5-22-09

 
5-22-09
Merced Sun-Star
Loose Lips: On takeoffs, watch out for El Cap
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/859759.html
Lips erred. It happens and it's unfortunate.
First lady Michelle Obama landed Saturday at Castle Airport ... at Yosemite.
No, county leaders didn't move the legendary 11,000-foot runway to Tioga Road. Instead, they brought the park to the decommissioned Air Force Base. Can't you feel the fresh air?
Regular readers will remember a proposed name change buzzing around two years ago. It was shot down faster than you can say "Merced County Department of Commerce, Aviation and Economic Development."
So Lips did a double-take when the airport's Web site -- www.flycastleyosemite .com -- included the national park's name tacked on at the end.
There's also this nugget online: "Castle Airport is the nearest airport to Yosemite National Park."
Really? Isn't there an airport in Mariposa? Hmm.
The Web site trumps up Castle's proximity to the park by including photos of majestic landmarks. Lips wonders if pilots think they have to bank hard to the left after takeoff to avoid hitting Half Dome.
Before UC Merced's commencement, the word was that Obama may go to Yosemite after her speech. Maybe they just meant back to the airport.
More to the story
And to set the record straight from last week's installment, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was poised to land at the city airport last time he came through town. Officers were waiting for his plane to touch down when the pilot accidentally landed at Castle, a reliable airways source told Lips. The officers sped over to Castle to escort Arnie to the press conference.
We tried to get a list of state officials who landed at the city airport for commencement but were blocked by university information brokers for security reasons. Is there some reason state politicians would be fearful of voters?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Guv?, was supposed to land there before heading to the campus but reportedly came down with a headache. Some suspect it may have been caused by defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-oh, in torture-gate.
Missing in action
But Feinstein wasn't the only mover missing from the crowd of shakers. Conspicuously absent were Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced (we think), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Terminated and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Higher Aspirations.
Were they protesting? Lips wanted to find out.
Cardoza's office issued a four-paragraph statement explaining that the congressman had personal and professional engagements that had been scheduled long before Obama decided to speak. Instead, Cardoza held a bash for the students on the top of the downtown parking garage.
Denham's spokeswoman said that he had a "long-standing family commitment." Those are politically bullet proof. Still, we can't imagine Sen. John McCain's BFF hanging out with Obama.
Schwarzenegger also had a previous commitment, though his spokesman couldn't say what it was. And we thought this was the event of the year.
Livingston once again delays vote on water fees...DANIELLE GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/livingston/v-print/story/855591.html
LIVINGSTON -- The Livingston City Council voted not once, but twice, to postpone a vote on water services fees at their twice monthly meeting Tuesday night.
The fee -- which is also under consideration for wastewater treatment -- is a contentious topic which the council has been grappling with for several weeks.
Before the council discussed either of the issues, Assistant City Attorney Melanie Donnelly explained that there would be no public comment since the public hearing on each matter was closed at the May 5 meeting.
Two City Council members wanted more discussion even after Mayor Daniel Varela asked for a motion to continue the vote to the next meeting because councilmember Martha Nateras wasn't at Tuesday's meeting.
Councilmember Frank Vierra motioned to continue the vote on the condition the council would have a short discussion, but the motion was closed before any conversation. The council still discussed the matter, prompting a second vote for the same.
Rodrigo Espinoza said the council should host a public workshop to explore alternatives other than the three that were considered in the public hearings.
"These three scenarios are too hard (on people financially) for me to vote on," Espinoza said.
Varela said it was time for the debate to end.
"We are at a point now where we have to make a decision," he said.
Donnelly confirmed that the only way the city can look at new options is to restart the voting process that would include hiring a new consultant to conduct a feasability study.
The current study cost the city $100,000, officials at the meeting said.
The City Council has discussed for weeks which of three scenarios to implement new water fees is best.
In a public protest ballot last month, only 401 of the 3,000 service accounts in the city voted "no" to an increase. If the majority had, the council could not have acted at all.
The city hasn't raised water services fees since 1995 and wastewater fees since 2002.
The water system serves roughly 14,000 people.
The council is expected to vote at their next meeting on June 2.
Modesto Bee
Home prices still slipping in north valley...J.N. Sbranti
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/713477.html
The slide in Stanislaus County home prices continues, but April's losses weren't as brutal as previous months.
The median home sales price slipped to $133,000 last month, which is about what Stanislaus houses were selling for nine years ago.
Median prices were nearly three times that high in 2005 when the real estate market peaked, but they've been plummeting since, MDA DataQuick Information Systems statistics show.
The decline seems to be easing. Median prices -- the point where half the homes sold for more, half for less -- have dropped $7,000 since January. During 2007 and 2008, the median price sometimes fell by more than $20,000 during a single month.
Merced County home prices edged up a tad in April, rising $1,000 to a median of $106,000. But home values there have lost a decade's worth of appreciation.
San Joaquin County took another big hit last month. The median price plunged $8,500, falling to $145,000. That's what houses there sold for in 1999.
So what's it going to take for the Northern San Joaquin Valley's real estate market to recover, and how are home price declines affecting potential buyers?.
The Bee posed those questions Thursday to some readers who are interested in home buying...
Fresno Bee
Suit questions fed's smelt protection...John Ellis...5-21-09
http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/v-print/story/1420032.html
A conservative legal organization today waded into the delta smelt controversy, claiming in a lawsuit that the federal government has no constitutional authority to oversee the endangered fish.
The lawsuit — filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of three San Joaquin Valley farming operations — claims that the smelt has no commercial value and is not involved in interstate commerce.
Because of that, managing the smelt and placing it under the federal Endangered Species Act violates the U.S. Constitution, which limits federal domestic authority to only things involved in interstate commerce.
The Sacramento-based foundation’s suit also argues that a smelt management plan issued in December — which has resulted in a reduction of water deliveries to west side farmers and urban users in the Bay Area and Southern California — fails to show how the pumping reductions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta would benefit the smelt, and did not take into account the economic effects of the ruling.
“The federal government is imposing a depression on California’s agriculture industry,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff. He said a “policy that puts people behind fish” is “flat-out unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit comes a day before arguments are scheduled before U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger on an effort by the Westlands Water District and the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority to stop the federal government from enforcing the new smelt management plan.
That plan — known as a biological opinion — was written after Wanger invalidated an earlier draft because he found it was flawed and violated the Endangered Species Act.
The updated plan led to the water reductions and the lawsuits by Westlands and the Pacific Legal Foundation.
Rule proposed to further protect green sturgeon...The Associated Press
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/v-print/story/1420435.html
SAN FRANCISCO Federal fisheries regulators are proposing a new rule for stronger protection of the threatened green sturgeon that may also further complicate Central Valley water management.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday proposed the rule, which would prohibit a wide range of harmful activities including hunting, shooting, wounding, trapping or capturing.
Green sturgeon, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, are prized by poachers who sell caviar on the black market.
The proposal covers sturgeon in the Sacramento River, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and that San Francisco Bay as well as Oregon and Washington.
It could force changes to Central Valley water management where pumps and dams can pose a threat to the fish.
Oregon tribes, farmers settle river use dispute...JEFF BARNARD,AP Environmental Writer
http://www.fresnobee.com/559/v-print/story/1421145.htmlhttp://www.fresnobee.com/559/v-print/story/1421145.html
GRANTS PASS, Ore. The Klamath Tribes of Oregon and farmers have agreed to drop their state water rights battle pending approval of a federal agreement leading to removal of dams on the Klamath River.
The settlement filed Wednesday with the Oregon Department of Water Resources mirrors the water issues in the dam removal plan, known as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.
Tribal attorney Carl Ullman said the settlement contains the same elements as the restoration agreement, and shows the potential that agreement has for settling difficult conflicts over water and other resources.
Farmers agreed to cap and reduce irrigation on the Klamath Reclamation Project, with those who give up water getting paid compensation. The tribes get assurances of water in Upper Klamath Lake for sucker fish and in the Klamath River for salmon. Both fish are a traditional food source for the tribes, and are protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers, said it made no sense to spend time and money fighting out their claims in the long-running state adjudication process when they have reached a settlement that just hasn't gone into effect yet.
"We said we don't know when the KBRA will get finalized or begin to get implemented, so let's settle this now," Addington said.
He added that the settlement is conditional, so in case the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement does not go into effect, the two sides can resume their claims in the state water rights adjudication process.
The battle between tribes and farmers over water came to a head in 2001, when irrigation was shut off to part of the project under the Endangered Species Act to assure water for the fish. The next year, when irrigation was restored, some 70,000 Klamath salmon died of diseases related to low water.
Farmers, tribes, fishermen and conservation groups signed the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement in January 2008, laying the groundwork for removing four dams owned by PacifiCorp to help struggling salmon runs, settling long-standing water disputes, and restoring fish and wildlife habitat.
Bargain hunters snap up Fresno Co. homes...Sanford Nax
http://www.fresnobee.com/business/v-print/story/1420636.html
Home sales continued to soar last month as bargain hunters scooped up houses faster than they came up for sale, creating bidding wars and driving down the inventory of unsold homes.
But banks were the biggest sellers, responsible for 60.5% of the transactions in Fresno County, MDA DataQuick reported. With so many foreclosures being sold, prices are still under pressure -- although realty agents say prices are firming up as the summer buying season hits.
The median price in Fresno County fell 7.1% in April to $130,000 after climbing 9.6% in March, the first uptick in 13 months, according to DataQuick. The decline didn't surprise veteran real estate agent Don Scordino, who said the median price will likely fluctuate as the market improves.
"It appears to be heading up," he said. "But we won't see it every month consistently."
The median price in the whole of Northern California climbed nearly 5%, and DataQuick said it could be a sign that some parts of the housing market are stabilizing.
The median price in just Fresno and Clovis has been as follows, according to Guarantee Real Estate: $127,475 in February, $145,000 in March, $136,500 in April and $145,000 so far in May.
Perhaps the most stunning aspect is the drop in unsold inventory. The supply is 1.9 months to four months depending on how it's calculated, which means everything would sell in that period if no more houses came on the market.
On Thursday, 2,352 houses and condominiums were listed for sale in Fresno and Clovis.
Real estate agents are reporting multiple offers, and the number of foreclosures for sale in Fresno and Clovis was only 250 Thursday. With about 980 sales pending, it appears that May will be another strong month.
How long that continues remains to be seen. Fresno's foreclosure rate -- reflecting the percentage of households in default -- ranked 11th in the nation last month, according to RealtyTrac, and some experts predict another surge of foreclosures this summer.
Jared Martin, president of the Fresno Association of Realtors, said he doesn't fear a next wave. "Our community has done a wonderful job of absorbing these," he said. "There are still enough buyers to absorb it."
Real estate analyst Robin Kane of Fresno said the pool of first-time buyers is finite but noted that it is a pool of Olympic-size caliber, and that many inside it are still waiting to buy.
"A lot of first-time home buyers are choosing not to buy because we are still in a recession," he said. "They will buy a TV before they buy a car and will buy a car before they buy a house. They will jump off the fence when they see things improving."
The strong sales activity is recognition that prices are no longer out of hand, Kane said. About 77% of all households in Fresno County can afford an entry-level home, according to the California Association of Realtors.
"You would have to go back to the '70s to see that percentage," Kane said.
Sacramento Bee
44 states lost jobs in April, led by California...JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
http://www.sacbee.com/business/nation/v-print/story/1884431.html
WASHINGTON -- Forty-four states lost jobs in April, led by California where employers slashed 63,700 positions, as the recession took a further toll on U.S. workers.
Trailing California in over-the-month job losses were: Texas, which saw 39,500 jobs vanish; Michigan, which lost 38,400 jobs; and Ohio, where payrolls fell 25,200, according to a U.S. Labor Department report issued Friday.
California's unemployment rate dipped to 11 percent last month, fifth-highest in the country. Michigan's jobless rate was the highest at 12.9 percent, followed by Oregon at 12 percent, South Carolina at 11.5 percent and Rhode Island at 11.1 percent.
As the recession eats into sales and profits, companies have laid off workers and turned to other cost-cutting measures, such as holding down hours and freezing or trimming pay.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. The nationwide unemployment rate now stands at 8.9 percent, a quarter-century high.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and some economists hope the pace of layoffs will moderate as the recession eases its grip and likely ends later this year.
But even if employers reduce firings, the nationwide unemployment rate is expected to hit double digits by year's end. Employers won't be in any mood to ramp up hiring until they feel confident that any recovery has staying power, economists say.
In Friday's state report, Arkansas and Montana tied for the biggest over-the-month payroll gains at 1,500 a piece. They were followed by Florida, which saw an increase of 1,300 jobs. It marked a dose of good news for a state that has been especially hard hit by fallout from the housing collapse.
On the hiring front, North Dakota again registered the nation's lowest unemployment rate - 4 percent. It was followed by Nebraska with a 4.4 percent jobless rate, Wyoming at 4.5 percent and South Dakota with 4.8 percent.
Layoffs in manufacturing, construction and retail are common threads running through the states with the highest unemployment rates. Another thread: difficulties faced by South Carolina, Michigan, Rhode Island and other states, to lure new types of companies to help cushion the loss of manufacturing jobs and retrain laid-off factory workers for other kinds of employment.
Nearly 6.7 million people nationwide are drawing state unemployment insurance, the highest on records dating to 1967, the federal government reported Thursday. The crush has exhausted unemployment funds in California, New York and elsewhere, forcing them to tap the federal government for money to keep paying benefits.
Stockton Record
Lawsuit alert...Alex Breitler's Blog
http://blogs.recordnet.com/sr-abreitler
Yep, another one.
Yep, the Delta.
This one's a little different. On behalf of three San Joaquin Valley farmers, the Pacific Legal Foundation argues that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service never had authority to list Delta smelt as a threatened species in the first place.
They cite the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Consitution, which basically says the feds can regulate something (in this case, a species) if it crosses state lines and has commercial value. Smelt, the lawyers say, does not and has not.
It's a legal strategy that, with regard to endangered species, has failed in the past. We'll see what happens this time.
Read the complaint here: http://online.recordnet.com/projects/blog/2009/0521complaint.pdf 
New tack in Delta lawsuit...Alex Breitler
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090522/A_NEWS/905220315
FRESNO - The latest lawsuit over Delta smelt relies on a decidedly different strategy: It claims the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lacks the authority to list smelt as a threatened species to begin with.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court Thursday by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of three San Joaquin Valley farmers. It claims that under the Commerce Clause, which is found in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, federal authorities lack power to regulate species that are found in only one state and have no commercial value.
Delta smelt live in this estuary alone, and foundation attorneys said Thursday they believe that even if recovered, the smelt would have no value.
It's a new legal tack in the litigation-swamped Delta, where more than a dozen lawsuits are pending.
Elsewhere, however, about a half-dozen similar endangered-species cases have gone to the courts; in the most recent, a U.S. Circuit Court upheld the feds' protection of the Alabama sturgeon, said foundation attorney Damien Schiff.
That didn't stop the foundation from filing suit in the smelt case, advancing its long history of pushing for Endangered Species Act reform.
"The courts need to tell (Fish and Wildlife) that it has no business imposing any regulations whatsoever related to the Delta smelt," attorney Brandon Middleton said.
Those regulations are key for the water supply of much of California. When smelt wander too close to the state and federal export pumps near Tracy, new Fish and Wildlife rules require pumping to be cut back.
The lawsuit says this has resulted in a "significant reduction" in the amount of water that can be delivered.
Al Donner, spokesman for Fish and Wildlife in Sacramento, said he had not seen the complaint. He did say that the reduction of water deliveries by the federal government because of the new smelt rules has been about 2 percent, though a Bureau of Reclamation spokesman was unable to verify that number Thursday.
Some environmentalists say the real reason water allocations for Valley farms have been cut is because of the three-year drought and poor management of reservoirs during that time as state and federal officials continued to crank up the pumps.
One of the plaintiffs in the case, Newman farmer Jim Jasper, said Thursday that things look "pretty bleak" for his 145 employees.
"I would hope that with fighting this lawsuit today there could be some common sense put into the Endangered Species Act," he said. "Obviously there isn't any today, and it's very, very frustrating."
San Francisco Chronicle
Federal dollars flow to state water projects...Kelly Zito
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/22/BA9117ORCF.DTL&type=printable
Petaluma kindergartners, coho salmon in West Marin County and golfers in Antioch are among those who stand to benefit from $439 million in federal stimulus money flowing into California's water systems.
The money, in the form of grants, subsidies and low-interest loans, is expected to spur hundreds of new water infrastructure projects as well as jump-start those stalled by California's budget disaster, state and federal officials said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Thursday awarded $280 million to the State Water Resources Control Board's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program for wastewater treatment, pollution control and estuary management projects. The state Department of Public Health's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program received $159 million for drinking-water infrastructure improvements.
The award is one slice of the $6 billion in water system improvement funds contained in President Obama's American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 - Washington's effort to shore up the nation's infrastructure while providing much-needed jobs.
The money comes with a catch - about 20 percent of it must go toward conservation, green infrastructure and energy-efficiency projects. In addition, the agencies will strongly favor "shovel-ready" projects because funds not used by February will disappear.
Top priority
Top priority will go to projects in disadvantaged communities - where the population makes 80 percent or less of the state median household income.
"This money is wonderful for those communities that don't have the ability to pay back those loans," said Barbara Evoy, deputy director of the State Water Resources Control Board. "The jobs they need in those areas are extra important, and we're very happy to solve a water-quality problem as well as help in job creation."
The size of projects vying to receive grants or loans runs the gamut - from $8,000 to install water meters in the Adams Springs Water District in Lake County to $22 million for a similar, though much larger, project in the city of Sacramento.
Downstream in Antioch, Gary Darling, general manager of the Delta Diablo Sanitation District, is counting on a $9.7 million loan to build a water recycling facility for the city of Antioch.
If completed as scheduled next summer, the sanitation equipment and pipelines will deliver about 700 acre-feet of recycled wastewater annually to a golf course and five city parks (1 acre-foot is equal to about 326,000 gallons).
The region must recognize that it makes little sense to water lawns with drinking water from Lake Shasta or Lake Oroville, two of the state's largest reservoirs, Darling said.
"We've turned the corner - we're now putting the 'waste' in wastewater in quotes, because we don't want to waste it any longer."
Dozens of other projects around the Bay Area maintain different goals.
In Sonoma County, Wilson Elementary School has applied for a project linking the school's water system into the city of Petaluma's system. The $1.1 million job would ensure a better drinking water supply for the school, which serves about 225 students from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Reducing sediment
Ecologists in West Marin County, armed with $564,000 in federal grant money, hope to restart efforts to reduce sediment deposited in Olema Creek, one of Central California's most important habitats for coho salmon.
The Marin Conservation Corps' effort was halted after California officials froze billions of dollars worth of water-quality and habitat-restoration projects late last year as a result of the state's financial crisis.
Cities, counties receiving water stimulus funds...The Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/21/state/n161427D05.DTL&type=printable
Cities and agencies poised to sign contracts for water project stimulus money (Information on specific projects for most counties not immediately available):
1. Eastern Municipal Water District, Riverside $38.4 million
2. Inland Empire Utilities Agency, Riverside $36.5 million
3. City of Millbrae, San Mateo $34 million
4. City of Delano, Kern $33 million for sewage treatment plant completion
5. City of Brawley, Imperial $25.4 million
6. City of Hughson, Stanislaus $23 million
7. Beaumont Cherry Valley Water District, Riverside $17.5 million
8. Piru Wastewater Treatment Plant, Ventura $14 million
9. City of Live Oak, Yuba $16 million
10. Upper San Gabriel Valley Water District $11 million
Source: U.S. EPA and state Water Resources Control Board.
Search is on for California condor shooters...Peter Fimrite
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/22/BA9T17OOAU.DTL&type=printable
The recent shootings of two endangered California condors have prompted a statewide manhunt for the shotgun-wielding poachers.
The radio-collared vultures were shot somewhere between Big Sur and the Pinnacles National Monument, where they are known to forage, said Adam Keats, director of the urban wildlands program for the San Francisco office of the Center for Biological Diversity.
The condors were found this spring, alive but wounded. One of them, which was among the first of the birds to be released in the region as part of a restoration program, later died of unrelated lead poisoning.
"People are outraged," Keats said. "The condor is the symbol of the ancient history of California, and millions of dollars and countless hours of work have been spent since the 1980s trying to bring this species back into existence."
To waste all that effort "by taking a shot at them is reprehensible," Keats said.
The Center for Biological Diversity began distributing posters Thursday, offering a $40,000 reward for tips that lead to the shooters. It is believed to be the largest reward ever offered in the shooting of an endangered animal.
With a wingspan of 10 feet, the California condor is the largest North American land bird. The majestic black vulture is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 50 years.
Once widespread across North America, the condor has declined precipitously since the 19th century. Only 22 were left in the wild in 1987, prompting conservationists to capture the remaining birds and start a breeding program at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Some of the birds were reintroduced into the wild starting in 1991. There are now 337 condors, 183 of them in the wild in the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the coastal mountains of California and Baja California, Keats said.
The birds that were shot were among only 92 in Northern and Central California. A male dubbed No. 286 was found March 4. The 7-year-old condor, nicknamed "Pinns," was among the first six birds released at the Pinnacles National Monument.
It had lead poisoning and was brought to the Los Angeles Zoo, where it died May 11.
The other wounded condor, a juvenile female called No. 375, was found in early April. It, too, was suffering from lead poisoning and had been wounded by a shotgun blast.
The juvenile recovered and was released May 1.
Investigators don't know where the birds were attacked.
"They had been known to hang out together, which raises the possibility that they could have been shot at the same time," said Bruce Robertson a private investigator hired by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Wildlife biologists believe the birds were poisoned by eating lead ammunition. Even though the older bird did not die of the gunshot, Keats said, simply shooting at a condor is a serious crime.
It's a federal offense to shoot an endangered species. The violation carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
"There is no hunt open for a bird that looks like a condor," Keats said. "This was not someone who was hunting. This was somebody who was committing a crime. Like every criminal, they need to be taken off the streets and punished."
Anyone with tips regarding the shootings is asked to call a condor hot line at (800) 840-1272 or e-mail
House committee OKs climate-change bill...Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Hearst Newspapers
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/22/MNEE17OOT2.DTL&type=printable
Washington - -- Democratic leaders' plan to impose the first national limits on greenhouse gases cleared a major congressional hurdle Thursday when a House committee passed sweeping climate-change legislation.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 33-25 - mostly along party lines - to approve the far-reaching energy measure. It now goes to the full House for debate later this year.
It was a major achievement for committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who spent months struggling to piece together a climate-change bill that could win enough support to get out of the 59-member panel.
Markey called the vote a "turning point in the history of the relationship this nation has with energy and the environment."
The key breakthrough came in concessions Waxman made to rust belt and oil-patch Democrats designed to cushion oil refiners, steel manufacturers and the coal industry from some higher costs expected under the bill.
Still, the narrowness of the vote - and the defection of four Democrats who voted with 21 Energy and Commerce Republicans against the legislation - signaled the challenges still facing Waxman in pushing his climate-change plan through Congress.
Waxman downplayed the significance of the Democratic "no" votes, saying he understood "the concerns of those who felt they had to vote against the bill." Waxman predicted he would "gain in support" as the bill moves through Congress.
The cornerstone of the 946-page bill is a plan to force businesses to meet steadily tightening limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions or buy allowances to spew more of the heat-trapping pollutants. The measure seeks to trim the emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020.
The legislation also aims to spur renewable power by requiring utilities to derive more of their electricity from wind, the sun and other easily replenished sources.
Republicans have widely panned the bill, saying it is tantamount to a national "energy tax" that would devastate the already weakened U.S. economy and make American businesses less competitive in the international marketplace.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., warned of "a worsening economy that this bill could bring about."
During four days of debate, Democrats repeatedly turned back Republican proposals to undercut the so-called cap-and-trade plan by requiring it to be scrapped if electricity bills jump, the unemployment rate spikes, coal mines close or other countries don't impose similar emissions limits.
The GOP proposals were aimed at pressuring politically vulnerable Democrats in the South and the rust-belt Midwest.
"We want to send a message to the American people that we want to protect them from what we think are the potential ravages of this bill," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
Democrats and environmental advocates said the measure was urgently needed to combat the Earth's rising temperature.
Markey said the bill promises "a new dawn of energy" in the United States. The legislation "is going to create a new generation of clean jobs," Markey said, and turn the nation back from "that 14 million barrels of oil we consume each day."
The measure is a top priority for Pelosi and the Obama administration, which wants to be able to highlight a U.S. plan for capping greenhouse gases during international climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen next month.
Despite Waxman's success Thursday, the path of his legislation to the House floor - much less congressional passage - is complicated by the potential involvement of as many as nine House committees. Democrats and Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are weighing big changes to the measure, especially to provisions that could promote biofuels made from nonedible plant materials. That panel's chairman, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has been an outspoken critic of the climate-change bill.
Separately, the Ways and Means Committee, headed by Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., is poised to play a major role in deciding how to dole out the federal government's revenues from selling emissions allowances. Many of that panel's decisions risk shredding the delicate compromise forged by Waxman.
San Francisco Weekly
S.F.'s tasty tap water about to get a little murkier...Matt Smith
http://www.sfweekly.com/content/printVersion/1526133
We San Franciscans like to fancy ourselves unique, but most such claims don't hold water. We had 1960s counterculture movements, yes, but the thick of that action was at faraway events such as the Chicago Seven trial and the Stonewall riots. San Francisco is an unusually beautiful city, sure, but no more so than Truckee, Santa Cruz, or New York. One thing we have had that no other similarly sized city did was unusually pure water. Melted snow and glacial streams feed the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and the water then piped across the Central Valley and into city faucets and showerheads is so clean and delicious that it's also sold in bottles.
But that distinction could soon end thanks to a watershed agreement recently approved between San Francisco and the more than two dozen rural and suburban cities, water districts, and utilities that draw water from the Hetch Hetchy system.
The new 25-year deal closes an epoch of seemingly limitless, perfectly pure water for San Franciscans. Thanks to regional growth and environmental concerns about the ecology of the Tuolumne River, the agreement will force San Franciscans, who consume mere drops of water per capita compared to people in other cities, to make do with even less. The new era of scarcity also means San Francisco will have to increase the amount of water the city obtains from local wells, which can contain trace contaminants such as manganese and iron, albeit at levels so low they don't threaten health.
"San Franciscans think we're members of the Sierra Club, and take this great water, flush it once, and send it out into the bay," says Ed Harrington, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. "Most people in the world don't get to do that. Now, we're talking about, one, reuse of water. And, two, bringing some of that water out of the ground."
Some local residents fear Harrington's negotiating team has sold the city down the river by guaranteeing an average of 92 gallons per day to individual water users outside the city, while setting a goal of merely 54 gallons per day for San Franciscans (down from the current 57 gallons).
"We're not going to have enough water," says Joan Girardot, former president of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, who heads the group's water task force. "This is going to be a huge issue a few years down the road."
Harrington denies San Francisco has negotiated itself into water shortages. And other experts I spoke to say the complex agreements by which San Francisco obtains water leave plenty of wiggle room to obtain more if need be.
Nonetheless, the massive new water agreement is significant because it may mark the first time in recent history that famously green-minded San Francisco has to actually concern itself directly with limits imposed by Mother Earth. Unlike other cities, San Franciscans haven't worried about smog because ocean breezes blow our air pollution to the Central Valley. And while cities such as Modesto hire water cops to cite profligate lawn irrigators, San Francisco has used some of the purest water in the world to irrigate golf courses, while residents rarely give water use a second thought.
There's nothing like personal pain to spur action. In that spirit, perhaps a new age of limits, prescribed by the city's new water agreement, could be a good thing.
Most San Franciscans know the rough history of this city's unusually luxurious water system, whereby city fathers, while rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake and fire, secured a reliable source of water by obtaining rights to dam the Tuolumne River at Hetch Hetchy Valley. After battling environmentalists and farmers for a few years, and then performing magical feats of engineering for a few more, in 1923 the city finished the O'Shaughnessy Dam, so that water could descend 160 miles to San Francisco.
But while the dam is anchored in the granite walls of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, the scheme under which the city has shared the water with towns such as Hayward, Brisbane, and Los Altos Hills has always been on soft legal ground. The 1913 act of Congress giving San Francisco the right to dam the Tuolumne River named the city the primary beneficiary of the project; but it also allowed city officials to identify "other municipalities or water district(s)" to include in the system. Given that the reservoir contained vastly more water than San Francisco needed at the time, the city has, from early on, sold water to other districts.
In the 1970s, when San Francisco sought to raise rates on upstream users while keeping water rates low in the city, the suburban users sued. To settle the lawsuit, the suburban customers and San Francisco struck a 25-year agreement in 1984 — set to expire in June — guaranteeing a maximum 184 million gallons per day, at cost, to the suburban customers, compared to 81 million gallons per day for San Francisco. The perpetual guarantee to the suburbs read as a one-sentence afterthought in the 65-page settlement agreement that focused largely on cost allocation. That's because the South and East Bay populations were smaller in those days, and didn't use nearly as much water as they do now. What's more, the tunnels and reservoirs in the Hetch Hetchy system were built to handle as much as 300 million gallons per day, leaving plenty of water for San Francisco even if the city were to grow larger. But the suburbs have grown at a faster clip than the city. And concerns about precarious fish species preclude sucking that much water out of the Tuolumne.
Indeed, fears about possible environmental lawsuits last fall drove the city to cut a deal with environmental groups. Under the agreement, San Francisco would limit the total draw on the system to an average of 265 million gallons per day, and pay a steep fine for excess usage.
Environmental documents completed last fall specify that San Francisco's customers would draw no more than the maximum 81 million gallons per day provided in the 1984 agreement, with everybody's quota cut in the event of a drought. Suburban customers such as Hayward had hoped to increase their draw on the Tuolumne. Instead, Hayward and others will also be compelled to curb their usage under the new deal.
To make do under the new regime, they'll have to double their levels of conservation, says Art Jensen, general manager of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, the suburban users' bargaining group. "San Francisco imposed a limitation on us that we didn't ask for," he says.
San Franciscans will likewise be asked to conserve. A 2004 PUC study predicted that by 2010, demand for water in San Francisco will be at 92.4 million gallons per day. In order for the San Francisco system to get by on a mere 81 million gallons per day, more well water will be drawn from an aquifer now used by Daly City and other communities just south of the city. Golden Gate Park, meanwhile, will be irrigated with recycled, purified sewage to be treated in a plant built in the park.
For City Hall watchers such as Girardot and economist Brian Browne, who's been a member of the PUC's Revenue Bond Oversight Committee, the new usage restrictions put San Francisco in a precarious position, given that the city's population is expected to grow.
"I believe in 10 years we'll be in a position to have to go out and buy water," Girardot says.
Harrington, for his part, doesn't rule out this possibility. Current water plans, he says, assume the city will grow by 72,000 residential units by the year 2030. He says the most important part of the agreement wasn't limiting San Francisco water — it was in getting the suburbs to help pay upfront for infrastructure costs, thus giving San Francisco ratepayers a break.
Water supplies, he says, are fluid no matter what the agreement says. Harrington suggests that if the need for more water became urgent, San Francisco could buy water from the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts, which also draw water from the Tuolumne.
Harrington leaves open the possibility of renegotiating last year's environmental deal when it expires in 2018. And he doesn't rule out someday revisiting the legally squishy 184 million gallons per day water guarantee to the suburbs. A water negotiator for a growing metropolis such as San Francisco is like the water in a stream, relentlessly seeking the path of least resistance.
Whatever San Francisco's path may be, living here will mean contending with limits set by Mother Nature — just like everybody else.
Inside Bay Area
Laid-off Livermore lab workers file age discrimination suit...Suzanne Bohan, Oakland Tribune
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_
12423236
An Oakland law firm on Thursday made good on its February threat to file an age-discrimination lawsuit on behalf of 130 laid-off Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory workers.
The allegations in the lawsuit are essentially the same as those detailed in a complaint filed in February with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said Randall Strauss, a lawyer working with attorney Gary Gwilliam on the case.
The lawsuit names Lawrence Livermore National Security as the defendant.
In May 2008, the laboratory laid off 440 permanent employees. Of those laid-off workers, Gwilliam said 94 percent were older than 40. Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, age or disabilities.
Gwilliam asserts the laid-off employees were targeted because they were nearing retirement age and earning advanced salaries.
Jim Bono, a lab spokesman, said lab officials received the complaint minutes earlier, and couldn't yet comment. He pointed out, however, that voluntary buyouts were first offered to lab employees. The lab faced a $100 million budget cut, along with $180 million in annual increased costs, he said, forcing the reduction in force.
"The laboratory has always regarded its employees as its greatest asset," Bono said. "We pushed this voluntary separation." If enough had taken it, "it would have negated the need for layoffs."
CNN Money
Florida bank collapses - firms swoop in
$13 billion BankUnited closed in biggest failure of year. Florida thrift bought by Wilbur Ross, Carlyle Investment, Blackstone Capital and other private firms...Tami Luhby
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/21/news/companies/BankUnited/
index.htm?postversion=2009052119
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A consortium of private equity firms has acquired BankUnited FSB in Florida after the savings and loan was shut down by federal regulators Thursday.
The 34th bank to fail this year and the largest so far, BankUnited (BKUNA) had $12.8 billion in assets, $8.6 billion in deposits and 85 branches. The new institution will be named BankUnited.
Similar to a deal it did with IndyMac, the California mortgage bank that failed last July, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will share in losses on about $10.7 billion in assets. The bank's new owners will inject $900 million in new capital into the Coral Gables, Fla.-based institution.
The FDIC estimates it will take a $4.9 billion hit to its deposit insurance fund.
Investors include WL Ross & Co., Carlyle Investment Management, Blackstone Capital Partners, Centerbridge Capital Partners, LeFrak Organization, The Wellcome Trust, Greenaap Investments and East Rock Endowment Fund.
The new BankUnited will be run by industry veteran John Kanas, who built North Fork Bank in New York City's Long Island suburbs into a regional powerhouse. Kanas ran Capital One's banking operation after it acquired North Fork in 2006. He left Capital One (COF, Fortune 500) the next year.
The deal is the second involving private investors and a failed bank, and comes five months after a consortium acquired IndyMac. Private equity firms have become increasingly interested in acquiring banks, though their participation in such deals had long been limited. Last year, as failures mounted, regulators relaxed the rules about who can buy a bank.
In early January, a group of private investment firms, including buyout shop J.C. Flowers & Co. and hedge fund Paulson & Co., struck a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to buy failed mortgage lender IndyMac for $13.9 billion. The bank is now controlled by IMB Management Holdings, led by Steven Mnuchin, who is chair and co-chief executive of Dune Capital Management.
The IndyMac deal is thought to be the first where private investors led the buyout of a failed bank.
In the IndyMac purchase, the buyers took responsibility for the first 20% of losses, and the FDIC covered the majority of additional losses. IndyMac's failure is expected to cost the agency $10.7 billion.
The BankUnited acquisition fulfills a pledge by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, known for his investments in distressed companies in the steel, automotive industries. The head of WL Ross & Co. said in January that it was only a matter of time before his firm bought a bank.
Investors have for weeks been circling BankUnited, which was toppled by its mortgage portfolio.
"Ultimately, the combination of an excessive concentration in payment option ARM loans with too many risk layers and rapidly deteriorating economic conditions overwhelmed BankUnited's capacity to absorb the losses on the portfolio," according to the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulated the institution.
In mid-April, the regulator told the bank it must hook up with another institution or sell itself to correct its severe capital deficiency. Three groups offered bids, which were due at 5 p.m. Thursday.