5-14-09

 
5-14-09
Badlands Journal
Golden Bobcatbucks...Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-05-13/007225
The Badlands Journal editorial board was concerned about how UC Merced would pay for Michelle Obama's visit this Saturday. We are great fans of Mrs. Obama and would not like to see the glory of her visit tarnished by any more unpaid debts owed by UC Merced.  
Asking around, we were told that the Oldest Living Valley Advanceman would know how such glorious events actually worked. We found him in a 6-bedroom McMansion recently repurchased on the courthouse steps and reopened as a Home for Old Hacks.  We asked Mr. Oldest how it was done Back in the Day When California was This Great Big Number One State of Ours and before it became the Basket State.
"First," he said, "realize that your national advance teams do not give a (bleep) about how you pay for anything. Second, on a deal like this from the White House, you exist to obey. Third, the people who will hound you to your grave are the patriotic bunting dealers. You can probably make a deal with most of the other vendors or providers, but do not cross the bunting people."
He shook a fist full of angry-looking letters in our face.
"And I been out of the game since early '75," he said.
Given that the Mrs. Obama event will exceed $1 million and UC Merced admits to having raised only $130,000 four days before the event, we were stumped as to how the campus would raise the money, particularly in light of its $200-plus million debt to the community at the moment. In our desperation, we turned to others for ideas. After Michelle Obama fans and friends and supporters of the cause of public higher education in California sent us the two articles below, we realized the solution:
Golden Bobcatbucks!
Debate ensued on the editorial board. Even a local currency has to be based on something. Some on the editorial board insisted that historically, local currencies are based on things like good faith or work. Others countered that all UC Merced has ever been based on is its own propaganda, Bobcatflak. What about milk or almonds? someone asked. Wouldn't it be better to base it on something that was increasing in value rather than decreasing? someone asked. Ideas for the basis for Bobcatbucks flew about the room. Organic blueberries? Fighting cocks? Even simple skills like the ability to spell were considered. The solar panels on the Merced home of Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer, were considered, since he's moved his family to Annapolis, MD.
"Look," one editor suggested, "they could buy a farm in the river corridor, get a common sense exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act -- hey, it's UC after all -- and strip mine it for real gold."
Another replied that UC doesn't buy land. It only accepts donated land, at least in Merced County.
"What's wrong with eminent domain?" one editor asked. "It's public higher education, after all."
The hard scientists in the room argued that since the dollar was a fiat-based currency backed by solid military power, the Golden Bobcatbuck, through UC Merced's memorandum of understanding with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, could also be a fiat currency, backed by nuclear and biowarfare weapons.
Mr. Oldest, the former advancemen, counseled that the basis made no difference at all as long as it was acceptable to "your ordinary patriotic bunting dealer, who is your real market in a deal like this."
Debate on the topic continues.
Badlands Journal editorial board
2-14-06
Forbes.com
Funny Money...Emily Lambert
http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/11/local-currencies-ithaca_cz_el_money06_0214local.html
New York - The dollar has some competition in Traverse City, Mich. The contender is the Bay Buck, a colorful currency launched last fall. To be sure, it isn't about to replace the dollar anytime soon. And at Wal-Mart Stores and Starbucks, it's as useful as Monopoly money.
But Bay Bucks can be used to pay for real goods and services, just like dollars can. And supporters say that using Bay Bucks promotes the local economy.
Bay Bucks are a local currency--one of a handful circulating in the U.S., including Burlington Bread, Ithaca Hours and, soon, BerkShares in Massachusetts. Besides being fun to trade and talk about, these currencies are meant to circulate near their home base, not to be ferried off to corporate headquarters in Arkansas or Seattle.
Local currencies are an old idea. Thousands of them were used during the Great Depression, according to Bernard Lietaer, author of The Future of Money and a former currency trader who helped implement the euro. They're a subset of a grouping called complementary currencies, which also includes airline frequent-flier programs...
Bay Bucks: Trustworthy Tools for Local Exchange
The Story of Bay Bucks
Printing Money, Making Change
http://www.baybucks.org/about/?id=39
"You can't live if you don't have money," as the Living Theater famously chanted in the sixties. For those of us not living on wholly-owned solar subsistence farms, or holding advanced degrees from Tom Brown's Tracker School, this is undoubtedly true. We ply our skills, exchange our time and energy to make money so that we can buy the things we need. Hard to realize that the only thing backing those hard-earned federal dollars is the widespread, but by no means guaranteed agreement to believe they're worth something. They're what is known as fiat money. Those federal bucks haven't given you a claim on precious metal since l968. Fiat is Latin for "let there be," or "let it be done". Unbacked money is money because someone says it is. Its utility is that it allows economic exchange to go beyond geographic and temporal limits; it provides a measure of value.
Part of the excitement of Bay Bucks, our own local fiat currency, is that it breaks open the black box of economics, requiring everyone who participates to question their assumptions about money and monetary history. Did you know that the federal government only got its latest monopoly on currency issue in l913, when the Federal Reserve System was created? Or that the Federal Reserve System consists of private commercial banks, and that the way the Fed "creates" money is by lending it into existence, at interest?
Many folks are surprised to learn that local currencies like Bay Bucks, are perfectly legal and potentially very useful in giving the region's economy what "Going Local" author Michael Shuman calls a "Keynesian bounce." The beauty of local currencies is their limited recognition. Bay Bucks can't leave our locale except as souvenirs. At home, though, they can earn our full faith and credit by circulating and recirculating and facilitating a lot of local exchange. Not surprisingly, another term for such homegrown money is "complementary currency" Local currencies (of which there are scores in the US and abroad) are valuable and useful because people in the locality agree that they are and use them...
Merced County Times
Welcome Mrs. Obama...John M. Derby
http://www.mercedcountytimes.net/content/2009-05-14/001300
When first lady Michelle Obama arrives in Merced, it will be a first in many ways.
Presidents like John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan have stopped in Merced County, but this region has never hosted a first lady like it will this Saturday.
UC Merced will be celebrating the first four year graduation ceremony as Obama gives her first commencement address as first lady.
For thousands of local people who attend the event, it will be the first chance — perhaps the only chance — to see the wife of President Barack Obama with their own eyes.
And her words will go down in the history of Merced. 
But she will not be here long.
Her motorcade will go down Old Lake Road to the newest University in the state, and she may just say to herself: “This place is in the middle of no where.
”The lack of landscaping will be very apparent, because back east the country is so green and everything grows so fast. It will take a long time for ivy to cover the walls of UC Merced, and with this valley heat it may not happen at all.
She is a city girl so she will be impressed by the wide open spaces and the rolling foot hills which act as a backdrop to the campus.
Security will be so tight, there is no chance that she will have time for one of the true treasures of our community — going for a sail on Lake Yosemite.
This will be the largest crowd ever on the campus of UC Merced. Just moving that many people to and from the graduation site will be a tremendous job.
Then there will be the electronics system needed to link up UC Merced with the rest of the world. With the attention to detail which the UC system is known for, we can expect the communications link to downtown Merced for their “Cap and Town” event to be perfect.
Forget the costs during a recession, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to put the campus and Merced on the map.
A whole nation will be watching.
However the costs to UC Merced and the City will be significant, however some new business like Rabobank has stepped up to the plate with $10,000 and WestAmerica Bank has donated another $5,000 to help defray the costs. More is needed. UC Merced only budgeted $100,000 for the event. When the budgets were approved no one could have foretold such a sequence of events.
Perhaps this is a sign of the times.
After all this time Merced is starting to bloom and the flower is the first UC campus to be located in the Central Valley of California.
Its nectar has attracted the First Lady of the United States.
 Its classrooms are the hot houses where the seeds of wisdom are planted in the minds of students who will grow up to become specialists in their fields of research. And one day that same campus will become a training ground for new doctors and medical research.
If the First Lady of the United States can see the importance of what is happening at UC Merced, then surely all of this can happen.
We join the community in welcoming the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, to Merced.
A letter from the mayor on Michelle Obama...5-6-09
THIS IS THE LATEST FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE ON MICHELLE OBAMA ...
THAT'S MAYOR ELLIE WOOTEN OF MERCED
http://www.mercedcountytimes.net/content/blog/2009-05-06/001291
The weekend of May 16 marks the start of Graduation Season, and it is going to have a spectacular beginning.
First Lady Michelle Obama is going to be the commencement speaker for the graduating class at UC Merced. The First Lady is only making two commencement addresses, so the University and Merced should feel honored. It’s the first class of UC students who started out as freshmen, and went all four years at the campus. Congratulations to them.
The event is a big honor for the City of Merced. We are going to be showcased on the world stage, with hundreds of news media crews in town for the First Lady’s address. We will be known for something other than bad economic news -- at least for a while.
This appearance by Michelle Obama will have a lasting impact on the campus and the community. It will literally put us on the map. The Amgen Tour of California raised the City’s profile in a positive way among some of the top corporations of America. The fact we were selected as a host city for the race, meant we were a can-do community, a City with a stature above others, a place that could be a player on the world stage of cycling.
If Lance Armstrong coming to Merced registered as a 7, Michelle Obama is clearly a 10-plus. She is an extremely popular woman, well-educated and intelligent. People will know Merced as the place the First Lady came, they will remember our hosting the speaker, they will think warmly of our town. This raises the stature of Merced as a university town, a place where intellectual curiosity is welcomed and where education is prized.
To welcome the visitors expected to come for the First Lady’s appearance, and to showcase our Community, the City of Merced is holding our Cap&Town Festival. It will be from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 15 and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 16. It’s in Downtown Merced, between M and MLK. We want this to become an annual event, but we are kicking it off this year. We hope all of the community comes to visit.
While all of the attention is on the UC campus, we also want to salute all of our other graduates in Merced. We have hundreds of people graduating at Merced College, and hundreds more graduating from Merced High and from Golden Valley. On top of that, calendars are booked with middle school graduations and even preschool graduations.
But the common thread is that each of those graduations salutes the academic achievements of the students, no matter what their age level. This is something we need to focus on, the emphasis of teaching our children, and celebrating their successes.
Not everyone can celebrate with the First Lady as a guest speaker, but we can all celebrate the achievements made this year.
Congratulation to ALL of our graduates. And welcome to the First Lady.
UC grads poised for almost ‘unreal’ sendoff...JONATHAN WHITAKER
http://www.mercedcountytimes.net/content/2009-05-14/001301
Those UC Merced students who are graduating Saturday are floating on cloud 2009.
"It feels so really great," said Efferman Ezell, the class director of Student Activities. "We just feel that no matter where you are at in this nation, you have a voice and people will listen."
He was talking about the quick but diligent, student-led effort in the spring to bring first lady Michelle Obama to Merced for UC Merced's first commencement ceremony.
Ezell was dressed to the nines and drinking punch along with his classmates at a reception put on by Congressman Dennis Cardoza on top of a parking garage downtown.
He smiled at the thought of actually meeting the first lady.
"We are all hoping to meet her," he said, "but that's one thing the White House hasn't talked about."
Graduate and UC activist Yang Li was smiling and shaking his head — but not in disbelief.
"I never felt that our class could not achieve something like this," he said. "I actually had the audacity to think that such a thing was possible. And it was more important a lesson to learn for myself than to see it actually happen. When it actually happens, it's the result of what you believe."
Li said it was hard for the students to convince people in power that it was really necessary to support California's latest UC campus. And now that her visit is a reality, he says he feels like a huge honor has been placed on the entire class.
"This is beyond my most unusual dreams and wishes," Li said. "It's hard to expect and impossible to be sad about."
Li said he can't wait for the opportunity to see her or shake her hand or even talk to her.
"I think the administration has gone out of its way to really give us a good sendoff," he said.
Congressman Dennis Cardoza called the student effort remarkable.
"I remember talking to the chief of staff at the White House, Rahm Emanuel," Cardoza said, "and he told me the young people who are leading the campaign to get the first lady to come and speak are truly a persistent bunch. All of you deserve tremendous credit. And I know you will give the first lady a tremendous Merced welcome."
Modesto Bee
Yucca Mountain is dead, long live Yucca Mountain...KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer
http://www.modbee.com/state/v-print/story/701686.html
LAS VEGAS -- These days, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prefers nothing so much as a one-word description for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository long planned for his state.
Dead.
And President Barack Obama has made clear he is looking elsewhere for an answer the nation's nuclear waste problem.
But that doesn't mean people aren't still paying for it. Sometimes not even the president, with the Senate majority leader at his back, can easily kill a project 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making. Not quickly or cheaply, anyway.
In February, Congress allocated $288 million for the development of the site legally designated to hold the nation's radioactive waste. That was about $100 million less than what the Bush administration requested, but still enough for a staff of several hundred people to continue work.
Last week, President Barack Obama proposed funding the Yucca Mountain repository at $196.8 million in 2010, an all-time low.
The money flows despite Energy Secretary Steven Chu's recent declaration that the desert mountain 90 miles from Las Vegas is no longer considered an option for radioactive waste storage. Obama's proposed budget repeats the assertion, making good on an oft-repeated campaign promise to swing-state Nevada.
Experts say Yucca Mountain hasn't disappeared from the budget for reasons both practical and political.
Neither Reid nor the president has tried to hammer the nail in the coffin. Neither is pushing for a change to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the bill that as amended in 1987 requires the government to store spent fuel from nuclear power plants under an ancient volcanic ridge called Yucca Mountain.
Reid's office said the first step is finding another home for the radioactive waste.
"The law will eventually have to be changed to completely kill Yucca," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. "However there's no rush to do so until we have an alternative plan for dealing with nuclear waste in place."
To that end, Reid and Chu have announced a blue ribbon commission to study nuclear waste storage alternatives. The commission has been charged with making recommendations to the Energy Department, as long as those recommendations don't include Yucca Mountain.
Once the commission has made its findings "then we will be in our best position to change the law," Summers said.
Bob Loux, the former head of the Nevada state agency charged with fighting Yucca Mountain, put it another way.
Changing the law requires a vote of Congress, a vote Reid isn't likely to win without a new policy alternative on the table.
"I don't think there's an interest in Congress to sit down and hammer out a new repository program," said Loux, adding that the process might not sit well with some.
"It's a little bit like everyone shoving it in everyone's face - Nevada won. You force every congressman and senator to deal with that. You don't have to do that. There's much more subtle ways to get things done," he said.
The more subtle ways are slower, and more costly.
While the Obama administration has proposed a dramatic cut in the project's budget, it also said it plans to continue the process of licensing the underground storage site. The proposed budget actually increased funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which can take up to four years deliberating on the license application.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Gregory B. Jaczko, a close Reid ally, was in line to chair the commission, dealing a blow to Yucca Mountain proponents.
Still, the decision to continue with the licensing leaves the door open for a future administration - perhaps one facing different political realities - to revive the site.
Chu's explanation is that he believes there is scientific value in continuing to attempt to license the site, even though the administration's policy is that it will never be used.
Asked to explain, Energy Department spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said only that the process "and other important issues need to be resolved thoughtfully, carefully and comprehensively as we develop a responsible long-term approach to nuclear waste management."
Industry groups, however, suggest there could be legal ramifications if the application is withdrawn.
"Yucca Mountain is still the law of the land," said John Keeley, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. "We can't speculate on what would happen if the administration were to suddenly pull the license application, but it seems to me that their not doing so is on some level recognition that there would be dire consequences, dire liability consequences."
Federal courts already have found the Energy Department in breach of contract for not taking ownership of the spent fuel now being stored at nuclear reactors, as dictated by law. Those courts have awarded close to $1 billion to utilities, and future liabilities could top $11 billion, according to industry figures.
Kelley said his group supports the new blue ribbon commission, and he conceded the rush to find a new home for waste stored at nuclear power plants across the country isn't a race against time.
"The good news here is we're not in any emergency or crisis situation because our 104 reactor sites across the country have safely and securely managed fuel on site," he said. "The fuel can stay there for 100 years."
With the urgency removed from the process, its possible Yucca Mountain, as a budget line item, could linger for years while alternatives are developed and the political will to change the law is mustered.
That prospect has led at least one prominent Yucca Mountain proponent to question the Reid-Obama strategy.
While repeating his support for the project, Arizona Sen. John McCain has questioned the continued use of tax money and fees from utilities on a dead effort.
"If opponents of Yucca Mountain are going to hold this project hostage, then we shouldn't be charging the American taxpayer and utilities for this facility," McCain said in a statement. "Let's be honest with the American taxpayers and move forward on Yucca Mountain as we need to and I support, or if not, close it and refund the money."
Under that scenario, the government would have to refund nearly $30 billion in payments and interest now in the Nuclear Waste Fund.
If the Obama administration doesn't follow McCain's advice, Yucca Mountain wouldn't be the first aborted government project to drain federal funding long after its "death." It might not even rank among the most expensive projects on the scrap heap.
In 1993, a year after Congress killed the superconducting super collider in Texas, the government spent $640 million not building it.
The federal budget allocation isn't the only money being spent on the dying Yucca Mountain project. As long as the project remains on the books, the state of Nevada will pay to fight it, along with environment groups, Indian tribes - with lawyers working on both sides.
"As long as this thing limps along, it'll cost everybody money," Loux said.
Tulare Voice
Sierra Club Challenging Racetrack Annexation
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/tv/stories/2009/tv_
sierraclub_0053.htm
Tulare - The Sierra Club wants LAFCo to reconsider its April 1 decision allowing the City of Tulare to annex 965 acres, including property needed for the Tulare Motor Sports Complex.
Babak Naficy, the club's attorney, is contending the Tulare County Local Agency Formation Commission, commonly known as LAFCo, did not consider the club's comments and arguments — made in a letter faxed March31 — before making its decision.
LAFCo officials have set a 2 p.m. June 3 hearing to reconsider the item, but city officials have asked for the board to hold a special meeting this week to consider whether to even accept Naficy's letter, LAFCo Executive Director George Finney said.
State law allows reconsideration if information was left out or new information surfaces after a decision is made, but the city argues all the issues the Sierra Club are raising were included and addressed for the record.
“Actually, most of it is,” said Finney, who added the only new question raised was whether there was adequate notice given regarding the April 1 hearing.
The notice was “inadequate” because it did “not even hint” LAFCo was considering amending the city's sphere of influence to annex the project site for the proposed Tulare Motor Sports Complex, Naficy said in the four-page letter he said was not considered at the April 1 meeting.
The letter also asked LAFCO not to approve the project because:
• A Tulare County Superior Court judge has rejected the city's 2030 General Plan update, ruling it does not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. The Sierra Club and Tulare resident Don Manro have sued the city over the plan.
• The future of the Tulare Motor Sports Complex proposal is “highly uncertain” and negotiations with the owner of a large portion of the land needed — the International Agri-Center — has fallen through.
• The project will result in unnecessary loss of farmlands and premature cancellation of Williamson Act Contract lands.
The city does not possess adequate water supplies for the project.
LAFCO's annexation hearing touched on the lawsuit, the uncertainty of the motor sports project and the Williamson Act contracts.
'No comment’
The International Agri-Center board and representatives of Tulare Motor Sports Complex are apparently continuing to negotiate a new land purchase agreement, but the status of those talks is unclear.
Sources have said attorneys for both sides are working on an agreement
“No comment; that's the position we're going to take,” the Agri-Center's Chief Financial Officer Fred Foster said when asked for an update.
The Tulare Industrial Site Development Foundation is in the process of transferring the seven purchase agreements it has with the other property owners to Tulare Motor Sports Complex Inc., foundation President Lynn Dredge said.
Once that is done, an escrow will be opened and will close within 90 days if all the property owners — including the Agri-Center — have entered into an agreement, Dredge said.
On the city front, City Manager Darrel Pyle said city and TMSC attorneys are working on an agreement that would allow the developer to reimburse the city when a building permit is issued for the approximately $1 million it paid for the project's EIR.
If the project is not a go, the city would still get the money, which the developer placed into a special account for the city, Pyle said.
Waiting until the permit is issued apparently would make the cost of the EIR reimbursable if Community Facility District Bonds later were sold.
Sacramento Bee
Graduation speakers plan message of hope in not-so-hopeful times...Laurel Rosenhall
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/v-print/story/1859933.html
Sure, it's an honor to deliver a university commencement address.
But this year's speakers have a tough task. With unemployment at its highest level in decades and jobs disappearing every month, how can they possibly inspire the crowds at the threshold of their careers?
It's not exactly the best time to tell graduates, "Carpe diem."
So instead of urging them to "seize the day," state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he plans to "reassure people that there will be better days."
Steinberg, D-Sacramento, is speaking Saturday at the UC Davis School of Law graduation. As the cap-tossing season kicks off, Steinberg and other commencement speakers are searching for encouraging messages in a discouraging time.
Talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey told graduates that success lies in helping others when she spoke last weekend at the Duke University commencement in North Carolina.
First lady Michelle Obama is also expected to talk about service when she addresses the first graduating class at UC Merced on Saturday. Spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld says Obama enjoys "speaking to people a lot like she was when she was younger and urging them to get out in the community and reach for their dreams."
"She benefited a great deal from the people who supported her in her life, and she wants to do the same thing, reach back and pull up the people behind you," McCormick Lelyveld said.
Students at UC Merced are looking to Obama "for a message of hope," said Yaasha Sabbaghian, a graduating senior who led the effort to persuade the first lady to speak at the state's newest university.
"Now that we're out of college, we're going to be competing against millions of people who are also looking for jobs," he said.
"Mostly we just want to hear inspirational support since we are in a very impoverished region of California."
Nick Clements is also looking for some encouragement. The UC Davis law student had a job lined up at a corporate firm in San Diego. For more than a year, he'd been planning to work there after this weekend's graduation.
Then in February, the firm rescinded its offer.
"I think they were just trying to save the people who were already there working for them," said Clements, 27. "It was disappointing."
Clements is entering a job market that is tough even for veteran lawyers to crack. Law firms across the country have been laying off attorneys – more than 3,000 lost their jobs in the first quarter of the year. Even last year, the number of unemployed lawyers had increased by 66 percent to a 10-year high, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
So what can Steinberg say at commencement to brighten Clements' spirits?
"I'm hoping he's going to come out here and give people hope that things are turning around – that either they're turning around now or turning around shortly," Clements said. "Not to despair."
The speaker at UC Berkeley's graduation next week knows plenty about despair – and how to overcome it. Chris Gardner pulled himself out of homelessness to become a successful stock broker and entrepreneur. His story inspired the book and film, "The Pursuit of Happyness."
A university news release says Gardner knows graduates may be anxious about their futures because of the bleak economy.
"Hopefully, I can impress upon them that this is a time of opportunity, if they follow their passions and are uncompromising in their commitment to hard work and what truly matters," he said in the statement.
Getting back to basics will be a theme for U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. when he addresses the McGeorge School of Law graduation in Sacramento on Saturday.
The economy is forcing those in the legal profession to put principles above wealth, he said, and that will ultimately serve graduates well.
"I don't think it's difficult to find words to inspire students," Damrell said. "It's more an issue of whether those students, given the circumstances of today's economy, want to listen to a lot of inspiration."
Stockton Record
Grocers opposing Lodi Wal-Mart bid say council member should abstain from vote (UPDATED 5:08 p.m.)...The Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090513/A_NEWS/90513015/-1/A_NEWS
LODI – What would Lodi’s seven-year Wal-Mart saga be without yet another last-minute twist?
Grocers opposing Wal-Mart’s bid to build a Supercenter in Lodi now say one City Council member should be barred from voting on the project tonight because his wife allegedly accepted $1,920 basketball tickets from a Food 4 Less executive who is fighting the proposal.
If Councilman Phil Katzakian cannot vote, that would mean Wal-Mart wouldn’t have the likely three votes it needs to pass the council.
But City Attorney Steve Schwabauer said he hasn’t received any information that would force Katzakian to sit out.
Some quick background:
Last month, the city Planning Commission rejected Developer Darryl Browman’s proposal to build a large shopping center, to be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, at the corner of Lower Sacramento Road and Kettleman Lane.
Commissioners deadlocked 3-3, an effective rejection.
Both Wal-Mart backers and opponents, including PAQ, Inc. – which operates the Food 4 Less grocery store across from the proposed Supercenter – appealed that decision. PAQ appealed on the grounds that the commission should have reconsidered the tie vote.
Tonight, the City Council is scheduled to take up the appeal.
But PAQ Chief Executive Officer John Quinn wrote city officials today, just hours before the scheduled hearing, disclosing what he believed to be a conflict between Katzakian and the company’s marketing director, Chris Podesto.
According to the letter, Podesto is second cousins with Katzakian’s wife, and she asked him for tickets to an April 5 Sacramento Kings basketball game.
Podesto gave her two $960, front-row tickets, and her daughter took a friend to the game, Quinn wrote.
“Despite the embarrassment that may result to all involved, the company believes it prudent and necessary to disclose this matter in the midst of the appeal process before the Council,” Quinn wrote. “PAQ, Inc., encourages the Councilmember to avoid the potential conflict and excuse himself from voting on the appeals.”
Katzakian said Podesto offered his 22-year-old daughter, Lauren, the tickets. He said he didn't even know his daughter had accepted the tickets until Tuesday.
"It's a stretch when they come up with ideas to stall (the issue)," he said.
Quinn and Podesto could not immediately be reached for comment.
Schwabauer said state regulations only bar a public official whose immediate family member accepts a gift from voting on a matter if the official has possession of the gift, uses the gift or enjoys the benefits of the gift.
“Nothing in the Food 4 Less letter suggests that’s true,” he said. “At this point, it seems like a tough sell for a conflict issue.”
The City Council will consider the matter at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Hutchins Street Square, 125 S. Hutchins St., Lodi.
Lodi City Council approves Wal-Mart Supercenter proposal
Vote was 3-2; issue likely far from resolved...Daniel Thigpen
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090514/A_NEWS/905140326/-1/A_NEWS
LODI – A developer got his second approval in four years to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter in west Lodi late Wednesday, but the matter is likely far from over.
After a four-hour public hearing, a divided City Council voted 3-2 to approve plans for a 40-acre shopping center, to be anchored by a 216,710-square-foot Supercenter, at the corner of Lower Sacramento Road and Kettleman Lane.
The proposal has volleyed between city leaders for months, and Wednesday the council considered an appeal of the project after the city Planning Commission last month deadlocked 3-3 on the matter, effectively rejecting it.
Even with the approval Wednesday, the project still must go back before the San Joaquin County judge who overturned the city’s previous 2005 approval
of the development proposal.
And many city leaders already have said they expect a new court battle to commence in the coming months.
Agencies scramble for stimulus funds
Some natural resources projects already have backing...Alex Breitler
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090514/A_NEWS14/905140333
Loggers buzz through a burned-out forest. A small town replaces a contaminated well. Thousands of new visitors flock to see the Central Valley's storied waterfowl, while millions are spent on California's threatened fish.
These are a few of the visions officials have for federal stimulus projects geared to help the environment or sustain natural resources.
These sectors - air, water, energy and more - are but a small fraction of the $80 billion coming to California. While tracking all that money is daunting, and some across the country view certain stimulus projects as wasteful, many local officials say the money here will be put to good use.
Take the tiny Valley Springs Public Utility District, which pumps groundwater for 272 homes and businesses in the Calaveras foothills.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in late April that the district will receive $1.4 million in grants and loans to rebuild a tainted 50-year-old well. Also, a new water tower will nearly double the district's storage capacity to keep the taps flowing.
"It's a huge thing for this small district," said General Manager Mike Fischer.
To the south, the San Joaquin Valley's sprawling San Luis National Wildlife Refuge was awarded $9.8 million to build a new visitor center, which officials say could triple the number of visitors; it is the largest stimulus project funded to date by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There is little public access to many of the area's wildlife refuges.
The process of seeking stimulus dollars is anything but simple, but it's become clearer how at least some of the money will be spent:
» Water. The Valley may have had another dry year, but a sprinkle of stimulus funding will help replenish the groundwater in east San Joaquin County.
Stockton East Water District received about $835,000 for groundwater recharge and plans to ask for more, General Manager Kevin Kauffman said. A full $3.5 million would put about 80 people to work while helping boost sagging groundwater levels, he said.
» Energy. A new vehicle maintenance building in Lodi will sport solar panels thanks to $1 million in stimulus funds. And Stockton has been allocated $2.7 million in block grants for energy efficiency, which could include projects such as roof replacement, tree preservation and LED street lights.
A sudden cloudburst of cash has left one San Joaquin County agency with a rare problem: figuring out how to rapidly and exponentially expand its services.
A program that has weatherproofed the homes of low-income residents since the 1980s has four full-time employees and a base budget of $150,000 plus grants. Now it'll be given $4.2 million spread over two years.
Wendy Moore of the county's Aging and Community Services Division said it's still unclear how the pumped-up program will operate.
"We are excited about it," she said. "We have so many low-income individuals that live in this area, and being able to control energy costs is a huge asset," as is reducing those individuals' carbon footprints.
» Delta, fish and drought. In mid-April, the Department of the Interior announced more than $150 million in projects to aid Central Valley fish and another $40 million in drought relief.
» Forestry. As soon as the highlands dry out, the Stanislaus National Forest plans to rebuild some rutted roads and take out trees that burned in a 1973 blaze east of Sonora. The stimulus contribution: $300,000.
Despite the funding grab bag, some are frustrated with the extensive process. To the north, a small water district seeks - but has not yet been awarded - millions of dollars to take water from the Mokelumne River.
Ed Steffani, who heads the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, said the application is not only confusing but difficult, given the multiple agencies involved. One agency issued 87 pages of guidelines, he said.
"We could start tomorrow," Steffani said. "But there's tons of paperwork. I wish they'd make the process easier."
Los Angeles Times
California tiger salamander to get critical habitat...Louis Sahagun, Greenspace
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/05/california-tiger-salamander-to-get-critical-habitat.html
Among the creatures circling the drain toward extinction in California is a black salamander with yellow spots that figured in the downfall of a Bush administration official who oversaw the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's endangered species program.
The California tiger salamander is back in the news, two years after Julie MacDonald, a former Interior Department deputy assistant secretary, resigned amid allegations of unethical and illegal activities.
In response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider critical habitat for the dwindling Sonoma County population of Ambystoma californiense.
Under MacDonald's oversight, proposed critical habitat for the species was cut from 74,000 acres to zero.
Noah Greenwald, the center's biodiversity program director, said, "The designation of zero acres of critical habitat for the salamander was characteristic of the Bush administration's total disregard for the law and the nation's wildlife."
An inspector general's report released in 2007 came to a similar conclusion. MacDonald, it said, had pressured staff members to combine three different populations of the salamander into one, which downlisted its status from endangered to threatened.
The change was overturned by a federal judge who said the decision was made "without even a semblance of agency reasoning."
The center's lawsuit on behalf of the salamander is part of a larger effort to reverse what it calls politically tainted decisions concerning endangered species. So far, the center has challenged decisions denying listing or adequate critical habitat for 45 species in 28 states.
But time is running out for the increasingly isolated populations of California tiger salamander, whose wetlands and vernal pools are being gobbled up by sprawl and expanding vineyard and row crop agriculture.
In Sonoma County, "this animal is in considerable trouble," said Sam Sweet, a professor of biology at UC Santa Barbara. "It lives in a series of wetlands that are almost completely enclosed by development and crisscrossed by roads."
"It will make it, if we give it a chance," he added. "But it is often hard to give creatures like this one a chance because a lot of these listings and critical habitat considerations are given at the eleventh  hour-plus."
 
5-14-09
Meetings
5-18-09 Merced City Council/Redevelopment Agency agenda...7:00 p.m.
http://www.cityofmerced.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=7372
 
5-20-09 Merced City Planning Commission meeting...7:00 p.m.
http://www.cityofmerced.org/depts/cityclerk/boards_n_commissions/
planning_commission/2009_planning_commission/2009_planning_
commission_agendas.asp
Agendas are posted the Monday before a Wednesday Planning Commission Meeting.
 
5-21-09 MCAG...Governing Board meeting...3:00 p.m.
http://www.mcagov.org/govbrd.html