5-13-09

 
5-13-09
Merced Sun-Star
Beachwood residents criticize slow response to water concerns...JONAH OWEN LAMB
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/842590.html
In late April, more than 150 angry and emotional Beachwood area residents filled a room at Joe Stefani Elementary School.
They demanded answers from state regulators after years of groundwater pollution from a wood-treatment facility in the area that allegedly caused the illness and premature death of locals. It also sparked a class- action lawsuit.
One of the main questions directed at the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board -- the body that regulates water quality in the region -- was why it took so long to tell people in the area of the potential danger to their health.
The state's reply: sorry.
"I apologize," said Pamela Creedon, the Regional Board's executive director. "It was never our intention to not keep the community informed. For that I am sorry," she said in a recent interview.
Mick Marderosian, the lead attorney in the federal class-action (which includes the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., which once owned the company responsible for the pollution), said his clients at the meeting wanted to know why the state took so long to notify them of the danger.
While the state apologized for its lack of outreach in the area, Duncan Austin, senior engineer for the state at the cleanup, said records exist of the state sending out notices, but the state has no idea who they were sent to or how many were sent.
"Our records show that there were notices sent in the early '90s," said Austin.
The first time a general notice was sent to people in the area -- aside from the notice sent in the '90s -- was in 2007, said Austin.
The lawsuit headed by Marderosian was filed in 2007 in federal district court in Fresno.
It involves more than 200 people from the Beachwood neighborhood, a populated area between Merced and Atwater.
Some say they've gotten ill or have relatives who've died because they drank water contaminated by or came in contact with chromium 6, a toxin from the site connected with cancer and birth defects.
Since 1994 there has been a state-directed cleanup at the site on the corner of Santa Fe Drive and Beachwood Drive.
While Merck's lawyers admit that the site was contaminated by their subsidiary, they counter that there's no evidence that anyone got sick from those contaminants being in the groundwater.
In its notice of the meeting held for Beachwood residents, the Regional Board said, "The Beachwood neighborhood's drinking water has not been contaminated, and the water from these wells meets the drinking water standards set by the California Department of Public Health."
The meeting in Beachwood was called, said the Regional Board's Creedon, partly because the case has garnered such interest, especially from the state's two senators.
Despite the state's tardy notification of the plume of toxins in Beachwood, the ultimate responsibility, said Marderosian, lies with Merck, which he charged with contaminating the groundwater in the first place.
The pharmaceutical giant, in turn, rejected that notion of responsibility.
And the state apologized.
Our View: Next bubble? UC execs' generous pay
Perks at top increase as class of 2009 looks to lower wages and undergrads face tuition hikes...Editorial
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/842591.html
Call it a supersized ratchet effect. Even during a major economic downturn and state budget crisis, executive compensation at the University of California -- and other public university systems -- only goes up.
Here's a prime example: The current chancellor at UC Davis, Larry Vanderhoef, earns a base salary of $315,000 a year.
The just-named new chancellor, Linda Katehi, will earn a great deal more, $400,000. She also will get a $100,000 relocation allowance, moving costs, a car allowance of almost $9,000 a year and free housing.
Katehi made a generous $356,000 as provost at the University of Illinois but did not get free housing. While she is clearly well-qualified for the Davis job, UC had 600 applicants for the post. That makes it hard to see why such a lavish pay package was called for.
By comparison, UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang makes for a base salary of $290,457.
This kind of pay at a public university would be considered excessive even during flush economic times. But during an economic bust, it's unconscionable. It comes as students in the college class of 2009 can expect lower wages for a decade.
In addition for future students, last week UC regents raised next year's undergraduate fees by 9.3 percent.
This run-up in executive compensation is classic herd behavior, as indicated by UC President Mark Yudof's remarks in a May 8 news story. He said UC salaries are low compared with those of chancellors at similar universities nationwide, and that lower salaries wouldn't allow him to recruit the talent needed to run California's prestigious public universities.
Yudof is right in a sense. One-third of public university presidents now earn more than $500,000 a year. The median pay in 2007-08 was $427,400, according to the annual survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
But UC is not a passive victim in this. The university does self-serving salary surveys comparing UC with about two dozen mostly private universities, including Harvard, Stanford and MIT. Voila! UC comes out behind.
UC needs to take a leadership role in driving the market to moderation and restraint. Something is terribly wrong if public universities are seen as just another place to make money -- not as a locus for passion in public service.
Katehi told The Sacramento Bee that when public universities set salaries, "there is always a trade-off between trying to be sensitive to the difficult economic times we face and trying to retain good people."
Well, yes. But some university leaders are acknowledging economic hard times by returning some of their salary. For example, the president of Washington State University returned $100,000 of his $725,000 salary.
Maybe UC chancellors, too, could lead by example and return a portion of their salary.
But it is the Board of Regents that needs to step up and establish a pay structure that serves the state's interest in strong academic institutions, not the personal financial interests of administrators.
UC executive pay is the next bubble that needs to burst in California.
First Class: Spotlight for UC student's performance a little brighter now...DANIELLE GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/842595.html
Socorra Camposanto has been performing since she was a little girl. She performed in her high school choir and even won the title of "UCM Idol" at a campus singing competition her freshman year.
Even so, the 22-year-old UC Merced senior gets jittery before performing.
"I'm always nervous before I sing," Camposanto said. "No matter how many times I've done it, my leg shakes."
Her leg will likely resemble a jackhammer this Saturday when she will perform her original song, "We Rise," at the close of the UC Merced commencement ceremony.
More than 9,000 tickets have been printed for the event, and up to 11,000 people are expected on campus.
Camposanto auditioned for the chance to perform the song in front of a campus committee last semester. She was so nervous then that she didn't open her eyes during the entire performance.
"And from a little seed / to a giant tree / only time will tell / who we can be," Camposanto sang.
Camposanto enrolled at UC Merced in 2005. She didn't apply to the Merced campus, but was guaranteed a seat in the UC system.
Camposanto learned of the invitation to attend UC Merced while she was in Colorado visiting another campus with her brother. She remembers telling him that UC Merced might be a better fit for the San Jose native.
Her brother lives in Fresno, and Merced proved to be an ideal central location to call home for four years.
The scholarships she was offered from the fledging campus didn't hurt either...
Her first impression of the campus was its remote location.
"Wow. There are cows everywhere," Camposanto remembers thinking. Then, a moment later, "That's cool."
"So we rise for tomorrow / We rise for today / We rise with the hope / that you'll carry on / what we've done today."...
"When you come to Merced, you can't have the idea that everything will be set for you," she said. "You have to be willing to get things done."...
Camposanto said Michelle Obama's attendance as commencement speaker is just one prominent example of Merced's "student-driven university" style.
"This is a place / where a person / isn't just a number / but a soul / with a heart and face / a friend, sister and brother."...
The song is simple, Camposanto explained, to reflect "the simple way of life here."...
Camposanto will receive her degree next fall. She majors in biology with an emphasis in ecology and conservation and also has a declared minor in history...
"I never dreamed that the biggest gig of my life would be my own graduation," she said.
"With open arms / here we stand / to change the world / I know we can."
Modesto Bee
RealtyTrac: April foreclosures rise 32 percent...ADRIAN SAINZ, AP Real Estate Writer
http://www.modbee.com/state/v-print/story/701362.html
MIAMI -- The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday.
More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.
April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.
The April number, however, was less than one percent above that posted in March, when more than 340,000 properties were affected. The March data was up 17 percent from February and 46 percent from a year earlier.
"We've never seen two consecutive months like this," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's senior vice president for marketing. "It's the volume that's surprising."
While total foreclosure activity was up, the number of repossessions by banks was down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March of last year, RealtyTrac said.
But that's far from positive news. Because much of the foreclosure activity in April was in the default and auction stages - the first parts of the foreclosure process - it's likely that repossessions will increase in coming months, RealtyTrac said.
About 63,900 homes were repossessed in April, down 11 percent from about 71,700 in March, RealtyTrac said. But the mortgage industry has resumed cracking down on delinquent borrowers after foreclosures were temporarily halted by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, together with many other lenders.
"All of these loans are now being processed pretty rapidly by the servers," Sharga said.
Help might be on the way. The Obama administration announced a plan in March to provide $75 billion in incentive payments for the mortgage industry to modify loans to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure. But the extent of the relief remains unclear, with questions lingering about how much the lending industry will cooperate in modifying loans.
After banks take over foreclosed homes, they usually put them up for sale at deep discounts. Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market in the first quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported.
First-quarter home sales fell in all but six states - Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota - where buyers have been able to grab foreclosed homes at discounts, the realtors group said Tuesday.
On a state-by-state basis, Nevada had one in every 68 households receive a foreclosure filing, down 18 percent from March but still the nation's highest rate. In Florida, one in every 135 households received a filing in April. For California, the rate was one in every 138 households.
Rounding out the top 10 were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio.
Among large cities, Las Vegas led the way with one in every 56 households receiving a filing. That was a slightly higher rate than the southwest Florida metro area of Cape Coral-Fort Myers, which saw one in 57 housing units receive a filing.
Cities in California took the next six spots: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo-Fairfield and Stockton. The Florida cities of Miami and Orlando were ninth and 10th, respectively.
Sacramento Bee
Climate legislation opponents up to same old tricks...KEVIN KNOBLOCH
http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/1857250.html
Thanks to documents recently uncovered by a lawsuit, we now know that a major industry trade group was told by its science advisers in 1995 that it was spreading false information about climate change.
But that didn't matter to the Global Climate Coalition, which included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and a number of oil and auto companies. The coalition, which disbanded in 2002, simply continued to deny the consensus of the world's climate scientists.
Since then, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber and many of their allies have largely dropped their anti-science stance. Instead, they now deny the emerging consensus among economists that we need policies aimed at reducing heat-trapping emissions. It's a new campaign with a new emphasis, but their tactics still rely on an old formulation: If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.
Last year, NAM and the American Council for Capital Formation, an industry think tank, released a study examining the cost of implementing a cap on heat-trapping emissions, and the Chamber hosted forums across the country to promote it. The study concluded that the U.S. economy would grow significantly with or without a cap by 2030, but that under a cap, the growth rate would be slightly lower. The Chamber misrepresented those findings and talked about the study as if it concluded a cap would reduce economic growth from today's levels.
Recently, the Chamber released another study, this time by a consulting firm called CRA International, and is pulling the same bogus hide-the-numbers trick.
Meanwhile, the American Energy Alliance, another industry front group, is currently running misleading radio ads targeting members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is considering climate and energy legislation introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The ads are based on a deliberate misinterpretation of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and other members of Congress have been repeating ad nauseum for weeks.
The MIT study estimates how much revenue the government could raise from polluting industries by auctioning off emissions permits under a cap-and-trade system. Climate and energy legislation opponents twist that estimate by calling it a tax on individuals. And they ignore the government's ability to use that revenue to benefit consumers, for example, by giving them rebates and funding energy efficiency improvements.
An MIT professor who co-authored the study, John Reilly, asked Rep. Boehner to stop misquoting it. Rep. Boehner ignored his request, and the made-up number has become the mantra of climate and energy legislation opponents.
A more realistic look at climate and energy policy tells a different story. Last month, my organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, released the findings of a two-year study that examines a comprehensive approach to climate and energy policy similar to the one proposed by the Waxman-Markey legislation.
Our analysis, based on a modified version of the Department of Energy's National Energy Modeling System, concluded that an emissions cap combined with effective electricity and transportation policies, would save the average U.S. household $300 per year on electricity and gasoline bills in 2020 and $900 per household in 2030. That's thanks to more efficient use of electricity and gasoline, which more than compensates for a marginal increase in the price of fossil fuels.
It is important to remember that none of these analyses - not even the one we did - account for the large costs of unchecked climate change, which would include major disruptions to agriculture, coastal flooding and compromised public health. Given the incontrovertible evidence of climate change and the need to address it, there are a number of NAM and Chamber members that now favor congressional action, this year, to reduce global warming emissions.
They include Alcoa, American Electric Power, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Nike, Shell Oil and Xerox. Duke Energy recently announced it will not renew its membership with NAM, in part because of disagreements over climate change policy. Those high-profile defectors have not blunted the NAM-Chamber campaign to scare the public and block Congress from embracing climate policies.
But it is increasingly apparent that NAM, the Chamber and their fellow travelers have squandered whatever scientific and economic credibility they may have had on this issue. We cannot afford to let them stand in the way of the opportunity to make America a stronger, safer and more resilient nation.
Fewer homes listed this spring in Sacramento area...Jim Wasserman
http://www.sacbee.com/business/v-print/story/1856386.html
In real estate, it's a rite of spring to watch a big new crop of for-sale signs rise in April.
Not this year.
April ended in the capital region with fewer homes on the market than in March, Sacramento researcher Trend-Graphix said Tuesday.
The firm's statistics show that since 1994, only four years – 1995, 2003, 2008 and 2009 – have seen for-sale inventory fall from March to April.
The oddity also happened nationally this year, said Emeryville-based ZipRealty.
Area market trackers Tuesday described the reversal of a normal spring pattern as a continued housing crisis phenomenon and not a reliable sign of the market bottoming out.
Foreclosure moratoriums and lender decisions have been a key driver of falling inventory in the capital region, they say, greatly trimming the incoming supply of bank repos. But that decline is not likely to last, considering that banks are foreclosing again and also stepping up formal warnings issued when people fall behind on payments.
"I believe it's temporary. I'm hearing June 1 is the magic number to start releasing (repossessed homes) again. I think our inventory will start building the latter part of May and into June," said Bob Bronswick, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Sacramento-Tahoe area.
Missing, too, in April were individual sellers who would normally be in the game to move up, find a better school district or downsize. They're holding tight, avoiding a ruthless price-cutting market because they don't have to sell.
Bottom line: Buyers in this spring sales season are picking over a dwindling universe of quality listings.
"There's a real shortage of decent product," said Mike Lyon, head of Sacramento-based Lyon Real Estate. "For buyers out there right now, there's a lot of junk, and if it isn't junk, it's a short sale."
Short sales are homes for which the bank accepts less than owed to avoid the higher cost of foreclosing.
Lyon's research arm, TrendGraphix, reported 7,230 existing homes for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties as April ended. That's the lowest since July 2005. March closed with 8,189 homes for sale in the region.
It was the 20th straight month of falling inventory since listings peaked at more than 16,000 in August 2007.
Tuesday, ZipRealty reported 3.65 months of inventory in the capital region in April – the time it would take to sell all the listings at today's sales pace. That's considered a seller's market in which prices often rise with competition.
Nationally, ZipRealty reported an average of 8.65 months of inventory in April.
Sacramento real estate agent Dan Abraham of Keller Williams Realty said Tuesday that bidding wars have become the norm among buyers seeking bank repos. He described buyers making "10 or 12 offers, all over the asking price and still losing out.
"The competition is much higher because the inventory is so low," he said. "The buyers are out there. There's all kinds of buyers out there."
Lyon said he's urged his agents to press regular potential sellers to list their homes instead of waiting. Low interest rates, he said, mean people can make better offers on regular houses in good condition.
"There's less competition right now, and we cannot say that 90 days from now. Ninety days from now, we may be flooded with repos," he said.
Sacramento tightens water conservation rules...Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1856442.html
rules take effect in 30 days and are considered important to prevent water waste because the vast majority of residential water customers – about 104,000 – are unmetered. Until customers see their actual water use in monthly bills, and feel it in their pocketbooks, encouraging conservation is difficult.
The city has a plan to meter those connections gradually by 2025 to comply with state law.
Much of the state continues to suffer from a third year of drought, especially farms and communities south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which are dependent on imported water.
The Sacramento region appears likely to avoid shortages this year because of a wet spring.
"That being said … and we don't know what the weather is going to be like next year," said John Woodling, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Water Authority. "So we're always pushing people to use water efficiently and wisely."
The city also risks state enforcement against water-rights holders who abuse the resource, a threat driven by the reality that water is being stretched thin by a growing population.
"It's very, very important to really impress upon our citizens that things are different," said Councilman Rob Fong. "This is a great first step, but we have to recognize we have a way to go."
Current drought restrictions vary in the capital region, largely depending on each community's water source. Sacramento, which has ample water rights in the American and Sacramento rivers, has no restrictions.
Folsom and Roseville, which depend on federal water purchased from Folsom Lake, have imposed 20 percent conservation orders.
Spring rain and snow have improved the picture since then, at least locally. The American River is predicted to have near-normal runoff this year. Folsom Lake holds 118 percent of average capacity for this date.
"We're in a lot better position than we were in January and early February when some of those (drought) actions were taken," Woodling said.
As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has told some urban contractors in the region to expect supplies to increase beyond the 65 percent delivery forecast in April. Its next forecast is expected May 20.
Stockton Record
Calif. exports drop for fifth month in row (1:38 p.m.)...The Associated Press
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090512/A_NEWS/90512006/-1/A_NEWS
SACRAMENTO (AP) — California's export market dropped nearly 21 percent in March — the fifth straight month exports were down from the same period last year.
The state exported products worth $9.8 billion in March, down from $12.4 billion in March 2008, the University of California Center Sacramento said Tuesday.
Exports of manufactured goods dropped 24.8 percent in March. Overseas shipments of agricultural products and non-manufactured goods dropped 13.6 percent, despite an increase in rice exports.
Jock O'Connell, the UC Center's adviser on international trade and economics, said the figures indicate that the state's export market shows "little evidence of imminent recovery."
The figures were based on date released by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Home Market still suffering
Investors buying foreclosures at a quickening pace...Reed Fujii
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090513/A_BIZ/905130305
A record number of third-party buyers purchased homes at foreclosure sales in April, a reflection of increased investor interest in the distressed real estate market, a foreclosure tracking firm said Tuesday.
Statewide, third parties bought 1,684 properties at foreclosure auctions, 50 percent more than in March and more than triple the number in April 2008, according to ForeclosureRadar.com.
While a record, it still represents just 12 percent of the 13,550 California foreclosure sales last month on about $6 billion in loan value. Lenders took title to the rest of the properties.
In San Joaquin County foreclosure auctions, third-party bidders bought 80, or nearly 14 percent, of the 579 April sales, said Sean O'Toole, founder and chief executive of ForeclosureRadar.com, based in Discovery Bay.
Investors are seeking more information about foreclosure sales through his company, as the inventory of bank-owned foreclosure properties in California has dwindled.
O'Toole attributed the surge, in part, to developers, builders and brokers turning to foreclosure properties.
"A lot of folks that were doing quite well in building, real estate development and related industries that are essentially out of work right now but still have access to capital. They are essentially buying themselves a job," he said.
The attraction is that auction sale prices run an average of 28 percent less than estimated market value, O'Toole said.
But, he cautioned, purchasing homes at foreclosure auctions is not for the faint of heart.
Such sales offer properties "as is," and buyers have little or no chance to inspect properties. There is no title insurance, so there may be other liens, and the prior owner or tenant might have to be evicted.
Given those risks, O'Toole said, "It's really not for the newbie investor, and the consumer should not be buying on the courthouse steps.
"If you're buying 10 or 20 houses a year and you have one that is a loser, you can afford it," he said. "If you're thinking of buying one property a year, you're really playing Russian roulette."
While there are not a lot of third-party sales at foreclosure auctions, there is potential for investors who can pay cash and can handle the risk, said Mike Collins of Century 21-Collins Realty in Stockton.
"The investors are really kind of at the top of the market right now," he said.
Able to pay cash, investors can buy distressed properties outright and generate an income stream by putting them on the rental market.
"These folks that are losing these properties, the sad thing is, they still need a roof over their heads," Collins said.
San Francisco Chronicle
Advocates say time is right to reform mining law...JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/12/financial/f104417D91.DTL&type=printable
When Congress approved the rules governing the nation's mining operations, Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House, George Armstrong Custer was fighting Native Americans and Congress was looking for ways to encourage greater settlement of the nation's vast frontier.
A lot has changed since the General Mining Law was passed in 1872, but very little has changed about the law itself. Those who want it to be modernized say this finally may be the year they get reform.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has introduced a reform bill, and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., already has held a hearing on his own legislation.
"Given the current economic crisis in which we find ourselves, the empty state of the national treasury, it's ludicrous in my opinion to allow this outmoded law to continue to exempt these lucrative mining activities — and they are making money today, make no mistake about it — from paying a fair return to the American people while at the same time sticking the taxpayers with a multibillion dollar bill to clean up after them," Rahall said.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former senator from Colorado, is a longtime advocate of mining law reform.
His spokeswoman, Kendra Barkoff, said Salazar is committed to trying to pass a bill that provides the mining industry with the kind of regulatory certainty needed to make financial investments. But he also wants to require royalties to the government, environmental protections and a cleanup fund for abandoned mines.
Attempts over the years to change the law have foundered against the political influence of the mining industry, but members of Congress say prospects for an overhaul are the best they've been in more than a decade. The 2008 election increased Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, including a crop of conservation-minded Westerners, and President Barack Obama is expected to be more sympathetic than his predecessor, who threatened to veto mining legislation.
The 137-year-old law is the legacy of a bygone era.
It still allows anyone to hammer a stake in the ground and lay claim to gold, silver and other hardrock minerals beneath federal land. It also gives preference to mining over other uses, except for specifically protected areas such as national parks and wilderness.
And until 15 years ago, claimholders could actually buy federal land for a mere $5 an acre. Several high-profile abuses finally led to a moratorium on such purchases, called "patenting," in 1994.
Unlike the coal, oil and gas industries, hardrock mining companies are not required to pay government royalties on the estimated $1 billion in minerals they extract annually. Moreover, tens of thousands of abandoned mines are scattered across the West, many of them exposing people to dangerous contaminants such as arsenic, lead and mercury.
In former mining towns such as Crested Butte, Colo., where tourism is now big business, the last thing residents want is an operating mine that might spoil the scenery, water and their main source of income. But they say the law makes it difficult to fight new mines proposed for national forests or other federal land.
"Tourism is essentially everything for us," said John Belkin, attorney for Crested Butte, where a mining company has its eye on the molybdenum — used as a steel hardener — beneath a mountain slope that dominates the town's western vista.
He insists the town isn't opposed to mining, which is part of the region's roots.
"But there are some spots it just shouldn't be allowed, like a watershed, unless you are prepared to say to the community, 'You have to be a sacrifice,'" Belkin said.
The site being studied by Thompson Creek Metals of Denver is in the town's watershed. The company says mining claims on Mt. Emmons contain one of the world's largest and purest deposits of molybdenum.
"It's not as though somebody is going to look up and all of sudden there's going to be a mine on Mt. Emmons. This is a multiyear process," said Larry Clark, manager of Thompson Creek's Mt. Emmons subsidiary. "There are many mines that are operated in an environmentally sound manner without discharges off the property."
The biggest question mark hanging over reform efforts is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Nevada, his home state, has more mining than any other.
"Mining is one of Nevada's largest industries and the largest employer in the state's rural communities," Reid said in a statement to The Associated Press. "I support responsible mining law reform that is fair to all sides and protects these important jobs."
The mining industry has contributed nearly $274,000 to Reid over the course of his career, according Opensecrets.org, which tracks political money. Nevertheless, reform proponents who have spoken to Reid said he isn't set against changes.
"He's not a die-hard, 'over my dead body' type of person," said mining law expert John Leshy, a former Interior Department solicitor general. "If there is some sort of compromise that will allow him to tell the industry in Nevada, 'You can live with this,' then it can happen."
A major sticking point is how much of a royalty to charge mining companies. Rahall's bill calls for a 4 percent royalty on existing mining operations and 8 percent on new mines. The National Mining Association says that's too high and would cost jobs.
More than 50,000 people work in metal mining in the United States.
Bingaman's bill calls for a royalty of between 2 percent and 5 percent on the value of production, minus transportation and certain other costs. The royalty would apply only to new mines.
The industry also opposes a requirement in the House bill that would allow the government to write environmental standards for mining on federal land, saying new standards would duplicate existing laws.
"We already have to comply with at least 13 or 14 federal laws, to say nothing of the laws the states themselves impose," said Luke Popovich, vice president of the National Mining Association.
The Environmental Protection Agency says metal mining accounts for 28 percent of the 4.1 billion pounds of toxics released in the U.S. in 2007, the most of any industry.
The closest Congress came to an overhaul of the mining law was 1993, when the House and Senate were unable to reach a compromise on differing bills. That effort was prompted in part by two high profile cases, one involving a Canadian mining company obtaining access to an estimated $10 billion in gold reserves in Nevada at a cost of just $10,000. The other was a cyanide spill and acid drainage from a Colorado gold mine that killed all life in the Alamosa River for miles.
"We know there needs to be mining — it's an important part of the economy, especially in rural areas — but under the 1872 mining law, there has just been too much damage environmentally, especially to water resources," said Lauren Pagel, policy director of Earthworks.
Researchers study earthquakes' effect on delta...David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BA7U17FCLE.DTL&type=printable
California's vast delta, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers pour their waters toward the sea, could be in serious danger when the next major earthquake strikes along the Hayward Fault - or on any of the other faults that make up the San Andreas zone, scientists have long warned.
Now a new study is under way to detail just how seismic waves from future quakes would travel through the delta's thick sedimentary earth and whether the waves might grow stronger or weaken as they travel.
The nature of the ground beneath the delta's surface would greatly affect the damage a quake could cause to the waterway's miles of levees, which shelter roads and farms, and to the giant pumps near Tracy that send water to the state's parched southern regions.
In the study approved by the U.S. Geological Survey, seismologist Donna Eberhart-Phillips of UC Davis and two colleagues at the University of Wisconsin hope to gain insights into the delta's reaction to quakes of any size by recording the earth's movements during the small temblors that occur often along the Hayward Fault as well as along many of Northern California's smaller faults.
"We need to know how the energy from earthquakes travels through the upper 2 to 3 miles of the delta's earth - what the properties of that earth are, how the speed of a quake's seismic waves are attenuated when material in the region absorbs energy, and how a quake's effects propagate throughout the delta," Eberhart-Phillips said.
She and her colleagues are basing much of their research on the constant recordings of a dozen "strong-motion sensors" deployed throughout the western portion of the delta by USGS seismologist Jon Fletcher. The instruments have been placed at such crucial sites as Bethel Island, the edge of the ship channel near Stockton, near Tracy, at the Holland Tract Marina in Brentwood and on a farm near Orwood in Contra Costa County.
A quake with a magnitude of at least 6.7 is most likely to strike along the Hayward Fault - some 40 miles from the delta's center - within the next 25 years, according to the most recent probability estimates. But Fletcher and Eberhart-Phillips don't need to wait for one that big to gather their crucial data.
Temblors with magnitudes of 3 or even smaller can yield valuable information on the nature of the compacted soils around the delta and how man-made structures - particularly the delta's crumbling, century-old levees and the powerful Tracy pumps - will respond during a larger quake.
"There's always the possibility for a very strong amplification of ground motion, depending on the nature of the ground, which ranges anywhere from 2 to 5 miles deep in various areas of the delta," says Fletcher, "but there's very little known about the geologic structures beneath."
Experts have predicted that a magnitude 6.7 quake on the Hayward Fault could cause at least 30 breaches in the delta's 1,100 miles of levees and drown 16 of the delta's 70 islands under 300 billion gallons of salt water flooding in from Suisun Bay. If damage immobilized the Tracy pumps, freshwater supplies for more than 20 million people downstream to the Los Angeles area would be contaminated, according to geologist Jeffrey Mount, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis.
Although no known active seismic faults lie in deep bedrock beneath the peaty earth of the 1,600-square-mile delta region, he said, there's a "difference of opinion" among seismologists whether an active fault exists beneath Sherman Island.
The levees around the island developed widespread cracks some 20 years ago, but whether or not they were caused by tiny quakes remains a puzzle. The real earthquake danger comes from the nearby big faults - particularly the Hayward, he said.
Researchers study earthquakes' effect on delta…Multimedia (image)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BA7U17FCLE.DTL&o=1&type=printable
Senate panel considers study of drugs in water...JEFF DONN, AP National Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/12/national/a112350D11.DTL&type=printable
A proposal in the U.S. Senate would require a government study of pharmaceuticals and personal care products released by factories and other sources into waterways that often supply drinking water.
"As a mom and a lawmaker, I assume our drinking water is clean and safe and free of these kind of pharmaceuticals," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrat who announced the proposal Tuesday in Washington.
Her measure would require a two-year study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify the pharmaceuticals and personal care product in waterways, their sources, and methods of controlling them. It would call for the EPA to consider pharmaceuticals that enter the water stream from human excretion, manufacturing and other sources. The pharmaceutical industry would be consulted.
The House has already passed similar legislation.
The proposals were spurred by an Associated Press investigation reporting trace pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies of at least 51 million Americans. In an ongoing series of articles that began last year, the AP has reported that many pharmaceuticals — from antibiotics to psychiatric drugs to sex hormones — have been found in waterways and drinking water supplies. While many locales took action following the stories, most cities and water providers still don't test for pharmaceutical contaminants.
The biggest source is considered to be human excretion. However, manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways over the past 20 years, according to an AP analysis of federal data. An estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Most water treatment facilities do not remove all drug contamination.
Drugmakers say they don't significantly contribute to the problem. Utilities say the water is safe. And scientists and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks from consuming these minute concentrations of drugs.
However, research shows that the pharmaceuticals, especially when mixed together, sometimes harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists are concerned that the consumption of trace drugs, often in combination, could harm humans over decades.
The news coverage has spurred hearings, testing and legislation across the country. Gillibrand plans to put her proposal before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday as an amendment to the Water Pollution Control and Safe Drinking Water acts.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at) ap.org
Water policy by the numbers...Peter Gleick
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/EDFF17JEGU.DTL&type=printable
What do you think the numbers should, if anything, mean for water policy, water allocations and water management? Should this kind of information play a role in the decisions we make around water?
There has been a lot of news from the Central Valley recently about the high levels of unemployment there and possible connections with the drought and recent court rulings to restore some water to natural ecosystems and fish.
The media has reported, somewhat uncritically, the emotional argument that the water problems facing the state and the valley are the cause of massive unemployment in agricultural communities. And this has led some to call for suspending the Endangered Species Act and taking all the water away from the fish.
The argument, however, appears to be wrong: The drought has had very little overall impact on agricultural employment compared to the much larger impacts of the recession.
Growing Jobs: Where Should the Water Go?...Dr. Peter Gleick, President, Pacific Institute
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/detail?entry_id=39982
Some of the numbers I post will be interesting (I hope), but not very controversial. The last post (about the recent apparent decline in bottled water sales) seems to be one of those. But some of them will be remarkably controversial--not so much for what the number is as much as what the number might imply, or signify. This next one is certain to fall into this controversial category.
So before I get to it, let me solicit polite and thoughtful comments by asking readers the following: what do you think the numbers should, if anything, mean for water policy, water allocations, and water management? Should this kind of information play a role in the decisions we make around water?
Water Number: Data from the California State Department of Finance shows that 1000 acre-feet of water used to grow cotton, rice, or alfalfa produces between 1 to 5 jobs; 1000 acre-feet of water used to grow vegetables in California produces 18 to 35 jobs; 1000 acre-feet of water used in office buildings produces 2500 jobs; 1000 acre-feet of water used to produce semiconductors supports 9000 jobs. (Source: Gleick, P.H. 2004.California's "Economic Productivity" of Water Use: Jobs, Income, and Water Use in California. Pacific Institute, Oakland, California.)
There has been a lot of news from the Central Valley recently about the high levels of unemployment there and possible connections with the drought and recent court rulings to restore some water to natural ecosystems and fish. The media has reported, somewhat uncritically, the emotional argument that the water problems facing the state and the Valley are the cause of massive unemployment in agricultural communities. And this has led some to call for suspending the Endangered Species Act and taking all the water away from the fish.
The argument however, appears to be wrong: the drought has had very little overall impact on agricultural employment, compared to the much larger impacts of the recession. 
Pacific Institute
In fact, in the last three years, while State Water Project allocations have decreased statewide, California's agricultural job sector has grown (see figure). Further, according to Professor Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, rising unemployment in the Central Valley is largely the result of the bad economy, not a lack of water.
Traditionally water has not been allocated based on the number of jobs it creates, nor have water allocations done much to alleviate poverty and unemployment in the Central Valley, which have been with us in wet years and dry. And as today's Water Number suggests, if the only thing we cared about was jobs, if we had another 1000 (or million) acre-feet of water, we wouldn't necessarily give it to agriculture. So what do you think? What role should unemployment rates, and more precisely water-related job rates, play in water allocation decisions? A pure economist (is there such a thing?) would have one answer. A farmer would have another. A field worker and a fisheries biologist and a consumer would have a third and a fourth and a fifth. How do we balance these competing interests? What you would say, politely, to a friend...say it to me and your fellow readers.
Mercury News
'Smart growth' or environmental mistake on Redwood City's bay waterfront?...Paul Rogers
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_12354543
Setting the stage for a major environmental battle, an Arizona developer Tuesday unveiled plans to build up to 12,000 homes along Redwood City's bay front, a project that would be the largest shoreline housing development in the Bay Area since Foster City was constructed nearly 50 years ago.
The plan, by DMB Associates of Scottsdale, calls for converting vacant land owned by Cargill Salt east of Highway 101 into a community of perhaps 30,000 people.
Cargill and DMB, in partnership, say they hope to build a model "smart growth" project on the industrial salt evaporation ponds that would enable thousands of Silicon Valley workers to live closer to their jobs and avoid long commutes as the region grows.
"We don't view this as the typical developer versus environmentalist debate. This is smart growth versus no growth," said John Bruno, vice president and general manager of the partnership, which is called Redwood City Industrial Saltworks LLC.
Although numerous other bay-front development proposals along the Peninsula have been defeated by environmentalists, Bruno said he hopes to break ground by 2013, by which time he expects Silicon Valley's economy will have rebounded.
"These housing units are going to need to be built," he added. "If they are not built here, they will be built in the Central Valley or Livermore."
But environmental groups are preparing for a showdown.
"The project should be dead on arrival. It is so out of touch with reality on the bay shoreline that Redwood City, state and federal agencies all have reasons to reject it," said David Lewis, executive director of Save the Bay, a nonprofit group based in Oakland. Since 1901, the property has been used as industrial salt evaporation ponds to produce salt for roads, food and medicine. Lewis and other environmentalists say that because the property was once part of the bay's teeming marshes and sloughs, all of it should be restored to habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.
Silicon Valley cities will need more housing, Lewis said. But it should be built close to downtowns, not up against the bay, he said, citing the redevelopment of Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo as an example of a model project.
"This argument that building in salt ponds is better than building in Tracy is a ridiculous false choice. It implies those are the only two choices," Lewis said.
Environmentalists will work to kill the project at the City Council level, he said, and have not ruled out lawsuits or placing it on the ballot.
The project, which DMB will submit to the city Tuesday, includes a mixture of condominiums, apartments and attached housing on half the 1,433-acre site.
There also would be 1 million square feet of office space, retail shops, a fire station, and a trolley system that would connect residents with downtown Redwood City and its Caltrain station, slightly less than a mile away across Highway 101.
The other half of the site would remain undeveloped. Roughly 440 acres would be converted back to tidal wetlands, and an additional 250 would become parks, baseball fields and soccer fields.
The whole project would take 25 years to develop.
Environmentalists have a long history of defeating bay-front development in Redwood City.
In 1982, retired physicist and local resident Ralph Nobles organized a ballot measure to kill plans by Mobil Oil for 4,700 homes at Bair Island, just north of the Cargill site. The area is now a wildlife refuge. In 2004, he helped defeat a plan to build 17 high-rise condominiums near the Port of Redwood City.
"People want to live here because there is a healthy San Francisco Bay," Nobles said this past fall. "And if you destroy that you destroy our most precious commodity."
The Cargill property was not included in a 2003 deal when the company sold 16,500 acres around Alviso, Fremont and Sunnyvale to the state and federal government for $100 million to be restored as wetlands.
The property was already the subject of a contentious election just this past November when voters rejected Measure W, which would have required approval by two-thirds of Redwood City voters to develop not just the salt ponds but any open space land in Redwood City.
Redwood City Mayor Rosanne Foust said she wants to see more details before forming an opinion on the project.
"I don't see what digging my heels in on either side is going to do for anybody," she said. "I'd like the community to keep an open mind."
To win approval, the project will need permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies. Among the others is BCDC — the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency established by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan to limit bay filling after Pebble Beach developer Jack Foster dumped 1.5 million dump trucks full of sand and mud on Brewer's Island beginning in 1958, wiping out vast wetlands for ducks, fish and harbor seals, but creating Foster City, a community of 28,000 people today.
"The issue is: Is this project smart growth or is it smart growth in a dumb location?" said Will Travis, executive director of BCDC. "The devil is in the details."
Mayor Foust said she hopes residents can have a civil debate.
"I don't want to see our community torn up like it was a year ago," she said. "I'll be asking people, 'What are you willing to give and what are you willing to get?' "
Ironically, although DMB rolled out details of the Redwood City plan Tuesday, only last week the same company announced it was withdrawing another huge housing project on the Santa Clara-San Benito County line, citing the poor economy.
That project, El Rancho San Benito, was to have been a new city with 6,800 homes. But DMB said the job prospects and growth patterns are not the same on the Peninsula.
"Each project we do is unique and has different attributes. Decisions about Rancho San Benito are completely independent from Redwood City," Bruno said.
Los Angeles Times
Golf courses hit a rough patch
Around the nation, courses are struggling and say they're in need of aid too. One parks official touts golf's benefit as a stress-reliever, but a critic says the game is not an essential function...Richard Simon
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-golf13-2009may13,0,3580580,print.story
Reporting from Washington — In today's economy, golf is in the rough. And with a bad lie. Once-haughty country clubs are offering specials. Courses have closed or cut back on maintenance. The world's top golf ball manufacturer has seen demand for souvenir balls stamped with company logos drop off.
And so officials in the golf industry have joined the nation's bankers, auto makers and insurance companies in marching to Washington in search of understanding. They're not asking for a bailout, but they do want greater appreciation of their industry's importance.
"There are a number of congressmen who do not understand the economic impact of golf on their local community," said James B. Singerling, chief executive of the Club Managers Assn. of America. "Our message to Congress is that when you pass legislation that makes it difficult for the golf industry to stay in business, you don't hurt the wealthy. Who you hurt are the employees."
Singerling and others will be in Washington today to make sure Congress does not lump the golf industry in with massage parlors, suntan facilities and liquor stores as businesses undeserving of federal help.
"We're in an unprecedented era of government involvement in business, so we have to be in D.C. to be able to make sure that people, when they're writing law or making comments about our industry, realize all of the positive impact that golf has," said Joe Steranka, chief executive of the PGA of America.
Federal aid to golf has been a touchy subject since the 1990s, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency came under scrutiny for spending that included $872,000 to repair an Indian Wells, Calif., course damaged in 1993 flooding. According to FEMA's inspector general, the city-owned course was clearing about $1 million a year.
This year, golf courses, along with casinos and zoos, were excluded from receiving economic stimulus funds passed by Congress.
But Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense was unsympathetic. "If you're a private country club, people are paying you a lot of money to be a member. And maybe those are the people who should be picking up the tab for cleaning up the golf course after a disaster. . . . At the end of the day, this is not an essential function that has to be returned immediately to get the country working again."
The lobbying effort gained some urgency after lawmakers reacted angrily this year to the news that Northern Trust Co., a recipient of financial bailout money, hosted parties in connection with its sponsorship of a golf tournament at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
Already, executives say, there has been a cutback in the corporate golf outings that could help the industry get through tough economic times and raise money for charity.
"When things are bad, they're bad for everybody," said Robert L. Bouchier, executive director of the California Alliance for Golf, which has fought a proposed tax on golfers to help bail the state out of its financial crisis.
Signs of strain are everywhere.
"Due to difficult economic times in the country, especially Michigan, we have decided not to open High Pointe Golf Club for this 2009 golf season," the course's website says. Nationwide, club membership waiting lists have been reduced or eliminated. The Detroit Golf Club has cut its $18,000 initiation fee by more than half. Pebble Beach Co., announcing job cuts last week, said that group cancellations at its prestigious Northern California course have exceeded new bookings in four of the last six months.
"Even in a recession, people are pursuing their passion, but they're moving down the value chain, sort of the Wal-Martization of golf," explained Mike Hughes, chief executive of the National Golf Course Owners Assn. "Where they were paying a $60 green fee, they might go to the lower end and pay $20 to $30 for a round."
Even so, golf's troubles have affected city coffers. In Los Angeles, for example, a 6% drop in play at the municipal courses is expected to translate into about a $1-million drop in revenue to support recreation programs this year.
Amid the downturn, some courses are doing the once unthinkable: cutting back on maintenance. "That's messing around with the Holy Grail," said Todd Beals, chief operating officer at the Detroit Golf Club.
But others in the industry think that equation may be changing.
Less mowing only means that "it's just going to be a little bit slower on the fairways," said John Dodge, government affairs coordinator of the Michigan Golf Course Owners Assn.
Despite the belt tightening, most industry executives believe golf will weather the storm.
"I think we're similar to the movie industry," said Jorge Badel, senior golf director for the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department. "People need stress relief. They need to get their minds off of the economy."
San Diego Union-Tribune
Challenge to desalination plant permit denied
Environmentalists lose legal ruling...Michael BurgeU
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/13/
1m13desal231417-challenge-desalination-plant-permi/?northcounty&zIndex=98391
CARLSBAD — A Superior Court judge has ruled against two environmental groups that challenged a California Coastal Commission permit issued last year for the proposed desalination plant in Carlsbad.
Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes rejected arguments by the Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League that the commission failed to consider alternative sites for the plant, among other issues.
The developer, Poseidon Resources, proposes building the desalination plant on the grounds of the Encina Power Station. It would produce 50 million gallons of drinking water a day from ocean water, sharing the water-cooled power plant's intake and outfall.
The environmental groups argued that the Coastal Commission should have considered other locations and technologies less harmful to marine life, but Hayes said the commission did that.
“We're pleased that the court has rejected the latest attempt to derail the Carlsbad Desalination Project by a narrow special interest opposed to seawater desalination,” Poseidon Resources Vice President Scott Maloni said in a statement.
Marco Gonzalez, the attorney for Surfrider and the league, has said that the groups do not oppose ocean-water desalination but believe Poseidon's proposal is environmentally harmful.
He noted that Surfrider is pursuing two other lawsuits against the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Lands Commission that challenge the plant's effect on marine life.
In a related matter, Poseidon will go before the Water Quality Control Board today for final approval on a plan to make up for the number of fish and other organisms that the desalination process would kill.
Politics Daily
Michelle Obama Speech: CA Town Expects $1.1 Million Windfall...Lynn Sweet
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/05/12/michelle-obama-to-bring-1-1-million-in-stimulus-to-ca/
First Lady Michelle Obama's Saturday commencement address at the University of California, Merced, will trigger an estimated $1.1 million in business for the hard pressed area.
"Obviously, it's a welcome windfall," Merced Development Manager Frank Quintero told DailyFlotus at PoliticsDaily.com after tallying up the dollar impact of Mrs. Obama's visit. Mrs. Obama's daytrip is an anticipated bonanza for hotels, restaurants, gas stations and retail establishments. A local carwash is getting extra cash detailing three cars expected to be used in Mrs. Obama's motorcade.
Quintero said merchants are being told to be stocked and staffed with some 25,000 folks expected to flood the community.
The city of Merced is organizing a street fair and festival to take advantage of the overflow crowd _ families and friends of graduates not lucky enough to get a ticket to hear Mrs. Obama speak. Large screen televisions will be set up in downtown Merced to beam Mrs. Obama's speech live.
"Mrs. Obama is going to be putting UC Merced on the national landscape, so we are putting on our best for her, too," said City of Merced spokesman Mike Conway.
The First Lady is a very welcome one woman stimulus. The central California city _ population 80,608 _ has been hard hit by the economic meltdown. "We have been ground zero for foreclosure loans going bad and unemployment," Quintero said.
UC Merced spokesman Tonya Luiz said that before Mrs. Obama agreed to speak at graduation ceremonies, between 2,000 to 2,500 guests of 500 graduates were expected. After Mrs. Obama was persuaded by a group of students to keynote the commencement, the school opened the event to the public and now up to 12,000 will attend.
"When else would the average person in Merced, California see or hear the First Lady?" Luiz said.
The UC Merced campus opened in Fall, 2005 and Saturday's graduation marks the first for students who started there as freshmen. Mrs. Obama's visit "is our biggest event ever," Luiz said.
The university budget for the graduation has swelled from $100,000 to $700,000 because of the costs of preparing for the large crowd Mrs. Obama will draw. The commencement moved from the campus quad to an area called "the bowl," quickly being transformed into an amphitheater for the graduation.
So far, UC Merced has lined up some corporate sponsors to help foot the bills; the school has only raised about $130,000 to date.
Luiz said she is not worried about the tab.
Said Luiz, "We don't have to pay all the bills the day of the event. This is not quite like a wedding."
Comments (66) http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/05/12/michelle-obama-to-bring-1-1-million-in-stimulus-to-ca/2#comments
New York Times
University in California Dresses Up for First Lady...JESSE McKINLEY. Malia Wollan contributed reporting from San Francisco.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/us/13merced.html?sq=merced&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print
MERCED, Calif. — There are, to be sure, other things happening here this year. But in terms of sheer excitement — and frantic primping — there has been no bigger event in recent memory than Saturday’s visit by Michelle Obama, who will deliver the commencement address to the first full graduating class of the University of California at Merced, the newest, smallest and most anonymous of 10 campuses in the state university system.
“It’s going to be huge,” said Zain Memon, a 22-year-old senior. “This puts us on the map.”
Of course, such reputation-making is not cheap. Officials at the university were scrambling on Tuesday to finalize the financing for the event, which is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors and cost some $700,000, or roughly $600,000 more than had been budgeted before Mrs. Obama committed to speak.
The cost includes a raft of technological upgrades, including an audio-video feed, a Spanish simulcast over cellphone and a concert-size stage set up on the Bowl, the sodded campus lawn where the first lady will speak. Extra security added nearly $100,000 to the cost, including metal detectors on the campus, which sits in a former cattle field surrounded by hay-laden farmland and cows of unknown political leanings.
None of which, university officials said, will be a problem.
“We are going to the office of the president, to the university’s discretionary fund, we’ll borrow if we have to,” said Mary Miller, the vice chancellor for administration. “This is an investment in our future. It is an investment in our community.”
Sure enough, even as students crammed for finals, workers were swarming all over the campus on Tuesday, doing last-minute landscaping, installing flags in front of the library and unloading thousands of shipped-in chairs. One of those hard at work was Joe Hobbs, 24, from nearby Atwater, who said Mrs. Obama’s visit had already become its own stimulus package.
“It gave me a job,” said Mr. Hobbs, who was working on the set-up crew and said he has a 1982 Camaro longing for a new motor. “It gave all these people out here jobs.”
For residents in this recession-battered city of 76,000 people in the heart of the Central Valley in California, Saturday is also being treated as a local holiday, with a daylong, downtown block party featuring its own Jumbotron for viewing Mrs. Obama’s speech and activities ranging from “human bowling” to sumo wrestling.
“It’s great for the city,” said R. C. Essig, a co-owner of the Partisan, a Main Street bar that is bringing in a disc jockey from Los Angeles. “I mean any community event here is a big event, but this is even bigger.”
Indeed, local old-timers say the only event that measures up — political celebrity-wise — was a whistle-stop tour by one of the Kennedy brothers in the 1960s. (Which one is up for debate.) Still, some are hoping that Mrs. Obama’s trip will be more than a simple speaking engagement.
“I think she came here on a relief expedition,” said George Alonso, 57, a bankruptcy lawyer who said he had been far too busy lately. “I’m hoping she’s here to check out the situation.”
The situation in question includes soaring unemployment and foreclosure rates and more than a few “For Rent” signs along Main Street, a tidy and banner-filled strip populated by an assortment of mom and pop establishments.
The city — long an agricultural town — had high hopes for an economic boost when the university was opened in 2005. But the campus initially struggled to find students, though seniors like Mr. Memon say its physical improvements have been impressive.
“We have grass now,” he said.
But while the university’s enrollment has improved, its nightlife apparently has not.
“Unless you like cow tipping, there’s not much reason to go out there,” said Rick Stokes, who works at the Gottschalk Music Center, the local guitar shop.
Nor have students always found much reason to head into a city that bored local teenagers derisively call “Mer-dead.”
But local officials feel that Mrs. Obama’s trip may be a major step in the university’s evolution into a school with the cachet of other University of California campuses.
“I think my grandkids will see what the future holds,” said Michele Gabriault-Acosta, a member of the City Council and the descendant of two city mayors. “I love taking them out there and saying you could go here.”
Whether Saturday’s speech does boost the university’s stature remains to be seen. But for the first class to have survived its college years here, Mrs. Obama’s trip is all the confirmation they need.
“You have to be a special person to come to a place and create traditions,” said Vidur Malik, the editor of the student newspaper, The Prodigy. “They deserve credit for sticking it out.”
Bloomberg.com
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Hit Record for Second Month (Update1)...Dan Levy
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=axqD7veWb2wM&refer=home
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose to a record for the second consecutive month in April as banks increased efforts to seize homes from delinquent borrowers.
A total of 342,038 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California, said today in a statement. One in 374 households got a filing, the highest monthly rate since the property data service began issuing such reports in 2005.
“What you’re seeing is the inevitable result of severe job losses,” Nicolas Retsinas, director of housing studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “Until we stem the job losses, we can expect to see continuing foreclosures.”
Unemployment is hampering the housing market as property prices fall. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in more than a quarter century, the Labor Department said May 9. Home prices fell the most on record in the first quarter to a median $169,000 amid sales of foreclosure properties, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.
Foreclosure filings jumped 32 percent from the year-earlier period, RealtyTrac said. Filings were little changed from March as some states delayed seizures. Ten states accounted for three- quarters of all foreclosures in April, with California leading the nation.
Applications to buy a home or refinance a loan fell 8.6 percent last week to the lowest level since March, a separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed today. Prices will fall further because there’s still a glut of unsold homes and some buyers are waiting for bargains, said Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis.
Declines Slowing?
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday there are signs the real estate market is recovering.
“Since January we’ve seen both home sales moving up and down around a relatively stable number and we are seeing the first signs that the rapid decline in home prices is starting to abate,” Donovan said at an NAR conference in Washington.
March prices fell less than in February and 17 states showed sales increases, yesterday’s NAR report showed, as buyers took advantage of mortgage rates below 5 percent. The Federal Reserve is purchasing mortgage-backed securities to spur lower rates.
While price declines are slowing, it’s likely bank seizures will increase in the coming months, RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said.
“Lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria,” Saccacio said.
California was No. 1 in April with 96,560 foreclosure filings, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier, RealtyTrac reported. Florida climbed 75 percent to 64,588, Nevada rose 111 percent to 16,266 and Arizona rose 40 percent to 16,245.
State Rankings
Illinois ranked fifth in filings with 13,647, up 54 percent from a year earlier. Other states among the top 10 were Ohio with 12,324, Georgia with 11,521, Texas with 11,314, Michigan with 10,830 and Virginia with 6,254.
Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate. One in 68 households there received a filing, more than five times the national average. Bank seizures dropped 44 percent from the previous month, RealtyTrac said.
Florida had the second highest rate at one in 135 households, almost three times the national average, and bank seizures fell 7 percent from March. California ranked third at one in 138 households, and Arizona was fourth at one in 164.
Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio were among the other with the 10 highest foreclosure rates.
Connecticut had the 19th highest rate, one in 662 households. Filings rose 25 percent from a year earlier to 2,174.
New Jersey’s Rate
New Jersey had the 22nd highest rate, one in 695 households, and filings fell 4 percent to 5,034. New York ranked 36th at one in 1,420 households, and filings fell 1 percent to 5,591.
Las Vegas had the highest rate for metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more. A total of 14,073 properties, or one in 56 households, received a filing, almost seven times the national average, RealtyTrac said.
Cape Coral-Fort Myers in Florida ranked second at one in 57 households. The city also had the steepest price decline in the first quarter, down 59 percent from a year ago, the NAR said yesterday. Miami and Orlando ranked ninth and tenth.
California cities ranked third through eighth: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo- Fairfield, and Stockton, according to RealtyTrac, which collects default data from 2,200 U.S. counties representing about 90 percent of the population.
“The housing problem is now an economic problem,” Retsinas said. “On the margins you have some investors who think they may have found the bottom, but on the other side are foreclosures.”
CNN Money
Foreclosures: 'April was a shocker'
A record number of foreclosure filings took place during April, but the number of repossessions fell 11%...Les Christie
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/13/real_estate/April_foreclosure_
stats/index.htm?postversion=2009051310
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Foreclosures in April exceeded even March's blistering pace with a record 342,000 homes receiving notices of default, auction notices or undergoing bank repossessions, according to a regular industry report.
One of every 374 U.S. homes received a filing during the month, the highest monthly rate that RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties, has recorded in four-plus years of record keeping.
"April was a shocker," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. "I would have bet on a dip because March foreclosures were so high.
Instead, filings inched up 1% from March and rose 32% compared with April 2008.
There were 63,900 bank repossessions, the last stop in the foreclosure process. More than 1.3 million homes have now been lost to foreclosure since the market meltdown began in August 2007.
The increasing foreclosures will force RealtyTrac to rethink its forecasts, according to Sharga. "We had been predicting 3.4 million filings for the year," he said, "but we'll blow those numbers out of the water."
The lion's share of April's filings were ones in the early stages of the process, such as notices of default, according to James Saccacio, RealtyTrac's CEO.
Bank repossessions actually fell 11% for the month, compared with March. That's due, according to Saccacio, to the many legislative and company moratoriums that have prevented the foreclosure process from starting on delinquent loans.
Because fewer loans entered the process in past months, there had been fewer getting all the way to repossession. But now that those moratoriums are over, the volume of foreclosure filings is increasing.
"It's likely that we'll see a corresponding spike in [repossessed properties] as these loans move through the foreclosure process over the next few months," Saccacio said in a prepared statement.
Ten states accounted for 75% of all foreclosure activity, and they fell generally into two categories: one-time bubble markets and the rust belt.
California, which easily outpaced every other state with with 96,560 filings. Other hard-hit former boom towns were Florida, Nevada and Arizona.
Those rust belts towns with the most filings were Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Georgia, Texas and Virginia filled out the rest of the top 10 list.
Nevada, with one filing for every 68 households, had the highest foreclosure rate in the land. Florida, with one for every 135 households, ranked second; and California, with one for every 138, was third.
Las Vegas continued to be the worst-hit metro area. It had more than 14,000 filings in April, one for every 56 households and 20% more than in March.
The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., area was second with one in 57, a 31% month-over-month rise. Merced, Calif., where home prices have plunged almost two-thirds from their peak, had the third-highest rate.
Five other California metro areas ranked in the top 10: Modesto was fourth, Riverside-San Bernardino fifth, Bakersfield sixth, Vallejo seventh and Stockton eighth. Miami and Orlando rounded out the list.
Raised expectations
Not helping, of course, is the steady erosion of home prices. The National Association of Realtors reported record home price lossesTuesday.
"[The home price decline] will lead to more foreclosures," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst for Weiss Research.
The loss of home values put many more mortgage borrowers underwater, meaning they owe more on their loans than their homes are worth. That increases foreclosure rates in two ways: Underwater borrowers have no home equity to draw on should to pay for unexpected expenses such as big medical bills or major car or home repairs. That's makes them more likely to miss payments. And when home values fall far below mortgage balances, homeowners often walk away from their loans.
"There has been much more 'deed-in-lieu-of foreclosure' activity lately," said Sharga. This is a transaction in which borrowers simply tell their banks that they're not going to pay their mortgage and hand back their keys, and deeds, to their lenders.
"People are making the rational financial decision to walk away from underwater homes," he said.