3-23-09

 
3-23-09
Merced Sun-Star
Proposed gravel mine northwest of Snelling appealed
South Stanislaus County mine would be developed by Merced-based Jim Brisco Enterprises...Monday, Mar. 23, 2009
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/751198.html
A proposed gravel mine near the Tuolumne River near La Grange and northwest of Snelling has drawn opposition from a handful of area residents concerned about water contamination and safety issues.
The residents filed an appeal of the Stanislaus County Planning Commission's approval of the project last month. It is scheduled to be heard at the March 31 Board of Supervisors meeting.
The project is on Lake Road between Turlock Lake and La Grange. Residents are concerned with how the project will affect ground and surface water and potential safety problems.
Delaney Aggregates would be a sand and gravel mine on 40 acres of an 80-acre property owned by Mildred Zanker. Jim Brisco Enterprises of Merced would develop the project. The mining operation would include four mining pits, ranging from two to 22 acres, dug to a maximum depth of 40 feet.
The property would be mined over 10 years. The mining pits would be left as ponds when the project is finished.
The site is relatively flat and strewn with cobbles, the round rocks found in the river bed, along with sand and smaller rock. The cobbles are left from gold dredging in the area that took place in the 1940s and 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, dredged material from the site was taken and used as fill for the Don Pedro Dam, according to George Morrow, president of Jim Brisco Enterprises. The land is used for cattle grazing, although vegetation is sparse.
Morrow sees several niche markets for the sand, rocks and gravel, from landscape rock to well casing fill and restoration of the salmon beds in the river.
Morrow points to a letter from California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton to counties urging them to approve new sand and gravel mining operations in the state. The letter, sent in September, contends that more mining operations will reduce the distance trucks have to travel to construction sites, saving money and eliminating air pollution.
The appeal contends that residents in the area weren't given enough time to respond to the proposal and raises the water and safety issues. Contaminated water from the mining pits will flow into the river during flood years, according to documents filed with the appeal.
Mercury contamination?
Barbara Miller-Crum, who lives in one of about 10 ranchettes along the river east of the site, said a study of a county-owned site next to the property found mercury contamination from the previous gold mining operations.
Morrow said he had a consulting company test for several potential contaminants including mercury and the tests were negative.
"How can that be? There was mercury on the adjacent property," Miller-Crum said.
Miller-Crum also raised safety problems related to public access to the property and the truck trips the project would add on Lake Road. The road is used by cattle trucks from a nearby feedlot and Hughson school district buses, she said, and has deteriorated.
Morrow said the truck traffic shouldn't pose a problem. The trucks will be traveling one mile on Lake Road to Highway 132, he said, and with a load of sand and gravel, they likely will not reach speeds above 30 mph.
The project would contribute 5.5 cents per ton of material hauled out for maintenance and improvement of Lake Road, according to planning documents. The mining operation will be at least 50 feet from the road.
If the Board of Supervisors rejects the appeal, the mining operation could begin quickly with portable rock screeners and construction equipment, Morrow said. Although the recession has curtailed demand for the material, the rocks and sand could be sorted by size and stockpiled for when the economy picks up, he said.
Jim Brisco Enterprises is a small operation, Morrow said, and he has spent $220,000 on various studies and environmental reviews to get the mining project approved.
Miller-Crum said the homesites along the river can be traced back to the 1850s, and residents are just trying to protect what they have.
"We want clean water, fish, peace and protection," she said.
The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a hearing on the appeal at 9:15 a.m. on March 31 in the basement chambers at 1010 10th St., Modesto.
A proposed gravel mine near the Tuolumne River near La Grange and northwest of Snelling has drawn opposition from a handful of area residents concerned about water contamination and safety issues.
The residents filed an appeal of the Stanislaus County Planning Commission's approval of the project last month. It is scheduled to be heard at the March 31 Board of Supervisors meeting.
The project is on Lake Road between Turlock Lake and La Grange. Residents are concerned with how the project will affect ground and surface water and potential safety problems.
Delaney Aggregates would be a sand and gravel mine on 40 acres of an 80-acre property owned by Mildred Zanker. Jim Brisco Enterprises of Merced would develop the project. The mining operation would include four mining pits, ranging from two to 22 acres, dug to a maximum depth of 40 feet.
The property would be mined over 10 years. The mining pits would be left as ponds when the project is finished.
The site is relatively flat and strewn with cobbles, the round rocks found in the river bed, along with sand and smaller rock. The cobbles are left from gold dredging in the area that took place in the 1940s and 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, dredged material from the site was taken and used as fill for the Don Pedro Dam, according to George Morrow, president of Jim Brisco Enterprises. The land is used for cattle grazing, although vegetation is sparse.
Morrow sees several niche markets for the sand, rocks and gravel, from landscape rock to well casing fill and restoration of the salmon beds in the river.
Morrow points to a letter from California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton to counties urging them to approve new sand and gravel mining operations in the state. The letter, sent in September, contends that more mining operations will reduce the distance trucks have to travel to construction sites, saving money and eliminating air pollution.
The appeal contends that residents in the area weren't given enough time to respond to the proposal and raises the water and safety issues. Contaminated water from the mining pits will flow into the river during flood years, according to documents filed with the appeal.
Mercury contamination?
Barbara Miller-Crum, who lives in one of about 10 ranchettes along the river east of the site, said a study of a county-owned site next to the property found mercury contamination from the previous gold mining operations.
Morrow said he had a consulting company test for several potential contaminants including mercury and the tests were negative.
"How can that be? There was mercury on the adjacent property," Miller-Crum said.
Miller-Crum also raised safety problems related to public access to the property and the truck trips the project would add on Lake Road. The road is used by cattle trucks from a nearby feedlot and Hughson school district buses, she said, and has deteriorated.
Morrow said the truck traffic shouldn't pose a problem. The trucks will be traveling one mile on Lake Road to Highway 132, he said, and with a load of sand and gravel, they likely will not reach speeds above 30 mph.
The project would contribute 5.5 cents per ton of material hauled out for maintenance and improvement of Lake Road, according to planning documents. The mining operation will be at least 50 feet from the road.
If the Board of Supervisors rejects the appeal, the mining operation could begin quickly with portable rock screeners and construction equipment, Morrow said. Although the recession has curtailed demand for the material, the rocks and sand could be sorted by size and stockpiled for when the economy picks up, he said.
Jim Brisco Enterprises is a small operation, Morrow said, and he has spent $220,000 on various studies and environmental reviews to get the mining project approved.
Miller-Crum said the homesites along the river can be traced back to the 1850s, and residents are just trying to protect what they have."We want clean water, fish, peace and protection," she said.
The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a hearing on the appeal at 9:15 a.m. on March 31 in the basement chambers at 1010 10th St., Modesto.
Merced home prices continue to slip...John Holland. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/751188.html
Home prices continued to slip in Merced and Stanislaus counties last month, a real estate research firm reported Thursday, but they perked up a little in San Joaquin and Tuolumne.
Merced County's median price stood at $105,500 in February, versus $115,000 in January and $380,750 in late 2005, the report from MDA DataQuick said.
The median price in Stanislaus County was $136,250. That was down 2.7 percent from the $140,000 median in January and 66 percent off the market's $396,000 peak in late 2005.
The median price is the point at which half the homes sell for more and half for less.
The low prices, many of them on foreclosed homes being unloaded by banks, are bringing out buyers. Stanislaus County had 731 sales last month, compared with 426 in February 2008.
"We are seeing a lot of first-time people and a lot of investors, because for both segments of the market it makes sense," said Neil Weese, sales manager and partner at Coldwell Banker Endsley & Associates in Turlock.
The Stanislaus median is about where it was in 2000, early in a run-up that would more than triple it. The collapse over the past three years has brought major job losses in construction and related fields and a wave of foreclosures that contributed to the turmoil in world financial markets.
San Joaquin County had a median price of $155,000 last month, up from $152,614 in January but far below the $450,000 at the end of 2005.
In Tuolumne County, the median was $200,000 last month, up from $196,000 in January but down from $335,000 in late 2005.
Statewide, the February median price was $224,000, unchanged from January but less than half of the $484,000 peak in mid-2007.
Andrew LePage, a spokesman at DataQuick's headquarters in San Diego County, said it would take several more months to know whether the state's market has bottomed out.
"I don't think you can read anything more into this than the possibility that it's an early sign of prices stabilizing at some later point," he said. "We won't know until we can look in the rearview mirror."
Mortgage less than rent
Weese said the countywide figure can conceal places that are doing better, such as north Turlock. He said his agency is once again getting multiple offers on homes, especially in the lower part of the market.
Low prices, low mortgage rates and new tax credits for some buyers are combining to get sales moving, he said.
Mary Prieto, an agent for California Prudential Real Estate in Modesto, said many people are realizing that they can buy homes with monthly payments less than what they pay in rent.
She also noted that another surge of foreclosed homes could hit the market this spring.
"Let's match them up," she said of the buyers and sellers. "Let's get the inventory off the books, and it will turn around."
The change is evident in the Housing Opportunity Index, compiled by Wells Fargo Bank and the National Association of Home Builders.
In the fourth quarter of 2005, just 3 percent of the homes that sold in Stanislaus County were affordable to median- income households, the index showed. Late last year, that figure stood at 71.1 percent.
"We feel very optimistic that we've seen the worst," Weese said of the real estate slump. "We kind of led the nation into this whole mess, and we will lead the nation out of it."
Modesto Bee
Planners pushed to raise density in San Joaquin Valley...Garth Stapley
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/639612.html
More than two years of efforts to reshape the San Joaquin Valley's growth patterns will culminate April 1 in a high-stakes vote to settle the blueprint debate.
Sixteen elected leaders, two from each of the valley's eight counties, will decide among four density scenarios for regional growth through 2050. They have been heavily lobbied in the past few days by interest groups and individuals, said those representing the north valley area.
Options range from the status quo that brought an average of 13 people per acre in recent history to a more aggressive goal of about 31 per acre. The plan would affect the valley's 62 cities, from Lodi to Bakersfield.
Adherence to valley ideals would be voluntary. But state housing and transportation money is more likely to go to agencies following smart-growth policies in formal regional plans.
Community organizations such as the Turlock-based Farmland Working Group and Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth have sent letters to voting members of the Blueprint Policy Council, advocating the highest density scenario. Some voting members said they've also been deluged by telephone calls and e-mails, urged on by the American Farmland Trust.
Oakdale Mayor Farrell Jackson, representing Stanislaus County, said he tired after responding to the first 50 or so form e-mails, all with essentially the same wording, generated by the trust. He recognized one sender from Oakdale, but the rest were from Bay Area or coastal regions, he said.
"They are not residents of the valley," Jackson said.
Merced City Councilman Bill Spriggs said 53 messages waited when he recently powered up his cell phone, with only a few from the valley.
Jackson and Spriggs said nearly all senders urged them to vote for the highest density option, joining well-publicized recommendations from two significant sources:
Members of the Blueprint Regional Advisory Committee in November embraced the highest density plan, also called a "hybrid scenario."
In January, 53 percent of nearly 600 people attending a Blueprint Summit also preferred the highest density option. Only 4 percent chose the status quo.
Council favored less density
Last week, the valley's Land Use, Housing and Agriculture Work Group endorsed the highest density scenario as well. The group is one of 10 that are vetting issues for the governor's California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, which has guided the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning Process.
But members of the policy council, who will make the final decision, have appeared lukewarm to the highest density option. In December, a majority seemed to favor a compromise between status quo growth and urban neighborhoods more often found in the Bay Area and Europe.
For a time, the American Farmland Trust, a strong proponent of the highest density option, posted a list of the 16 voting members on its Web site with their e-mail addresses and a guess on "where they stand." Polling was based on "reliable sources for information on which Blueprint scenario the members appear to favor or are leaning toward," read a disclaimer that also apologized in advance for any errors. The list indicated support is split among the various options.
But several members from the Northern San Joaquin Valley's three counties, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced, said they never spoke with the American Farmland Trust. All four of the area's six voting members contacted by The Bee said the Web site had it wrong.
For example, the site indicated that Merced County Supervisor Mike Nelson favors the status quo and that Manteca City Council member Steve DeBrum favors the highest density.
"I haven't talked to the American Farmland Trust and they have not talked to me," Nelson said Thursday. "I haven't made a decision one way or the other. And I wouldn't tell you if I had."
DeBrum said he would set aside personal opinion to follow direction from the majority of the San Joaquin Council of Governments. That group was the only one among the eight counties that refused to produce its own countywide growth plan, indicating disinterest in the blueprint process.
StanCOG didn't favor change
The Stanislaus Council of Government's ruling body approved a plan reflecting policies mirroring those in its agencies' existing growth plans. The other six counties voted for higher densities.
Oakdale's Jackson insisted that Stanislaus' plan "is not status quo" because the agencies' respective growth plans call for densities that, when averaged, would be higher than those produced in recent years. Like DeBrum, Jackson said he will respect the will of the local Council of Governments, or a compromise between status quo and highest density.
The American Farmland Trust Web site indicated Stanislaus County Supervisor Jeff Grover would vote for the status quo; Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston, for the highest density; and Spriggs, for the compromise.
Grover was in Washington, D.C., last week as part of a county delegation. He said he had "nothing to comment." Spriggs said he favors the highest density option, though he sees both sides.
"We cannot afford to gobble up land as we have in the past," Spriggs said. How- ever, the valley's chronic poor wages and high unemployment rates suggest a change from emphasis on agriculture might be warranted, he said.
"Should we be excited about perpetuating that?" he asked. "There needs to be a balance."
Voters moved to save farms
The Farmland Working Group's Jeani Ferrari said continuing to pave over farmland is not the answer.
Mike Darnell, California policy director for the American Farmland Trust, noted that Stanislaus County residents clearly showed irritation with the status quo by overwhelmingly approving Measure E in February 2008. The initiative removed power to grant subdivisions from county supervisors in favor of voters.
"Measure E protects farmland. This (blueprint's highest density option) protects farmland. The dots are not hard to connect," he said.
Darnell's trust relied on "impressions" of "correspondents," or people familiar with elected officials, to compile the Web poll, he said. His office removed the poll Friday afternoon.
As for advocacy letters, he said, Americans have long relied on ready access to their elected leaders.
"We're seeing up and down the valley, people saying, 'Wait a minute; this person is changing my quality of life based on development; I didn't make that connection before,' " Darnell said.
A Road to Ruin? North County Corridor has landowners up in arms...Garth Stapley
http://www.modbee.com/business/v-print/story/639635.html
Efficiency for many means heartache for others, say folks accustomed to quiet country living and farming along land slated to become a major expressway north of Modesto.
Most understand, logically, the appeal of thousands of vehicles someday moving smoothly from Oakdale and Riverbank to Highway 99 instead of bogging down at dozens of time-consuming, smog-promoting stops.
But the invasion of those thousands of vehicles through vast tracts of peaceful orchards is a nightmare to increasingly alarmed neighbors. Some of their homes sit directly on route alignments being studied for the future North County Corridor.
"We're just heartbroken," said Linda Waggoner, 63. She and her husband replaced their old farmhouse with a retirement dream home two years ago; their daughter's family built another next door. An early version of the alignment shows both homes in the expressway's path.
"Obviously, we wouldn't have built a house like that if we had known something like this was even an issue," Waggoner said.
Across the street on Tully Road, Sue Jamison, 49, sells antiques and her sons' homemade monster cookies from a small outbuilding behind the family home in stretches of only two weeks in November and March. All would be sacrificed in the plan, causing Waggoner to shudder.
"Wouldn't it be a shame to lose this for a freeway?" Jamison said.
What's worse, losing one's home to progress -- or living next to a new expressway when you're used to country quiet?
"I'm too old to start over," said Harry Belletto, 66, whose grandparents began farming north of Modesto soon after arriving from Italy in 1898. Most versions of the expressway's potential route miss the home where his 86-year-old mother was born, while some run right over those owned by his family. And all would take chunks of his 135-acre almond ranch.
"Eight lanes? I would have to put up a fence this thick," Belletto said, both arms outstretched. "We would suffer through it for a while, then get out of here when the price goes up."
He and many others are worried that the expressway plan would cloud their titles, or scare potential buyers from paying what the land might otherwise be worth. Some acknowledge that the road could boost land values because of development potential. But the very thought evokes other fears from many neighbors, most of whom came here to escape urban pressures.
"People's lives are going to be disrupted," said Bill McKinney.
Bud and Cheri Halsey moved to Thieman Road 29 years ago, looking for room to raise their two sons, along with cows, sheep and goats. "Chores and 4-H projects are good for kids. It gives them direction," Bud Halsey said.
"A dead-end street, close to town -- it's really a unique area, one that's not replaceable," he continued. "And the route's going right through the middle of my house."
Half-mile of variance remains
Officials consistently remind people that lines on preliminary maps could move 1,000 feet in either direction, giving them nearly a half-mile of wiggle room. They won't refine the conceptual alignment for a year or two, an engineering consultant told neighbors attending a North County Corridor meeting earlier this month.
"Nothing is set in stone," said the consultant, Kris Balaji of Jacobs Engineering Group, adding that people will have multiple opportunities in coming months and years to blast or bless potential routes.
But many neighbors speculate that the party line is only meant to keep them off officials' backs. Neighbors are circulating a map created last year by Balaji's company with intricate, computer- generated visions of potential access ramps at Tully, plus a relocation of the west end of Thieman Road, sacrificing several homes.
"All the neighbors are in an uproar," Belletto said.
They packed the meeting, taking every chair, with more standing in the doorway. Many asked why the expressway can't simply run down Kiernan Avenue, also known as State Route 219 and further east as Claribel Road, now being widened from two to four lanes in a separate two-year project. The state acquired enough right-of-way for six eventual lanes.
County: Both routes needed
Traffic demand from east Modesto and Stanislaus County will require both roads, said Mike Machado, the county's public works director and project manager for the North County Corridor.
Besides, Riverbank ruined the piggyback idea years ago by approving more than 100 points of access to Kiernan, mostly for stores, said county Supervisor Jeff Grover and Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour. A fast-moving expressway can't be so burdened, they said.
Others are angry that they've learned about the expressway by word of mouth, not by official notice. Leaders acknowledged some mix-ups and apologized, again inviting people to stay tuned and to register comments at appropriate times.
"There weren't any decisions made that weren't done at public meetings," Grover told the audience.
"If somebody was going to run a highway through your house, wouldn't you want to be notified?" a man shot back.
"That hasn't been decided," Grover replied.
Most of the recently mobilized neighbors live or farm in a ranchette area north of Kiernan around McHenry Avenue. Neighbors assume other pockets of resistance will bubble up when more become aware of the plan, although much of the 25-mile potential alignment traverses mostly rural areas.
State law requires that government agencies pay fair market value when seizing land through eminent domain, often used for road projects. That doesn't always make people feel better.
"I don't think a lot would have a problem if they would compensate us fairly," said Gerald DeBoer, 56, whose family has farmed there for 100 years. "When they come to buy your property, they low-ball you. Then you've got to get a lawyer and fight them to get a halfway decent price."
Officials project 20-year wait
Officials say the project, replacing the Oakdale Bypass envisioned for five decades, could take 20 years. Caltrans' project manager, Christina Hibbard, hesitated when asked if it might be started or finished in that time, noting that all sources of funding have not been nailed down. The expressway is expected to cost more than $1 billion.
"It's a little hard to say at this point," Hibbard said. "People get upset seeing that line (on the map). This process is meant to let people know (it's coming) and see what they're saying. But that doesn't give anybody a security blanket."
On the Net: www.stancounty.com/publicworks/ncc-main.shtm; www.northcountycorridor.org; www.dot.ca.gov/dist10/environmental/projects/ northcounty/index.html.
Sacramento Bee
Editorial: Sacramento's a shameless guzzler
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/v-print/story/1717308.html
The city of Sacramento has a fat target on its back as California examines options for stretching its water supply.
In the eyes of many lawmakers and regulators, Sacramento has become the outlaw for water waste. On a per-capita basis, city residents use 280 gallons daily – more than twice the figure of residents in Los Angeles.
Other metropolitan areas have invested tens of millions of dollars in conservation, efficiency and water recycling. Sacramento, by contrast, is far behind in installing water meters, a basic first step toward pricing and managing its supplies wisely.
For years, city officials brushed aside its reputation – sprinkler water gushing into storm drains, people using hoses to sweep off their driveways – with a well-worn justification. Most of Sacramento's used water flows back into rivers through groundwater and treated wastewater, and thus can be used again, they stated.
That's true. Roughly 56 percent of Sacramento's water flows back into rivers. Yet 44 percent does not. This water evaporates, or gets absorbed by plants.
If just a portion of this water could remain in the rivers (no longer to be used on driveways), the benefits would be huge. The city would no longer need to pump, treat, store and distribute billions of gallons. The result would be significant energy savings for the city, along with less treated wastewater flowing back into the rivers – warmer and more polluted than when it started.
The city could even bank these savings. Water conserved could be sold or transferred for other uses, including helping fisheries or farmers to the south.
Sadly, the capital city has a lot of catch-up to do, as the graphic to the left shows. Over the last decade, the amount of water produced by the city has increased 24 percent, while the city population has climbed just 17 percent.
Part of this increased usage, a city utilities official says, comes from water transferred or "wholesaled" to Sacramento County water districts, which rely on groundwater. A recent warming trend may also be a factor, with homeowners turning on their sprinklers earlier in the spring and keeping them on later into the fall.
Yet as city officials acknowledge, wasteful water practices are common, and up until now, they've gone unpunished. That needs to change, but so does the city's overall investment in smarter parks management, landscaping and overall water efficiency.
Consider the example of other urban areas. Over the last 17 years, the East Bay Municipal Utility District has invested more than $60 million in conservation. Its total water consumption is now less than it was in the 1970s. Per-person usage has dropped to 136 gallons a day.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves 18.7 million people, also has made major investments in conservation and efficiency. In 2008, its total water consumption was less than in 1999, even though its service area has grown by 2.3 million people.
To be sure, Southern California and the Bay Area could and should do more to improve their efficiency, since they pay a high price for water. These coastal areas also need to increase their reuse of water that now flows, wasted, into the ocean.
Yet Sacramento needs to confront reality. Lawmakers are planning to invest billions of dollars in water infrastructure in coming years, including money for improved efficiency. Does the city want to position itself to secure some of those funds? Or does it want to cling to old excuses while watering its driveways and waiting for inevitable legal challenges to its water practices?
Stockton Record
Hopes rise for salmon success
Though 2009 will likely see return of severe restrictions...Alex Breitler
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090323/A_NEWS/903230322
THE STANISLAUS RIVER - The future of California's venerable king salmon rests between Scott Wucherer's thumb and forefinger as he measures its length - 31 millimeters. A whole 1.2 inches.
A few more pokes and prods and the technician returns the helpless Chinook fry to the river, where it is whisked away by the current. If it is lucky, the fish will return in three years as a 30-pound adult, to spawn and to die.
There is growing hope that more will return, that the worst of the salmon crash that started in 2007 is over.
A federal report released this week confirms that poor but temporary ocean conditions were largely to blame for a record-low 2008 fall salmon run that crippled commercial fishing off the coast as well as recreational fishing inland.
This fall, the number of adults returning to the Central Valley is predicted to double.
Even so, 2009 would still be the third-lowest salmon return since 1992, and severe fishing restrictions would once again be likely this fall, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Waiting anxiously are businesses such as Stockton's H&R River Bait on Charter Way, which relied on salmon fishing for one-third to one-half of its business, manager Johnny Cain said Friday.
"Last year was rough," he said. "We got through OK, but we were stuck with a lot of stuff we couldn't sell. It's just been hanging there on the shelves."
Jamestown fishing guide Tim Bermingham, an expert on rivers feeding the San Joaquin, gave up on Chinook several years ago. Now he fishes for trout.
"I said, 'Just let them be,'" he said. "It's getting so hard for them to make it. They all get eaten on the way down, or sucked into the pumps, and with all the pollution ... the poor fish don't have a chance."
Last week's report blames the salmon crash on warm temperatures and a lack of food in the ocean, on top of a "long-term, steady degradation of the freshwater and estuarine environment."
Fishery managers also share some blame, the report said: They overestimated the number of adult Chinook that would return in 2007, and as a result, did not apply greater fishing restrictions that year. Hatcheries, meanwhile, have reduced genetic diversity and made salmon more susceptible to volatile population swings. The report compares this to a financial stock portfolio which, if not diversified, will suffer or soar with the ebb and tide of the market.
Doug Demko, a fisheries biologist with environmental consulting firm FISHBIO, said he believes there will be a "few more fish" this year, and a gradual recovery over the next five years.
His company captures baby salmon in 8-foot turning "screw" traps on several rivers and monitors them each day; on Friday, 16 tiny Chinook were counted at a trap on the sun-rippled Stanislaus near Oakdale.
Some days, thousands are found there. And now they're on their way to the Pacific, which may prove a more hospitable host than in years past.
"All evidence is things are picking up in the ocean," Demko said. "And we know so little about the ocean. If there's one good thing that came out of this collapse, it's that more focus is now on the ocean."
San Francisco Chronicle
A year later, wolverine spotted again in Sierra...MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/22/state/n121949D73.DTL&type=printable
Reno, Nev. (AP) -- A year after becoming the first documented member of its species spotted in the Sierra Nevada since the 1920s, a wolverine has been caught on research cameras again — only 15 miles away.
Pictures showing the wolverine in apparent good health have revived talk that the predator known for its ferocity could be reintroduced in California.
The wolverine has been sighted in recent weeks on private timber land north of Truckee, Calif., in the northern part of the mountain range, said Richard Callas, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game.
The wolverine's discovery on nearby national forest land a year ago surprised scientists, who feared the elusive animal was driven out of the Sierra long ago by human activity.
Scientists confirmed it was the same animal through DNA from hair samples collected at camera stations used for wildlife surveys on Sierra Pacific Industries land.
"Although we had hopes this wolverine might be a different individual, indicating more than one might exist in California, it is encouraging to discover that it has survived for at least a year in the wild," Callas said.
Scientists are unsure whether the wolverine remained in the area or returned to the area after making a long trek away. Wolverines can range over areas as large as 750 square miles.
Researchers also are still unsure of its origins. They think it could either be an immigrant from Idaho, 600 miles away, or a captive wolverine that had been released into the wild.
It appears the male wolverine can survive in the area for an extended period of time, said Jeffrey Copeland, wildlife ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Mont.
"The photos show it to be a big, fat, healthy animal," Copeland said. "It doesn't seem to be in any distress. He's made it a year and he's finding food."
While the California fish and game agency has no plans to reintroduce wolverines to the state, it could again discuss the concept, Callas said.
"There would be many factors to consider prior to reintroducing wolverine, including the presence of suitable habitat, competition with other species, disease and the source population," he said.
The wolverine would do well in California because of its ample habitat, said Copeland, also a founding director of the Wolverine Foundation based in Kuna, Idaho.
"If you were going to reintroduce them to some state, California would probably be as good as any," he said. "I'm sure there's ample food sources for them."
Copeland estimates there are only 250 to 300 wolverines in the lower 48 states, with most in the northern Rockies.
Past attempts by conservation groups to have the animal listed as an endangered species have failed. The Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management classify the wolverine as a sensitive species.
California's wolverine was found by accident. A graduate student at Oregon State University, Katie Moriarty, got a picture of it during a research project aimed at martens, another member of the weasel family.
DNA has linked the wolverine to a group in the Rocky Mountains, not a genetically distinct group in California.
If the wolverine wandered from Idaho, Copeland said, it probably was looking for a female as a mate.
"If it came from Idaho, it would be unusual for the wolverine to stay in the area because there's no reason to believe other wolverines are there," Copeland said. "The longer it stays there alone, the more I think it's a captive animal that was released or escaped."
It's uncertain whether the wolverine will remain in the area, Callas said.
"If it does leave the area, it may be detected" by camera stations being used throughout the Sierra to study carnivores, he said.
The wolverine has been spotted numerous times on the timber land since January and as recently as last week, Callas added.
"Our biologist says he has a tremendous prey base because of the varying age of the timber," Mark Pawlicki, spokesman for Sierra Pacific Industries, told Truckee's Sierra Sun newspaper.
On the Net:
The Wolverine Foundation: www.wolverinefoundation.org
California Department of Fish and Game: www.dfg.ca.gov
U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station: www.fs.fed.us/rmrs
Sierra Pacific Industries: www.spi-ind.com
San Diego Union-Tribune
New watering source is surfacing
'Gray' users go with flow from bathtubs, washers...Mike Lee. Staff writer Michael Gardner contributed to this report.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/23/
1n23gray215259-new-watering-source-surfacing/?zIndex=71145
Across the county, people are taking shorter showers, fixing leaky faucets and planting drought-tolerant vegetation.
But it hasn't been enough. Water officials still plan to start rationing by summer.
Faced with having lawns wither and shrubs shrivel, more people are tapping their washing machines, bathtubs and other sources of “gray water” to irrigate landscaping.
Dadla Ponizil of Encinitas is one resident trying to squeeze the most out of every drop. In late February, he hosted a workshop where 15 people watched the Oakland-based group Greywater Guerrillas renovate his home so the washing machine drains to the blackberry patch in his front yard.
“Pretty soon, it will be the exception not to do this,” said Ponizil, a contractor and building consultant. “We can't keep using water once and dumping it.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests that interest in gray water is growing in California. With direction from the Legislature, state regulators are looking at whether to loosen permit requirements for installing such systems.
Gray water includes wastewater from showers, bathtubs, bathroom sinks, laundry tubs and washing machines, but not from toilets, kitchen sinks or dishwashers. The latter sources typically have high bacterial content, making them unsuitable for irrigation.
A typical home produces more than 45,000 gallons of gray water annually, according to ReWater Systems, a Chula Vista firm that specializes in high-end water reuse projects.
The vast majority of gray water systems in California don't have permits, making it difficult to quantify the phenomenon. State rules and local permitting requirements for using gray water are complicated and costly to follow, so most residents don't file the paperwork.
“You would be hard-pressed to find a law that is as widely flaunted,” said Art Ludwig, an ecology consultant in Santa Barbara. His Web site, oasisdesign.net, offers gray water tips and project plans.
Ludwig estimates that California has 1.8 million gray water systems.
The state's continued drought has prompted a new look at its gray water rules, which are administered by cities and counties. California's housing agency recently started rewriting the regulations in hopes of having new standards in place by 2011. The efforts include reviewing how other states manage gray water.
Arizona allows gray water for above-ground drip irrigation, and it generally doesn't mandate individual permits for single-family homes with those systems.
“Obviously, we want to do things that are safe,” said Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, who pushed for updating California's rules in hopes of curbing the amount of potable water used for landscaping. “But we believe it's time to review those standards so that water can be recycled and go from shower to flower.”
Eventually, he said, gray water systems may be required for new homes and residents could choose whether to use them.
One question is whether California will continue to permit only gray water irrigation systems that are underground. The restriction was designed to eliminate human contact with the water.
“(But) it's very expensive to build a system 9 inches underground, and it's not useful,” Lowenthal said. “You can't water your flower bed like that.”
Demand for potable water could drop by 50 percent for households using gray water, according to a 2006 study published by the Water Environment Research Foundation, a major scientific group in Alexandria, Va. It said gray water from a 2,500-square-foot home could irrigate about half of the drought-tolerant plants on a lot of 11,000 square feet.
The simplest type of gray water system connects to washing machines, which use 15 to 50 gallons per load. Typically, these appliances are located near an outside wall with drain hoses that can be easily removed from the sewage system.
“It's a very, very low risk and it's very high leverage in terms of conservation,” said Laura Allen of Oakland, co-founder of the Greywater Guerrillas.
County officials said it's illegal to divert washing-machine effluent for landscape irrigation without obtaining a permit, which involves filing detailed documents, submitting soil percolation data and completing an inspection.
“Gray water is untreated wastewater that has the potential to contain high levels of bacteria,” said Tom Lambert at the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health, which regulates gray water in the region. “Our first and foremost objective is to see that it is used in a way that will not create any public health risks.”
His database shows 41 permitted gray water systems countywide, but he acknowledges that unpermitted ones are widespread. Lambert said county agents don't go looking for renegade users.
Scientists said gray water's effects on human health and the environment are unclear. The product can contain a complex mixture of chemicals from soaps, detergents and other sources.
At Colorado State University, researchers are assessing how gray water affects residential landscapes. Their analysis of the Southwest includes a yard in Escondido.
“Regulators have not had a good set of scientific data to make science-based decisions,” said Larry Roesner, one of the study's coordinators.
Lack of research hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of people like Thomas Weller, an auto mechanic from El Cajon.
Weller drains his washing machine into a 55-gallon plastic drum that's placed on a cart. Then he wheels the container around his yard and waters his plants.
Weller started the system about 10 years ago to conserve money and water.
“I am not paying for fresh water to water my grass and roses,” he said. “I am using the water I already paid for.”
Weller's operation isn't up to code, but he doesn't care.
Ponizil, the Encinitas resident, also has no qualms talking publicly about his two unpermitted systems.
“We are a step away from water rationing, so now I want to help people deal with it,” he said. By embracing gray water, Ponizil said, “I don't think you have to sacrifice at all to live with 20 percent less (potable) water.”
About eight years ago, Ponizil started using water from his shower – about 35 gallons every time he lathered up – to irrigate fruit and nut trees. Last month, he spent about $150 for the system that drains into his blackberry patch.
In La Jolla, gray water guru Steve Bilson is installing a high-end system for a sprawling property on Mount Soledad. Gray water from the mansion will be pumped through an underground irrigation system to irrigate an expansive grass playfield.
Bilson said his company, ReWater, is the only one in California that sells legally permitted gray water systems, which usually cost roughly $8,000.
“In this last year, I have been busier than I ever have been in my life times 10,” he said. “The average person is starting to understand that maybe we don't have enough water.”
Conservation
One remedy that has almost unanimous support is conservation: Everyone -- residential consumers, businesses and farmers -- needs to use less.
Landscape irrigation is an obvious target for water agencies.
Sixty to 70 percent of household water goes to keep lawns green, experts say.
"Grass is really my enemy," said Cantú of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.
Most homeowners could easily cut their lawn watering in half and their lawns would still survive, she said.
Some water agencies are working aggressively to get the message out, providing rebates and other incentives for homeowners to cut water use.
The Eastern Municipal Water District has assigned a worker to look for oversaturated lawns.
Violators get two warnings. Subsequent violations could lead to fines up to $100.
Since the program took effect in September, the agency has warned or fined more than 2,200 residents and businesses.
Farmers are being asked to pitch in, too.
For the first time since the early 1990s, the state has activated a water bank in which farmers upstream from the Delta can voluntarily let their land go fallow and sell their water to those in need.
In farm and water-rich areas of Southern California -- the Palo Verde Valley and Imperial County -- farmers already have been selling their water to the MWD, San Diego and the Coachella Valley in long-term agreements allowing the growers to get paid for not farming their land.
Their water goes to Southern California urban users instead.
Washington Post
EPA: Global Warming Threatens Public Health, Welfare...Juliet Eilperin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301068_pf.html
The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the White House on Friday finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment.
The proposal -- which comes in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision ordering EPA to consider whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act -- could lay the groundwork for nationwide measures to limit such emissions. It reverses one of the Bush administration's landmark environmental decisions: In July 2008 then-EPA administrator Stephen Johnson rejected his scientific and technical staff's recommendation and announced the agency would seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming pollution.
"This is historic news," said Frank O'Donnell, who heads the public watchdog group Clean Air Watch. "It will set the stage for the first-ever national limits on global warming pollution. And it is likely to help light a fire under Congress to get moving."
But business groups decried the move as an economic disaster.
"By moving forward with the endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, EPA is putting in motion a set of decisions that may have far-reaching unintended consequences," said Bill Kovacs, vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Specifically, once the finding is made, no matter how limited, some environmental groups will sue to make sure it is applied to all aspects of the Clean Air Act.
"This will mean that all infrastructure projects, including those under the president's stimulus initiative, will be subject to environmental review for greenhouse gases. Since not one of the projects has been subjected to that review, it is possible that the projects under the stimulus initiative will cease. This will be devastating to the economy."
In December 2007 EPA submitted a written recommendation to the White House urging the Bush administration to allow EPA to state officially that global warming is a threat to human welfare. But senior White House officials refused to open the document and urged Johnson to reconsider, saying such a finding would trigger sweeping regulatory requirements under the 45-year-old Clean Air Act. An EPA analysis had found the move would cost utilities, automakers and others billions of dollars while also bringing benefits to other economic sectors.
EPA officials could not be reached immediately today for comment on the proposal.
Several congressional Democrats had urged EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson to move ahead with an endangerment finding on the grounds that it was scientifically warranted and would help push Congress to enact a national cap on greenhouse gases. Unlike President George W. Bush, President Obama backs such mandatory limits.
On Thursday Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, said, "There is no question that the law and the facts require an endangerment finding, and it should happen without further delay, and I believe it will."
New York Times
Stimulus Ideals Conflict on the Texas Prairie...Michael Cooper
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/23sprawl.html?sq=lawsuit&st=cse&scp=14&pagewanted=print
WALLER, Tex. — Over the years the Katy Prairie has survived the cattle ranchers who tamed its fields, the rice farmers who cleared its wildflowers and tall grasses, and even the encroachment of Houston, some 30 miles to the east, whose spiraling outward growth turned most of the formerly lonesome prairie into subdivisions and strip malls.
Now the prairie is facing a new threat: the federal stimulus law.
Texas plans to spend $181 million of its federal stimulus money on building a 15-mile, four-lane toll road — from Interstate 10 to Highway 290 and right through the prairie — that will eventually form part of an outer beltway around greater Houston called the Grand Parkway.
The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it.
A new master-planned community called Bridgeland is rising on the prairie along the proposed site of the road; once completed, the development is expected to have 21,000 new homes on 11,400 acres. Other developers are eagerly awaiting the new road so they can start building on their empty land, too.
Though the road is welcomed by developers, it is bemoaned by transportation advocates who lament that it will lead people to settle far away from the main centers of employment — locking more people into long commutes.
“They should be spending the money where the people are,” said Robin Holzer, the chairwoman of the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, a Houston-based advocacy group, who added that the money would have been better spent on transit or on alleviating congestion on roads through more developed areas.
President Obama made his opposition to sprawl explicit during a trip to Florida last month while he was pushing for the stimulus bill’s passage. “The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over,” he said, urging officials to employ “innovative thinking” when deciding how to spend their transportation money.
But to ensure that the money is spent quickly, the law leaves decisions of how to spend some $27.5 billion in transportation money up to the states — and quite a few are using their shares to build new and wider roads that will spur development away from their most populous centers.
North Carolina is extending Interstate 295 outside Fayetteville, which will benefit Fort Bragg but use up limited resources that were being sought by bigger areas like Charlotte and Raleigh. New Hampshire plans to widen Interstate 93, which gets clogged because so many residents of southern New Hampshire now commute to Boston for work. Lawmakers in Washington decided to widen several highways around the state, but snubbed projects sought by Seattle.
The plan to build a new leg of the Grand Parkway near here highlights the tension between some of the competing priorities of the Obama administration. The administration’s desire to change the way the country thinks about development, and to wean it from its dependency on foreign oil, is clashing with its need to spend stimulus money as fast as possible. And its call for creating or saving 3.5 million jobs is bumping up against its wish to curb sprawl, which eats up land but creates jobs in construction and strip malls and fast food restaurants that remain after the road builders have all gone away.
Mr. Obama made environmental concerns central to the $787 billion stimulus bill that Congress passed last month. The law provides money for renewable energy and for making federal buildings energy efficient, and it gives tax credits to buyers of plug-in hybrid cars. The logo the administration created for the economic recovery program is not only red, white and blue, but green too: it shows white stars on a blue background, white gears on a red background, and white leaves on a green background.
A White House spokesman, Nick Shapiro, said that the stimulus bill would promote “long-term sustainable development” by spending billions of dollars on renewable energy, mass transit, rail service and urban development, and he added that the choice of most transportation projects was left to states.
“The Recovery Act creates jobs by investing in immediate projects such as highways, bridges and tunnels — and within limitations to prevent waste, fraud, and ‘highways to nowhere’ — grants the states and their citizens broad discretion to choose which highway projects get funding,” Mr. Shapiro said in a statement.
But some environmentalists here worry that the law will destroy part of the last 150,000 undeveloped acres of a prairie that was once 1,000 square miles — a treasured expanse of open land in the shadow of Houston that attracts bird watchers, hunters, hikers and prairie flower enthusiasts. The Sierra Club, which sometimes leads groups through the prairie to see its bald eagles, ducks, geese, herons and egrets, filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the project so another environmental review can be conducted.
“When you get out here, it seems you’re not even close to Houston,” Brandt Mannchen, a volunteer with the club, said on a recent tour of the prairie, where he pointed out native grasses and flowers. “This is what we’re trying to protect.”
The road won environmental approval from the federal government last year and took a step forward this month when county officials awarded several design and engineering contracts. It is more controversial for its proposed use of tolls — little loved in Texas — than for questions about land use. But supporters of the project, which has been discussed and planned for more than two decades, say that Houston will continue to expand westward with or without the road, and that it would be better to plan for the growth than to react to it once it comes.
“Our interest is to encourage what we call quality growth,” said Roger H. Hord, the president of the West Houston Association, a group of property owners and businesses in the area. “I understand there are concerns about sprawl. Houston is what it is. It will grow. We’ve had a pattern of it since we’ve started. The point we’re trying to make is, we can either plan for that growth and get in advance of it, or we can not plan and just let it happen.”
Mr. Hord pointed out that the road would connect two existing highways and said it would ease congestion on some of Houston’s other beltways. He said that an existing leg of the Grand Parkway, just to the south of the proposed leg, would give a sense of what the new stretch of the Grand Parkway might look like when it is done. The existing stretch is lined with strip malls and gas stations and drug stores and a huge 7,600-acre residential development called Cinco Ranch that is popular with families.
It feels a world away from the landscape of fields, ranches and prairie to the north — land that nature lovers have been patiently working for years to conserve.
When a rare swath of unspoiled prairie plant life — including switchgrass, prickly rattlesnake master and bright orange Indian paintbrush flowers — was threatened by bulldozers last summer, volunteers laboriously dug up more than 2,000 square feet of it, trucked it away, and replanted it on land protected by the Katy Prairie Conservancy, which has bought or protected nearly 18,000 acres of the prairie and hopes to save more than 50,000 acres, though developers have pushed the price of land up in recent years.
Hopping out of his pickup, shielded from a little welcome rain by his white Stetson, Wesley Newman, the conservancy’s land manager, showed off the rescued prairie garden outside the conservancy’s field office here.
“We actually have a little patch of intact prairie, if you will,” he said, standing among tufts of tall grass just a few miles west of the proposed highway.
CNN Money
Existing home sales spike 5%
Realtors group says sales of existing homes rose in February. Prices tumble more than 15%...Ben Rooney
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/23/real_estate/existing_
home_sales/index.htm?postversion=2009032311
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose in February, recovering from a sharp drop in the previous month, according to an industry report released Monday.
The National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million million units, up 5.1% from a rate of 4.49 million in January. February sales were down nearly 5% from year ago levels.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting existing home sales to decline to 4.45 million.
The report said first-time buyers made up half of all purchases in February, and that sales of distressed properties accounted for about 45% of all transactions.
Sales were unexpectedly strong in the West, with activity increasing more than 30% over last year.
"February wasn't too shabby for the existing-home market," said Mike Larson, real estate analyst at Weiss Research. "The catch? The increase in sales activity is coming at the expense of pricing."
The national median existing-home price was $165,400 in February, down 15.5% from last year, when the median price was $195,800.
Prices were depressed by the large number of foreclosed properties on the market, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.
"Our analysis shows that distressed homes typically are selling for 20% less than the normal market price, and this naturally is drawing down the overall median price."
Meanwhile, the total number of existing homes on the market at the end of February rose 5.2% to 3.80 million units. At the current sales pace, it would take an estimated 9.7 months to sell down that inventory of properties.
The report also said the total number of homes for sale has steadily declined over the past six months from a record level last July.
Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said there's a "good chance" the collapse in home sales that has been going on since September is "now over." "Though a sustained recovery is still a long way off," he added.
Treasury unveils troubled 'bad asset' plan
By partnering with private investors, government hopes it can finally flush out toxic assets from banks' balance sheets...David Ellis and Jennifer Liberto. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report 
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/23/news/companies/
treasury_plan/index.htm
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The Treasury Department unveiled its long-awaited plan to remove many of the troubled assets from banks' books Monday, representing one of the biggest efforts by the U.S. government so far aimed at tackling the ongoing financial crisis.
Under the new so-called "Public-Private Investment Program," taxpayer funds will be used to seed partnerships with private investors that will buy up toxic assets backed by mortgages and other loans.
The goal is to buy up at least $500 billion of existing assets and loans, such as subprime mortgages that are now in danger of default.
Treasury said the program could potentially expand to $1 trillion over time, but that the hope is that it would not only help cleanse the balance sheets of many of the nation's largest banks, which continue to suffer billions of dollars in losses, but help get credit flowing again.
The government will run auctions between the banks selling the assets and the investors buying them, hoping to effectively create a market for these assets.
To kickstart things, the administration said it will commit $75 billion to $100 billion and would consider how the program is progressing before committing more money.
Even as he acknowledged that the government was taking on risk with this new program, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner defended it as the best alternative, saying that doing nothing would result in a deeper credit crunch and a "longer, deeper recession."
The plan, which was widely hinted at over the weekend, appeared to be warmly received by Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average gained almost 4% in late morning trading Monday, helped by a surge in the financials. Shares of Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) each climbed about 15% on the New York Stock Exchange.
Investors have been waiting expectantly for details since Geithner first announced the framework of a plan last month to address two of the biggest problems in the banking sector: the toxic assets keeping banks from lending and the shortage of capital at major institutions.
But the latest program may very well add to the cost of federal bailouts to date. So far, the government has spent $2.5 trillion of the more than $12 trillion authorized for programs aimed at propping up the nation's financial services industry and the broader U.S. economy.
Will the plan work?
One of the biggest difficulties in getting the program off the ground was how to price the soured assets. If the government paid too little, banks would take the hit. But if the government overpaid, then already-soaked taxpayers would feel the pinch.
One nagging concern, however, is whether the government's involvement will actually spur banks and private investor groups, such as hedge funds, pension plans and insurance companies to participate.
Administration officials indicated Sunday they had gotten support from private investors and banks who have been briefed about the program. But some analysts questioned whether the government's help would be enough to push investors and banks toward figuring out a price.
At the same time, there are fears that investors may be reluctant to participate in light of the fact that Congress has retroactively altered the terms of many of the government rescue programs so far.
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pimco, one of the world's largest bond investment managers, said those concerns were not enough to deter his firm's interest in the program.
He told CNN that Pimco planned to participate and would also apply to the Treasury for one of the available asset manager positions to help run the program. Asset manager BlackRock (BLK, Fortune 500) said it also planned to apply.
Geithner said Monday those asset managers and investors who participate will not have to abide by new caps on executive pay that have been imposed on financial institutions that received bailout money.
"These programs are different programs," Geithner said.
Regulators indicated, however, that they had few other attractive alternatives.
Letting banks continue to hold these assets on their books, for example, would only drag out the crisis and could put the country in a position similar to what happened in Japan during that country's so-called Lost Decade in the 1990s.
But if the government bought all the bad assets on its own, taxpayers would take on all of the risk. By investing with private firms under the current plan, the expectation is that taxpayers would share the risk -- as well as any potential returns.
Much like many of the government rescue efforts so far, the latest plan will rely on cooperation from other top regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The FDIC, the nation's top banking regulator, will conduct an auction for pools of loans banks are looking to sell and would guarantee debt issued by the buyer.
As part of Monday's announcement, the Federal Reserve would also expand its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, to include lower rated securities backed by residential and commercial mortgages.
The TALF program, which was launched last week, also will help find buyers for issuers of securities backed by other debt, such as auto, credit card, student and small business loans.
President Obama and Geithner have been working for months, even before Obama took office in January, to fashion a comprehensive strategy for rescuing the banks.
Geithner's plans have been weighed down in recent days by congressional and public backlash against retention bonuses paid to employees of American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500), a troubled insurer that is now majority owned by the government.
Credit union members: Don’t panic...Ismat Sarah Mangla
http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/03/23/
credit-union-members-dont-panic/
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Credit unions often offer some of the best deals in banking. But on Friday night, federal regulators seized two corporate credit unions with assets totaling $57 billion. So what does that mean for the sterling rep credit unions have managed to build?
The two institutions put into conservatorship, US Central Federal Credit Union in Lenexa, Kansas, and Western Corporate Federal Credit Unionin San Dimas, California, did not actually serve consumers directly. Rather, they acted as clearinghouses, offering loans and other services to retail credit unions. According to the National Credit Union Administration, the federal body that overseas credit unions, both US Central and Western Corporate held “an unacceptably high concentration of risk” and federal seizure was required “to protect retail credit union deposits.” NCUA says that despite the seizure, both will continue offering services.
If you’re one of the 90 million credit union members nationwide, don’t panic in the face of this news. You deposits are safe. The NCUA, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insures all credit union deposits, usually up to $100,000. And, like the FDIC, the NCUA increased its coverage to $250,000 until December 31, 2009. Just make sure that you see the NCUA logo pictured here on your credit union’s web site. If you’re unsure whether your credit union is a member (98% of them are), NCUA’s web site offers a tool that helps you check. You should also use the Electronic Share Insurance Calculator to make sure all your credit union deposits are covered. (Just like FDIC insurance, deposits at any one institution exceeding $250,000 are not covered unless those accounts fall in different ownership categories. Doublecheck yours with ESIC.)
Bottom line: You’re still going to find low fees and good deals at credit unions. As long as your institution is federally insured and your deposits fall below the insured limits, you can rest easy.