2-21-09

 
2-21-09
Merced Sun-Star
Federal agency cuts off farms' water supply
UC Davis study predicts Valley could lose $2 billion, 75,000 jobs...ROBERT RODRIGUEZ, The Fresno Bee
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/700774.html
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made it official Friday: Westside Valley farmers will receive no federal water this season.
"It is ugly," said Mark Borba, a longtime west Fresno County farmer. "There are growers out there who have no water or who are drilling wells in hopes of getting them operating in time and still others are bulldozing their almond trees."
Others are also hurting. The Contra Costa Water District's 500,000 customers will likely face mandatory water rationing in the coming months, and cities from the Bay Area to San Diego are expected to impose mandatory water rationing soon, if they haven't already.
"We would expect almost all of the major communities in California to go to some form of mandatory conservation," state Department of Water Resources director Lester Snow said at a Sacramento news conference Friday morning.
Water leaders also on Friday urged Californians to make every effort to cut water consumption by 20 percent this year. The state held its water delivery forecast for the year at just 15 percent of contracted amounts. It is very rare for that forecast to flat-line, rather than grow, as winter unfolds. It means all state water contractors -- mainly cities from the Bay Area to San Diego -- will likely impose mandatory water rationing soon, if they haven't already.
Three consecutive dry winters and reduced water pumping to protect dwindling fish in Northern California rivers helped create the dismal water forecast. Westside growers get water from northern rivers through canals belonging to the federally operated Central Valley Project.
And even if there is heavy rainfall in the next several weeks, Westside farmers can expect only 10 percent of the water they want. The lowest previous delivery was 25 percent during two drought years in the early 1990s.
While Friday's announcement was expected, it hit the Westlands Water District, the largest affected district, especially hard.
"This is not merely a natural disaster," said Tom Birmingham, Westlands' general manager. "It is a product of a broken water system that has been neglected for too long." Growers in the district expect to fallow more than half of the 600,000 acres in the district, forcing thousands of people out of work and triggering an economic ripple effect that could extend beyond a farmer's fields.
A University of California, Davis, study predicts that the water crisis will cause up to 75,000 people to lose their jobs and more than $2 billion will be lost from the San Joaquin Valley's economy.
Borba, who grows a variety of crops including processing tomatoes, almonds, wheat and lettuce, will idle nearly 500 acres out of more than 3,000 he farms. And as a farm manager for a Salinas grower, Borba won't plant tomatoes or cotton on 1,200 of 4,700 acres.
The Westside of Fresno County makes up 25 percent of its $5.3 billion agriculture industry. And among its largest crops is almonds, which makes up about 70,000 acres within the Westlands district.
"Here in Fresno County, water is our life it's our jobs and it's our food," said Liz Hudson, spokeswoman for the Fresno County Farm Bureau. "Without a reliable water supply, Fresno County's No. 1 employer -- agriculture -- is at great risk." In Mendota, where the unemployment rate hovers near 40 percent, workers and their families already are struggling to make ends meet.
"I have not worked in more than a month because the farmers are cutting back," said Everardo Tamayo, standing outside Westside Groceries in Mendota. "When there is no water, there is no work." Last year, Tamayo and others in this farming community traveled as far as Alaska to work in the fish canneries. The work is hard, but steady.
"If things don't get any better here, we may go back," Tamayo said. "This isn't easy for anyone." Statewide, demands for creating a more stable water supply rang out Friday. California Farm Bureau President Doug Mosebar said the state Water Resources Control Board should assure that voluntary, short-term water sales and transfers proceed quickly.
"People will be scrambling this year to find enough water to keep their crops, farms and businesses alive," Mosebar said. "If people are willing to sell water to people who want to buy it, those transactions should move without delay." Growers who are financially stable are looking at the option of buying water, while others are installing wells at a hefty price.
Westlands grower Wayne Gowens is paying $600,000 to sink a well on his Westside farm to help keep his almond trees alive. He farms about 1,700 acres.
"And this isn't even a long-term cure," Gowens said. "The salty water you get from wells is not the best for almond trees." Almond industry officials are watching the situation closely.
Dave Baker, director of member relations for the Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers, estimates that of the 216,000 almond acres along the Westside of the Valley, about 25 percent have "serious water problems. With a zero allocation the industry could be damaged substantially."
Also expected to be hurt by an absence of federal water are the hundreds of beekeepers who bring in more than 1 million bee colonies to pollinate the region's almond orchards.
A shortage of water has resulted in a declining demand for bees.
The colonies are rented to growers at a rate of about $150 a colony, a price that has also begun to tumble.
Tulare County beekeeper Steve Godlin has seen a 20 percent drop in the demand for his bees. Godlin uses his own bees and those from out of state beekeepers in Texas, Oklahoma and Texas.
"It told the guys out of state to not even bother loading their bees," Godlin said. "The deal has changed. It is a new day around here, and we are all going to have to try and get through this." Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, said state climatologists estimate there is only a 10 percent chance the snowpack will reach normal levels in what remains of the winter season.
"You've got to think about water as a precious commodity," he said. "It is relatively easy to reduce your water use by 20 percent. We need to do that now."
Our View: Keeping med school alive
No matter the state of the economy, UC Merced can't drop the ball.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/700770.html
In a tough economy, it's easy to worry so much about day-to-day survival that you forget to have vision for -- and the drive to stay with -- long-term goals.
Fortunately, key proponents of a medical school at the UC Merced are determined not to let their dream be shelved.
Earlier this month, new UC President Mark Yudof gave the green light to begin a phased approach to the Merced medical school.
This week, the Valley Coalition promoting the medical school endorsed this strategy and announced receipt of a $147,000 grant from the California Endowment.
The money will be used to reach out to residents throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Mariposa County, explaining the medical school and seeking their support for it.
Almost 300 elected officials, health care professionals and community groups have joined the coalition, which is co-chaired by Bill Lyons of Modesto and Bryn Forhan of Fresno.
Part of the outreach must include explaining the innovative concept for the medical school. It won't include a big and expensive teaching hospital built on the campus.
Rather, it's a "distributive" model, in which medical students will spend their third and fourth years learning in existing hospitals and clinics throughout the Valley.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi proposed an accelerated training schedule, in which students could earn their medical degree in as few as five or six years.
But Dr. Fred Meyers, who is leading the planning for Merced's medical school, said this week that the current plan is for a more traditional eight-year schedule: an undergraduate degree, followed by four years of medical school.
Money is the biggest obstacle to getting the medical school going, but there will be other challenges, such as balancing the Valley's dire need for practicing physicians with the UC faculty's emphasis on research.
Eventually, the plan is that an independent UC Merced medical school will have both. Whether that's by 2015 or 2020 or beyond will depend on the economy and the kind of pressure that the Valley can put on the Legislature.
So far, the med school campaign has benefited from the support and political clout of two Valley congressmen -- Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno.
They've been key in keeping the momentum alive, in part because they understand how many Valley residents can't get in to see a primary care doctor or specialist.
That makes this a life-or-death issue, and those kinds of issues don't belong on the shelf, no matter the state of the economy.
Modesto Bee
Revision to air facility plan OK'd
Issue of proposed revenue one concern...Tim Moran
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/606882.html
A revision to the preliminary redevelopment plan for the 1,528-acre Crows Landing Air Facility was unanimously approved Thursday night, despite some concerns of the West Stanislaus Fire District.
The revision incorporates changes to the plan since PCCP West Park LLC became the master developer for the project, including the addition of a proposed inland port on the former Naval air base property.
West Park is proposing a 4,800-acre business and industrial park in and around the air facility, anchored by the inland port and a short haul rail connection to the Port of Oakland. An environmental impact report is under way and is expected to be completed late this summer or early fall.
The air facility itself is proposed as a redevelopment project, where additional property tax revenue over time is reinvested in the project area. Over the 35-year life of the redevelopment project, the redevelopment project is expected to generate $31.3 million to $73.5 million, which would be used to cover some of the infrastructure and construction costs on the air facility property.
Representatives of the West Stanislaus Fire District voiced concern over whether the development would pay for the additional fire stations, equipment, staffing and operations costs needed to serve the project.
"We were not there in opposition to the project," said Fire Chief Bill Kinnear. "The fire district has concerns that a project that size needs to pay for itself and not burden the rest of our constituents with that cost."
The revenue the fire district receives from property taxes and a stipend from a benefit assessment won't pay for the fire protection needs of West Park, Kinnear said Friday.
Elements of the development will require special fire fighting resources, including the freight trains, a planned airport, and buildings higher than 30 feet, Kinnear said.
Mike Lynch, a consultant representing West Park, commented Friday that West Park developers are willing to meet with the fire district to discuss the issues.
Stanislaus County Planning Director Kirk Ford commented that the discussion may have been premature, because the issues will be addressed in the environmental impact report.
The preliminary redevelopment plan is a first step and will have to be approved by the county redevelopment agency and analyzed by the auditor and assessor and all the taxing districts affected, Ford said, including the fire district.
The environmental impact report will address any problems the project may cause and will attempt to find ways to alleviate them.
The Planning Commission also approved a gravel- and sand-mining operation on 80 acres of agricultural land on Lake Road just north of the Merced County line, northeast of Turlock Lake.
Delaney Aggregates would mine the material on an 80-acre area within a 205-acre parcel. Four extraction pits would be dug to a depth of up to 40 feet over a 10-year period. The pits would be converted to ponds and wetlands at the end of the mining operation.
Residents living just north of the site raised concerns about traffic and noise from the project. Conditions for approval of the project include putting a 20-foot-high noise abatement barrier and paying a fee of 5.5 cents per ton of material to the Department of Public Works to offset traffic impacts.
Feds to cut off farmers' water...Garance Burke, The Associated Press. The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee, the Contra Costa Times and Bee staff writer John Holland contributed to this report.
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/606887.html
SACRAMENTO -- Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven't had to take such a drastic move for more than 15 years.
The situation could improve slightly if more rain falls during the next few weeks, and officials will know by mid-March whether they can release more irrigation supplies to growers.
Farmers in the nation's No. 1 agriculture state predicted it would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which would have to be grown using expensive well water.
The restrictions are hitting hardest in the western and southern parts of the San Joaquin Valley, which rely heavily on water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
"Water is our life -- it's our jobs and it's our food," said Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the farm bureau in Fresno County. "Without a reliable water supply, Fresno County's No. 1 employer -- agriculture -- is at great risk."
The outlook is not so bad for water suppliers that have long-held rights to rivers, including the Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts. Still, these districts are watching their supplies carefully because three straight below-average winters have reduced reservoir storage.
The drought could cause an estimated $1.15 billion loss in agriculture-related wages and eliminate as many as 40,000 jobs in farm-related industries in the San Joaquin Valley alone, where most of the nation's produce and nut crops are grown, said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources.
The water shortages are so severe most cities will have to start mandatory ration programs by summertime, and residents will be asked to reduce their usage by 20 percent, Snow said.
"You've got to think about water as a precious resource," he said. "It may seem a stretch to conserve 20 percent of your water, but that's nothing in comparison to the consequences of the drought and job loss in agriculture."
California's agricultural industry typically receives 80 percent of all the water supplies managed by the federal government -- everything from far-off mountain streams to suburban reservoirs.
The state supplies drinking water to 23 million residents and 755,000 acres of irrigated farmland.
Farms supplied by flows from the state still would get 15 percent of their normal deliveries, but the combined state and federal cutbacks would leave more than 1 million acres of fields and orchards with no aboveground water supply, Snow said.
The west side of Fresno County makes up 25 percent of its $5.3 billion agriculture industry. And among its largest crops is almonds, which make up about 70,000 acres within the Westlands district.
Dave Baker, director of member relations for Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers, estimates that of the 216,000 almond acres along the west side of the valley, about 25 percent have "serious water problems."
"With a zero allocation the industry could be damaged substantially," he said.
Also expected to be hurt by an absence of federal water are the hundreds of beekeepers who bring in more than 1 million bee colonies to pollinate the region's almond orchards. The colonies are rented to growers at a rate of about $150 a colony, a price that also has begun to tumble.
The state depends on winter snow in the Sierra Nevada for much of its summer water supply, but January was one of the driest winter months on record. This year, the state and federal reservoirs have reached their lowest level since 1992.
Water for crops also was restricted by court decisions cutting back deliveries that flow through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a fresh- water estuary home to the delta smelt, a fish scientists believe is on the brink of extinction.
Dwindling supplies would have to be routed to cities to ensure residents, hospitals and fire crews have enough to meet minimum health and safety needs, said Don Glaser, the federal reclamation bureau's Mid-Pacific Region director.
Statewide, demands for creating a more stable water supply rang out Friday. California Farm Bureau President Doug Mosebar said the state Water Resources Control Board should assure that voluntary, short-term water sales and transfers proceed quickly.
"People will be scrambling this year to find enough water to keep their crops, farms and businesses alive," Mosebar said. "If people are willing to sell water to people who want to buy it, those transactions should move without delay."
Recession creates farmworker glut
Many looking for jobs turn to California farms...Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/606838.html
What a difference a bad economy makes. The collapse of the construction industry and a slump in the restaurant and food service sector have sent thousands of people back to looking for work on California farms, which not so long ago were hurting for workers.
"We have had no trouble getting workers for the winter vegetable harvest," said Jon Vessey, who farms 7,000 acres near El Centro. "There is a bigger supply of labor this year than last year or the year before." Labor experts, union officials and farmers themselves say they are seeing this happening across the state.
Before the recession, Vessey's operation was a prime example of a growing shortage of agricultural workers in the state's coastal plans and inland valleys, which had seen farmworkers leave by the thousands for better jobs in the city.
Three years ago, things were so bad that Vessey posted openings for 300 temporary workers at the state Employment Development Department in Calexico, near the Mexican border. One person showed up, and he lasted just half a day working the fields.
At the time, farm interests held up Vessey's experience as evidence of how badly the nation needed both a guest-worker program and a way for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
Whether there was a true shortage is still a matter of debate.
The lack of workers could have been due to a reluctance by farmers to raise wages enough to persuade people to do farm work, said Phil Martin, a University of California at Davis farm labor economist. "You can't talk about need or shortage without talking about wages," Martin said.
Farmers and agribusiness interests generally say they can't afford to pay much more than the minimum wage because of international competition, Martin said.
"So what happens is that people move on to higher-paying jobs," he said. "Farm labor is a job, not a career. When people have other options, they get out of farm work. Construction is a frequent first step up the job ladder," Martin said.
The lack of workers a few years ago was most acute in border areas such as the Imperial Valley and Yuma, Ariz.
"That had a lot to do with the Border Patrol ramping up sharply. If you were illegal and got across with false documents, you would get away from the border area very quickly," Martin said.
Even so, farming continued in those regions, he said. "I don't think a lack of labor ever prevented people from planting crops if they thought there was a market for what they were producing."
The recession has ended the debate for now.
"A lot of people who lost their jobs have come back into farming from the construction industry and food service," said Tom Nassif, chief executive of the Western Growers Association, whose members farm and pack about 90 percent of the produce and nuts grown in California.
California's jobless rate rose to 9.3 percent in December, and construction was one of the industries hardest hit, according to the state Employment Development Department.
Construction jobs fell 10.8 percent, or almost 93,000 jobs, from December 2007. During the same period, agriculture employment rose by 2,000 jobs, or 0.5 percent.
In the restaurant industry, the need for servers, cooks and dishwashers has declined as many chains are reporting year-over-year sales declines of 5 percent in restaurants open a year or more. As they are laid off, some of these workers head back to the farm.
Demand for workers low
Farmers also need fewer workers this year, Vessey said.
"There are less planted vegetables than we have had in the past," he said. "Farmers have cut back because of the recession and because of the drought." Growers are reluctant to plant if they aren't sure they will have enough water to grow their crops, he said.
Other farmers also report an adequate supply of workers. Bart Fisher is in the middle of harvesting about 1,500 acres of broccoli and iceberg lettuce in eastern Riverside County and said he had enough workers.
Farther north, in Yolo and Sutter counties, Charlie Hoppin is turning away workers.
"I feel bad I can't hire more," Hoppin said, adding that there was a good supply of equipment operators who had lost jobs grading housing developments and in other construction projects.
"We are also finding that the people who are working for us are more stable. There are fewer absences, and they work hard and are reliable," said Hoppin, who farms about 3,000 acres of melons, rice, wheat and corn.
Many farmers still believe that Congress needs to pass an immigration reform bill that addresses their concerns.
"The underlying problem remains unresolved, especially for Mexican citizens who work here," Fisher said.
Vessey said he was frustrated with how agriculture gets tarnished for its reliance on undocumented workers while other industries in boom times are just as reliant on the same work force.
"They just refuse to talk about it," Vessey said. "We still have a predominantly illegal work force, and we want a legal work force. We can get that through immigration reform."
Patterson Irrigator
Two years in, West Park battle continues...Ron Swift...Ron Swift is a longtime Patterson resident and the president of WS-PACE.org, a West Park opposition group. Information about the group can be found at its Web site, www.ws-pace.org....HisVoice
http://pattersonirrigator.com/content/view/2946/41/
All may be quiet — but certainly not dead — in the continuing battle over West Park.
The proposed 4,800-acre industrial park to the immediate south of Patterson is currently in the paperwork phase. As early as this coming summer, the environmental impact report will enter its review stage. It is being prepared by developer Gerry Kamilos’ consultants, who by state law must follow guidelines set forth in the California Environmental Quality Act.
The battle is now two years old. It was in February 2007 that the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors chose PCCP West Park LLC over another developer to proceed with plans for the huge project. The county owns the 1,527-acre former Navy base, and the West Park plan calls for an additional 3,300 acres of surrounding farmland to be included in the development.
Two years ago this May, a citizens’ group based in Patterson was formed by a couple dozen people, and it drafted a set of bylaws, elected officers and grew to more than 1,250 members.
WS-PACE.org has continued to monitor plans for the proposal as they have become available, hired a consultant well-versed in environmentally challenged projects and has retained a law firm experienced in this specialty. To date, we’ve raised nearly $50,000 to fight the battle. Some people are angry, as proved by their giving.
Our stands have been consistent from day one:
We favor industrial development of only the original Crows Landing Air Facility — 1,527 acres, or some 2.5 square miles. That could well provide 10,000 jobs. But not 4,800 acres. Enough is enough.
We feel that all other industrial development in Stanislaus County should be directed to the cities.  Patterson currently has nearly 500 acres of open land with appropriate zoning on its west side, and the city of Turlock has 1,900 acres ready for development.
Those who claim we are anti-jobs or anti-growth simply have not been paying attention. Even with 1,527 acres developed, the housing growth pressure would have a major impact on next door Patterson.
We believe prime agricultural land should remain in food production. Anything that diverges from that objective will be proven wrong in future generations, according to food production specialists. Think about it.
We object strongly to having any part of the publicly owned property utilized as a rail terminus. Call it what you will — a second Port of Oakland or inter-modal facility — it would become an ugly industrial blight on our West Side. Picture a huge rail yard with freight cars, giant cranes for the unloading of cargo containers, gigantically tall warehouses, and long lines of truck rigs spewing bad air. We don’t need it.
The argument that West Park would remove truck traffic from the Altamont and thus improve our air quality is a bogus one. That traffic would simply be diverted to our backyard, and with it the resulting air quality problems inherent in vehicle and rail shipment. Just ask the residents near the Port of Oakland, who have been battling the port for years over major health issues.
Readers may be also aware that last fall the California Transportation Commission approved $22 million in state bond funding for rail improvements that would allow hauling of cargo containers to the West Park site. We objected then — and still object — to the spending of your money and mine for this privately owned development.
If the West Park project were financially viable, it would be even more so in western San Joaquin County on less expensive and more easily accessible land. It would certainly save $22 million of the taxpayers’ money.
Now comes the wait for the proposed EIR. The developer must follow CEQA guidelines that are written into law when he outlines the scope of his project and its impacts on this area.
His plans for ag land mitigation, water sources, air quality, transportation issues and many others, including the impact of global warming, must be addressed in the EIR. Many are anxiously awaiting that process, and WS-PACE.org will give the report a hard and challenging look.
Who will have the final say on the EIR? That will be our county Board of Supervisors.
Putting a 7.5-square-mile industrial development just two miles from Patterson’s southern border should not have been an option for our county leaders. They made a mistake — a big one — and it’s unfortunate that we must call them on it.
But that we shall do, because to do otherwise would be disastrous for this side of the county. No matter what happens at the county level, WS-PACE.org will continue to represent the interests of the West Side throughout the EIR process.
Fresno Bee
Wal-Mart and Plaintiffs' Counsel Announce Settlement of Transportation Case
Carney, Williams, Bates, Bozeman & Pulliam, PLLC...Press Release
http://www.fresnobee.com/556/v-print/story/1213246.html
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ On January 22, 2009, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and attorneys representing the Plaintiffs entered into an agreement to settle the claims asserted in a class action lawsuit entitled Daryal Nelson and Tommy Armstrong v. Wal-Mart, Inc. and Wal-Mart Transportation LLC, which is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. In the lawsuit, the Plaintiffs asserted that Wal-Mart had discriminated against African Americans on the basis of race in recruitment and hiring for the position of over-the road truck driver in Wal-Mart's private fleet. Wal-Mart denied that it engaged in any policy or pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination, or other unlawful conduct. The settlement is subject to approval by the court, and earlier today, the attorneys for the Plaintiffs submitted the formal settlement documents to the court with a request for approval.
"Resolving this litigation is in the best interest of our company, our shareholders and our associates," said Daphne Moore, spokesperson for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. "Encouraging diversity is an important part of the hiring process for all areas of our company. We are implementing improvements to our transportation division's recruitment, selection and personnel systems and believe they will be an integral part of our commitment to diversity."
Under the agreement, Wal-Mart will pay $17.5 million. Also, Wal-Mart's Logistics Division has agreed to (a) provide priority job placements to 23 of the class members who submit approved claim forms, (b) provide direct notice of all future job opportunities to all interested class members, (c) establish benchmark hiring goals so that the composition of future hires, by race, is proportionate to the racial composition of the applicants, (d) select a diversity recruiter, and (e) enhance its recruitment efforts and advertising targeted to African-Americans.
"We are very pleased with the settlement," said Hank Bates, with the law firm of Carney, Williams, Bates, Bozeman & Pulliam, PLLC, an attorney representing the class of African-American truck drivers. "This is an excellent result for the class both in terms of the 17.5 million dollars in monetary relief and in terms of Wal-Mart's commitments to job placements, equal opportunity and enhanced recruitment efforts moving forward."
About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Walmart discount stores, supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club locations in the United States. The Company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom and, through a joint venture, in India. The Company's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT. More information about Wal-Mart can be found by visiting www.walmartstores.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com.
The class is represented by Hank Bates of the law firm Carney, Williams, Bates, Bozeman & Pulliam (www.carneywilliams.com), Morgan E. "Chip" Welch of Welch & Kitchens (www.welchandkitchens.com), and John W. Walker of John W. Walker, P.A., all located in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Small Oregon bank becomes 14th bank to fail in `09…MADLEN READ - AP Business Writer
http://www.fresnobee.com/559/v-print/story/1213530.html
NEW YORK Regulators on Friday closed Silver Falls Bank in Silverton, Ore. - the 14th federally insured institution to fail this year, and the second based in Oregon.
Silver Falls Bank, a community bank that opened in May 2000, had $131.4 million in assets and $116.3 million in deposits as of Feb. 9. The last Oregon-based bank to close was Beaverton-based Pinnacle Bank last week.
Citizens Bank of Corvallis, Ore., is assuming Silver Falls Bank's deposits. It also is taking over its three branches and buying about $13 million in assets, including cash, securities and overdraft loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., appointed receiver of Silver Falls Bank, will retain the bank's remaining assets.
The FDIC estimated that the cost of Silver Falls Bank's failure to the federal deposit insurance fund will be $50 million.
Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $250,000.
The bank failure wave began last year, when 25 U.S. banks were seized by regulators - more than in the previous five years combined. As home prices plunge and layoffs escalate, banks have seen loan defaults soar. And the trend has only been worsening as the recession deepens.
The FDIC has estimated that through 2013, the deposit insurance fund will lose as much as $40 billion, including an $8.9 billion loss from the failure of IndyMac Bank last July. To replenish the fund - which now stands at a five-year low of about $35 billion - the agency has raised the insurance premiums banks and thrifts must pay.
Of the roughly 8,500 federally insured banks and thrifts, the FDIC had 171 on its confidential list of troubled institutions as of Sept. 30. That was a nearly 50 percent jump from the second quarter and the highest tally since late 1995.
Sacramento Bee
California urges all to cut water use by 20 percent...Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/v-print/story/1641720.html
State water officials sent out an urgent call Friday to all Californians, urging an immediate 20 percent cut in water use to ease a drought that could be the next serious hit to California's economy.
The conservation plea came as state and federal water managers announced delivery forecasts that, combined, are the worst ever in the state.
Results in the farm sector alone could include higher food prices and severe unemployment as thousands of acres are fallowed.
"Bottom line: This is going to be a tough year for us," said Donald Glaser, regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, manager of the federal water system in California
There's a glimmer of hope in rain and snow forecast for next week. Yet, on Friday, Glaser told farmers served by the federal Central Valley Project they will get no water this year. This includes customers in the Sacramento Valley because Shasta reservoir, the state's largest, is only 35 percent full.
Officials aimed a warning at those who thought recent storms broke the drought:
California is already deep into a third year of drought, with little of winter left to make up ground.
"These storms have been great, but they have done nothing to alleviate the drought," said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
"You've got to think about water as a precious commodity," he added. "It is relatively easy to reduce your water use by 20 percent. We need to do that now."
The State Water Project, which serves some 23 million California residents, also warned customers Friday they will get only 15 percent of normal deliveries.
In response to the dire water forecasts, the city of Roseville on Friday imposed a 20 percent conservation order for all customers. Folsom and the San Juan Water District will soon do the same.
A drought emergency declared by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year remains in effect. If anything, the emergency has only grown. There are plenty of grim numbers to tell the tale:
• January, normally California's wettest month, produced only 31.8 percent of normal precipitation statewide this year.
• Water officials say without more storms, runoff from the snowpack will be only 57 percent of average – far from enough to refill reservoirs.
• With little time left in winter, state climatologists estimate there's only a 10 percent chance the snowpack will return to "normal" conditions.
Adding concern is California's population, which has grown by more than 9 million since the last major drought in 1992. Farmers also have converted more than 500,000 acres to permanent crops like orchards and vineyards, which can't be fallowed.
"We've had a much greater demand component come on board," said Mark Svoboda, climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska, who will visit Woodland on Thursday to host a drought seminar for farmers.
"We don't have any margin for buffering this," he said. "It's a sleeping giant, just waiting to come out of dormancy if we do not get rain and snow over the next one or two months."
Many farmers will attempt to tap groundwater. But water tables are already low after heavy pumping last year. Some are trying to buy water from other farmers, trading that's driving up water prices.
Most will have to take land out of production and slash planting of low-value crops like cotton.
Richard Howitt, economist at UC Davis, estimates about 850,000 acres will go unplanted this year – about 12 percent of irrigated farmland in the Central Valley. This could put 40,000 people out of work.
Mark Borba, who farms 8,500 acres in Fresno County, will leave about 20 percent of his land unplanted. He's reduced wheat and lettuce crops and plans to abandon cotton altogether. He's focusing on keeping his almond trees alive and growing processing tomatoes, which are fetching a good price this year.
Borba is also considering layoffs in his staff of 47 full-time and 135 part-time workers.
"The writing is now on the wall," he said.
Land fallowing and smaller harvests are likely to push food prices higher, said Jim Prevor, editor of Produce Business magazine. But he said farmers elsewhere in the country – and internationally – are likely to take up much of the slack.
"For months now, the whole industry has been gearing toward the expectation that there is not going to be enough water in California," Prevor said.
Lester Snow at the Department of Water Resources said he expects all urban water agencies to begin imposing mandatory rationing within 60 days. Many have done so already, including most of the state's large urban areas.
In the Sacramento region, agencies affected by Friday's news include those that depend on Folsom Lake, managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. In addition to its agricultural forecast, the bureau told urban customers they would get just 50 percent of normal water deliveries.
Roseville ordered residents to cut use 20 percent. Commercial customers must reduce landscape irrigation 30 percent. Increased water-waste patrols will ensure compliance.
The San Juan Water District sells Folsom Lake water to neighboring Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks and Orangevale. It will soon require all customers to trim use by 20 percent.
"People should not be irrigating now," said Shauna Lorance, district general manager. "Save the water for later."
The city of Folsom will also set a mandatory 20 percent conservation target as part of a "Stage Three" water warning within the next week or two.
The city of Sacramento has among the state's most stable water supplies and has not announced any rationing steps. But a workshop on water conservation is planned for the City Council on Tuesday.
Also threatened by the drought are water flows needed to protect aquatic habitat and endangered species.
Low levels in reservoirs will force water rationing in California...PAUL ROGERS, San Jose Mercury News
http://www.sacbee.com/702/story/1641779.html
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It's been nice. But not enough.
The heavy rains of the past few weeks didn't end the drought. And for the first time in 18 years, mandatory summertime water rationing is all but certain for Silicon Valley.
On Friday, the federal government announced that water levels at major reservoirs across Northern California are still so low that cities - from San Jose to Los Angeles - that receive water from San Francisco Bay's delta should only expect 50 percent of the water this summer that they are contracted to receive.
Worse, farmers were told they may well receive no federal water at all, a decision that will trigger tens of thousands of job losses, fallowed fields and bulldozed orchards across the Central Valley.
"Bottom line: This is going to be a tough year," said Donald Glaser, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau operates the Central Valley Project, a massive network of dams, canals and pumps that moves water between Northern and Southern California.
Because of public health concerns, farmers usually receive more drastic water cutbacks than cities during droughts. But urban residents also will feel the impact.
"We would expect almost all of the major communities in California to go to some form of mandatory conservation this summer," said Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources.
"California remains in a very severe drought condition," he added. "The storms that we have had have been great. But they have done nothing to alleviate the drought conditions in the state."
This is the first time since 1991, when the last major drought ended, that so little federal water has been available from the delta. The Santa Clara Valley Water District, which provides water to 1.8 million people in Santa Clara County, Calif., is scheduled to decide March 24 whether to impose mandatory rationing.
The district's board members are considering either a 10 percent or 20 percent cutback, depending on the weather over the next month, said Susan Siravo, a spokeswoman for the district.
Santa Clara County depends on the delta for half of its water, with the other half coming from local groundwater pumping.
"Even if we are getting a lot of local rain, we still need the imported water to supplement it," said Siravo, who called the federal decision "a big hit."
There's no way to say precisely how much more rain Northern California needs to prevent rationing. The summer water picture depends on a complex series of issues, from when the rain falls, to where it falls, to even when endangered fish, like salmon and smelt, are swimming in front of giant delta pumps.
But chances are slim that more rain - including the storm expected this weekend - will bring enough water to make up for three dry years.
Friday's decision was solely based on rain patterns, and not the restrictions placed to protect the endangered fish, Glaser said.
The problem so far is that most of the recent rain has seeped into the dry ground and not run off into reservoirs in significant quantities.
Northern California's five largest federal reservoirs were 35 percent full Jan. 27. After the recent heavy rains, they are now 38 percent full - far short of the 15-year average of 72 percent for this time of year.
In San Jose, the increased rainfall in recent weeks has been dramatic.
On Feb. 1, San Jose had received 4.06 inches of rain for the season, just 51 percent of normal. But in the three weeks after that, an additional 5.18 inches fell, giving the city a total of 9.24 inches now, or 93 percent of normal.
Still, with the reduction in delta water, the Santa Clara Valley Water District will be forced to pump its substantial groundwater basins at a greater rate this summer, Siravo said.
If the district imposes minimal rationing, everyone from homes to businesses to farms will receive 10 percent less. That puts farmers in Santa Clara County in much better shape than their counterparts in the Central Valley, who rely much more heavily on delta water.
"We benefit from a very high water table," said Pete Aiello of Uesugi Farms in Gilroy, Calif., which grows bell peppers, strawberries and other row crops.
"There are a lot of folks here who can survive on their own wells. In the Central Valley, everything on the west side, from Bakersfield to Tracy, those guys are getting hit the hardest."
Farmers use about 80 percent of the water that California residents consume each year. The lack of delta water this year has many farmers in places like Fresno, Merced and Kings counties frantically drilling deeper wells. They are also firing farmhands and taking row crops like cotton, tomatoes and lettuce out of production.
"Farmers in the Westlands Water District have already begun destroying thousands of acres of almond orchards and plan on fallowing over 300,000 acres of land," said Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District in Fresno, the largest recipient of federal water from the delta.
"There is no question that many years worth of investments will be lost."
If large amounts of rain fall in March and April, federal officials might release more water. But they said Friday that there's only about a 10 percent chance it will rain enough to release normal amounts.
Many Silicon Valley residents understand the state's water problems, said Rebecca Schoenenberger, manager of Middlebrook Gardens, a nursery near downtown San Jose. People have been buying drought-tolerant plants and ordering rain barrels to catch water from their gutters to irrigate plants.
"Our customers are aware of what's going on," she said. "They realize we're going into more of a drought season than coming out of one."
Capital Press
Small farmers irked by water cutback...Tim Hearden
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=94&SubSectionID=801&ArticleID=49026&TM=46843.45
REDDING, Calf. - A room full of men and women who raise fruit, hay, cows and other commodities awaited U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials Friday who were to announce federal water cutbacks in California.
And though some of them were from the tiny Northern California community of Happy Valley, none of them were very happy.
"You're causing a catastrophe here," Johanna Trenerry told bureau officials at the meeting in Redding on Friday, Feb. 20, moments after they announced that Central Valley Project contractors may get no water for agriculture this year because of the drought.
"It's interesting that (wildlife) refuges get 75 percent and farmers get nothing," said Trenerry, who grows fruit in western Shasta County. "How are we supposed to feed the nation? How much food comes out of California?
The Happy Valley farmers were joined by those from Bella Vista, a rural community in the rolling hills east of Redding. They all had two things in common: They grow their goods on small-acreage plots, and they're served by two of the scores of small water districts in California that contract for federal water.
Previous cutbacks have made it tough for small farms to survive, asserted Arnold Wilhelmi, a retired schoolteacher who grows fruit in Bella Vista. In the past dozen years, the number of agricultural users in his area has dwindled from 6,000 to about 270, he said.
With the allocations announced Friday, farmers' land will go dry while swimming pools in Southern California will still get their water, he said.
"I think what's happening is homes and people who live in lot-sized dwellings are going to take priority over agriculture," Wilhelmi said.
Helen Stephenson, who has an orchard in Bella Vista, agreed.
"We feel we've cut back," she said. "We've really tried because as farmers we understand . . . The cities need to be impressed. We need to explain to them the importance of letting some of those lawns go."
The farmers were also upset that wildlife refuges are slated to get at least 75 percent of their normal allocations, while cities could get 50 percent to 60 percent depending on water runoff levels. One farmer asked whether Congress could be persuaded to waive the water requirements for refuges outlined in the Central Valley Project Improvement Act.
Don Glaser, the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region director, said such a reprieve is unlikely. He said Congress turned back proposals to waive parts of the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act under the recently approved stimulus bill, and that it refused to loosen environmental standards even for rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Sharon Brandon, who runs cows in Palo Cedro, near Redding, would like a reprieve to come from somewhere.
"Now we're paying $10 to $18 a bail for hay. How long can people afford to pay that," she said. "And if I can't produce manure, he (Wilhelmi) can't fertilize his trees."
Stockton Record
Farmers sue S.J., Stockton over water...The Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090221/A_NEWS/902210330
STOCKTON - A group of farmers and water users in the south San Joaquin Valley filed suit against Stockton and the county Friday, claiming storm- water runoff from the urban area is harming the Delta.
The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, whose members receive water pumped from the estuary, said last summer that it intended to file such a lawsuit.
The lawsuit is part of an ongoing effort to pinpoint causes for the Delta's decline other than the state and federal export pumps near Tracy. The coalition has also filed suit against the state Department of Fish and Game, alleging that nonnative striped bass in the Delta eat smelt; the coalition has also threatened to sue the Mirant power plants in Pittsburgh and Antioch, alleging that they, too, kill fish.
In its latest action filed in federal court, the coalition says untreated stormwater gushing off Stockton streets contains heavy metals and chemicals toxic for fish, in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
An unrelated lawsuit filed by environmentalists against the city is still pending; that lawsuit says the city has polluted the Delta through sewage spills and overflows.
John Luebberke, Stockton assistant city attorney, said he had not yet seen Friday's complaint and could not comment.
Water blow for Valley farmers
Conditions dire for those on land south of Tracy...Staff and wire reports
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090221/A_NEWS/902210327
SACRAMENTO - The hammer fell Friday for San Joaquin Valley farmers south of Tracy as federal officials announced they will have little water - or perhaps none - to deliver this year.
The news was expected but unwelcome.
"Our water reliability has hit rock bottom," California Farm Bureau Federation President Doug Mosebar said in a statement.
The allocation by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is based on Feb. 1 runoff and does not include recent storms. It may very well increase next month.
Also Friday, the state Department of Water Resources said it cannot increase the amount of Delta water it expects to deliver to cities from the East Bay to San Diego. That number is a paltry 15 percent.
Most of San Joaquin County does not rely on state or federal water from the Delta, and thus is in better shape than other portions of California.
However, Friday's announcement does mean Tracy's share of federal water from the pumps will likely be slashed, perhaps by half. The city has groundwater and another water contract that will help see it through.
Also, the Stockton East Water District, which feeds eastside farms and the city, is not projected to receive any water from New Melones Lake this year. This will increase dependence on groundwater and the Calaveras River.
Impacts are greater to the south. The drought will cause an estimated $1.15 billion loss in agriculture-related wages and eliminate as many as 40,000 jobs in farm-related industries in the Valley alone, where most of the nation's produce and nut crops are grown, said Water Resources Director Lester Snow.
California's agricultural industry typically receives 80 percent of all the water supplies managed by the federal government - everything from far-off mountain streams to suburban reservoirs. The state, in turn, supplies drinking water to 23 million Californians and 755,000 acres of irrigated farmland.
The water shortages are so severe that most cities will have to start up mandatory rationing programs by summertime, and all Californians will be asked to reduce the amount of water they use by 20 percent, Snow said.
"You've got to think about water as a precious resource," Snow said. "It may seem a stretch to conserve 20 percent of your water, but that's nothing in comparison to the consequences of the drought and job loss in agriculture."
Manteca Bulletin
Hopes dry up: Tight water year is here...Dennis Wyatt
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/1605/
There’s a silver lining in the dry cumulus clouds that have passed over the South County during the past year – the foresight of the founders of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District.
Many California farmers are plowing under crops and tearing out orchards while mandatory water rationing is in effect in a number of urban areas as the state reels under the news Friday that the Central Valley Water Project is reducing water deliveries to zero for farm users for the start of March while drastically cutting back urban customers. That, however, isn’t the case in SSJID territory.
General Manager Jeff Shields believes with aggressive management and everyone working in unison to watch water use from SSJID ditch tenders and farmers to urban users the South County will survive the third year of the drought.
The SSJID board has taken steps to stretch the district’s water supplies. They include:
•Keeping Woodward Reservoir at 190 feet – the level it is at now – to drastically reduce seepage and evaporation loses.
•Institute an aggressive monitoring system to go after those illegally taking water from SSJID canals.
•Implementing tightly controlled irrigation runs to eliminate spillage that will vary depending upon soil type of farms being served.
•Asking Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy – three cities that secure treated surface water from SSJID sources – to tighten up and aggressively enforce water conservation measures.
The Bureau of Reclamation made it official what water managers up and down the state had feared – there will be no deliveries of water from the federal dam system to agricultural users at least for the first two weeks of March. The State Water Project is slashing deliveries to 15 percent.
The storm that just passed and two more predicted in the coming weeks can’t reverse the accumulative impact of a third consecutive year of drought coupled with the driest January on effort in terms of Sierra snowfall.
The Bureau’s announcement Friday verified what the SSJID has been projecting since mid-January – there is an estimated run-off of only 360,000 acre feet at the moment. Due to senior water rights established a century ago this spring on the Stanislaus River water shed, SSJID and Oakdale Irrigation District equally share the first 600,000 acre feet of inflow. And although ultimately there may be slightly more water than that to run into New Melones Reservoir this spring,  there will be no water deliveries for Stanislaus River contractors for the Central Valley Project’s Eastside Division.
New Melones as of Friday morning had 1,183,026 acre feet. The reservoir has a capacity of 2,419,523 acre feet.
It is perhaps appropriate that this May in the middle of a third year of drought that SSJID is celebrating its 100th anniversary of securing senior water rights on the Stanislaus watershed and forming the district to bring prosperity via agriculture to the South County.
The building of Goodwin Dam on the Stanislaus River above Knights Ferry in 1913 and the completion of irrigation canals triggered the rapid spread of farming and prosperity around Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon. As agricultural growth taxed the young SSJID system, the Woodward Reservoir storage facility was added in 1916.
Those two improvements, though, weren’t enough though when drought hit in 1924. Voters in 1924 eagerly approved bonds for the Melones Dam. The dam was completed in 1926 and was credited with adding $700,000 in annual crop production (1926 numbers) to the South County region. The Melones Dam also was responsible for avoiding a repeat of 1924 twice when dry years produced little rain or snow.
The Tri-Dam Project on the Stanislaus River – a partnership with Oakdale Irrigation District – in 1955 added additional water resources. The Bureau of Reclamation eventually replaced Melones Dam with New Melones while SSJID and OID continued to have water rights secured by the original dam.
SSJID weathered the drought of 1977 and again in 1982 providing virtually full deliveries. The SSJID expected to do the same thing this water year with aggressive conservation measures and water management.
San Francisco Chronicle
4 seized in protests of alleged animal abuse...Matthew B. Stannard
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/21/BAJQ161V3D.DTL&type=printable
(02-20) 17:45 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Four people have been arrested for allegedly harassing and threatening scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz for their use of animals in research, the FBI reported Friday.
According to a criminal complaint filed in San Francisco on Thursday, the four are part of a larger group of protesters who targeted researchers at their homes. The complaint asserts that the protesters wore masks and chanted slogans such as "You're a murderer" and "What goes around comes around" in hours-long protests at nine researchers' homes.
Federal agents identified the four as Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach; Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside (San Diego County); Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley; and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole.
Among the more serious allegations in the complaint describes an event in February 2008, in which protesters at a researcher's home in Santa Cruz banged on doors and shook the front door handle. When the researcher's husband opened the door to confront the protesters, he was struck by an object, according to the complaint, after which the group fled in a vehicle.
The car the protesters used to leave that incident belonged to Khajavi's mother, according to the federal agents. That led police to search Khajavi's home on Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz, where they also found Pope and Stumpo. The searchers found several bandanas carrying DNA from Khajavi, Pope and Stumpo, a bullhorn and notes with researchers' personal information, according to the complaint.
In July, the complaint claims, Buddenberg and Pope were part of a group videotaped at a cafe leaving flyers containing researchers' home addresses and the message: "Animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live."
The researchers' information in the flyers had been downloaded two days earlier from a Kinko's in Santa Cruz , according to the complaint, and Pope and Stumpo were videotaped using the rented terminal used to access that information.
In a press release, the FBI noted that a few days after the flyers were distributed, two UC Santa Cruz researchers' homes were firebombed. Those attacks remain under investigation. The four arrested Thursday are not currently charged in connection with those attacks, and investigators declined to discuss any possible link between them.
Contact information for the defendants, their family or attorneys was not immediately available.
In a July article for the Berkeley Daily Planet, Buddenberg described himself as an activist who had participated in protests by Stop Cal Vivisection, a group that had maintained a Web site listing the home addresses of several researchers. The site has since been removed and replaced with a message opposing "intimidatory home demonstrations" as a tactic in the animal rights movement.
Stumpo also appears to be involved in animal rights activism, with a posting on a Web site opposed to the research company Huntingdon Life Sciences , calling the company "the modern day Holocaust for animals."
Pope, who reportedly uses the surname Knoerl, was arrested once before during the harassment investigation, and charged with perjury. He later pleaded no contest to providing false information to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Although Buddenberg described his activism as legal, the FBI alleges he and the others arrested violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. That federal statute criminalizes interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise through force, violence or threats while placing a person in a "reasonable fear" of death or serious bodily injury. The act carries a possible penalty of up to five years in prison.
The complaint said the targeted researchers told investigators they were "terrified" by the incidents.
"We had a family that was attacked in their home. That's the key here," said Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry. "That's a case that no matter how long it takes, we'll stay with."
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said, "We hope that the arrest of these suspects will send a clear and powerful signal to extremists who continue to engage in dangerous and illegal actions against university researchers who seek only to advance knowledge and understanding."
FBI: 4 animal activists arrested over UC incidents...MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/20/state/n154210S86.DTL&type=printable
(02-20) 17:51 PST San Francisco, CA (AP) -- Four animal rights activists connected to incidents targeting University of California biomedical researchers at their homes have been arrested, federal authorities said Friday.
The FBI arrested the four on suspicion of violating the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act for allegedly using force, violence or threats to interfere with animal research.
Members of the San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force on Friday arrested Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole, and Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley, in Oakland.
Federal agents arrested Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside, and Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach, on Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., as they returned to the US from Costa Rica.
"It is inexcusable and cowardly for these people to resort to terrorizing the families of those with whom they do not agree," said Special Agent Charlene Thornton, head of the FBI's San Francisco field office, in a statement.
Authorities said they did not know whether the four had attorneys.
Investigators accused Pope, Stumpo and Khajavi of being among a group masked with bandanas who tried to break into a UC Santa Cruz breast cancer researcher's home last February.
When the researcher's husband confronted the group after they tried to force open the front door, he was "hit with a dark, firm object," said Special Agent Lisa Shaffer in a sworn affidavit filed in federal court Thursday.
A lab analysis matched DNA on bandanas seized from the car in which the group fled the house to Khajavi, Pope and Stumpo, Shaffer said.
In another incident, video surveillance connected Pope and Buddenberg to flyers found at a Santa Cruz cafe in late July listing the home addresses and phone numbers of 13 UC Santa Cruz researchers, according to the affidavit.
Separate video footage showed Pope and Stumpo using a computer at a Santa Cruz Kinko's two days earlier to look up information on the researchers, investigators said.
Among the 13 listed in the flyer was the researcher whose husband was assaulted in February, which "caused her to fear she would be attacked again," Shaffer said.
Under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, any effort to interfere with animal research that makes researchers or their families fear for their safety can be punished with up to five years in prison.
Shortly after the flyers were found, the home of a UC Santa Cruz scientist who works with mice was firebombed, and the car of another researcher was torched. The FBI has not connected the four to those attacks.
All four also are accused of participating in a series of roving protests at the homes of several UC Berkeley scientists. During the protests, masked activists called researchers murderers, chalked slogans on sidewalks in front of their homes and in at least one instance trespassed on a professor's property and rang his doorbell. The FBI called the protests "threatening incidents."
Khajavi and Buddenberg have been released on bond pending their next court appearances, said FBI spokeswoman Patti Hansen. Pope and Stumpo will be extradited to California from North Carolina to face charges, authorities said.
Los Angeles Times
U.S. to tighten tap for farmers
Central Valley prepares for hard times with smaller crops and fewer jobs. Some urge state intervention...Ari B. Bloomekatz
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water21-2009feb21,0,3888580,print.story
In a blow to the state's producers of almonds and other crops, federal officials announced Friday that they may not be able to provide water for the upcoming growing season in parts of the Central Valley.
To cope with the continuing drought, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will not provide water for agriculture beginning in March to at least 200 local water districts in that region, agency spokeswoman Lynnette Wirth said. Municipalities and industrial customers will receive half of their allotments.
"This year is on the heels of two previous critically dry years, and this is the third year in a row," Wirth said, adding that the last time the bureau faced such a shortfall was in 1992.
Also on Friday, the California Department of Water Resources projected that it would be able to allocate only 15% of what its contractors -- including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California -- have sought.
Matt Notley, a spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, said most of its supply is used by cities and towns but there would be enough water to meet health and safety needs.
Still, Notley said, cities "should already have a plan in place" that may include mandatory rationing to deal with the shortage, and that Californians may be asked to reduce their water use by as much as 20%.
In parts of the Central Valley, farmers are preparing for tough times.
"We're hoping we can squeak by," said Chuck Dees, an irrigation specialist and farmer at S&S Ranch, a 14,000-acre spread known for its broccoli, cantaloupes, sweet corn and bell peppers about 40 miles west of Fresno.
Dees said the ranch began preparing for a severe drought and a water crisis about 10 years ago and installed 50 miles of pipeline to carry water from 14 wells.
In a good year, the ranch receives about 30,000 acre-feet of water.
"If we get 5,000 acre-feet, we'll be tickled to death," he said.
In order to cope, S&S Ranch managers are choosing not to grow crops on at least 2,000 acres and will hire only about 60% of the roughly 2,000 people they employ in a good year.
"There's some people that are not as in good a shape as we are. But if this goes on year after year, there's going to be some real bad problems," Dees said.
In Mendota, about eight miles east of the ranch, unemployment "has soared to 40%" mostly because of the drought, Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, said in a statement.
"Farmers in the Westlands Water District have already begun destroying thousands of acres of almond orchards and plan on fallowing over 300,000 acres of land. Wherever possible, almond production will be stunted in hopes of keeping the trees alive through this desperate time," Birmingham said.
Friday's announcement was the federal agency's water allocation projection for 2009, and Wirth said officials were hopeful that allocations could be increased if there is more precipitation.
Paul Wenger, vice president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, described the federal announcement as "very dire" and said the Legislature needed to take immediate steps to help solve the crisis, such as facilitating faster transfers of water between farmers.
"If this continues for the next foreseeable future, it's going to be catastrophic for the Central Valley," he said.
Wenger, a third-generation farmer who owns 400 acres in Modesto devoted to almonds and walnuts, said many growers will have to make tough decisions about which crops to grow.
Some will probably decide to let their older orchards, between 20 and 25 years old, die down in favor of younger trees and vines. Others may stay away from growing tomatoes, he said. "It just puts a sick feeling in your stomach," Wenger said. "We've got the land to do it, we've got the technology to do it, but we need water."
Four animal activists arrested for allegedly harassing UC researchers
The arrests are a breakthrough in the investigation of attacks against a number of University of California animal researchers that have long frustrated police and school officials...Richard C. Paddock
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-animal-activists21-2009feb21,0,2024945,print.story
Reporting from San Francisco — Four animal activists have been arrested for their alleged roles in attacking and harassing animal researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz over the last 18 months, the FBI announced Friday.
The arrests are a breakthrough in the investigation of attacks against a number of University of California animal researchers that have long frustrated police and school officials. None of the suspects, however, was charged with participating in the most serious violence against UC scientists, including the firebombing of the homes of researchers at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz.
Extremists' attacks at the three UC campuses have been intended to halt researchers' use of animals in experiments, according to a website that advocates violent action to protect lab animals. UC officials defend their researchers, arguing that the use of animals in experiments is carefully regulated and essential to advancing medical science.
"With so many legal options to make their voices heard and to effect policy change, it is inexcusable and cowardly for these people to resort to terrorizing the families of those with whom they do not agree," said Charlene B. Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office.
The FBI identified the four suspects as Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach, Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside, Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole.
Pope and Stumpo were arrested Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., as they returned to the United States from Costa Rica. Buddenberg and Khajavi were arrested Friday in Oakland.
Pope, Stumpo and Khajavi were accused of being among a group of protesters who attempted to force their way into a UC Santa Cruz professor's home during a children's birthday party last February.
When the professor's husband opened the door, he was hit by an object, authorities say.
Pope, Stumpo and Buddenberg are charged with publishing the names and addresses of several UC Santa Cruz scientists in July in a flier that read: "animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live we know where you work we will never back down until you end your abuse."
Soon after, the homes of two researchers on the list were firebombed. Those incidents remain under investigation.
Jim Burns, a UC Santa Cruz spokesman, praised the FBI and the Santa Cruz Police Department for their part in pursuing and arresting the four.
"Their persistence these many months speaks to the seriousness of the threat against our researchers whose work is shedding light on diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's," Burns said.
The FBI alleges that Pope, Stumpo and Buddenberg also were among a group of about 20 activists who harassed a UC Berkeley professor at his home in El Cerrito in October 2007. The group, some wearing bandannas to hide their faces, trespassed in his yard and accused him of being a murderer because of his research.
The FBI accused all four suspects of being among 11 protesters who harassed several UC Berkeley researchers during demonstrations at their homes during the course of a single day in January 2008.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the university in recent years has been plagued by activists harassing researchers at their homes, labs and around campus. Police documented 158 such incidents between August 2007 and December 2008, he said.
"We find that intolerable and abhorrent," Mogulof said. "We hope that the arrest of these suspects will send a clear and powerful signal to extremists who continue to engage in dangerous and illegal actions against university researchers."
The federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act provides for up to five years in prison for interfering with an animal enterprise through harassment, vandalism, criminal trespass, threats or intimidation.
Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry also praised the arrests.
"This sends a strong message that our community won't tolerate this type of senseless violence," he said. "You have absolutely no right to attack a family in the sanctity of their home."
The Press-Enterprise
Central Valley farmers told no water will be delivered this year...Janet Zimmerman
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_
farmwater21.45ec2d5.html
Many farmers in the state's agricultural heartland will get zero water allocations this year because of drought, a problem that will likely spur more fallowed and abandoned fields, tens of thousands of job losses and higher food prices, officials said Friday.
It is the first time the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation expects to provide no water to its agricultural customers in the San Joaquin Valley, said Donald Glaser, regional director of the bureau's mid-Pacific region. The allocation can be re-evaluated and increased if the state has a very wet spring, but that is not expected to happen.
Last year's allocation was 40 percent. The previous low, during the last drought in the early 1990s, was 25 percent. The growing region, which includes Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield, produces a quarter of the nation's food supply.
"There will be as much as a million acres of land in the Central Valley that will not receive water," Glaser said at a news conference in Sacramento. "This is going to be a tough year."
Farmers will cut back on production, which "is going to have a ripple affect through the economy. Food's going to go up, they don't need as much labor, they don't need as many supplies, fuel, tractors, trucking, boxes, pallets," said Steve Pastor, executive director of the Riverside County Farm Bureau.
California's agriculture is a $36.6 billion a year industry.
Richard Howitt, chairman of the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, has said water deliveries of 15 percent of full allocation could cause the loss of 40,000 jobs in California and $1.15 billion in farm and related income.
The Bureau of Reclamation administers the Central Valley Project, fed by Northern California reservoirs that are at historic lows. The project also supplies residents and industry in the San Francisco Bay area and wildlife refuges, which all will get 50 percent to 75 percent of their allotments.
The allocations are based on predictions of snowpack runoff into Shasta Reservoir, which is at about one-third of capacity. If the runoff is greater than expected, agricultural users would get a 10 percent allocation and other users would get 60 percent to 100 percent, Glaser said.
Inland agriculture and its associated businesses also are suffering under the drought, Pastor said.
Though most of their water comes from the Colorado River and not through the Central Valley Project, local farmers will be losing price breaks on water over the next four years from Metropolitan Water District, Southern California's main wholesaler, he said. MWD imposed 30 percent reductions to agriculture beginning last year because of supply shortages.
Some farmers will be able to get through the year by relying on wells or transfers from other areas, and many more will reduce their acreages of tomatoes, wine grapes and other produce, said Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, which represents 85,000 farmers and ranchers.
Also on Friday, the state Department of Water Resources announced that, despite recent storms, there will be no change to its 15 percent allocation from the State Water Project, which ferries supplies from Northern California to millions of residential users in the Inland region. The lowest allocation -- 10 percent -- came in 1993 at the end of a six-year drought. The amount was increased later that year after more rain and snow fell.
State officials had hoped for a wet winter that would allow them to revise their cautious preliminary appropriation upward, but that probably won't happen.
"January was dramatically disappointing, with 34 percent of normal precipitation on top of historically low reservoir storage," said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources. "There's not much chance of even getting up to 30 percent (allocation) by summer."
Snow urged all major California communities to impose mandatory conservation in the next two months. Residents should reduce water use by 20 percent by eliminating runoff in the yard, not irrigating in the rain and capturing water from the tap while waiting for it to get hot, he said.
"We're targeting urban use because agriculture's response to drought is obvious: They lay people off and fallow acres. Their conservation level is way above 20 percent because they're just not getting the water," Snow said.
Drought Information
The state Department of Water Resources has a new Web site where users can get information on drought conditions and ways to conserve water: www.water.ca.gov/drought
In tough times, Auto Club Speedway works to get fans into stands...Jim Alexander
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_
nascar_21.467ffb9.html
FONTANA - Under normal circumstances, it has been difficult to fill the stands at Auto Club Speedway.
Given current economic conditions, these are far from normal circumstances.
So when speedway President Gillian Zucker said Friday that projected ticket sales for Sunday's Auto Club 500 NASCAR race were about 10 percent behind those for last September's race date, she was almost giddy.
"I really think that's cause for celebration," Zucker said. "It shows that all the programs that we did with our (corporate) partners were really effective."
Projections are based on advanced sales and the track's estimate of walk-up sales.
Among the steps taken to help fill the stands, the track has teamed with Stater Bros. Markets on a ticket voucher plan, providing one free ticket for Sunday's race for each $75 of groceries purchased between Feb. 4 and 10.
It also has teamed with Pepsi to reduce prices for the bottom five rows of the grandstand -- the track's least desirable seats -- from $55 to $35.
Regular seat prices range from $55 to $105.
NASCAR as an industry has been battered by the strains of the economy on a number of fronts.
Sponsorship money is tougher to come by, the automakers whose cars populate pit row face their own continuing crisis, and the traditional fan base has found tickets less affordable.
It has been one more obstacle for the Fontana track, which has failed to sell out its past 10 NASCAR race weekends (the track holds two NASCAR races each year) and concluded its 2008 February race on a Monday morning before a sparse crowd after rain cut the Sunday session short.
Despite the efforts to reduce ticket costs, it's still not enough for everyone.
Shaylene Cortez, of Corona, is a big NASCAR fan, but will miss Sunday's race.
"My husband's company has basically shut down all work pending the (state) budget being passed," she wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "There's so many people out of work right now. As such, it would be irresponsible for us to spend money on extras like race tickets when we have no idea when our next paycheck is coming."
Other tracks around the nation have offered deep discounts to fill their seats.
Daytona Motor Speedway slashed prices in much of its grandstand to sell out last Sunday's Daytona 500.
Atlanta Motor Speedway offered a limited number of $17 tickets for its March 8 race. The amount was set to match the number of the winning car at Daytona (Matt Kenseth's No. 17).
Zucker said the number of discounted tickets available at her track was limited.
In the case of the Stater Bros. promotion, the tickets were fully paid for, with the grocery chain and its vendors footing the bill.
"Do I have the authority to (reduce prices)? Certainly," she said. "But we're limited in the idea that this is a business at the end of the day, and we need to be financially sound or we're going to be laying people off as well.
"You're not walking into a retail store and finding that they're selling television sets for $10. They may be discounting them. They may be on sale. And that's really what we're doing. Let's get it to a price point that's reasonable for people, that even in light of the economic situation they're comfortable spending that money."
Zucker said the speedway has not had to lay off any employees.
Besides the two NASCAR weekends, the track also puts on a motorcycle race in March, runs a number of events at a drag strip on site and also makes the facility available for commercial shoots, driving schools and testing.
It's also in the second year of a 10-year naming rights contract with the Automobile Club of Southern California that is worth between $50 million and $75 million.
Some NASCAR fans are prepared to do whatever it takes to attend Sunday's race.
Charles Miller, of Mira Loma, said he has season tickets for an infield spot and paid for them last year before the economy went sour.
But he said in an e-mail response that "if we do go, we won't be spending as much as past races, and I don't think (we) will have as many people with us."
Then there are Richard and Barbara Woolf, of the Big Bear area.
Not only will they be in Fontana for both races this year, they'll also take their RV to races at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Charlotte, N.C. and Darlington, S.C., following Kenseth.
"We decided that instead of buying each other something (for Christmas), we'd pool our money together and go to the races," Barbara Woolf said Friday. "You've got to set your priorities, I guess. My priority is NASCAR."
89.3 KPCC
NASCAR fans curb spending at big event in Fontana...Steven Cuevas
http://www.scpr.org/news/stories/2009/02/20/19_nascar_
economy_02200.html?refid=0
It's NASCAR Weekend in the Southland. Tens of thousands of people will pull in to the Fontana Speedway for three days of high-octane racing. The weekend usually means big money for the Speedway – and for the Inland region. But KPCC's Steven Cuevas says many race fans have put the brakes on spending.

Steven Cuevas: On day 1 of the races, traffic at the Fontana Speedway RV Park is light. Several dozen caravans pulled in the night before.
There probably won't be a whole lot more. Only about 80,000 racing fans are expected to show up this weekend. The Speedway can hold more than 90,000 spectators. Art Weyrauch is one of them. He traveled from Montana in a pair of RVs with his brothers and their wives.
Art Weyrauch: We work in the oil fields up there and it's been pretty good. But it's slowin' down, so we gotta kinda watch it. Everything's getting a little tighter, ya know?
They're gonna make hot dishes instead of steak and stuff. (laughs) But we had our packages bought early and there's no refunds. We're gonna have fun, but we just gotta watch ourselves.
Cuevas: It'll set you back around 150 bucks a weekend of tickets. Speedway officials say ticket business is off around 20 percent. It costs another 150 bucks to rent an RV space for the three-day weekend. A bargain compared to a good motel. But Laurie Weyrauch says next time, she'll take the motel.
Laurie Weyrauch: Do you really want my personal opinion?
Cuevas: Yeah, I do!
Laurie Weyrauch: I won't be back here. First of all, they don't tell you when you can come in here. You assume Wednesday at noon like other tracks. They don't give you any information in your packet as to directions or about what exits to take, and we come in Wednesday night and everything is locked up. Where do ya go?
Cuevas: How about Banning? That's the nearest RV Park the Weyrauchs could find on such short notice. But as long as the races are good, no one here will be complaining. Besides, it could be worse – it could be raining. It did last year, flooding the Speedway and delaying Sunday's marquee race by a full day.
Washington Post
Bank Shares Topple on Talk Of Possible U.S. Takeover
White House Has Shunned Nationalization, but Falling Prices Could Force Issue...Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022003831_pf.html
The specter of bank nationalization is driving a historic fire sale of stocks including Citigroup and Bank of America, making it harder for those firms to survive and imperiling the efforts of the Obama administration to keep banks in private hands.
A burgeoning chorus of prominent economists and members of Congress has concluded that some banks lack the money to solve their own problems and charges that the government has not yet announced an effective plan to help and that time is running short.
The administration has publicly and repeatedly denied that the banking system will be nationalized. But some experts and lawmakers say the government may be forced to take temporary control of the most crippled firms to scrub their books of troubled assets.
"I don't welcome that at all, but I could see how it's possible it may happen," Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said on Bloomberg Television yesterday. "I'm concerned that we may end up having to do that, at least for a short time."
The talk has only mounted in the 10 days since Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sought to assure the nation that banks could be stabilized without being taken over. Citigroup's stock has dropped nearly 42 percent, while shares of both Bank of America and Wells Fargo have lost about a third of their value. J.P. Morgan Chase has lost about 19 percent of its value.
The falling prices could force the government toward nationalization by making it harder for banks to fund operations and retain the confidence of customers and business partners.
The administration has pushed back. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that there are no plans to take control of the banking system.
"This administration continues to strongly believe that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go, ensuring that they are regulated sufficiently by this government," Gibbs said. When pressed by reporters to rule out the possibility of nationalization, Gibbs responded: "I think I was very clear about the system that this country has and will continue to have."
But sources familiar with the thinking of Obama's senior advisers say they remain open to nationalizing selected banks as a last resort. What has been ruled out is the nationalization of a large number of banks. Treasury officials also are continuing to develop a plan to use public and private funds to offer help tailored to other large banks.
The Treasury plans on Wednesday to describe details of "stress tests" that will be performed on about 18 of the nation's largest banks to determine their need for additional government investments, according to people familiar with the matter. A major goal will be to ensure these firms could withstand a further deterioration in the economy.
Last night, Treasury spokesman Isaac Baker said in a statement: "There are a lot of rumors in the market, as always, but you should not regard these as any indication of the policy of this administration. As Secretary Geithner has said we will preserve a financial system that is owned and managed by the private sector."
The basic problem confronting the government has not changed since the start of the financial crisis. Banks hold vast quantities of assets, such as mortgage loans, that have deteriorated significantly in value. Banks cannot sell the assets without taking a huge loss, but holding the assets is tying up vast amounts of money and inhibiting new lending.
The government has tried to address the problem by injecting billions of dollars into the banks. In some cases, including with Citigroup and Bank of America, officials have also agreed to limit the banks' losses on distressed assets. Neither of these approaches has convinced investors that the problems are under control.
In his speech last week, Geithner said the government would partner with private investors to buy the troubled assets. But he provided few details about how the partnership would work, leaving investors uncertain about its chances for success.
Nationalization is an alternative approach in which the government would take control of the bank, allowing the removal of distressed assets without having to create a system for buying those assets. The approach also would wipe out shareholder value, something many proponents regard as desirable to restore market discipline.
The government has nationalized banks in the past. Nations including Sweden also have used the approach to successfully restore the health of their banking systems.
But the approach generally is used as a last resort, reserved for institutions that cannot survive on their own. Administration officials warn that banks under public control can be forced to implement policies that compromise their core role as lenders. Other businesses may be reluctant to work with a public institution. And nationalization can create a domino effect in which investors flee from less troubled firms for fear that they, too, will be wiped out.
Still the idea, once unthinkable, is now being talked about everywhere. Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman and longtime champion of the laissez faire philosophy that private markets can solve their own problems, told the Financial Times this week that the current crisis might be an exception. "It may be necessary to temporarily nationalize some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring," Greenspan said. "I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do."
Most proponents of nationalization have focused on the two companies that have received the most government help, Citigroup and Bank of America. The government has invested $45 billion in each company and promised to limit Citigroup's losses on a $301 billion portfolio of troubled assets. Bank of America got a similar guarantee on a $118 billion portfolio.
Both companies warned that the speculation is misguided.
"Our company continues to be profitable. We see no reason why a company that is profitable with strong levels of capital and liquidity and that continues to lend actively should be considered for nationalization," Bank of America said in a statement yesterday.
Citigroup also issued a statement that noted the company's reserve of capital, a key measure of a bank's health, is among the largest in the industry. "We continue to focus and make progress on reducing the assets on our balance sheet, reducing expenses and streamlining our business for future profitable growth," the company said.
New York Times
Governments Deal New Blow to Drought-Stricken California Farmers ...JESSE McKINLEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/us/21drought.html?sq=drought&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print
SAN FRANCISCO — In a blow to California farmers struggling with a persistent drought, federal authorities released projections on Friday showing that little or no water would be available from federal sources this year for agricultural use.
State water supplies were also expected to be severely curtailed, state officials said.
The announcements — from the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources — confirmed fears long held by farmers, who had been warned in recent months to expect little water from state and federal reservoirs, which are collectively less than half full.
“It’s grim news,” said Tim Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, whose members serve both urban and agricultural needs and represent about 93 percent of water delivered in the state.
Federal officials said new estimates showed that the Central Valley Project, the large irrigation system operated by the reclamation bureau, would be able to provide zero to 10 percent of its contracted deliveries.
If the zero estimate proves true, it would effectively eliminate hundreds of farmers’ principal water supply. Water supplies to wildlife refuges, cities and industrial sources would also see smaller cutbacks, but agriculture would be hardest hit.
“If this isn’t the bottom,” Mr. Quinn said, “I don’t want to be around for the bottom.”
The estimates are based on runoff from rain and snow, which has been below normal in California since 2007, though recent storms — and a soggy weekend forecast — could improve things. The estimates will be updated late next month.
State officials said even heavy rains in the coming weeks would not be enough to change the estimates significantly.
“The reservoirs are so low we probably need a couple of years of above-normal precipitation,” said Lester A. Snow, the director of the Department of Water Resources, which serves the water needs of some 23 million Californians, both in agricultural areas and in cities.
Mr. Snow predicted that conservation measures would need to be intensified, something also suggested this month by Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Mr. Snow, whose department would deliver just 15 percent of contractors’ requests, said he had pressed for more water storage and water recovery efforts like desalinization and wastewater recycling.
“If we don’t have a significant change in snowpack, the expectation is that most of Southern California is going to have to go to mandatory conservation,” Mr. Snow said. “They can’t afford to have sprinklers go off in rainstorms or irrigating sidewalks.”
In agricultural areas, meanwhile, studies have shown that the drought and restrictions on water use prompted by environmental concerns could result in tens of thousands of job losses and more than 800,000 acres of farmland taken out of production. Consumers could also be affected: California is the nation’s leading producer of a variety of fruits, vegetables and other foods.
The office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would announce emergency measures next week addressing the drought. Other officials, meanwhile, were looking elsewhere for help.
“Maybe the best thing is to try to remain optimistic, especially with the incoming storm,” said A. G. Kawamura, the state secretary of agriculture. “Let’s just pray it’s a good one.”