occupied by SavMax and Rite Aid, but have been vacant for several years.Wal-Mart knocked out an interior wall to create one store. Holes also were poked through the roof to create 100 skylights that flood Wal-Mart with sunshine during daytime."Our skylights cut down on our energy use because we don't have to turn on our lights much," explained store manager Paul Shumate, who began his Wal-Mart career stocking shelves in Wichita, Kan., in 2001.6,000 applicants for 370 jobsShumate moved to Modesto to take the store's top post. He's not the only one who wanted to work at the new Wal-Mart."We had about 6,000 job applications here," Shumate said. "We had a very good selection of people to choose from."Of the 370 mostly full-time employees hired, 21 transferred from other Wal-Mart stores where they had 10 or more years of experience. Critics, namely unions, say the company doesn't pay a living wage or adequate health care.According to Wal-Mart, though, it offers employees health insurance, a 401(k) retirement savings plan, profit-sharing contributions, store discounts, performance-based bonuses, a stock purchase program and life insurance.The company reports that the average wage for a full-time hourly Wal-Mart employee in Stanislaus County is $11.83 per hour... The big day looms... Traffic increase a concern...Patterson IrrigatorDecision delayed on West Park lawsuit...John Saiz...11-7-08http://pattersonirrigator.com:80/content/view/2461/42/A court decision whether to throw out the city’s lawsuit against a 7.5-square-mile industrial development in Crows Landing has been postponed until Nov. 21. The hearing was initially scheduled for Thursday.The delay gave both sides the opportunity to review a recent state Supreme Court ruling that the city hopes will give it leverage to halt the project.PCCP West Park LLC and Stanislaus County are negotiating to turn the former Crows Landing Naval Air Base into a massive industrial center. The Patterson City Council has been a constant critic of the project and its huge scope.The city sued the county and West Park after county supervisors voted to enter an exclusive negotiation period with the developer. The city argues that an environmental impact report — an extensive study detailing the impacts of the project — needed to be created prior to the supervisors entering the negotiating period. A similar argument was upheld in the case Save Tara v. City of West Hollywood. The state Supreme Court ruled Oct. 30 that West Hollywood violated state law by not following proper procedures with regards to a senior citizen housing project.The court determined an environmental impact report should have been completed before the city joined two developers and obtained a federal grant for the project.Both sides in the West Park case had until Friday to turn in briefs explaining their interpretations of the Tara decision and how it applies to the current case. The briefs should be available for public viewing next week. Fresno BeeVote targets urban sprawl across ValleyCounties may have to boost efforts to curb growth...Russell Clemingshttp://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/997181.htmlA regional advisory panel moved Friday to strengthen a planned crackdown on urban sprawl in response to recent state laws attacking global climate change. The vote by the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Regional Advisory Committee means that Valley counties, most of which already have mapped out tentative plans for boosting housing densities over the next four decades, could be asked to redouble those efforts. In effect, the panel raised the ante on the state-funded Blueprint planning effort, an eight-county attempt to sketch a broad vision of the Valley at midcentury. If the committee's recommendation is formally adopted, new housing could have an average of 31 people per acre, compared to 13 under current plans. Earlier talks ended with the eight counties adopting visions that, on the whole, called for 18 people per acre of new development. Since then, however, Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed a new law, Senate Bill 375, that links local planning with a mandate to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Higher housing densities help that effort by reducing the number of miles people drive. Regional leaders at Friday's meeting -- which drew public officials, business leaders and activists up and down the Valley -- appear to take the new law as a signal that what already was being done would not suffice. Some called for even more drastic action than what was voted on Friday. "I don't think we're going far enough," said John Donaldson, a former Fresno County supervisor representing the League of Women Voters. Whether the proposed higher densities will ever make it into official policy remains to be seen. Stanislaus County political leaders have balked at endorsing any attempt to increase densities beyond what current local land-use plans call for. Elsewhere, the people-per-acre average from the first round of talks ranged from 15 in Madera County to 28 in Merced County. Fresno settled on 25, Kings 24 and Tulare 17. John Wright, former Clovis planning and development director, said that the region's leaders could avoid trouble later if they used the Blueprint process to bring land-use and greenhouse-gas emissions into compliance with the new law. "The Blueprint will become the vehicle for counties and cities to try and comply with what is the law, not something that may be," Wright said. Failing to meet the greenhouse-gas targets called for under SB 375 and other laws could mean that local agencies will miss out on transportation, housing and other incentive funds tied by the law to the targets. Several more months of meetings and other discussions are scheduled before any final votes are taken on the Blueprint plans. First among them is a public meeting now planned for late January by the Modesto-based Great Valley Center, a nonprofit group coordinating the Blueprint effort. After that, center President David Hosley said, two political leaders from each county will be asked to vote on a final Blueprint plan. Only then will the finished products be presented to the counties and their cities for consideration. "I think we will be lucky if it happens by summer," Hosley said. A high-speed future awaits usPassage of rail bond will mean an economic bonanza for Fresno, the Valley...Editorialhttp://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/997110.htmlThe passage of Proposition 1A on Tuesday means the future of high-speed rail in California has really begun. A new business report released Friday by the California High-Speed Rail Authority shows us the outlines of that future. The plan estimates that when the first leg of the system is up and running -- between Southern California and the Bay Area, by way of Fresno and the Valley -- the high-speed trains will generate more than $1 billion annually in excess revenue. That money can be used to repay construction bonds, expand and improve the system or to pay dividends to the private investors who will help build it. It will also help fund the second phase of the project, running south to San Diego and north to Sacramento from Merced. The first phase is expected to cost around $33 billion by the time it's finished. The second phase will add another $12 billion or so to the final cost of construction. It will take about two years before actual construction starts. Detailed plans must be finalized and right-of-way acquired along the 800-mile route. Rail officials are limited in the amount of bond money from Proposition 1A that can be spent before federal and private funding sources are identified. Prospects for that funding are good, despite the gloomy economic situation we currently face. There is a growing bipartisan consensus in Congress that favors passenger rail development, including high-speed rail. President-elect Barack Obama is an outspoken supporter of high-speed rail. Public infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail are sure to be at the forefront of any economic stimulus efforts out of Washington in the coming weeks. Putting people to work is the best way to stimulate spending, and thus recovery, when economies are in recession. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a powerful voice in Washington, said Wednesday that "There is legislation that will set up 11 regional systems in the U.S. for high-speed rail, and we will qualify as one of them. I think we've now got our ducks in order to be No. 1 on that list, and as an appropriater, that will be a job of mine." In addition, some 40 companies, many of them worldwide giants, responded to the the rail authority's Request for Expressions of Interest last spring. Some of that interest, no doubt, has waned since the global economic meltdown began, but there are sure to be private companies willing to follow where state and federal funds lead. The Valley stands to prosper most from this project. Many of the 160,000 construction jobs generated by high-speed rail will go to Valley workers. The first track is expected to connect Bakersfield and Merced, and will be used to test and certify the trains and cars that are chosen for the system. Air quality improvements -- the trains will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 12 billion pounds per year and the state's reliance on fossil fuel by 12.7 million barrels of oil per year -- will be felt most in the Valley. The trains will induce growth, but it will be the sort of growth we need: clustered around the downtown station, not sprawling out toward the horizon in every direction. Voters may have taken a leap of faith in approving Proposition 1A, but in a few years it will seem like a sure bet. Sacramento BeeForest Service unveils plan to fight climate change...Tom Knudsonhttp://www.sacbee.com/378/story/1380724.htmlRENO – U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell unveiled on Friday a new agencywide effort to tackle the problem of climate change, saying it poses the greatest danger yet to the nation's woodlands."This issue is so big," Kimbell said in an interview at the national convention of the Society of American Foresters here. "The health and resilience of America's forests affect everyone."The goal is to respond to climate change broadly, she said, from helping forests adapt to warmer, drier conditions to reducing the agency's carbon footprint by stepping up its purchase of alternative fuel vehicles. Though short on specifics, the agency's plan – unveiled at the convention on Friday – comes against a backdrop of declining forest health and increasing environmental damage from wildfires across the Sierra Nevada and the mountain West, Kimbell said."We've been seeing bigger fires, wilder fires, more intense fires," she said. "Fire seasons that start in January in the southern United States end in December in California – and then start all over again."We believe it's tied to … climate change," Kimbell added.Insects, too, take advantage of warmer conditions to wreak havoc on conifer stands in the northern Rockies, she said.The Society of American Foresters is the nation's leading scientific and educational organization for the forestry profession. Its Reno conference, titled "Forestry in a Climate of Change," brought together forestry professionals and academics."The problem is not climate change," said conference-goer John Helms, past president of the society and a retired UC Berkeley forestry professor. "The problem is the rate of climate change. We are increasing the rate of change faster than normal evolutionary processes."One cornerstone of the Forest Service plan – which the agency calls a "Strategic Framework for Climate Change" – relies heavily on science to shape agency decisions. Another calls for developing strategies to help forests soak up and store more carbon dioxide, the atmospheric gas most responsible for global warming."This is a much different issue than we or other agencies have grappled with," said David Cleaves, the Forest Service's associate deputy chief for research and development. "We need to do it right." Bickford Ranch crashes in bankruptcy court...Jim Wassermanhttp://www.sacbee.com/103/story/1380689.htmlIn a vivid example of the Wall Street financial crisis hitting home, development plans for a Placer County golf course community called Bickford Ranch crashed Friday in federal bankruptcy court.Bickford Ranch, a 1,942-acre residential project in the Sierra foothills between Penryn and Lincoln, collapsed after its sole source of cash – Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers – imploded in September, developers said.The community, long controversial for its potential impact on its rural foothills setting, was a partnership between Lehman Brothers and Irvine land development giant SunCal Companies. SunCal spokesman David Soyka said Friday that without Lehman's money, SunCal Bickford Ranch LLC can't finish infrastructure work or even maintain the property."The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has created a situation that stands in the way of any new capital coming into the project," Soyka said in a statement. Lehman filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 15 after the U.S. government declined to bail it out, as it had done with other investment banks.Initial court filings did not list the partnership's assets or liabilities. But documents show that it owed about $3.4 million to its 20 largest unsecured creditors. That includes $1.86 million owed to West Sacramento engineering firm Kiewit Pacific Co. and $330,118 to Marques Pipeline Inc. of Sacramento. It also owes:• $240,994 to Placer County.• $100,000 to Land Architecture Inc. of Roseville.• $100,245 to the Placer County Community Development Resource Agency.• $11,731 to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.The project, initiated by Miami-based Lennar Communities, won county approval in 2001. But it was stalled for years by lawsuits. Environmental groups argued that the location on pastureland and ridges violated the county general plan, which called for preserving oak woodlands.In 2004, a Placer Superior Court judge agreed. Later that year, the developers resubmitted their plans. Then environmentalists sued again.Eventually, the SunCal partnership, which bought the property in 2005, paid $6 million to preserve oak woodlands elsewhere in Placer County to settle the lawsuit."It's kind of an out-of-place island of suburbia in the midst of a very rural setting," said Terry Davis, a party to the negotiations as an official of the Sierra Club's Mother Lode chapter.Davis, told Friday of the bankruptcy filing, said, "It still would be a great place for a park. It has spectacular vistas from up there."SunCal said water and sewer lines are nearly completed and site grading has begun. The company said it had also planted thousands of oak seedlings on the property. Though developers initially expected the first residents would move in in 2006, neither the golf course nor any homes have been built.SunCal attorneys said Friday the project will go forward eventually. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, they said, helps find a new investor.The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana is only for the limited partnership with Lehman Brothers. It does not apply to SunCal, which has developed large projects across the West in recent years, including Lincoln's 2,900-home Lincoln Crossing community.Bickford Ranch, however, was the development firm's fourth related bankruptcy filing in California. All involved partnerships with Lehman Brothers, which armed SunCal with $2.2 billion to develop properties throughout California and Nevada.Other related casualties:• A proposed 6,000-home golf course community in southwest Bakersfield named McAllister Ranch. A partly built golf course there has become a sheep pasture.• A 1,640-home community named McSweeney Farms near the Riverside County city of Hemet.• A 3,600-home project named SummerWind Ranch near Calimesa in Riverside County. San Francisco ChroniclePlan for high-speed rail system released...Michael Cabanatuanhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/08/BAV6140IK5.DTL&type=printableCalifornia's high-speed rail system, endorsed by voters on Tuesday, will haul 50 million people and generate a surplus of $1.1 billion annually by 2030, according to a business plan released by the High Speed Rail Authority on Friday.The plan's figures, analysis and observations essentially echo the statements promoted by proponents of Proposition 1A, which authorized the sale of $9.95 billion in bonds to help jump-start construction of a statewide high-speed train network. The proposition was approved by 52.3 percent of voters.Critics said they were disappointed by the plan released Friday, saying it lacked the necessary detail."We waited three months for this?" said Jon Coupal, spokesman for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which opposed Prop. 1A. "I will say it's very pretty and has nice photographs. But as a business plan to present to venture capitalists to convince them to invest, it falls far short."The plan, which updates a 2000 report, says the 800-mile statewide system will create $150.5 billion in benefits over 40 years. They include savings on new highways and airport runways that won't need to be constructed to meet the needs of a growing population and a decline in air pollution. By comparison, the system will cost $53.1 million in construction and operating costs, according to the report, which said its San Francisco-to-Los Angeles mainline is expected to be up and running by 2020.Quentin Kopp, chairman of the High Speed Rail Authority, said the document contained little new information but updated ridership and financial figures where appropriate, and compiled the information in a single report."It's a careful, candid plan that pulls no punches and contains scrupulous analysis," he said.It was prepared by several transportation, infrastructure and financial consultants, according to the authority, and was reviewed by high-speed rail authorities in Europe and Japan.Building the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles and Anaheim line that will be the spine of the system will cost between $32.8 billion and $33.6 billion, according to the report. Annual operating costs will run between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion. Annual revenues are projected at between $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion, depending on fares.Construction will be paid for with the just-approved $9.95 billion from the state, plus $12 billion to $16 billion in federal funds, $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion in private investment and $2 billion to $3 billion in local funds.The report acknowledges that the private investment portion could be slow in coming, or may not arrive at all, but, even so, enough of the system could be built with available funds to make it the completed segments usable. The proposition on Tuesday's ballot required that construction can't be started until there's enough funding to complete a segment. Also included in the report was a collection of recent regional economic studies that predict that by 2030, 160,000 jobs will be created to build the railroad and 320,000 new permanent jobs will arise in industries such as tourism, transportation and security - by 2030 as a result of the fast train's existence.The report projects 9.1 million boardings in San Francisco's Transbay Terminal in 2030 and says the fast train will share the Caltrain right of way, and some tracks, as it heads up and down the Peninsula at speeds of up to 125 mph.The estimated cost of upgrading the Caltrain right of way and building high-speed rails from San Francisco to San Jose is $4.2 billion, the report said. The report also backs the plan to add high-speed service over the Altamont Pass, serving Oakland and the Oakland International Airport, though it offers no details.Legislation amending the high-speed rail bond measure, passed in the midst of the state budget battle, called for the business plan to be released by Sept. 1. But the authority officials said they had no money for the plan until the state budget was passed on Sept. 23.Kopp said that the report was not ready until Friday and that it wasn't held back out of fears it would affect the outcome of the election."I think it probably would have helped," he said.Coupal had similar thoughts."It reads like a campaign mailer," he said.U.S. expands oil, gas leak program near parks...Felicity Barringer, New York Timeshttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/08/MNNN140N5B.DTL&type=printableThe Bureau of Land Management has expanded its oil and gas lease program in eastern Utah to include tens of thousands of acres on or near the boundaries of three national parks, according to revised maps published this week.National Park Service officials say the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.The inclusion of the new lease tracts angered environmental groups, which were already critical of the bureau's original lease proposal, made public this fall, because they said it could lead to industrial activity in empty areas of the state, some prized for their sweeping vistas, like Desolation Canyon, and others for their ancient petroglyphs, like Nine Mile Canyon.The bureau's new maps, made public on election day, show not just those empty areas but 40 to 45 new areas where leasing will also be allowed.The tracts will be sold at auction on Dec. 19, the last lease sale before President Bush leaves office a month later. The new leases were added after a map of the proposed tracts was given to the National Park Service for comment this fall. The proximity of industrial activity concerns park managers, who worry about the impact on the air, water and wildlife within the park, as well as the potential for noise, said Michael Snyder, a regional director of the Park Service who is based in Denver.The Park Service is usually given one to three months to comment on leases, Snyder added. "This is the first time," he said, "where we have not had sufficient opportunity to comment."He said he had asked the Bureau of Land Management's state director, Selma Sierra, to pull the new tracts from the December auction for more study. She refused.Kent Hoffman, a deputy director of the land management bureau's Utah office, said the Park Service had ample opportunity to review the broad management plan under which the leases were developed, even if it was not given the usual notice of which leases were being offered for sale. Hoffman added that 37 days remained to air any protests and review the decision about which tracts to lease.If any leases are sold Dec. 19 and subsequently delivered to the buyers before Inauguration Day, however, it will be difficult for the new administration to reverse those decisions.The perennial struggle over the use of public lands in the West, which traditionally pits ranchers, miners and oil and gas interests against environmentalists and groups interested in historic preservation, has been particularly acute in Utah.Many in the state, where resentment of the federal government runs deep, remain angry about the Clinton administration's decision in 1999 to set aside for protection 3 million acres deemed to have "wilderness qualities." The state sued; in 2003, the Bush administration settled and removed protections from those acres.GOP senators freeze marine sanctuaries plan...Cain Burdeau, Associated Presshttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/08/MNCG14090M.DTL&type=printablePresident Bush's proposal to create a string of marine sanctuaries in the Gulf of Mexico, known as the "Islands in the Stream," has died at least for now after Republican senators opposed it, a sanctuary official said.The sanctuaries would have restricted fishing and oil drilling in nine coral banks and hard-bottom areas in a large loop around the gulf from Texas to Florida. Ecological research shows that the gulf marine ecosystem relies on a ring of deep-water reefs and banks connected by the clockwise motion of ocean currents in a loop from Belize to the Florida Keys.Billy Causey, southeast regional director for the National Marine Sanctuary Program under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the proposal has been put on hold. He said this week that opposition from the senators and fishermen was too intense and that he received what he called "pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Interior" to put the proposal on ice. He declined to provide specifics."That doesn't mean it's not a good project," said Causey.Officials with the Department of the Interior did not immediately return a call seeking comment.In April, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Alabama's two Republican senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, sent a letter to the White House expressing their "strong objections" to the plan.Vitter said in a statement that his concern was that the sanctuaries would "have held potentially grave consequences for the Gulf Coast's fishing and energy interests.""Given our nation's growing energy concerns and the gulf's important contribution to our nation's oil and gas industry, it would have been irresponsible of us to further compound these issues by closing off areas that may hold oil or natural gas reserves," Vitter said.Causey said the protected areas would be small and change very little in practice. Fishing and drilling are restricted in some of the areas.Vitter said he would oppose any attempts to renew the push by President-elect Barack Obama's administration.Bush has been seen as trying to defend the oceans. He had asked his staff to look at protecting parts of the Pacific Ocean, and two years ago, he set aside the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters, creating a marine monument spanning 140,000 square miles.Dennis Heinemann, senior scientist with the Ocean Conservancy, a national marine advocacy group, said he was disappointed by the administration's decision to drop the gulf proposal."There is not enough protection in the gulf or virtually anywhere else in U.S. waters," he said, citing destructive activities like oil drilling and overfishing.Contra Costa TimesCalifornia is facing a water crisis...MediaNews editorialhttp://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_10927341?nclick_check=1THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT of Water Resources sent out a danger signal recently and we Californians had better heed the warnings. The state plans on cutting water deliveries to their second lowest level in history. Agency officials announced only 15 percent of the water that local agencies have requested will be delivered this season. The warning is quite clear — barring a miracle, get ready for water rationing and fewer crops from farmers.Even though we have had some early rain, the situation remains bleak. Regional water officials have urged Californians to immediately reduce their water use to stretch whatever thin supply remains. One farmer in Kern County called the water projections disastrous. The signs are abundant that the recent drought is beginning to rear its ugly head.Lake Oroville is the state's second largest reservoir. Normally it would be half full at the start of November; currently it stands at only 30 percent. The San Luis Reservoir, south of San Jose, is barely over 10 percent of capacity. In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District has used more than a third of its reserves. Low snowpack levels in the Sierra last winter and the deteriorating ecosystem in the Delta that led a federal court to limit water pumping have brought us to what must be considered a crisis.We have long called for the state to find ways to deliver more dependable water supplies in the state under drought conditions, but lawmakers have stalled any proposals. That is why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has created the Delta Vision Project, which has been studying alternatives for more than a year. The governor believes we should build more dams and design new ways to draw help from the Delta without further risking its fragile environment. We agree and it is time to get moving on both.The situation was more dire in 1993 when the state promised contractors just 10 percent of their requests, the lowest initial projection on record. Not soon after that, however, California was doused with heavy precipitation and water officials revised the allotment to 100 percent.We cannot, and should not, count on a repeat of 1993. The water situation can potentially be an economic bomb during rough times, particularly to our precious agriculture industry. This situation is a clarion call for Californians to conserve now and build responsibly for the future.Santa Cruz SentinelTree sitters celebrate one-year anniversary of UC Santa Cruz protest...J.M. BROWNhttp://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10934442SANTA CRUZ -- A year after demonstrators climbed 75 feet into redwood platforms amid a clash with university police, UC Santa Cruz officials and protesters opposed to campus growth are still reluctant to answer how far they're willing to go to end the standoff.See past video of UCSC tree sitters As early as the spring, work could begin to prepare Science Hill for construction of a new biomedical facility, which would require the felling of redwoods currently occupied by tree sitters and a certain breaking point for the protest. The university is not willing to say whether or how it will forcibly remove the demonstrators, and tree sitters have not said whether they will leave voluntarily if it seems they have no other choice.Demonstrators hosted a small celebration Friday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the tree-sit. The crowd of less than 100 supporters was a far cry from the hundreds who marched in protest against the UCSC Long-Range Development Plan on Nov. 7, 2007, when the tree-sit was launched.Still, tree-sit spokeswoman Jennifer Charles said new students have joined the effort to halt campus development and that, by staying in the trees, "this is a group of people who are not going to be intimidated." She said the tree-sit has drawn attention to the impacts of growth plans on native habitat, animals and water supply, and does not believe UCSC's recent settlement with the city to limit impacts of expansion goes far enough. "Santa Cruz can't grow indefinitely," she said of the campus, adding that UC should place more students at other campuses as it grapples with an increasing demand to educate the state's graduating high schoolers and community college transfer students.Last year, police arrested several people during the march as protesters took over a parking lot below the grove of redwoods, where demonstrators already had erected three platforms similar to those built in oak trees on the UC Berkeley campus. Over the next several weeks, police made further arrests of a professor and others who brought pies, coffee and equipment to the Science Hill site. In March, a judge granted an injunction against the tree-sit and anyone sending up food or equipment to the tree sitters. But the protesters did not leave and the university stopped patrolling the site regularly in the spring and summer, which created relative calm until classes began in recently.On Oct. 13, Scott Aposhian, 20, of San Diego, was arrested for refusing to identify himself to an officer and for violating the court order after he attempted to climb a tree, campus spokesman Jim Burns said. MacKenzie O'Brien, a 21-year-old UCSC student, was cited three days later for dumping a 5-gallon bucket of urine from tree sitters into the soil near the Science and Engineering Library. She was charged with illegal waste disposal and violating the court order.Burns said the university still hopes the demonstrators will leave on their own and not force a confrontation when it's time to build the Biomedical Research Facility slated for the site."We're going to build the building," he said, echoing a similar refrain Chancellor George Blumenthal has repeated several times, though no specifics about how the university will remove demonstrators have been revealed for security reasons.Charles said tree sitters, who rotate stints in the three platforms, are instructed before ascending the first time that they are free to decide whether to leave if authorities come to remove them. One barefoot tree sitter, who identified himself only as a former librarian and "sex worker" named Sorrel, said he is "hella terrified" every time he comes down from the trees that he will be captured by police.At least three campus officials observed the celebration Friday, including supporters sending items up in a black bag to a tree sitter perched on a low branch. Burns said the university did not intend to make arrests, but believed anyone who aided the tree-sit was violating the court order, which is posted at the site.Los Angeles TimesPending home sales drop 4.6%Real estate experts attribute a nationwide 4.6% decline from August to September to the financial crisis...Catherine Hohttp://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homesales8-2008nov08,0,1488033,print.storyThe number of pending home sales dropped 4.6% nationwide in September after a big increase the previous month, possibly indicating that the credit crisis has choked a small revival in sales driven by ever-shrinking prices, a real estate business group said Friday.The National Assn. of Realtors said that despite the sharp reduction in pending sales for existing homes from August to September, sales agreements are up from September of last year by 1.6%. Several Western states are doing slightly better than the national average. In the region that includes California, Utah, Oregon and Washington, pending sales in September rose 3.7% over August.Realtors and economists attribute the September drop to the sinking stock market, which led many potential buyers to stall on home purchases. The credit crisis has also made it harder and more time-consuming for buyers to get loans. "It's harder to get financing now than it was a year ago," said Richard Green, director of USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "You need a 20% down payment. A year ago, it was less than 5%."Potential home buyers are also less willing to buy now because of high unemployment rates, Green said."With people losing their jobs and seeing their neighbors losing their jobs, they're not going to want to make the commitment of buying a house," he said. "You're putting yourself on a hook for a long time."The U.S. unemployment rate reached 6.5%, a 14-year high, in October.Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Assn. of Realtors, said that despite the national drop in pending transactions, sales are higher than this time last year."The month-to-month weakening in pending home sales is understandable, but because the index remains above year-ago levels, it means we're still in a broad period of stabilization," Yun said.The association did not release specific figures on the pending sales -- which include but are not limited to houses in escrow -- but instead calculated the percentage of increase or decrease by using a formula that it calls its pending sales index.Paul Bishop, senior economist and managing director of research for the association, credited the increase in sales in Western states with low prices that spurred purchases. "We've seen a strong increase in the number of homes sold in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas," Bishop said. "Home prices in those areas dropped significantly -- 20% to 40% in some cases -- and that has dramatically improved affordability."Real estate in California is selling faster because much of it is bank-owned property that is priced low to sell, Green said. Banks are selling homes below market value, and people are taking advantage of lower prices, he said.Rosalie Klein, a Realtor at Prudential in West Hollywood, said the stock market drop in September led some clients to back out of buying homes, especially cash buyers and foreign buyers."There was a lot of fear," she said. "A lot of people who had cash . . . their portfolios shrank tremendously, and everybody had financial advisors advising them to cancel the deal because their portfolio shrank."The collapse of the Asian and European markets also made foreign buyers more reluctant to buy, Klein said. "Those buyers also took one step back to wait and see what was going to happen," she said.It's unclear when the housing market will rebound, Green said. "It's going to get better," he said. "Exactly when that's going to happen is hard to say right now."San Diego Union-TribuneEconomy, lawsuit delay development Fanita Ranch housing doesn't have a start date...Michele Clock http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081108-9999-1m8fanita.htmlSANTEE – A major Santee housing development is on hold due to the sagging economy and a lawsuit contending it wasn't properly approved. Construction on the nearly 1,400-home Fanita Ranch housing development, the largest in city history, was expected to begin as early as this summer and take 10 years to complete.But now, Carlsbad-based developer Barratt American says it doesn't know when homes will be built on the 2,600-acre project site. “We don't have any clear date but we're certainly not giving up,” said Nick Arthur, who is overseeing the project for Barratt American. Arthur said the weak real estate and credit markets are factors in the delay. The project also encountered a new legal setback this week when a San Diego Superior Court judge issued a ruling questioning whether the city of Santee took adequate steps to ensure fire safety at Fanita Ranch. Exactly how the finding will affect the project is not yet known. The ruling came as part of a case filed in January by environmental groups, including Preserve Wild Santee, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Endangered Habitats League. The suit contends that Santee violated state environmental law and its general plan by not adequately spelling out and analyzing Fanita Ranch's environmental effects. Judge Linda B. Quinn found the city's environmental documents did not adequately address fire safety issues. City officials said they had removed language that had called for controlled burns out of concern for fire safety, and requiring the use of goats or sheep to thin vegetation due in part to negative feedback from the environmental groups. But the city required a host of other fire safety precautions, Santee City Manager Keith Till said, including the use of fire sprinklers, 100-foot fire buffers and fire-resistant building materials. John Buse, an attorney representing the Center for Biological Diversity and Preserve Wild Santee, said the city should have considered redesigning the project or adopting other measures to ensure fire safety. “We think it should be pretty clear, this is a fundamental issue,” Buse said. “It goes to the heart of the Fanita Ranch project.” Till, however, called the ruling a “minor setback,” and said he felt confident the questions regarding fire safety could be resolved. “We're awaiting further clarification of the court's wishes as to how to further address it, but we know we can and we will be able to explain just how this could be made a fire safe community,” Till said. Associated PressRegulators shut banks in Texas, California...MARCY GORDON...11-07-08http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKCQTU4OBly0RqaHE8bEjNYOeBPAD94AJ5JO0WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.The bank's failure is a bitter irony because it is the mortgage securitization business of which Ranieri is known as a pioneer — the repackaging of home loans as bonds that are sold to investors — that was at the heart of the mortgage and credit crises. Last spring, the audit committee of the company's board found in an investigation certain weaknesses in accounting, disclosure and other issues relating to residential real estate loans.Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress.The FDIC said all of Franklin Bank's deposits will be assumed by Prosperity Bank of El Campo, Texas. Its 46 offices will reopen as branches of Prosperity Bank with their normal business hours, including those that open on Saturday. In addition to assuming Franklin Bank's deposits, Prosperity Bank also will acquire about $850 million of the failed bank's assets.Parent company Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress.Meanwhile, all of Security Pacific's deposits will be assumed by Pacific Western Bank of Los Angeles. Its four offices will reopen Monday as branches of Pacific Western, a unit of PacWest Bancorp. In addition, Pacific Western will purchase around $51.8 million of Security Pacific's assets.The FDIC will retain the remaining assets of the two banks for eventual sale.The agency said depositors of Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank will continue to have full access to their deposits, which will continue to be insured by the FDIC.The FDIC estimated that the resolution of Franklin Bank will cost the federal deposit insurance fund between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, while that of Security Pacific Bank will cost the fund $210 million.Regular deposit accounts are now insured up to $250,000 as part of the new financial rescue law enacted in early October. The limit on individual retirement accounts held in banks remains at $250,000.The 19 bank failures so far this year compare with three for all of 2007 and are more than in the previous five years combined. It's expected that many more banks won't survive the next year of economic tumult. The pressures of tumbling home prices, rising mortgage foreclosures and tighter credit have been battering many banks, large and small, across the nation.The failures this year include that of Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. in late September, the biggest bank collapse in history. It had $307 billion in assets. In July another big savings and loan, IndyMac Bank based in Pasadena, Calif., failed and was seized by regulators with about $32 billion in assets.The FDIC estimates that through 2013 there will be about $40 billion in losses to the deposit insurance fund, including an $8.9 billion loss from the failure of IndyMac Bank. The FDIC is raising insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its fund, which now stands at around $45.2 billion, below the minimum target level set by Congress and the lowest level since 2003.In addition, the FDIC may guarantee nearly $2 trillion in U.S. banks' debt and deposit accounts in an effort to break the crippling logjam in bank-to-bank lending.Well over half of the roughly 8,500 federally-insured banks and savings and loans are expected to tap the FDIC's temporary guarantees. The agency will provide as much as $1.4 trillion in insurance for more than three years for loans between banks, guaranteeing the new debt in the event the issuing bank fails or its holding company files for bankruptcy.Of the 8,500 FDIC-insured banks, 117 were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter — the highest level in about five years and up from 90 in the first quarter. The agency doesn't disclose the banks' names. Financial TimesAIG in talks with Fed over new bail-out...Francesco Guerrera in New Yorkhttp://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110720081950291060&referrer_id=yahoofinancePublished: November 8 2008 00:36 | Last updated: November 8 2008 00:36AIG is asking the US government for a new bail-out less than two months after the Federal Reserve came to the rescue of the stricken insurer with an $85bn loan, according to people close to the situation. AIG’s executives were on Friday night locked in negotiations with the authorities over a plan that could involve a debt-for-equity swap and the government’s purchase of troubled mortgage-backed securities from the insurer.People close to the talks said the discussions were on-going and might still collapse, but added that AIG was pressing for a decision before it reports third-quarter results on Monday. AIG’s board is due to meet on Sunday to approve the results and discuss any new government plan, they added.The moves come amid growing fears AIG might soon use up the $85bn cash infusion it received from the Fed in September, as well as an additional $37.5bn loan aimed at stemming a cash drain from the insurer’s securities lending unit.AIG has drawn down more than $81bn of the combined $122.5bn facility. The company’s efforts to begin repaying it before the 2010 deadline have been hampered by its difficulties in selling assets amid the global financial turmoil. AIG executives have complained to government officials that the interest rate on the initial loan – 8.5 per cent over the London Interbank Borrowing Rate – is crippling the company. They compared the loan’s terms with the 5 per cent interest rate paid by the banks that recently sold preferred shares to the government.One of AIG’s proposals to the Fed is to swap the loan, which gave the authorities an 80 per cent stake in the company, for preferred shares or a mixture of debt and equity. Such a structure would reduce the interest rate to be paid by AIG and possibly the overall amount it has to repay. An extension in the term of the loan from the current two years to five years is also possible, according to people close to the situation.The renegotiation of the loan could be accompanied by the government’s purchase of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities whose steep fall in value has been draining AIG cash reserves.AIG is also proposing the government buy the bonds underlying its troubled portfolio of credit default swaps in exchange for the roughly $30bn in collateral the company holds against the assets. Losses on the mortgage-backed assets, which were acquired by AIG with the proceeds of its securities lending programme, and the CDSs caused the company’s collapse. Since the government rescue, they have continued to haunt AIG, which is required to put up extra capital every time the value of these assets falls. AIG and the Fed declined to comment.Berkshire profit plunges 77%...Julie MacIntosh in New York http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110720081938441047Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said on Friday that its third-quarter net earnings sank 77 per cent after it recorded heavy losses on the value of investments and derivatives and suffered a steep drop in insurance underwriting profits.The Omaha-based company’s net income fell to $1.06bn, or $682 per share of Class A stock, marking the fourth consecutive decline in net quarterly profits for one of the world’s most famous investors.Berkshire’s operating earnings, which exclude investment and derivatives losses that were recorded for accounting purposes but largely unrealised, slid 19 per cent to $2.07bn. Mr Buffett, who has shuttled tens of billions of dollars this year into Goldman Sachs, General Electric, confectioner Mars and nuclear power generator Constellation Energy, is also now working as an economic adviser to Barack Obama, the US president-elect. His insurance company, which has investments in a diverse range of businesses, said its net worth slipped to $120.15bn from $120.73bn over the first nine months of the year. That number dropped $9bn after tax in October, as the value of its equity and debt investments declined. Berkshire Hathaway recorded $1.01bn in losses on the value of some investments and derivatives for the third quarter, compared with $2.0bn in gains in the third quarter of 2007. The company, which separates those results from its net earnings, stated that the amount of investment and derivative gains or losses it reported “in any given quarter or year is usually meaningless”.Most of those losses stemmed from unrealised losses on derivatives contracts. Berkshire had already reported a $1.01bn loss on the value of its two major types of derivative contracts in the first six months of the year, and it more than doubled that loss to $2.06bn by the end of the third quarter.Insurance underwriting, which in the third quarter of last year accounted for 19 per cent of Berkshire Hathaway’s operating earnings, sank 83 per cent to $81m, accounting for just 4 per cent of that total in the third quarter of this year. The company took about $1.05bn in losses from recent hurricanes Ike and Gustav, which wreaked havoc on the results of the insurance industry.Shares of Berkshire Hathaway have slid nearly 20 per cent over the past year, hit by losses in shares of some of the publicly traded blue-chip companies in which Berkshire invests – including Coca-Cola and American Express.The company’s Class-A shares closed 0.71 per cent higher on Friday at $113,000 per share.