1-22-09

 
1-22-09
Merced Sun-Star
Merced's Wal-Mart plan updated amid worsening local economy...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/651360.html
Accentuate the positive.
Recognizing the harsh year that lies ahead, Merced's city and county leaders highlighted Wednesday the progress they're making despite the recession.
"We all know the negatives are out there," Merced City Manager John Bramble told members of the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce. "Yes we are going to have tough times -- but we have a lot of positives."
He noted that the city, county and state are set to spend $60 million in major projects this year. The city alone will spend $30 million to expand the sewer plant. Phase I of the Campus Parkway, which will connect the Mission Avenue interchange to Childs Avenue, is set to begin within the next two months.
Crime also went down by 8 percent in 2008, and fire losses have steadily decreased. Besides Bramble, Merced County CEO Dee Tatum offered insight into the coming year as revenues decrease and applications for government aid increase.
Like a 600-pound gorilla in the room, however, the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center loomed over the chamber's annual State of the Community. The center promises to bring 600 full-time jobs if it opens and another 300 later.
Wal-Mart's marketing consultant, Marko Mlikotin, updated the audience on the distribution center project. "Out of all the communities that competed for this project, Wal-Mart wants to build here," he said. "It's a very desirable place for a number of reasons."
The Stop Wal-Mart Action Team asked last week for equal time to speak against the project. Citing its mission of supporting more jobs, the chamber declined the offer.
Julius Pekar, executive director of the Merced County Chamber of Commerce, pressed Bramble on whether the city remains excited about the big-box warehouse.
"If the Wal-Mart distribution center answers all of the environmental issues and the infrastructure issues, I'd imagine that the City Council would be enthusiastic about the project," Bramble said. "The City Council is enthusiastic about bringing jobs into the community. We have a lot of opportunities besides Wal-Mart."
Bramble noted that it's too early for elected leaders to support or oppose the project because the mandated environmental report hasn't yet been published. It's set to come out in the coming weeks, which kicks off the approval process.
The city's been focusing on the amenities that help lure businesses. Those include an active airport, better roads, quality health care and good schools.
This year the city will look into updating its Web site because that's one of the first ways a business evaluates a community. "It gives us an opportunity to get in the door," the city manager said.
Tatum said for 2009-2010 the county is predicting a 10 percent decline in property tax revenue -- about $2 million. Even ag land's value, which had remained steady, has begun to drop, he said.
"We're starting to see softening in a lot of different sectors where we hadn't seen it before," Tatum said.
The county is bracing for what California's legislators do to settle the state's $42 billion deficit estimated for the next 18 months. It's possible, he said, for the state to seize some county money, pay it back over time and leave local leaders scrambling to make ends meet.
Tatum told a story about a meeting last year with the Board of Supervisors as the county took a multimillion-dollar hit. It was devastating to watch the board, as it has done in other recessions, make the tough choices, he said.
"I think (Supervisor) Jerry O'Banion said it best: 'Welcome to the '90s,'" Tatum recalled, " 'because you are back here again.' "
Listen to a speech by Merced City Manager John Bramble...http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/651360.html
Listen to a speech by Merced County CEO Dee Tatum...http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/651360.html
Budget impasse leaves Merced's social service programs in the dark
Much is still up in the air until lawmakers OK cuts...CORINNE REILLY
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/651374.html
Social service programs across Merced County could be in for a bumpy ride if California lawmakers don't solve the state's budget impasse soon, county officials warned this week.
On Friday, state Controller John Chiang said he'll be forced to delay $3.7 billion in payments beginning Feb. 1 if California lawmakers can't forge an agreement by then to close the state's projected $42 billion deficit during the next 18 months.
Besides tax refunds and disability checks, the state would withhold most payments to local governments.
For Merced County, that would mean funding cutoffs for a wide variety of social programs -- from services for the poor and the mentally ill to unemployment benefits and anti-drug programs.
"The deferrals that are on the table would hit us tremendously hard," said county spokeswoman Katie Albertson. "These are services that the county is providing on the state's behalf. Obviously, we need state money to provide them."
The county already has been bracing for tough times. In the face of declining tax revenues and permanent reductions in state funding, the Board of Supervisors voted late last year to lay off 40 county workers, effective June 1.
But the looming state cutoff presents an entirely new crisis.
"At this point we don't have estimates of what it would cost, but we know it would be significant," said Scott De Moss, the county's deputy CEO in charge of budgets. "We're still running numbers so we can be ready in case this really happens."
If the state deferred payments long enough, it's possible the county would have to stop providing some social services altogether, officials said.
"Obviously, I hope it would never come to that," Supervisor Jerry O'Banion said. "But if this situation at the state isn't solved, it's not unimaginable."
De Moss said the county is preparing reports that anticipate state funding delays of up to seven months. Some federal money that depends on state matches could also be at risk, he said.
The county's mental health, human services and public health departments would probably take the biggest hits. They rely on state and federal funding for 100 percent, 98 percent and 39 percent of their yearly budgets, respectively.
"The people who benefit from the services these departments provide are some of the most vulnerable in our community, especially right now," Albertson said. "We're very aware of that."
Even departments that don't take state funding could be affected, depending on where the county may look to make up any shortfalls, De Moss said.
The county has managed to save nearly $24 million in emergency reserves and contingency money over the past decade or so, which could be considered for a temporary solution.
Loans could be another option, De Moss said, though he acknowledged credit might be hard to come by. "We're a subset of the state, and trying to borrow money when your last name is 'State of California' probably would be a little tough right now."
For now, county officials are hoping they won't have to find any solution.
"I'm hoping our state leaders can step up and find a way though this," O'Banion said. "Passing the problem on to counties doesn't fix anything."
Congressman Cardoza helps secure money for Central Valley's air pollution fight...CAROL REITER
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/651372.html
Farmers working to meet air quality regulations got a monetary boost from the 2008 farm bill.
Congressman Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, said $11 million of federal funds will help growers and farmers in Valley areas that have extreme air problems.
"For so long farmers have been under the gun of increasing federal and state air quality restrictions," Cardoza said.
Cardoza, along with Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, worked to get the money allocated through the farm bill.
Cardoza believes it can be a useful tool in helping agricultural operators in California. "We have secured about $150 million over five years to help farmers to comply with regulations," Cardoza said.
Tom Jordan, senior policy adviser for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, said the district worked closely with Cardoza, Boxer and Feinstein to make sure that the money goes to the right areas.
"There is a lot of older ag equipment with older technology that can be cleaned up by using this funding," Jordan said.
The air district is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which will be administering the money, to make sure that the guidelines benefit the air district and the farmers.
Jordan said farm equipment is one of the top five sources of nitrogen oxide emissions in the Valley.
"We're hoping that this money can be used to buy new tractors," Jordan said. "We are working aggressively to bring in a new fleet of vehicles to the Valley."
The San Joaquin Valley has been designated as an extreme non-attainment area -- not meeting federal guidelines -- under the Federal Clean Air Act. The resulting air quality regulations in the San Joaquin Valley are the most stringent in the nation.
"These funds are desperately needed," Cardoza said. "Historically, there has been a serious lack of funding to assist agriculture operators meet the tough regulations."
Cardoza said the air quality crisis in the Valley is huge.
"This isn't going to solve the greater problem," he said. "But it's one step closer to helping the farmers deal with the regulatory onslaught they are facing."
Modesto Bee
Study: Cleaner air adds 5 months to US life span...ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/v-print/story/572842.html
LOS ANGELES -- Cleaner air over the past two decades has added nearly five months to average life expectancy in the United States, according to a federally funded study.
Researchers said it is the first study to show that reducing air pollution translates into longer lives.
Between 1978 and 2001, Americans' average life span increased almost three years to 77, and as much as 4.8 months of that can be attributed to cleaner air, researchers from Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Some experts not connected with the study called the gain dramatic.
"It shows that our efforts as a country to control air pollution have been well worth the expense," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a University of Washington expert on environmental health.
Scientists have long known that the grit in polluted air, or particulates, can lodge deep in the lungs and raise the risk of lung disease, heart attacks and strokes. The grit - made of dust, soot and various chemicals - comes from factories, power plants and diesel-powered vehicles.
In 1970, Congress passed a revised Clean Air Act that gave the Environmental Protection Agency the power to set and enforce national standards to protect people from particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other pollutants.
The law is widely credited with improving the nation's air quality through such things as catalytic converters on cars and scrubbers at new factories.
For the study, scientists used government data to track particulate pollution levels over two decades in 51 U.S. cities. They compared these changes to life expectancies calculated from death records and census data. They adjusted the results to take into account other things that might affect life expectancy, such as smoking habits, income, education and migration.
On average, particulate matter levels fell from 21 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 14 micrograms per cubic meter in the cities studied. At the same time, Americans lived an average 2.72 years longer.
"We saw that communities that had larger reductions in air pollution on average had larger increases in life expectancies," said the study's lead author, C. Arden Pope III, a Brigham Young epidemiologist.
Pittsburgh and Buffalo, N.Y., which made the most progress cleaning up their air, saw life spans increase by about 10 months. Los Angeles, Indianapolis and St. Louis were among the cities that saw gains in life expectancy of around five months.
The study was partly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and EPA.
"This finding provides direct confirmation of the population health benefits of mitigating air pollution," Daniel Krewski, who does pollution research at the University of Ottawa in Canada, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
In a statement, the EPA said such studies provide critical information that can help the agency set standards on particulates. EPA data show that average particulate levels nationally have fallen 11 percent since 2000.
Last year, government researchers reported that U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years for the first time. They attributed the increase to falling mortality rates for nine of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.
MID director decries rate increases and board actions...Mike Serpa
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/v-print/story/573492.html
Now they have done it.
Our Modesto Irrigation District served us faithfully from its founding in 1887 to the mid-1990s, reliably delivering water and electricity at fair prices. Sometime in the mid-'90s, the wheels began to come off. Sound, conservative management benefiting the ratepayers gave way to wasteful overspending. The result is that we, the ratepayer-owners, will be paying over 110 percent more than we did in 2001.
Over the past 10 years, your MID has gone from the lowest-cost electric utility in the area to a utility that charges more than the Turlock Irrigation District. For the first time in history, after the recent record-setting rate increase (another 4-1 vote), a majority of the MID's residential ratepayers will be paying more than they would if they were served by PG&E!
The catch is that a private business would need a bailout. The other four board members know they don't need a bailout. They just raise your rates at morning meetings when most people have to be at work. I could not even get a second to my motion to have an evening rate hearing.
When I ran for the MID board three years ago, I said this was the direction they appeared headed. The four long-serving board members certainly have punished me for continuing to point that out. The undeniable fact is that their failed leadership has destroyed a wonderful benefit we all used to enjoy.
They have used every means possible to attempt to intimidate, embarrass and silence me. They have passed rules to limit my access to the MID building. They passed the so-called "Serpa Rule," which absurdly restricts the amount of time staff can spend to answer a director's question. This has regularly been invoked by the general manager to restrict the information I have requested. Once, when I could not get information, I filed a public records request, which they also denied. No other public agency that I know of has engaged in such pettiness to stifle the effectiveness of an elected board member.
When I ran for election, I said I would begin every deliberation with one question: "How does this benefit the ratepayer?" I have done that and will continue to do that to the grave displeasure of the other board members. Our ratepaying-owners come first, not some hidden agenda.
I propose the following actions to immediately address the serious problem of our higher rates:
-- Hold evening board meetings to allow more ratepayers to attend and participate. Televise them for those who can't attend.
-- Review a line-item budget to identify all possible reductions in expenses.
-- Where possible, postpone or cancel capital projects.
-- Stop expansion efforts into the four-cities area.
-- Sell unprofitable, nonperforming assets such as Mountain House, which costs the MID over $3.5 million per year.
-- Commission an independent study of the potential ratepayer benefits of a merger of the MID and the TID.
-- Reduce summer peak demand by expanding conservation programs and preparing to expand solar programs aggressively. This will take advantage of coming   technological breakthroughs.
-- Tie our ratemaking and budgeting together. Currently, the MID simply raises rates to match a previously approved budget.
I welcome your questions, comments and concerns as I continue to fight for transparency and affordable rates. Call me at 527-3190, or e-mail me at MIDMike1@SBCGlobal.net.
Serpa represents Division 2 on the MID board. His first term expires at the end of 2009. He said that he has not decided whether to run for re-election.
California's median home price falls 38 percent...TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer
http://www.modbee.com/2020/v-print/story/573025.html
The median home price in California plummeted 38 percent in December from a year earlier as low-cost foreclosures boosted sales but lowered property values, a real estate tracking firm said Wednesday.
The median price for California houses and condos dropped to $249,000 last month from $402,000 in December 2007, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick. The median price is the point where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
The California median home price is at the lowest point since February 2002, when it was $245,000. It marks a 49-percent decline from the peak of $484,000 in the spring of 2007.
An estimated 37,836 homes were sold in California last month, up 18 percent from November and 48 percent from December 2007, according to DataQuick.
The housing market is being driven by bargain hunters snapping up bank-owned foreclosure properties, which accounted for 58 percent of existing homes sold last month, up from 24 percent a year earlier.
"The processing of these distressed properties is almost reaching a frenzied level," said John Karevoll, a DataQuick analyst. "Many of the banks just want to get these properties off their books. People are flocking to buy these foreclosure properties."
Richard Green, director of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate, said the California housing market is being hammered by tight credit markets, expectations of further price declines, a rapidly deteriorating economy and rising unemployment.
"Until the economy stabilizes, it will be hard to see the housing market stabilize," Green said. "If you see the unemployment rate turn around, that's when you'll start to see housing prices bottom and start turning in the other direction. Until that happens, I'm pretty gloomy."
DataQuick also reported Wednesday that the median home price in the nine-county San Francisco Bay area fell 44 percent, from $587,500 in December 2007 to $330,000 last month. That's the lowest since March 2000, when it was $320,500, and marks a 50-percent decline since the peak of $665,000 in the summer of 2007.
A total of 6,889 houses and condos were sold in the Bay Area in December, up 20 percent from November and up 36 percent from December 2007, according to DataQuick.
Most of the Bay Area sales took place in the East Bay counties hit hardest by foreclosures. The median home price fell 50 percent to $252,000 in Contra Costa County, 37 percent to $338,000 in Alameda County and 42 percent to $213,500 in Solano County. By contrast, it dropped 16 percent to $616,500 in San Francisco.
Sales of more expensive homes have stalled as would-be homebuyers run into trouble securing mortgages.
The upper half of the Bay Area housing market won't recover until the market for "jumbo" loans for more than $417,000 recovers, Karevoll said. Such loans used to account for more than 60 percent of the region's real estate financing, but only made up 22 percent of loans last month.
On Monday, DataQuick reported that the median home price in Southern California fell nearly 35 percent, from $425,000 in December 2007 to $278,000 last month, DataQuick said. The median price for the six-county region peaked at $505,000 in mid-2007.
There were 19,926 homes sold in Southern California last month, up 19 percent from November. Foreclosures accounted for 58 percent of December sales.
"It's very difficult, if not impossible, to predict what's going to happen," Karevoll said. "It's hard to project when the operating instructions for the market are no longer valid."
Few borrowers can revise mortgage loans...MONICA HATCHER, McClatchy Newspapers...The Miami Herald
http://www.modbee.com/reports/realestate/v-print/story/573594.html
MIAMI -- Since defaulting on her mortgage more than a year ago, Marisela Gonzalez has attended foreclosure prevention seminars, spent hours on the phone with her lender, paid a consultant, availed herself of bankruptcy protection - everything in her power to hang onto her home.
"I thought to pack and just get out," recalled the special-education teacher. "Then, I said, 'No ... this is my place. I've been here 15 years and I am not going to give it back to a bank just like that.'"
Yet Gonzalez is giving her Kendall, Fla., townhouse back to the bank, in this case the federal government, which took over lender IndyMac. Even with an offer to lower her interest rate, Gonzalez could not afford the payments and owes about $100,000 more than the house is worth.
Gonzalez's attempts to stay in her home illustrate why regulators are having trouble stemming the flood of foreclosures at the heart of the nation's economic crisis. And why some say it is imperative for the economy that a major chunk of the remaining $700 billion bailout bonanza go to helping homeowners drowning in debt.
Regulators, lawmakers and economists alike believe helping borrowers get into loans with more favorable terms - smaller loans, lower interest rates - is crucial to ending the recession. But despite the creation of a number of programs, only a small percentage of struggling homeowners have received help.
Lenders, watching out for their bottom lines, will go along only as long as helping the borrower will cost them less than foreclosing and reselling the home. Plus, they are skittish about staying on the hook with borrowers who are highly likely to default again.
Borrowers, for their part, often can't afford the reduced payments. When they can, they question the sense of paying on a home that, as is the case in many places, is still falling in value. Investors, who represent a big slice of delinquent homeowners, do not qualify for a mortgage lifeline at all.
No one questions that the need is dire. Regulators from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the U.S. Treasury's Neel Kashkari have repeatedly told Congress that more must be done to prevent foreclosures and stabilize falling home prices, saying both are required to lift the economy out of recession.
In November, the FDIC estimated that another 3.8 million mortgages would be 60 days to 90 days past due by the end of 2009.
Yet even the government's own effort to modify loans, which is being held out as a national model for other lenders, has its flaws, housing advocates and other market observers said.
Of the 45,000 borrowers eligible for a workout under an FDIC program, 8,500 loans have been restructured. "Thousands more," though, are in the pipeline, the FDIC said. The agency would not say how many borrowers could not be helped.
And Hope for Homeowners, passed by Congress in July, was expected to help 400,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure with Federal Housing Administration guarantees of up to $300 billion in refinanced loans.
So far, only 350 loans nationwide have been refinanced, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The reason: Lenders have to agree to write the value of the loan down to 90 percent of the home's current market value. Homeowners have to share half of any future equity with the federal government. Neither are eager to do that.
The numbers disappoint Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, who asserts that across-the-board, automatic modifications are needed to contain the wreckage of the last six years. That might have been possible had bailout funds been used to buy mortgage-backed securities, putting control of the loans in the government's hands rather than Wall Street investors, he said.
"If this is the best model we've got, we're still in trouble," Cecala said. "It is probably the most aggressive we've seen out there and you are still not getting a lot of success."
It's not clear what system will be used to implement a sweeping foreclosure-prevention program pledged by President Barack Obama during negotiations with Congress over the release last week of $350 billion in bailout funds.
Loan modifications are different from repayment plans, which help borrowers catch up on missed payments by doing things like folding past-due amounts into the mortgage balance or boosting monthly payments by a small amount to pay arrears a bit at a time. Generally, they're meant to see borrowers through a temporary rough patch.
Modifications take aim at the mortgage's structure. Plans can include converting adjustable interest rates to fixed, lowering rates and, in rare cases, forgiving some of the principal. Banks often will extend the life of the loan to reduce monthly payments as well.
Under intense public pressure, lenders have amped up loan modifications.
Hope Now, an alliance of nonprofits, lenders and the federal government, said more than 850,000 loans were modified through November.
The FDIC says only 4 percent of seriously delinquent loans each month are being modified. And data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency suggests the modifications may ultimately not be much help. The OCC found recently that 37 percent of mortgages modified in the first quarter of 2008 were 60 days past due within six months.
"Maybe the loan modification did not cut far enough; it may be that the loan was so poorly underwritten that nothing could help the borrower," said Bryan Hubbard, an OCC spokesman. "It may be that borrower had more credit available and used it for other means and ran up debt elsewhere and the economy has taken a turn for the worse."
Avi Shenkar, president of GMA Modification in North Miami Beach, Fla., said modifications still weren't lowering payments enough for borrowers who took out teaser rate loans and owe far more then they could afford.
He also questions how willing banks are to work with homeowners, since eight out of 10 seeking help from GMA already have been denied a modification from the bank.
Jackie Duran, director of foreclosure prevention at the nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, said many of their clients also got nowhere dealing with the bank.
"It's obvious to us that lenders are not trying to help the homeowner but minimize how much they lose. They have a very thin margin for loan modification," Shenkar said.
Gonzalez's lender, IndyMac, looks at two things: whether modifying a borrower's loan costs less than its estimated cost to foreclose, and whether payments can be reduced at least 10 percent and still account for no more than 38 percent of a borrower's monthly income.
"We contractually have to act in the interest of whoever owns the loan," said Evan Wagner, an IndyMac spokesman. Wagner said the bank has mailed offers to most of those eligible for a modification, a feat, considering the program has been in effect for only around six months.
Even when payments can be reduced, homeowners have to be convinced that sticking with a loan that is higher than the home's market value - known as being underwater - is in their best interest.
That's the main reason Gonzalez has decided to walk away. Gonzalez refinanced in 2006 into an option-ARM with a balance that grew over time, rolling in other debt like credit cards.
"I refinance for $245,000. I owe now $286,000 - $41,000 was of the negative amortization in a year," Gonzalez said. Her home's worth: $175,000.
Wagner said Gonzalez was offered a deal almost a year ago that kept her payments essentially the same and reduced her interest rate to a fixed 8.4 percent. She insists she was told differently.
There's little IndyMac can do for her now, Wagner said, since Gonzalez's debts were discharged in bankruptcy court. She'll have to leave her home soon.
"Where is the federal help for homeowners? Homeowners are losing in this deal and the banks are ... not losing anything," Gonzalez said.
But loan modifications are not about making homes better investments for borrowers, Wagner said. In fact, most homeowners will be worse off after their arrears, interest and fees are rolled into the balance after a modification, he said.
"Our program is about affordability," Wagner said. "... not about mitigating bad investment decisions. We're not getting into that."
IndyMac's plan, he said, allows the bank to "help those that we can without encouraging the 90 percent of people who are making payments not to default themselves," he said.
Cecala said many homeowners figure that if a modification's goal is solely to have their monthly payments lowered, they'd be better off renting, thinking there was little hope of ever having equity.
"What they need to do is build an incentive to keep somebody in the home," Cecala said.
As for Gonzalez, she's fought, agonized and cried, but has finally come to terms with the idea of leaving her townhouse.
"At this point, I don't really care. I'm tired of this BS," Gonzalez said.
Fresno Bee
Fresno home prices below U.S. average
Median price in area falls to $154,000 in December...Sanford Nax
http://www.fresnobee.com/business/v-print/story/1145699.html
Home prices in the Fresno area have plunged below the national average, continuing a months-old buying spree that appears headed into the new year, real estate officials say.
The median price of sold houses in December in Fresno and Clovis was $154,000, a 39.6% decline from a year previously, said Jared Martin, president of the Fresno Association of Realtors.
Pending sales -- transactions that hadn't closed -- carried a median price of $144,840.
Prices haven't been this low since the early 1990s.
"We're below the national average [of $181,000], and we are in California, not Nebraska," said Patrick Conner, owner of London Properties, one of Fresno's largest residential real estate firms.
It should be noted that the median price is probably skewed somewhat because most of the transactions involve discounted foreclosures and houses in the lower price ranges, said Scott Leonard, president of Guarantee Real Estate in Fresno.
About 60% of the Fresno County homes that resold in December had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, according to MDA DataQuick, which released statewide and county-by-county figures Wednesday.
The result: What was a serious glut of unsold houses a year ago is rapidly shrinking, despite the continued foreclosures. The number of homes for sale in the Fresno area fell from 4,027 in December 2007 to 3,130 last month, a decline of 22%.
Meanwhile, sales soared: from 263 in December 2007 to 624 last month. That trend appears to be continuing: The number of pending transactions in December 2008 totaled 700, the Fresno Association of Realtors reported.
DataQuick data showed similar trends. Year-over-year sales of existing homes in Fresno and Tulare counties soared 42% and 11%, respectively, while median prices fell 32% and 27.3%, respectively.
The falling prices are occurring when interest rates in some cases are less than 5%. "That is a compelling reason to get into the market," said Robin Kane, a real estate analyst in Fresno.
Leonard and Conner said prices are starting to level off as falling values lure out more buyers.
Kane said families waiting for prices to fall any further may end up harmed if interest rates rise as the government administers economic bailouts. "Guessing the bottom is a fool's game," he said.
Schwarzenegger asks Obama for tailpipe rules...SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press Writer
http://www.fresnobee.com/641/v-print/story/1145944.html
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't waiting to press the Obama administration on one of California's top priorities - regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.
The Republican governor sent a letter to the new Democratic president on Wednesday, asking him to give California and other states permission to implement tough tailpipe-emission standards.
"Your administration has a unique opportunity to both support the pioneering leadership of these states and move America toward global leadership on addressing climate change," Schwarzenegger wrote.
He wants the Environmental Protection Agency to reverse a 2007 conclusion by the Bush administration that states do not have authority to impose greenhouse gas standards for new cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. The Bush administration argued that such goals can be met only by regulating fuel-efficiency standards, which falls under the authority of the federal government.
Obama has vowed to revisit the decision, a promise echoed last week by his nominee for EPA administrator. Lisa Jackson awaits Senate confirmation.
The EPA referred a call Wednesday to Obama's transition team, which declined comment.
It's unclear how long it might take the new administration to review the matter. In a separate letter to Jackson, California's top air pollution official said the agency could fast-track a public rule-making process that often can take up to a year.
Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols wrote that the EPA already has an "ample record" to help it reconsider the Bush administration decision.
California is seeking a waiver from the federal Clean Air Act that would allow it to impose stiffer air pollution standards than the federal government. It first asked for a waiver in 2005 to implement a 2002 state law intended to cut vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions.
The law, which was supposed to take effect this year, requires automakers to cut emissions by nearly a third by 2016. Thirteen other states have passed similar laws, while three more are considering California's standards, according to the California air board. Federal law allows states to choose between federal and California clean-air rules.
The Bush administration's ruling marked the first time the EPA fully denied California a waiver under the Clean Air Act since Congress gave the state the right to obtain such waivers in 1967.
Democrats in Congress accused the administration of political meddling after reports indicated staff scientists at the EPA supported giving California a waiver.
The auto regulations are a key part of California's strategy to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. The state is the world's 12th largest producer of the emissions, which are blamed for contributing to global climate change.
Unions, wolves, others may benefit as rules frozen...CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/national-politics/v-print/story/1145127.html
WASHINGTON Gray wolves might benefit and sellers of investment products might not under President Barack Obama's freezing of all proposed federal rules changes left unfinished by George W. Bush's administration.
Obama's order, which took effect as soon as he was sworn in Tuesday, gives his administration a chance to review numerous pending actions affecting the environment, labor relations and other fields, and to decide whether to block them.
For example, the Interior Department under Bush had announced plans to remove gray wolves from Endangered Species protections in much of the northern Rocky Mountains. And the Labor Department was in the process of letting companies that manage employee retirement plans to promote additional investment products to plan participants.
Those proposals, and many others, will be reviewed by Obama appointees who were still finding their desks, computers and light switches Wednesday.
Obama didn't stop with Tuesday's order. On Wednesday he imposed new limits on lobbyists in the White House and froze the salaries of about 100 aides who make more than $100,000. Obama also said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act, in hopes of making the government more transparent. He also ordered limits on the ability of former presidents to block the release of sensitive records of their time in the White House.
Obama aides on Wednesday also circulated a draft of an executive order that would close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year and halt all war crimes trials in the meantime.
Liberal groups hailed the order to freeze proposed federal rules changes, an action that was similar to those announced by Bush and other presidents as soon as they took office.
"This is a stay of execution" for gray wolves, said Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He urged conservation groups to lobby the new administration to keep wolves on the protected list.
The pending regulation on investment products cited "an increasing recognition of the importance of investment advice" to workers who decide how to invest their retirement money, as they do in widely used 401(k) plans.
But Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, says the rule would invite conflicts of interest by allowing companies that administer 401(k) and individual retirement accounts to recommend products with higher fees.
Miller praised Obama for "this immediate action to stop consideration of rules that will roll back vital protections for consumers, workers and the environment."
Obama's freeze order requires agencies to re-examine pending rules changes not yet published in the Federal Register. For items recently published in the register, the effective date can be postponed for several weeks, the order said.
Other proposals now under review would:
- Allow mining deposits to be dumped within 100 feet of flowing streams, according to the environmental group Earthjustice.
- Increase financial reporting requirements for labor unions. The Bush administration said the change would discourage embezzlement of union funds, but labor groups say it would impose unnecessary burdens.
- Limit overtime pay for some groups of workers.
- Expand the type of jobs available to 14- and 15-year-olds.
- Require mine operators to establish drug-testing programs.
- Allow employers not to disclose some pension plan expenses.
- Create a "roadless rule" for Colorado that critics said would do too little to protect affected lands.
Many Bush administration regulations recently took effect and cannot be undone by Tuesday's order. They include a rule stripping Congress of its power to prohibit mining, oil and gas development on federal lands in emergency situations, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Valley Voice
Rail Meeting IN DC
Rail Abandonment Appeal Eyed...Miles Shuper
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/vv/stories/2009/rail.htm
Following a meeting with federal rail regulators in Washington, D.C, Tulare County officials this week were considering asking reconsideration of a ruling allowing the San Joaquin Valley Railroad to abandon a 30-mile segment from Lindsay to the Kern County line.
However, the clock is ticking on getting a deal done.
Tulare County Rail Committee Chairman Tom Sparks says SJVR appears to be going ahead with its destruction of the 30-mile segment despite the plunging scrap steel prices, and could possibly begin ripping out the line in early March.
With the exception of required approval from the State Historical Preservation Office which determines if any historic artifacts or structures are along the route, SJVR seems to have met abandonment requirements.
County Supervisor Allen Ishida, Sparks and Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) Executive Director Ted Smalley each said their meeting with staff of the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) and other politicians were encouraging.
Sparks expects this week's TCAG board to approve asking the STB to take another look at its approval of last year's abandonment approval and possibly reconsidering the $3.3 million value the STB placed on the 30-mile segment, a price based mainly on scrap iron prices which have plummeted since that decision. County Supervisors may consider filing the appeal at their Jan. 27 meeting.
Ishida said prior to the trip the focus would be to express dissatisfaction with the STB rail abandonment process, especially tight timelines and deadlines. “We don't feel we got our money's worth for the $22,000 we spent to oppose the abandonment petition,” Ishida said. He said the cost of filing for reconsideration would be minimal, according to STB regulations. The county may also consider asking for a STB ruling to delay any ripping out of the track on the Lindsay-to-Jovista line.
While these issues are ongoing, the county has been talking with Union Pacific Railroad for the potential sale of the rail right-of-way on which SJVR runs. In addition, Patriot Railroad, a fast-growing short-line company, has expressed a strong interest in buying the 30-mile segment and possibly other SJVR segments. There are several plans being considered involving the potential purchase by the county in conjunction with a joint venture with Patriot Rail.
County officials contend that rail service is crucial for more effective and cost-efficient transportation, as well as an effective way to drastically cut Valley air pollution. Rail service also is important in attracting new industrial and commercial businesses or expanding it, they say.
Meanwhile, SJVC officials have indicated they will ask the STB to reconsider its bid to abandon a nine-mile segment linking Lindsay and Exeter, in addition to a new request to abandon another segment linking Exeter and Dinuba. Sparks, Ishida and Smalley each said they had heard that rumor for some time but recently were told of the plan by SJVR officials. The rail company has contended that the line is too costly to operate, a matter which the county disputes based on studies by a rail consultant and others which say SJVR used misleading and incomplete financial information. In addition, the county, which has been waging a concerted effort to maintain and expand rail freight service, contends SJVR discourages business on those segments by adding surcharges and other hurdles to support its contention that the lines are not financially viable.
Sparks said the county rail committee is scheduling meetings with existing and potential shippers, especially in southern Tulare County, to generate additional rail use.
Sparks said the several factors appear to favor a STB reconsideration of its decision, including the apparent devaluation of the rail segment, the failure of a reported sale agreement between SJVC and a salvage company, and other issues.
Tulare County had offered to pay $1.2 million for the segment but the STB rejected it based on a sale offer by a salvage company. The county, through a hired counsel, had expressed the validity of the sale offer by the salvage company and now that it didn't meet the deadline requirements opens the door even wider for STB's reconsideration.
Sparks says the Washington trip provided the STB staff with its initial “first hand look at Tulare County's rail issues” which don't always come through in reports and documents.
Sparks said SJVR appears to be going ahead with its potential scrapping of the 30-mile segment, despite the plunging scrap steel prices and could possibly begin ripping out the line in early March. With the exception of required approval from the State Historical Preservation Office, which determines if any historic artifacts or structures are along the route, SJVR seems to have met abandonment requirements.
Sacramento Bee
Protecting our most valuable joint asset — Earth...Peter A. Seligmann, chairman and CEO of Conservation International, a global nonprofit environmental organization. Readers may write to him at: Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, Va. 22202-3787; Web site: www.conservation.org.
http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/1564745.html
Barack Obama became the 44th U.S. president in a world that is a tinderbox of ever more complex looming threats linked to unprecedented ecological challenges. This makes one of his toughest challenges also his greatest opportunity.
The Earth is being altered so dramatically that it cannot sustain much of the life that has thrived for millennia. Species extinctions today are estimated to be 1,000 times the norm. When our land, rivers and coral reefs can no longer support plants, animals and fish, we humans are also in trouble. People depend on healthy ecosystems for the very fundamentals of survival - clean air, fresh water, soil regeneration, crop pollination and other resources we often take for granted until they are scarce or gone.
Just as the current financial crisis reveals how the world's economies are interconnected, we also must recognize the connections between human well-being and our ecosystems. The global environment, much like our global economy, requires a bold change in how we account for and protect our assets. When we abuse and degrade the natural world, it affects our health, our social stability and our pocketbooks.
The implications are enormous: Some 25 percent of wild marine fisheries are over-exploited, and 50 percent are highly degraded. Tropical deforestation contributes more global greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's cars, trucks, planes and trains combined. An area of rainforest larger than England is destroyed each year. More than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water. In the poorest countries, one in five children dies of a preventable water-related disease. Violent conflict in many countries such as Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo is fueled by mismanagement and corruption tied to natural resource exploitation. Climate change exacerbates the threats that over-consumption, pollution and habitat destruction pose. Recent studies show half of the world's population is headed toward a climate-induced food crisis by the end of this century.
Yet as daunting as the global environmental crisis has become, it offers tremendous opportunities. President Obama has garnered goodwill among nations that we have not experienced for many years. Now is the time when the United States can help the world, as a global community, harness the clear connections between conservation of nature and international development. They cannot be separated. Too often, the unintended consequence of development projects is the depletion or degradation of natural systems and the multi-generational benefits they provide (food, water, barriers from storms). On an international scale, we must recognize the value of nature and invest to protect it.
Ecosystem destruction costs our global economy at least $2 trillion every year. That is the value forests provide by storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, cleansing fresh water supplies, and preventing soil erosion. It includes the value oceans and coral reefs provide in food security for millions who rely on fisheries as their primary source of protein. Overall, global ecosystems services are estimated to be worth as much as $33 trillion a year.
In many developing countries, ecosystem restoration will require careful planning and investment. The results will be jobs and opportunity, pride and community success, more abundant food, clean water, and improved health. By helping restore and protect the natural heritage of developing nations throughout the world, the United States will strengthen the bonds of friendship and trust through collaborations that are by their very nature sustainable.
Initiatives to advance natural resource conservation in other countries have typically lacked strong political support and received only a small fraction of total resources dedicated to international engagement. The Obama administration can bring these issues into the mainstream during this critical time of reorienting our national priorities. Obama and his team should fully integrate and fund ecosystem conservation priorities within national security considerations and U.S. foreign policy and development assistance.
Bringing ecosystem conservation to the forefront of our foreign policy will put our nation and the world on a course of positive change that will benefit all generations to come.
Stockton Record
Cosgrove Creek opinions sought...The Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/A_NEWS/90121023/-1/A_NEWS
VALLEY SPRINGS - Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Calaveras County are seeking input on environmental issues that have delayed efforts to clean the flood-prone channel of Cosgrove Creek and that might affect plans for flood control projects along the creek.
The two agencies are inviting area residents and others interested in Cosgrove Creek to attend a public meeting 5 to 7 p.m. next Thursday at Jenny Lind Veterans Memorial Hall, 189 Pine St., Valley Springs.
Topics at the meeting will include the goals of the proposed flood control projects along the creek, constraints on the project, and the federal and state environmental laws that affect the project. Information: www.co.calaveras.ca.us/cc/Departments/PublicWorks.aspx.
Housing starts post larger than expected drop (7:09 a.m.)
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/A_NEWS/90122006
WASHINGTON (AP) — New-home construction plunged to an all-time low in December, capping the worst year for builders on records dating back to 1959.
The Commerce Department reported today that construction of new homes and apartments fell 15.5 percent to an annual rate of 550,000 units last month. That shattered the previous low set in November.
It was a much weaker showing than the pace of 610,000 that economists were forecasting and ended 2008 on a dismal note.
For all of last year, the number of housing units that builders broke ground on totaled just over 904,000, also a record low. That marked a huge 33.3 percent drop from the 1.355 million housing units started in 2007. The previous low was set in 1991.
The report also showed that applications for building permits — considered a reliable sign of future activity — sank to a rate of 549,000 in December, a 10.7 percent drop from the previous month.
The collapse of the once high-flying housing market has been devastating to the United States’ economic health.
Its spreading fallout has contributed to big pullbacks by consumers and businesses alike, plunging the economy into a painful recession now in its second year.
The Obama administration wants to ramp up efforts to stem skyrocketing home foreclosures, which have dumped even more properties on an already crippled market.
The Federal Reserve has taken a number of extraordinary steps with the hope of providing some relief. It is buying certain types of mortgages and has slashed a key interest rate to a record low of between zero and 0.25 percent.
Against that backdrop, mortgage rates have dropped to the lowest level in decades in recent weeks.
But that’s provided little comfort to builders.
They are skeptical about the prospects of a housing turnaround. Unemployment is now at a 16-year high of 7.2 percent and is expected to march upward this year — a situation that can put stresses on existing home owners and can make it less likely that new buyers will stream into the market.
In fact, a key gauge of homebuilders’ confidence has sank to a record low.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index, released Wednesday, dropped one point to a record 8 in January. The index was at 9 for the previous two months. Index readings higher than 50 indicate positive sentiment about the market. But the index has been below 50 since May 2006, and below 20 since April.
Tighter lending standards, rising defaults and fear about the housing market’s future have sidelined buyers, an absence felt acutely by homebuilders such as D.R. Horton Inc., Pulte Homes Inc. and Centex Corp.
New jobless claims rise more than expected to 589,000 (6:22 a.m.)
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/A_NEWS/90122002/-1/A_NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of new unemployment claims jumped more than expected last week, as companies continue to cut jobs at a furious pace and more Americans turn to an extended benefits program.
The Labor Department reported today that initial jobless benefit claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ending Jan. 17, from an upwardly revised figure of 527,000 the previous week. The latest tally was well above Wall Street economists’ expectations of 540,000 new claims.
The total matches a 26-year high reached four weeks ago. The last time claims were higher was in November 1982, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, though the work force has grown by about half since then.
The increase is partly due to a backlog of claims that piled up in recent weeks in several states that experienced computer crashes due to a crush of applications, a Labor Department analyst said. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, was 519,250, the same as the previous week.
But the layoffs continued today. Microsoft Corp. said it will cut up to 5,000 jobs as profit tumbles amid weakness in the personal computer market, and chemical maker Huntsman Corp. will slash 1,175 jobs this year, representing more than 9 percent of its work force, to reduce costs as demand slows amid the global economic downturn. Salt Lake City-based Huntsman also plans to cut an additional 490 contractors.
Another sign of the deepening recession came in a Commerce Department report that showed new home construction plunged 15.5 percent to a record low last month. Construction of new homes and apartments fell to an annual rate of 550,000 in December, below analysts’ expectations of 610,000.
The report capped a miserable year for new home construction. Builders broke ground on 904,000 units last year, also the lowest since records began in 1959.
The Labor Department report showed that the number of people continuing to seek jobless benefits rose by 97,000 to 4.6 million. That was above analysts’ expectations of 4.55 million and up substantially from a year ago, when 2.7 million people were continuing to receive unemployment checks.
The Obama administration is proposing to extend jobless benefits, which typically last about six months, and overhaul the unemployment insurance system as part of an $825 billion stimulus package currently being considered in the House.
The weak job market has caused millions of laid off workers who have exhausted their unemployment insurance to seek benefits under an emergency federal extension of the program authorized by Congress last June.
More than 2 million Americans requested benefits under the extended program in the week ending Jan. 3, the most recent data available. That’s in addition to the 4.6 million people covered under the regular unemployment insurance system, though the 2 million figure is not seasonally adjusted and is volatile.
Roughly 900,000 people sought benefits under the emergency program the week ending Nov. 29. The rapid increase since then is partly due to an extension of the program Congress approved Nov. 21, a Labor Department analyst said.
Overall, the large number of Americans continuing to receive benefits is an indication that many laid off workers are having difficulty finding new jobs.
Economists consider jobless claims a timely, if volatile, indicator of the health of the labor markets and broader economy. A year ago, initial claims stood at 324,000.
Companies from a range of sectors are hemorrhaging jobs amid a recession now in its second year. Consumers have dramatically cut back their spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, in response to declining home values and plummeting stock portfolios.
On Wednesday alone, at least four companies announced layoffs. Intel Corp. said it plans to cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs as the company struggles with lower demand for personal computers.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it would eliminate 1,000 jobs, on top of 1,500 it cut late last year. Industrial parts and systems maker Eaton Corp. said it is cutting 5,200 jobs, and airplane maker Hawker Beechcraft Corp. said it would eliminate workers after laying off 500 last year, though it didn’t provide details.
Radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications Inc., oil and gas company ConocoPhillips, and media company Time Warner Inc. also announced job cuts in the past week.
Delta board halts spending on new campus...Daniel Thigpen
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/A_NEWS/901220331
STOCKTON - By choosing to stop spending voter-approved bond money on a long-sought campus in Mountain House, San Joaquin Delta College trustees put the brakes on the controversial project while leaving open the option to build later.
The move has added yet another layer of uncertainty to the ordeal.
Board members voted late Tuesday to suspend planning for the south county campus. Instead, the college will use what's left of the $250 million Measure L bond for other projects, including improvements at the Stockton campus.
Administrators said the state budget crisis has jeopardized money that is supposed to go toward at least two ongoing Stockton projects - a new library, and a math and science facility - and the college could be on the hook for millions as a result.
They recommended taking bond money from Mountain House now and seeking new funds for it later.
The decision to stop the flow of bond money to the $83 million Mountain House project came largely from new trustees who have questioned whether the college should even be building there. Even then, some of those trustees expressed a commitment to find other ways to finish the job.
Before Tuesday night's 4-2 vote, board President and new Trustee Steve Castellanos expressed hope the college could qualify for future state or federal aid to complete the campus, which now consists of portable classrooms. Castellanos added he would consider creating a board subcommittee to investigate those funding options.
"The first priority is to protect what (projects) we have ongoing," he said. "We need to be prudent in times of great risk."
Mountain House developer Gerry Kamilos said Wednesday he was encouraged college officials appeared dedicated to someday building the campus, despite the vote to suspend planning for it. An attorney for Kamilos in November warned Delta that pulling out of the project could cost the college $16 million in fees and expenses to the developer.
"My understanding is that they want to explore all funding possibilities," Kamilos said. "They did say they are going to pursue it in every manner as they can."
But others, such as Trustee and Mountain House critic Mary Ann Cox, said the campus is no longer a top priority.
"You're probably looking at 10 to 20 years before we even look at asking for money there," she said Wednesday.
Delta already has spent a decade and roughly $22.6 million on the project. It might have to spend up to an additional $13 million if it cannot get out of all of its planning contracts, officials said.
Delta officials are struggling to divvy up a dwindling pool of Measure L money and already have scaled back projects or backed out of others.
Now, officials said, ongoing projects on the Stockton campus that use a combination of Measure L and state funds are in jeopardy. The mounting state budget deficit might freeze funds to a new library and math and science center, potentially leaving Delta responsible for more than $38 million, officials said.
Unspent Mountain House funds now could be put toward those Stockton projects.
In Mountain House, classes are expected to begin in the portable buildings this fall. Depending on enrollment, the campus might qualify for state funding three or four years from now that could be used to build out Mountain House, officials said.
Matthew Balzarini, a director serving on the unincorporated community's newly elected board, said he was disappointed in Delta's vote.
"I think to take that money and use it elsewhere, I don't think that's appropriate," he said. "Our board will continue to fight for Mountain House."
Tracy Press
Delta halts Mountain House plans
Bond money that was set aside for the satellite campus will go to Stockton...Jennifer Wadsworth
http://tracypress.com/content/view/17073/2268/
The long-fought-for San Joaquin Delta College campus in Mountain House will consist of nothing more than a cluster of portables and a narrow driveway, at least for the foreseeable future. 
Delta trustees voted 4-2 at a meeting Tuesday night to pull money set aside to build the satellite campus back to Stockton, where they plan to finish a library and a math and science building with what’s left of the $250 million Measure L bond voters passed in 2004.
Members of the Mountain House Community Services District board of directors spoke against the decision before trustees voted to go ahead with it. Mountain House board members Matthew Balzarini and Bernice King Tingle — who both volunteered to form a Delta College subcommittee to keep an eye on the school’s decisions — attended the Tuesday night meeting with about eight other residents of the unincorporated town west of Tracy.
Balzarini unsuccessfully implored trustees to postpone the decision to redirect bond money.
But with uncertainty on the state level, trustees worry that funding would run dry and construction at the main campus halt unless they narrowed the focus and slimmed down the new-construction wish list advertised five years ago to voters.
Initially the price tagged to a satellite campus off Interstate 205 near the town of 8,000 was $91 million. After a series of audits came out lambasting the college for wasting millions of dollars in voter-approved debt, the college whittled down the amount it could afford to spend on the campus to $60 million.
The college spent a decade and $22.6 million so far on the still un-built south county campus. Now, it looks like the 19 portables that sit on the side of the freeway will have to do for now and likely for years to come.
Lawyers representing Mountain House developer Gerry Kamilos warned trustees in December that to cancel construction could cost the school as much $16 million.
College spokesman Greg Greenwood said the money that would pay for planning and construction of a permanent campus in the windswept town will go toward projects in Stockton that are farther along. Planners and trustees worry that with the gaping state budget deficit, they might not see the matching funds to complete the main campus library and math and science building, so they’ll use the satellite campus money in the meantime.
Trustees and Greenwood said that doesn’t mean plans for a permanent south county campus are cancelled, just delayed.
Maybe, school officials suggested, voters will approve a second bond in the future measure to finish the project. Tingle said that’s unlikely, because voters have lost faith in the school’s ability to handle public money and because so many people struggle to pay the taxes, developer fees and bills they already owe.
New Delta trustee and board president Steve Castellanos suggested that the college might qualify for state help in a few years. Trustee Ted Simas scoffed at the idea. And new trustee Mary Anne Cox — who opposes building the Mountain House campus — said the state will probably be unable to give the school money for another 10 or 20 years, judging by the declared “fiscal emergency” it’s in now.
Even with suspended construction, workers are finishing up paving a roadway to the temporary Mountain House campus and making sure at least the skeletal requirements are met before the site opens for classes in August.
Greenwood said the college has no idea how many students would register for classes at the temporary set-up.
Disappointed locals worry that delaying a community anchor like a college campus could discourage businesses from setting up shop in the town.
“I do hate that the money was voted to be moved back to Stockton,” Tingle said after the meeting. “But on the positive side, there’s still money to work with, and there’s still hope to get something built out here.”
Fellow Mountain House board member Andy Su said he’s discouraged about the college’s decision.
“But it’s out of our control, and they have their decisions to make,” he said. “I know that was their intention since the election, so it’s not completely unexpected; it’s just something that’s a very high priority for us and something we’ll keep fighting for.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Trees dying in the West at record rate...David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/BAO215D7DF.DTL&type=printable
Trees are dying faster than ever in the old-growth forests of California and the mountains of the West, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to rising regional temperatures and the destructive forces of early snowmelt, drought, forest fires and deadly insect infestations brought on by global warming.
Over the past 17 years in some regions and 25 years in other regions, the death rates of trees have doubled, the scientists say, raising concerns that the problem goes well beyond trees: As the forests shrink, their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from industrial lowlands are diminished, meaning more greenhouse gases are being added to the warming planet's atmosphere.
"The ultimate implications for our forests and the environment are huge," said Mark Harmon of Oregon State University who helped write the report which appears today in the journal Science.
While no trees are immune, the scientists say, the victims are primarily the conifers whose abundance throughout California's Sierra Nevada range makes the forests famed throughout the world. Varied species of pines, firs and hemlocks are most at risk, they say.
The unique study involved nearly a dozen leading forest ecologists who studied mortality rates of trees in 76 forest plots located primarily in California, Oregon, Washington and southwestern British Columbia. They also looked at trees in a few interior states: Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Arizona.
The increase in death rates for the trees has been "pervasive," said Phillip van Mantgem, a forest expert with the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center in Arcata (Humboldt County) and a leader of the research team.
The most likely cause of the increasing deaths, van Mantgem said, is the widespread increase in average temperatures over the past 30 years throughout the region - an increase of a full degree Fahrenheit and an amount consistent with the global warming measurements and models reported by world's experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Van Mantgem led his own team tracking the fates of 20,000 individual trees in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and found that their death rates had doubled in 25 years. Colleagues did a similar job for the study of old-growth forests throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Salazar cites ethical lapses at Interior Dept...H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/22/national/w094518S97.DTL&type=printable
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday the department has been "painted unfairly" because of ethical lapses and criminal activity among some past political appointees.
In his first address to department workers, Salazar vowed to lead with "openness in decision-making, high ethical standards and respect to scientific integrity."
"We will ensure Interior Department decisions are based on sound science and the public interest and not special interests," declared Salazar, alluding to complaints that the Bush administration frequently ignored science in favor of a political agenda and fostered cozy relationships between officials and energy industries.
The former Colorado senator told employees gathered in the department's auditorium and in offices across the country: "This department has suffered because of ethical lapses and criminal activity at the highest level."
"There has been a picture of the department that has been painted unfairly on the backs of career employees because of actions by political appointees ... and that era is now changing and it starts today," said Salazar, prompting a long round of applause.
"We will hold people accountable. We expect people to be accountable ... and not tolerate these kind of lapses," he said.
Salazar mentioned no specific misconduct. But various investigations in recent years have revealed conflicts of interest by high-ranking Interior officials, prompting the resignations of a former deputy secretary and an assistant deputy secretary, as well as misconduct in an office overseeing oil leases.
There have been complaints from environmentalists, members of Congress — and privately by career employees of the department — that the views of department scientists often were ignored on such issues as protecting endangered species, offshore drilling management of parks and other federal lands.
Salazar, 53, who comes from a ranching family of fifth-generation Colorado Hispanics, takes the helm of a department that oversees one-fifth of America's land — about a half-billion acres — from national parks and wilderness areas to millions of acres used for grazing and energy development.
Those who work at the department, said Salazar, "have a sacred trust to protect, conserve and enhance these treasures."
But Salazar made clear he is not about to turn his back on energy development, calling the need to move toward greater energy independence "an absolute imperative of our time."
While the country must address global warming, he said, "we cannot move forward by turning off the lights and turning off coal-burning power plants." He said it's important to develop ways to capture carbon dioxide, the leading gas linked to climate change, from coal.
While outlining broad priorities, Salazar stayed away from specifics.
Would he consider reversing a decision made in the final weeks of the Bush administration to allow people to carry loaded firearms in the national parks, a U.S. Park Service employee asked, noting that park rangers already face a variety of dangers.
"We'll take a look at that ... I don't have an answer on that right now," replied Salazar, recounting that on his Colorado ranch "I always had a sense of comfort when I had my gun with me."
Asked what 11th-hour regulations from the Bush era that he might want to change, Salazar said he wasn't prepared "to say what we're going to do with any of them at this point."
Obama, as one of his first actions as president, issued an executive order to freeze government-wide those regulations still in the pipeline, including a number involving the Interior Department, until they could be reviewed.
Los Angeles Times
Seasons change -- earlier than before, study says
The hottest and coldest days of the year come roughly two days sooner than they did 50 years ago, according to a study published in Nature. The change coincides with the rise in global temperatures...Catherine Ho
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-climate22-2009jan22,0,614221,print.story
The seasons begin two days earlier than they did 50 years ago, a shift that may be related to human activity, according to researchers at UC Berkeley and Harvard University.
The season skewing means that the hottest and coldest days of the year come about two days sooner than they did 50 years ago, according to a study published in the Jan. 22 edition of the journal Nature. The study also found that the difference between average winter and summer temperatures shrank in the same 50-year span, indicating winters are heating up faster than summers.
The change coincides with the rise in global temperatures, which could suggest a link to human-induced global warming, said Alexander Stine, the study's first author and a graduate student at UC Berkeley's Department of Earth & Planetary Science.
"The pattern that we see suggests there's a relationship between global warming and the shifting of the seasons," Stine said.
Earlier seasons could affect farming, rainfall distribution, water supplies and the diversity of ecosystems, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
"When you see a shift like this, or what appears to be the beginning of a shift, it's yet another red flag about the potential implications of humans fiddling with the climate," he said.
An earlier spring could lengthen wildfire season in Western states and affect the availability of water resources, said Stephanie McAfee, a PhD student at the University of Arizona who studies the effect of climate change on ecosystems.
"We rely on water that falls as snow in the mountains that melts and delivers water to our reservoirs," she said. "The earlier that snow starts to melt, the less of a buffer we have."
Stine worked with Peter Huybers, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard, and Inez Fung, professor of atmospheric science at UC Berkeley. They studied global surface temperature measurements from 1850 through 1953, and 1954 through 2007. In the first period, land temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere peaked around July 21; in the later period, they peaked 1.7 days earlier.
Washington Post
Trees in Western U.S. Forests Dying Due to Climate Change
Death Rates Have Doubled, Researchers Find...Juliet Eilperin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012202473_pf.html
The death rates of trees in western U.S. forests have doubled over the past two to three decades, driven in large part by warmer temperatures and water scarcity linked to climate change, a new study spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey has found.
The findings, published today in the online journal Science Express, examined changes in 76 long-term forest plots in three broad regions across the West, and found similar shifts regardless of the areas' elevation, fire history, dominant species and tree sizes. It is the largest research project based on old-growth forests in North America.
Nathan L. Stephenson, one of the lead authors, said summers are getting longer and hotter in the West, subjecting trees to greater stress from droughts and attacks by insect infestations, all factors that contribute to greater tree die-offs.
"It's very likely that mortality rates will continue to rise," said Stephenson, a scientist at the Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center, adding that the death of older trees is rapidly exceeding the growth of new ones, akin to a town where deaths of old people are outpacing the number of babies being born. "If you saw that going on in your home town, you'd be concerned."
The study was conducted by a team of 11 researchers from institutions including the USGS and the Forest Service; the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; the University of Washington at Seattle; Northern Arizona University; Oregon State University; the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Pennsylvania State University.
They examined a variety of tree types including pine, fir and hemlock, documenting major die-offs in Northern California, Oregon, Washington and southern British Columbia along with such interior Western states as Colorado and Arizona. In the Pacific Northwest the researchers found that tree death rates had doubled in just 17 years, compared with 29 years for interior Western forests, but the researchers cautioned against making too much of these differences.
The recent warming in the West "has contributed to widespread hydrologic changes, such as a declining fraction of precipitation falling as snow, declining water snow pack content, earlier spring snowmelt and runoff, and a consequent lengthening of the summer drought," they wrote.
The scientists said it was hard to predict how the changes would transform the region's landscape, although they anticipated that in the future the West will boast sparser forests that cannot store as much carbon as they do now, which could contribute to even more warming in the future.
"In the end, the forest will tend to equilibrate at a lower level of stored carbon," said Jerry F. Franklin, at UW-Seattle's College of Forest Resources, noting this will occur "over a very long time period."
Franklin added that some of the West's most imperiled animal species, such as marbled murrelets and the northern spotted owl, depend on old growth trees for critical habitat.
"There's a large array of organisms that depend on large trees," he said.
Thomas T. Veblen, a geography professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the combination of increased wildfires, drought and bark beetles has devastated some of his state's forests. Temperatures in Colorado's subalpine forests, which are between 8,500 and 10,000 feet in altitude, have risen markedly over the past 50 years during all seasons, he said.
Mountain pine bark beetles have killed roughly 3.5 million acres of lodgepole pine forests in northwestern Colorado over the past decade, wiping out 90 percent of pine forests in that area, Veblen said. During the same time period, spruce bark beetles also killed large areas of spruce forest in northern and southwestern Colorado.
"Our society needs to devise policies that will help us to adapt to the changes that are underway," Veblen said. "This is further evidence that we're seeing continued effects of the warming in increased fire risk."
If current tree mortality rates continue and even accelerate, the paper's authors warned, there is a chance that U.S. forests could shift from being a carbon sink that takes greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere to becoming a net emitter of carbon dioxide. Franklin said policymakers should keep that in mind when negotiating a new international climate pact.
"One of the things that should absolutely be on the table in terms of any global agreement is the notion of avoided carbon releases," he said, adding that when you lose older trees in a forest, "there's no way you can make up for that."
New York Times
Port Authority Tries to Lure Shippers With Discounts...Ken Belson
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/port-authority-tries-to-lure-shippers-with-discounts/?pagemode=print
Times are so tough that even the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is discounting.
At its monthly board meeting on Thursday, the authority approved plans to offer shippers a $25 discount if they use the port’s rail network to move their containers from their ships to long-distance rail hubs nearby.
The authority is spending $600 million to build train lines from its berths in Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island to rail facilities run by companies like CSX that are a few miles away. The authority wants to reduce the number of containers that make that trip on trucks, which create congestion and air pollution.
The bulk of the cargo that arrives is loaded on trucks because it is driven to factories, shops and distribution hubs in the metropolitan region. But about 20 percent of the cargo is destined for the Midwest and other places more than 250 miles away; some of it is sent by train.
Ports across the country battle for this inland-bound cargo, especially now that shipments overall have been slumping. Port authorities in Charleston and Los Angeles, for instance, recently offered per-container discounts to shippers who use their local rail networks.
The Port Authority here said that shippers would receive a discount on containers that represent an increase in traffic compared to last year. If Shipper A sent 100 containers by the Port’s rail network last year, the 101st container it sent this year would receive the discount.
The $25 discount would be deducted from the $52 that is costs to unload a container from its ship and load it onto one of the Port’s trains.
“The competition for port business is intense, and we must find creative ways to maintain our competitive edge during difficult economic times,” Chris Ward, the Port Authority’s executive director, said in a statement.
The Port Authority estimated that its discounts could generate as much as $500,000 in new business, but it could also lose that much if the discounts replaced cargo that would arrived anyway.
CNN Money
Home prices see sharp dip
A new government report reveals declines that are steeper than usual - even for this market...Les Christie
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/22/real_estate/government_price_
index_reveals_substantial_loss/index.htm?postversion=2009012216
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices continued to plunge in November, according to a new government report released Thursday.The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that home prices fell a record 1.8% for the month, compared with October, declining at an annualized rate of nearly 20%. That follows losses of 1.2% and 1.1% in the two previous months. For the 12 months ended November 30, prices fell 8.7%, which was the largest 12-month price drop ever for the 17-year-old index.
"We've been seeing an acceleration in the rate of housing-market decline," said Mike Moran, a real estate analyst with Daiwa Securities.
Normally, declines on the FHFA index (formerly known as the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Index), have been much more modest than other price gauges, like the Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
That's because the FHFA index tracks the purchase price of homes bought with so-called conforming mortgages - generally loans of $417,000 or less - which are sold to or guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500). The Case-Shiller index, however, covers all purchases in a given area, including more expensive homes that were more prone to huge runups during the bubble, and have since seen steep declines.
Additionally, the FHFA index also has broader geographic reach, extending into rural counties that tend to have more stable prices than the urban areas that Case-Shiller surveys.
From bad to worse
Considering all these factors, the fact that the November FHFA index posted such a large drop is especially troubling, although perhaps not surprising.
"The news in the housing markets has just been dreadful," said Moran.
That bad news includes foreclosure rates that are still on the rise,record-low homebuilder sentiment and reports of modified mortgages quickly going bad again.
According to FHFA, the Great Plains and prairie states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota were the worst-hit U.S. regions in November. Prices there dropped a whopping 2.7%. New England, where prices inched down 0.7%, had the narrowest losses.
"A lot of the declines we're observing are due to the rising number of post-foreclosure sales," said FHFA senior economist Andrew Leventis. "Obviously, there's a lot of pessimism out there right now," he said. "The pessimists may be driving the car now."
Turmoil in the financial markets is probably exacerbating the situation. "That may also be having a psychological effect on buyers," said Leventis.
Mike Moran was also troubled by a very negative housing starts report, which was released on Thursday. Housing starts tumbled to record lows, down 10.7% in December, falling to lowest level since the government started tracking them in 1959.
"If you want to take an optimistic spin," he said, "you could say that the adjustment process has been quickening and we're that much closer to the bottom."
Regional banks hit hard by recession
Bank behemoths Citi and BofA aren't the only ones struggling. Smaller regional banks across the country are getting hurt by rising credit costs as well...David Ellis
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/22/news/companies/regional_banks/
index.htm?postversion=2009012216
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It is not just the big guys in banking that are taking a hit in this recession. Regional banks across the nation are also posting dismal results for the fourth quarter.
Two of Ohio's biggest financial institutions -- KeyCorp (KEY, Fortune 500) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB, Fortune 500) -- both swung to a loss during the quarter, reporting numbers that were far worse than analysts were anticipating.
Shares of Fifth Third were hit hard in Thursday trading, losing a quarter of their value. Investors found some good news buried within Key's dismal results though. Its stock bucked the downward trend and edged slightly higher.
Companies headquartered in the Southeast, considered one of the fastest growing regions for banks, were hardly immune to the economic downturn either.
SunTrust (STI, Fortune 500), headquartered in Atlanta, recorded a $379 million loss Thursday. That follows the whopping $6.2 billion loss reported by Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial (RF, Fortune 500) just a day earlier. Shares of both banks fell in Thursday trading.
An attempt to cope with rising credit costs is one factor driving the losses at several regional banks. SunTrust, for example, set aside $962.5 million to combat future loan losses. The company also said the percentage of loans it doesn't think are collectible more than tripled during the latest quarter.
"We are under no illusions as to the severity of this credit cycle," said SunTrust Chairman and CEO James Wells III in a statement accompanying the firm's results.
But despite the lackluster performance by many regional banks, one banking executive stressed that his bank is well capitalized and looking to lend money.
"We are actively seeking new borrowers," said Kelly King, CEO of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T (BBT, Fortune 500) in a statement Thursday. The bank reported that fourth-quarter profits fell to $284 million, or 51 cents a share. But earnings did beat Wall Street's estimates.
Legislators will probably keep a close watch on just how many new loans BB&T and other regional banks are issuing, however.
Most regional banks have received government money from the first half of the $700 billion bank rescue program that was passed by Congress last fall. The hope was that banks would use this capital to get credit flowing to consumers and businesses and boost the economy.
But some financial institutions have used the funds instead to shore up their balance sheet or even acquire rivals. That has drawn the ire of lawmakers as Congress prepares to release the second half of the bailout money. 
Treasury lists 39 'bailed' banks - $1.5B
The government's Capital Repurchase Program swells to $193.8 billion, and the department offers details on payouts.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/22/news/economy/bank_bailout_
details.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009012217
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday detailed 39 additional banks that have received a combined $1.5 billion in government funds under its Troubled Asset Relief Program.
It included $400 million for First BanCorp of San Juan, Puerto Rico, $146 million for Dickinson Financial Corp II of Kansas City, Missouri and nearly $108 million for S&T Bancorp of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Other payouts ranged from $1.75 million for Community Bank of the Bay in Oakland, California to $75 million for Texas Capital Bancshares Inc in Dallas, Texas.
The Treasury said its latest payouts brought investments under its Capital Purchase Program, the main avenue for bank capital injections, to $193.8 billion. The Treasury has allocated $250 billion for the program.
The number of Americans filing unemployment insurance hits 589,000, the highest since November 1982...Lara Moscrip 
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/22/news/economy/jobless_claims/
index.htm?postversion=2009012216
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week to a 26-year high, according to a government report released Thursday.
The Labor Department said that initial filings for state jobless benefits rose 62,000to 589,000 for the week ended Jan. 17.
Economists polled by Briefing.com expected the reading to rise to 548,000 claims. Jobless claims were revised up 3,000 to 527,000for the week ended Jan. 10.
The last time jobless claims were this high was in November 1982, when jobless claims surged to 612,000.
Ian Shepherdson, an economist with High Frequency Economics in New York, cautioned that the impact of Christmas and New Year's Day as well as the extended auto sector shutdowns continue to cloud the data. But he believes the ranks of Americans filing for benefits will climb.
"The corporate sector is rolling over, and we probably have not yet seen many job losses stemming from the sudden collapse in international trade," Shepherdson wrote in a research note.
Joshua Shapiro, an economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., said the data should begin to show the direction of the job market by early next month.
But he noted that both the high number of initial claims and people receiving benefits for one week or longer point to "a significant rate of deterioration in labor market conditions."
The number of Americans receiving jobless benefits for a week or longer is up 68% from a year ago, measured on a four-week average basis, according to Shapiro.
The four-week average of new unemployment claims was unchanged from from the prior week's revised average of 519,250. A year ago, it was at 327,000.
The four-week moving average is designed to smooth out some of the week-by-week fluctuations, and give a broader view of the U.S. job market.
The number of people continuing to collect unemployment insurance for one week or more rose by 97,000 to 4.61 million in the week ended Jan. 10, the most recent data available. A year ago, it was at 2.68 million.
Over the previous four weeks, the number of people on unemployment for one week or more increased by 58,750 to an average of 4.56 million a week, the government said. A year ago, it was at 2.71 million.
The greatest number of layoffs for the week ending Jan. 10 were in Michigan, with nearly 35,000 job losses, California with 22,573 and Florida, with 20,658.
 
1-22-09
Meetings
MCAG
1-26-09 SJVB Summit...10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
http://www.valleyblueprint.org/summit.html
Blueprint Summit
January 26, 2009
Fresno Convention Center
Program: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Registration Begins: 9:00 a.m.
ABOUT
The San Joaquin Valley Blueprint brings together people from all eight San Joaquin Valley Counties - people like you who can make a difference. Be a part of history in the making and attend the upcoming San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Summit. This summit will be an opportunity for everyone concerned with the future of our region to come together to decide the public's recommendation for the regional Blueprint scenario.
PROGRAM AGENDA >> DOWNLOAD DRAFT HERE
NOTE:Finalized program agenda will be avaiable prior to the Summit
REGISTRATION - $35 -non-refundable
Online Registration >> CLICK HERE
NOTE: Online registrations are processed through University of California, Merced
Print Registration >> DOWNLOAD HERE
Mail to:
Great Valley Center
201 Needham Street
Modesto, CA 95354
or FAX: (209) 522-5116
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View more What's New happening...
http://www.mcagov.org/whatsnew.html
Atwater-Merced Expressway Project
The comment period for the AME Recirculated EIR closed on January 5. The final EIR will be completed by Wednesday, February 4 and will be presented to the MCAG Governing Board for Certification at their February 19 meeting. This is a major milestone for this project that will
include a new interchange on SR 99, provide significantly improved access to Castle Airport and Development Center and northern City of Merced.
Legislative Program
The Governing Board approved the list of priorities that the One Voice group will discuss with legislators in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. and added a recommendation from the TRB that the state policy platform include a request for the High Speed Rail that the project be given some CEQA relief to reduce the years of project delay that would be needed for a full CEQA review.
24 delegates will be going to Sacramento for the One Voice visit Feb. 10-12.
MCAG is taking the lead on organizing a Sacramento visit for Valley Voice, the legislative program of the San Joaquin Valley COG Directors Policy Council. This will take place Jan. 28-29.
CALTRANS LAUNCHES THE CALIFORNIA TRANSPORTATION PLAN 2035 WEB PORTAL
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announces the launch of a new interactive Web portal, www.californiatransportationplan2035.org, for the development of the California Transportation Plan 2035.  The plan is a statewide, long-range transportation plan that is updated every five years, and will be completed in September 2010.  It includes goals, policies, and strategies to achieve our collective vision for California’s future transportation system.
Public input into this plan is vital and the Web portal will be an easy one-stop location for Web users to receive information and provide feedback to Caltrans.  The site features continually updated information on the progress of the plan’s development, a calendar of events that will take place around the State, opinion polls, feature articles, and background information, including tools to help facilitate collaborative planning with other agencies. Web portal visitors will be able to search the site, sign up for automatic e-mail updates or RSS feeds, submit comments, and view the comments of other visitors.
For more information, e-mail laurie.waters@dot.ca.gov or call (916) 653-4466.
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MCAG February Calendar
February 05 - Technical Planning Committee Meeting
February 06 - Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting
February 11 - Technical Review Board Meeting
February 19 - Governing Board Meeting
 
1-27-09 Merced County Board of Supervisors meeting...10:00 a.m.
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/BoardAgenda/
Not posted at this time
 
1-28-09 Merced County Planning Commission agenda...9:00 a.m.
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/DocumentView.asp?DID=1514
 
1-29-09...G St. Undercrossing Citizens Advisory Committee meeting...6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
http://www.cityofmerced.org/depts/cityclerk/boards_n_commissions/
g_street_bnsf_railroad_undercrossing_ad_hoc/committee_agendas.asp
The committee will meet regularly on the third Thursday of the month at the Merced Senior Center at W. 15th Street in Merced.
 
1-29-09 SUPERVISOR PEDROZO ANNOUNCES TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE...7:00 p.m. 
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/newsletter/pdf/NewsRelease123008-TownHall.pdf
Le Grand Town Hall Le Grand Legion Hall 12560 Le Grand Road, Le Grand