Badlands Journal

Tuesday's events raised about $400,000 for Pombo, $600,000 for Doolittle and $1.2 million for the Republican National Committee.
-- Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 2006

President Bush came to Pombozastan yesterday to tell wealthy contributors that Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy, was a good man of the soil and that Democrats were wimps giving aid and comfort to the enemy for suggesting that suspension of habeas corpus, pedophilia, lying under oath, inventing WMDs in Iraq, torture, outing an undercover CIA agent, vote rigging and other assorted acts of his administration were illegal.

Then, there is that third message about "staying the course." According to this line, the only real American patriotic attitude is to remain steadfastly terrified in support of an unjustified war now longer than World War II, which, according to the latest National Intelligence Estimate, is creating more hatred against the US and more terrorists. Incidently, it appears to be a war we are losing for lack of troops and sufficient political support in either Iraq or the US. The only winners are the president's friends in the military contract business.

It was fitting that a president who has brought so much "moral clarity" to us all should throw his arm around Pombo -- loyal minion of the one-party Republican tyranny in Congress who is designated one of its 13 most corrupt members -- and declare him "a man who stands on principle" when in fact he is a man who stands solely for his own family's special real estate interest. It makes sense, that is, if you consider how much his audience paid for its tickets. These plutocrats have never been too interested in the Constitution. They have always regarded the political system as their own personal casino. They're just paying for those Republican tax cuts for the rich, anti-environmental policy, and farm subsidies (by any other name) to keep on rolling along.

Dennis Cardoza, who represents nobody you know socially and whose only known political affiliation is to the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrat blue heelers for the right wing, is the other end of the Pomboza. Cardoza is the Blue Dog propaganda director and is reportedly off campaigning for coalition members in the red states.

Bill Hatch
----------------------

Oct. 4, 2006

Bush campaigning in Valley...Ben van der Meer, Modesto Bee
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12835577p-13520643c.html
STOCKTON -- President Bush cast Rep. Richard Pombo's re-election as vital to the war on terrorism and national security in a fundraiser Tuesday at the Civic Auditorium...helped raise an estimated $1 million for Pombo and Republican congressman, John Doolittle of Roseville, while trying to shore up the GOP base...two incumbents are part of a slim majority in the House that the White House wants to preserve. The president has spent the past month campaigning across the country for Republicans in competitive races. Bush again defended his approach to the war in Iraq as well as national security. His 35-minute speech also touched on Pombo's support for finding new domestic energy sources and on tax cuts that Bush said have boosted the economy. "If Rich's opponent wins, your taxes will go up. Make no mistake about it," Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, spoke only to introduce the president. The fundraiser netted his campaign $400,000.

Stockton Record
Fundraising frenzy wraps up Bush's trip to Stockton...Hank Shaw
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061004/NEWS01/610040321/1001
Pombo, a seven-term incumbent, is in a tight contest against Pleasanton wind-energy consultant Jerry McNerney. Two recent polls, released by McNerney and Defenders of Wildlife, show the race to be a dead heat, and even Pombo admits this race is nothing like his 2004 drubbing of McNerney. Pombo did not give a speech during the event but introduced Bush to the sellout crowd of 650 guests, each of whom paid $250 to $2,100 to attend. Through it all, Bush said he needs partners such as Pombo; Pombo has voted with the president 86 percent of the time, according to one recent analysis. "I think it makes sense for the people from the state of California to send to Washington, D.C., a person who trusts the people of California," Bush said. "I think it makes sense to send somebody from the state of California to Washington, D.C., who knows what it means to make a living off the land - and that's Richard Pombo." Pombo's family made its fortune in ranching and real estate speculation.

Bush scenes...The Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061004&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=610040317&SectionCat=NEWS25&Template=printart
Sharp-dressed man...Rep. Richard Pombo's challenger, Jerry McNerney, attended the protest outside the fundraiser. Wearing a hat and suit, he was easy to find in the dressed-down crowd.
Caught on tape...Candid camera: Television reporters weren't the only ones toting cameras. Stockton police also were seen videotaping the crowd.
Momentary boost...The protesters' ranks nearly doubled when about 150 county employees marched into the plaza...

Smaller protest than expected greets president...Alex Breitler
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061004&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=610040319&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Bush heard none of it and likely saw very little...police estimated there were about 200 (other estimates were as many as 500) - still fewer than some protesters had expected. While the group's wrath was directed equally toward Bush and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, the guests were the ones who actually absorbed most of their tirades.

Tracy Press
Bush helps Pombo raise $400K...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4509/2/
President Bush worked the crowd Tuesday at a fundraiser for Rep. Richard Pombo. About 600 people paid $250 a head to listen to the president's 20-minute speech, which encouraged the campaigning congressman and scorned Democrats. In a 20-minute speech, Bush praised the congressman and urged support for his anti-terror campaign and the war in Iraq, and slammed Democrats as people who will raise taxes. “If you don’t want terrorists to attack the U.S. again, I urge you to send Richard Pombo back to the U.S. Congress,” Bush said. McNerney, who chatted with protesters while the president spoke, has said he wants to draw up a nine- to-12-month timetable for troop withdrawal...also responded to Bush’s and Pombo’s support of tax cuts. “They call them tax cuts, but the deficit spending is really putting a tax on our nation’s credit card, and that bill is going to be paid — they’re really raising our taxes, they’re just paying for them later,” he said. Bush praised Pombo for representing the 11th District, telling the audience that it could trust Pombo. “It makes sense for the state of California to trust a man who knows what it means to make a living off the land,” said Bush. Pombo returned Bush’s kind words. “This person has stood firm — he has recognized that this is an enemy that must be defeated,” he said.

San Francisco Chronicle
Bush stumps rare red areas of a blue state...Rachel Gordon, Greg Lucas
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/04/MNGI9LHUQV1.DTL&type=printable
A new independent poll by the San Jose State University Survey and Policy Research Institute found that two-thirds of the state's voters disapprove of Bush's job performance, but the discontent wasn't evident at Bush's two showcased stops in Northern California on behalf of Republican Reps. Richard Pombo of Tracy and John Doolittle of Rocklin (Placer County)...the home turfs of Pombo and Doolittle have more Republicans than Democrats registered to vote. "The Republicans are in trouble. They know it, and we know it,'' said Jerry McNerney... The re-elections of Pombo and Doolittle are crucial in the Republicans' quest to retain control of Congress.

Contra Costa Times
Talk not cheap at Pombo fund-raiser...Lisa Vorderbrueggen
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/community/15674775.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
STOCKTON - President George W. Bush and Rep. Richard Pombo clasped each other's shoulders before a crowd of 650 enthusiastic contributors Tuesday as the president called the Tracy congressman a trusted Republican who will help stop tax hikes and protect Americans from terrorists. But outside the auditorium in the fenced-off "free speech zone," signs of the deeply polarized race roared as Democratic congressional challenger Jerry McNerney joined the several hundred protesters waving signs and chanting anti-war and pro-environment slogans, most characterizing Pombo and Bush's shared ideology as a disgrace. Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund activists wielded wooden back-scratchers -- as illustrations of the adage "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" -- as they passed out fliers that outlined seven policies where Bush and Pombo concur, such as expanding domestic oil drilling. "It's 'Me, too' politics," Defenders spokesman Ed Yoon said. "Whatever Bush wants, Pombo says, 'Me, too.'" Despite the odds, persistent anti-Pombo forces leveraged Bush's visit to showcase the congressman's ideological compatibility with a president ...

Contra Costa Times
Rivals stress flaws in race for House...Josh Richman...Media News...10-3-06
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15666363.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Pombo, 45, seeks an eighth term, saying he's done much to lower taxes and cut wasteful spending; protect private property rights; reform the Endangered Species Act; ensure clean and plentiful water in his heavily agricultural district; and push a Bush administration energy policy that reduces foreign-oil dependence. Democrat Gerald "Jerry" McNerney, a Pleasanton wind-energy engineer, has made clean energy his signature issue -- both as a means of reducing reliance on fossil fuels and as an economic engine -- while also calling for affordable health care for all...paints Pombo as a paid toady of oil companies, a supporter of President Bush's unworkable strategy for the war in Iraq and as corrupt -- accused of taking contributions from disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, trading legislative aid for campaign cash, keeping family members on his campaign payroll and misusing official resources. Pombo paints McNerney as a pandering flip-flopper on issues from energy to health care who never met a tax he didn't want to raise. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee still issues anti-Pombo information but isn't sending much money McNerney's way. As of June, about 75 percent of his campaign funds had come from individuals; most of the rest came from political action committees, primarily labor unions. Pombo, meanwhile, is a prolific fund-raiser endorsed by business and grass-roots GOP groups. As of June, about 48 percent of his campaign funds had come from individuals, and most of the rest was from PACs; because he's the Resources Committee's chairman, he gets a lot from the agricultural and energy industries.

Los Angeles Times
U.S. ruling could eliminate union eligibility for millions...Molly Selvin
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fi-labor4oct04,1,4382150,print.story
A federal labor agency Tuesday broadened its definition of who is a supervisor, in a ruling that could keep millions of skilled employees from joining unions and accelerate a decades-long decline in union membership. In a long-awaited decision, the Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board held that nurses could be classified as supervisors if they directed and oversaw other nurses. Under federal law, employees defined as supervisors aren't entitled to legal protections ensuring their right to join unions. The labor board's definition could be applied to other kinds of workers, particularly in the fast-growing service sector, where unions have made some gains in recent years even as overall union membership has declined nationally, labor experts said. The ruling was applauded by business organizations but denounced by labor groups, which called it part of a Bush administration strategy to destroy unions.

Los Angeles Times
U.S. security at stake in upcoming vote, Bush says in Stockton...Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Rome Tempest
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-bush4oct04,0,6820607,print.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
STOCKTON — President Bush painted the midterm election as a referendum on national security at fundraising events in California on Tuesday, saying congressional Democrats failed to provide the tools he needs to fight the war on terror. "They talk tough on terror, but when the votes are counted, their softer side comes out,"... Pombo and Doolittle, tarnished by their ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), have been campaigning hard in their solidly Republican districts. Bush called Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, a man who "stands on principle" and supports the programs necessary to protect the country, including legislation protecting the CIA's program... Both Doolittle, an eight-term incumbent and Pombo, now in his seventh term, waged expensive primary campaigns to fend off attacks from MoveOn.org, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, the Sierra Club and other groups.Tuesday's events raised about $400,000 for Pombo, $600,000 for Doolittle and $1.2 million for the Republican National Committee.

Washington Post
Stepping up attacks, Bush calls Democrats 'Softer' on terrorists...Peter Baker
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301391_pf.html
STOCKTON, Calif., Oct. 3 -- President Bush ratcheted up his campaign offensive against Democrats on Tuesday with perhaps his bluntest rhetoric yet... With his party in serious trouble five weeks before Election Day, Bush shifted into full campaign mode this week, kicking off a month of frenetic barnstorming aimed at drawing disgruntled Republicans back into the fold. The two House Republicans who were beneficiaries of Bush's fundraising hail from usually safe districts, but both face serious competition this year. Reps. Richard W. Pombo and John T. Doolittle...Democratic polling suggests both are running roughly even with Democratic challengers.

Cardoza can afford to campaign
Cardoza is a leader among the Blue Dogs, House Democrats who have staked out centrist positions on issues such as the budget. He will be spending time this fall campaigning for his fellow Blue Dogs; in part, because he can afford to. -- Modesto Bee, Sept. 25, 2006

Pombozastan, the sourthern tier, the 18th Congressional District

Dennis Cardoza, the "bipartisan" congressman from Merced who represents only the most special-special interests in his district,is taking off on a tour of Blue Dog Country, in the other land o' cotton.

However, all the subdized cotton land in the 18th CD, the San Joaquin Valley is not a Southern state.

Pombozastan, the northern tier, the 11th Congressional District

So much for Cardoza's "aggressive cooperation" with the northern tier of Pombozastan, held by Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy. Pombo appears to be in a fight for his political life without any evident public support from Cardoza, his bipartisan buddy through repeated efforts to wreck the Endangered Species Act and the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

But the speculation that these boys do anything in public would be naive. They like to do their aggressive cooperating in back rooms with very special interests.

Meanwhile, the president is rushing to old RichPAC's aid, having paid a visit to the Democrats' other top Republican target in California, Rep. John "Build-the-Auburn-Dam" Doolittle, the Roseville developers' personal envoy to the US Congress.

Bill Hatch
-----------------

Oct. 2, 2006

Stockton Record
S.J. County prepares for Bush visit...Ellen Thompson
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061002&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=610020312&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Stockton police for several weeks have devoted hundreds of hours to planning that feat ahead of President Bush's visit Tuesday, his second trip to Stockton. The president is scheduled to attend a $250-a-plate breakfast for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, at the Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium and a fundraising lunch at an El Dorado Hills country club for Rep. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay. An unprecedented crowd of protesters gathered in Stockton for Bush's first visit. Plans for protesting Bush policies and Pombo's re-election campaign splashed across local left-wing Web sites as soon as news of his visit was announced in mid-September.

San Francisco Chronicle
Political climate in Tracy changes with new voters...Rachel Gordon
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/02/MNGHQLGL9P1.DTL&type=printable
Nowhere has the area's growth been more pronounced than in Tracy -- the hometown of Rep. Richard Pombo... The question this election season is whether the large infusion of transplants from the more liberal Bay Area will change the political landscape in Tracy and put Pombo's career at risk. When Pombo first took office 14 years ago, dominating Tracy were farmland, ranches and politics rooted in a deep appreciation for private property rights and a distaste for big government. Today, the big fight at City Hall is between growth advocates and the slow-growth movement. Vast tracts of agricultural land have been paved over for housing developments, malls and new roads, and traffic jams in town during the morning and evening commute hours clog the once-quiet streets. Nonpartisan political odds-makers who track congressional contests, such as the Cook Political Report, say Pombo probably will be re-elected. Agricultural concerns are no longer at the top of the political agenda in the district. Pombo is vulnerable this election cycle, given the tough test Republicans face nationwide...

Oct. 1, 2006

Stockton Record
Pombo's race is state's toughest...Hank Shaw
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20061001&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=610010319&SectionCat=&Template=printart
SACRAMENTO - Rep. Richard Pombo is in the race of his life. A flurry of spending by national Republicans, Pombo's senior position in the House GOP leadership and his status as bogeyman for the nation's environmental movement are making the race for the 11th District the most competitive in California. Money fuels advertising. As of Wednesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee had spent $386,000 on polling, fliers and phone banking for Pombo. Only four candidates in the nation have received more help from the group, federal records show. On McNerney's side, a constellation of environmental groups are mailing fliers, phoning voters and providing ground support for the Pleasanton wind energy consultant. Democratic polls consistently show Pombo in the low 40s in approval ratings, and while the Republicans aren't sharing their surveys, they continue to pour cash into the district.

Sept. 30, 2006

Tracy Press
Give Pombo his due...Our Voice
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4445/2/
Rep. Richard Pombo has taken criticism for doing nothing about Gulf of Mexico oil royalty issues, but the facts speak in Pombo's defense. Democrats need a wedge issue to drive 11th District voters away from the powerful incumbent Republican and to the Democratic challenger. It became a two-day media tale: the first, claiming Pombo was in the pockets of Big Oil; and the second, Pombo replying that he did begin such an inquiry in mid-Februrary that led to a remedy. What the Democrats are reluctant to admit is President Bill Clinton’s Interior Department was the “sweetheart” when it forgot to affix royalties to these 1998-99 contracts. After Pombo read The New York Times’ Valentine’s Day story on the shortfall, he began an inquiry the next morning. On June 29, a bipartisan majority of the House OK’d the changes. Yet, three months later, Miller & Company accused Pombo of not doing anything. Pombo did something, and kept the government out of court.

Washington Post
Energy Bills don't reach finish line in Congress...Steven Mufson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901433_pf.html
When oil prices punched through $75 a barrel and gasoline topped $3 a gallon five months ago, members of Congress offered a raft of proposals, ranging from more U.S. drilling to windfall profits taxes to antitrust investigations. They railed against oil executives' pay packages, and some called for higher gasoline mileage standards. Five months later, long after "Energy Week" came and went in the House of Representatives, Congress is heading home without adopting any significant legislation on energy. House negotiators, led by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), held out for offshore drilling outside the Gulf of Mexico, while Senate leaders bluntly declared that they could not muster enough votes for that. "He keeps asking us to do something that is politically impossible for us to do," Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) said during the week. She played a key role in forging a compromise in the Senate, and her state stands to gain hundreds of millions of dollars of royalties from new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. "I frankly wish there were more support for drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts," she said, "but the political reality is that there is not. Period. The end." House leaders said that the Senate version, which would have opened up 8.3 million acres in Gulf of Mexico federal lease 181 and adjacent deeper water to the south, didn't go far enough. But talks broke down in the end over maps of the offshore state boundaries in what are now federal waters.

Sept. 29, 2006

Tracy Press
A Tracy Press report listed Jerry McNerney's out-of-state donors, but omitted Rep. Richard Pombo's out-of-state supporters, like oil companies...Chris Gilbert, Berkeley...Your Voice
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4428/2/
John Upton presents incomplete reporting of the Richard Pombo/Jerry McNerney race in Wednesday’s story, “11th District race tops $5.5.”... he neglects to mention any that have contributed to Pombo, such as Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil, the National Mining Association and various Indian tribes... he neglects to mention what Pombo is being hammered with: charges of corruption, voting to privatize Social Security and generally not adequately serving the 11th District.

Bush to scratch backs of loyal congressmen...John C. Chendo, Stockton...Your Voice...9-28-06
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4398/2/
President Bush could be thanking our troops or supporting them by figuring out a new strategy for the war on terror; instead he's busy patting the backs of congressmen who've never even come close to military service. He is taking precious time out from fighting his global war in Iraq to fight in Northern California for four Republican incumbents in Congress: Reps. Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Wally Herger and Dan Lungren. They are all politicians for more than a decade with close ties to multinational lobbyists. All four supported Bush’s veto of stem cell research...supported the president’s privatization of Social Security...supported spending money to attack Iraq...and support taking our soldiers into war by lowering federal taxes on our wealthiest corporations... All four have yet to debate their opponents for Congress in the fall election. You can support our troops by voting for our troops this Nov. 7. Vote against the multinational corporations that are price-gouging with Americans’ tax money on no-bid contracts.

San Francisco Chronicle
Races heating up for 2 GOP incumbents...Rachel Gordon
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/29/MNG4VLF7N81.DTL&type=printable
Republican Reps. Richard Pombo of Tracy and John Doolittle of Rocklin are preparing for President Bush's visit to California next week to generate campaign cash for their re-election bids... Democratic activists are urging the party faithful in the Bay Area to head to San Joaquin County and the Sacramento Valley to help unseat the incumbents. Democrats are hoping to capitalize on the anti-incumbent mood that polls have shown is bubbling nationally and could unhinge the GOP's leadership lock on Congress in the Nov. 7 election. ...the National Republican Congressional Committee has spent nearly $400,000 on the Pombo-McNerney race, and the GOP's top fund-raiser, Bush, is being brought in to help. Bush is scheduled to appear Tuesday at a breakfast fundraiser for Pombo in Stockton, where the cost to attend will range from $250 to $2,000, and at a $2,000-a-head fundraiser for Doolittle in El Dorado Hills in the Gold Country in the afternoon. Vice President Dick Cheney made a similar pilgrimage on behalf of the candidates before the June primary.

Sept. 28, 2006

Tracy Press
Million-dollar men march...John Upton...9-27-06
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4383/2/
11th Congressional District has generated more than $5.5 million in total campaign contributions, and the dollars keep rolling in...
campaigning and a fundraiser with the president still to come, the mid-term campaign season has already seen more than $5.5 million pumped into supporting and unseating Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. “It’s above average - control of the House is really hotly contested this year, and Pombo is one of the more vulnerable incumbents in the sense that he has these links to Tom DeLay and Jack Ambramoff,” said University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor of political science David Karol. Carl Fogliani accused anonymous donors outside the district of trying to sully Pombo’s reputation with local voters. Pombo needed to spend a lot of money to offset the money being spent against him and to correct “half-truths and innuendo.” McNerney and Pombo will share the stage just once before the Nov. 7 election - the Tracy Press Forum will begin at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at Poet Christian School.

Sept. 27, 2006

Environment and Energy Daily
Campaign 2006: National GOP pouring funds into Pombo contest...Alex Kaplun...9-26-06...Must sign in to access article.
http://www.eenews.net/search/stories/?keyword=pombo&from_month=09&from_day=26&from_year=2006&to_month=09&to_day=27&to_year=2006&Submit_from_index=Search%21?
National Republicans appear increasingly nervous about House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo's (R-Calif.) prospects for re-election, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a contest that had been viewed as an extreme long-shot for the Democrats.

Sept. 26, 2006

Modesto Bee
18th District race drawing little attention ...Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau and Ken CArlson, Bee Staff Writer
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12778094p-13470868c.html
WASHINGTON — Dennis Cardoza ran his first congressional race under a white-hot media spotlight. Four years later, the national media is long gone. It's nothing personal. It's just that San Joaquin Valley politics have returned to normal, after Cardoza's dispatching of Rep. Gary Condit in a 2002 primary... Now Cardoza is thecomfortable incumbent, a Merced Democrat seeking election to his third House term. Cardoza said, when asked how he's campaigning this year..."I typically run the same no matter what." He is now facing political novice John Kanno, an electrical engineer who works in Stockton. "I believe that it is time the 18th District had representation that is more concerned about what's important to the Central Valley than what's important to Washington, D.C., liberals and special interests," Kanno said this week. Cardoza is a leader among the Blue Dogs, House Democrats who have staked out centrist positions... The veteran politician had $269,613 stashed away in his campaign treasury as of June 30. Kanno reported having $70,132 in available campaign cash. The 18th Congressional District reflects the aftermath of the 2002 election, when Democratic mapmakers were shaping the district after Condit's political unraveling.
Cardoza can afford to campaign
Cardoza is a leader among the Blue Dogs, House Democrats who have staked out centrist positions on issues such as the budget. He will be spending time this fall campaigning for his fellow Blue Dogs; in part, because he can afford to.

Tracy Press
Pombo hiding out...Lee Miller, Stockton...Your Voice
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4349/2/
Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who was once in favor of a three-term limit for members of Congress, has been safely hiding out in the gerrymandered 11th District for seven terms, where he has become arrogant about issues that matter to the people. His votes are for his special interests, not ours...constituents who fund him are: big oil, oil drillers, developers and lobbyists like Jack Abramoff. I Googled Pombo and corruption and 155,000 hits come up. Votes for the people are hard to find in Pombo’s record.

Sept. 25, 2006

Modesto Bee
GOP takes no chances in Pombo's House run...Ben van der Meer
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12774366p-13467371c.html
Cheney has visited, and Bush plans to, California's 11th Congressional District this year for Rep. Richard Pombo, suggesting a closer-than-normal election for the seven-term incumbent. To keep the seat safe - and also keep the House of Representatives in Republican control - Pombo's party is bringing out big guns to raise money and keep the Tracy resident's profile high, Bruce Cain said. Pombo's Democratic challenger is Pleasanton's Jerry McNerney, a renewable energy consultant who lost to Pombo decisively in 2004. "Pombo's not got a great record of delivering for the district," McNerney said. Though Pombo has easily won re-election since he first was elected in 1992, his campaign manager, Carl Fogliani, said this race is not taken for granted.

Sept. 23, 2006

Stockton Record
Oily mess ahead for Pombo...Hank Shaw, Capitol Bureau Chief
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060923&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=609230327&SectionCat=&Template=printart
East Bay Rep. George Miller and six other House Democrats are demanding that Pombo hold "immediate" congressional hearings on what may be blooming into a full-fledged scandal at the Interior Department. Pombo says he is concerned about the latest revelations and plans to speak with the department's inspector general, Earl Devaney, before Congress recesses in October. Devaney delivered a withering assessment of a culture at the Interior Department that he says "sustains managerial irresponsibility and a lack of accountability. Topping the department's sins is what appears to be a drafting error that occurred during the last year of the Clinton administration over regulations concerning when oil companies should pay federal taxes. This blunder has cost taxpayers at least $1.3 billion. Interior Department officials said this week they will not try to recoup the loss. Add to this a series of lawsuits filed by former Interior Department auditors that claim top department officials prevented them from pursuing up to $30 million in unpaid taxes from several oil firms operating in the Gulf of Mexico;... Miller, who has been feuding with his neighbor across the Altamont off and on for years, said it should be Pombo's Resources Committee that takes the lead in any investigation. The House Government Reform Committee has been taking the lead.

Sept. 22, 2006

Tracy Press
Pombo-McNerney forum approaches...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4248/2/
The Tracy Press Forum on Oct. 5 might be the only chance to see Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, share the stage with his Democratic opponent, Jerry McNerney, before the November election...neither Pombo nor McNerney will choose the questions or topics that will be discussed...they will be given up to five minutes each for opening remarks, followed by about an hour of questions posed by the audience through a Tracy Press panel...forum will start at 7 p.m. at Poet Christian School, 1701 S. Central Ave.

The University of California/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is bidding to site a mile from the Tracy city limitsthe most dangerous level the government designates of biowarfare laboratory. The issue and UC management problems are discussed in the articles abstracted below.

It is a win-win solution for Tracy with this bio-safety laboratory created here with the
protections and competence known to be present in the University of California labs.
Let us not be driven by fear, but rather offer our support for UC to adequately
implement this opportunity close by.

-- Chris Page, Letter to the editor of the Tracy Press, Sept. 23, 2006

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Sept. 28, 2006

Tracy Press
On the fence...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4395/2/
Level 4 bio-lab is a hot topic in Tracy. A City Council candidate has defended a

biological laboratory that might be built near Tracy, accusing project opponents
Councilwoman Irene Sundberg and environmental activist Bob Sarvey of misleading locals.
City Council referring the proposal to the Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond committee of nine
citizens... The city has no jurisdiction over Site 300, but Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy,
previously said through a spokesman that his support for the proposal would depend on
the city’s position. “Tracy Tomorrow is nothing but an extended hand of council,” said
Roger Adhikari, who applied last year for a spot on the Tracy Planning Commission...
Like all city committees, members of Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond are appointed by the
council. Adhikari said he considered the committee selection process biased.

San Francisco Chronicle
Los Alamos...Nuke lab evacuations cited in federal probe...Keay Davidson
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/28/BAG3CLE5941.DTL&type=prin
table
Power and ventilation failures at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico forced a
half-dozen evacuations over the past four months from a building where radioactive
plutonium is handled, according to a federal investigator...incidents point to
continuing concern about the handling of radioactive materials for nuclear bombs at the
lab, which is jointly run by the University of California, Bechtel Corp. and a few
industrial partners. Failure of the ventilation system can be hazardous because of the
potential that plutonium might be sucked out of secure labs and through the structure,
and possibly into the outside environment. In a separate inspection, the investigator
noted that half the weapons lab's storage containers for fast-accumulating amounts of
plutonium used in bomb "pits" -- the explosive cores of nuclear weapons -- are possibly
substandard and could lead to further safety issues. The amount of plutonium and other
radioactive waste is growing to the point "where they impact both (lab) mission and
safety, virtually ensuring failure unless addressed as a priority," the investigator
wrote in an Aug. 25 memo.

Washington Post
The secretive fight against bioterror...Joby Warrick...7-30-06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900592_pf.html
The government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons,
but its closed-door approach has raised concerns. The heart of the lab is a cluster of
sealed chambers built to contain the world's deadliest bacteria and viruses. The work at
this new lab, at Fort Detrick, Md., could someday save thousands of lives -- or, some
fear, create new risks and place the United States in violation of international
treaties. NBACC's close ties to the U.S. intelligence community have also caused concern
among the agency's critics. The CIA has assigned advisers to the lab, including at least
one member of the "Z-Division," an elite group jointly operated with Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory that specializes in analyzing and duplicating weapons systems of
potential adversaries, officials familiar with the program confirm.

Sept. 24, 2006

Los Angeles Times
UCLA Lab to quickly track infectious diseases...The Associated Press
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucla24sep24,1,1367227,print.story?coll=la-headli
nes-california
Scientists at UCLA and the Los Alamos National Laboratory will be developing a
high-volume lab that will use robots to quickly test samples for infectious
diseases...$22-million project is called the High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network
for Infectious Diseases. It is slated to be completed within a year at Los Alamos and
will be moved to California and operated by UCLA.

Sept. 23, 2006

Tracy Press
The community would be so lucky as to have a bio-research lab built in the nearby
hills...Chris Page, Tracy...Your Voice
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4239/2/
EDITOR, It is in the interest of all the citizens of Tracy to have present in their
community more and more advanced technology with its associated staff and their
contributions as community members. Biotechnology is advancing and bringing us better protection along with better health and food. It is a win-win solution for Tracy with this bio-safety laboratory created here with the protections and competence known to be present in the University of California labs.
Let us not be driven by fear, but rather offer our support for UC to adequately
implement this opportunity close by. Let’s assist them to make it a little better with
our opinions during the environmental inquiry stage when we can all contribute and also
hear informed personnel regarding all options for improvement.

Sept. 22, 2006

Regents retroactively approve $6 million in executive pay and perks...Tanya Schevitz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/22/BAGHNLAO5G1.DTL&type=prin
table
140 university executives can keep at least $6 million in pay and perks that they
received earlier without proper approval or public disclosure. The vote is the second
time regents have given retroactive approval for questionable payments that were cited
in three audits of the university's compensation practices. In July, the regents
retroactively approved more than $1 million in compensation items for about 60 top-level
executives. The items included matters large and small, from improper car allowances and
extra vacation time to large undisclosed bonuses and perks. Other employees got promises
of a full year's pay if they were terminated. Some, including an assortment of deans at
UC Berkeley, were granted an extra week of vacation time.

Regents vote to seek contract to keep running Livermore lab...Chronicle Staff Report
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/22/BAGHNLAG9H1.DTL&type=prin
table
The University of California Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to compete for
the next contract to run Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the nuclear weapons
laboratory in Livermore. Winning the contract from the U.S. Department of Energy would
let UC manage the nation's two nuclear weapons design laboratories -- Lawrence Livermore
and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Nuclear weapons foes want UC out of
the nuclear weapons business altogether.

Sept. 21, 2006

Stockton Record
Panel to analyze biolab proposal...The Record
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060921&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=60920013&

SectionCat=&Template=printart
TRACY - A nine-member panel of real estate agents, educators and others will explore a
proposal to build a biological weapons and agricultural disease research laboratory
before the City Council takes a position on the issue, council members decided Tuesday
night. Questions abound over the risks and benefits of the University of California's
bid to locate the laboratory at Site 300, a 7,000-acre weapons testing ground south of
the city. Mayor Dan Bilbrey asked that the Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond committee delve
into the proposal and report its findings to the council in January. Councilman Brent
Ives works for the University of California at Livermore National Laboratory and recused
himself from Tuesday's discussion.

San Francisco Chronicle
Regents to vote on Livermore today...Keay Davidson
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/21/BAG1OL9ERT1.DTL&type=prin
table
A committee of UC's governing body moved to retain the university system's grip on two
of the nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories, voting Wednesday to compete for the
next contract to run Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore. The full Board
of Regents is expected to ratify the recommendation today. UC has run Lawrence Livermore
and New Mexico's Los Alamos labs for more than half a century... Both labs have had many
serious problems...Los Alamos employees inadvertently shipped radioactive materials to
several states;...Livermore employees were accidentally contaminated with plutonium --
but UC teamed up with Bechtel Corp. to beat back a strong challenge in December from a
team headed by Lockheed Martin Corp. and the University of Texas to retain control of
the Los Alamos lab it had run for more than 60 years. If UC succeeds in keeping control
of Lawrence Livermore, it would not only shore up its tarnished reputation as a manager
of national labs, but would solidify San Francisco-based Bechtel's bid to become the
industry titan behind the research wings of the world's No. 1 atomic arsenal.

'Sea change' in oversight of money...Tanya Schevitz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/21/BAG1OL9EVQ1.DTL&type=prin
table
University of California officials announced several policy reforms Wednesday to carry
out an advisory panel's recommendations for correcting shortcomings that came to light
during an executive pay scandal last year...greater documentation and review will be
required anytime a special exception is made to a policy governing executive
compensation. UC will be more open with its compensation, making public disclosure of
the compensation of officials filling positions that require appointment by the
governing Board of Regents. The university will also provide an electronic annual report
of base salary for all UC employees and full compensation for executives. The regents
are expected to vote on a variety of compensation items today. The regents are also
expected to retroactively approve compensation for about 140 executives who received it
without proper approval or disclosure. The move goes beyond what was required in a
ruling by an Alameda County Superior Court judge in August in a case brought by The
Chronicle against the university, but it does not go so far as to open up pay raise
discussions prior to the vote.

UC system, Stanford cash in on research...Verne Kopytoff
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/21/BUGGNL9DIE1.DTL&type=prin
table
California universities are among the top in turning research into business, reaping
tens of millions of dollars annually from licensing, according to a study released
Wednesday...report by the Milken Institute. Academic capitalism, the practice of schools
owning, licensing and marketing faculty research, has played an increasingly important
role on college campuses in recent years. Universities routinely make millions of
dollars from patents, money that can be used to support faculty pay, campus services and
capital improvements, such as laboratories. However, some critics complain that
universities are losing their focus because of the potential to cash in. Instead of
making teaching and basic research priorities, some schools have become obsessed with
coming up with inventions that have businesses applications... That California schools
rank near the top is hardly a surprise. They've been leading research centers for years
and have a long history of embracing academic capitalism...the UC system earned an
average of nearly $100 million annually from licensing... UC's policy is to share any
money from licensing between a fund for future research, the UC system's general fund
and the school where the invention was developed. The inventors get 35 percent of the
revenue.

Sept. 20. 2006

Tracy Press
Under the microscope...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4203/2/
The same nine-citizen committee that helped plan Tracy’s soon-to-be-built aquatics park
will review a University of California proposal to build an anti-biological terrorism
laboratory near Tracy. Mayor Dan Bilbrey referred the proposal to the City
Council-appointed Tracy Tomorrow & Beyond Committee during a public discussion Tuesday
night. The discussion heard from six Tracy residents, four City Council members and a
public affairs representative from the university, which has been short-listed to run
the laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories’ Site 300. University
spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the Department of Homeland Security would call for
public comment and thoroughly investigate the site if it is included in six finalist
sites this fall. “There is a very good chance the University of California’s proposal
will not make that list, but if it does we will engage (the community), as will all
entities,” Houghton said. “All the questions that have been raised tonight are really
very good ones, and they’re questions that the Department of Homeland Security needs to
address.” Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert...“You can love this country deeply and not always
have to trust your government — it’s the duty of being an American”...

San Francisco Chronicle
Toxic mercury contaminating more species, report shows...Jane Kay
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/20/MNGNDL90AV1.DTL&type=prin
table
Mercury pollution from power plants and other industrial sources has accumulated in
birds, mammals and reptiles across the country, and only cuts in emissions can curtail
the contamination, says a report released Tuesday by a national environmental group. The
report is the first major compilation of studies investigating mercury buildup in such
wildlife as California clapper rails, Maine's bald eagles, Canadian loons and Florida
panthers. In all, scientists working with the National Wildlife Federation found 65
studies showing troublesome mercury levels in 40 species.

UC regents vote to bid for Livermore contract...Michelle Locke, AP
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/09/20/state/n100606D58.DTL&type
=printable
Leaders of the University of California took a step toward solidifying their role as
national nuclear steward Wednesday, voting to put in a bid to continue running the
Lawrence Livermore weapons lab...expected to be ratified by the full board Thursday,
comes nine months after UC successfully bid to keep running the Los Alamos nuclear lab
in New Mexico. UC in partnership with engineering expert Bechtel Corp. won the Los
Alamos competition last December, beating out a team of the University of Texas and
defense contractor Lockheed Martin.The 10-campus UC system will partner with Bechtel in
its bid for Livermore.

CSU, UC leaders promise candor on executive pay...Michelle Locke, AP
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/09/19/state/n190736D77.DTL&type
=printable
Leaders of California's public universities, roiled by reports that some top officials
were quietly paid millions, are pledging to be more open about executive pay. California
State University trustees' meeting in Long Beach on Tuesday, Chancellor Charles Reed
endorsed a proposal to make sure the system's board members and the public knows about
compensation deals given to departing executives. Meanwhile, officials at the University
of California said they would be more public about setting salaries for the top ranks.
Also...CSU and the California Faculty Association have been negotiating for months over
salaries, with CSU recently saying they are at an impasse...CFA recently filed suit
alleging that trustees illegally held a closed-door meeting to discuss the hiring of
former Chancellor Barry Munitz.

Committee's pay votes to be public...Tanya Schevitz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/20/BAG4LL8SHR1.DTL&type=prin
table
The University of California announced Tuesday that the compensation committee of its
governing Board of Regents will voluntarily vote in public on pay proposals for all UC
officials requiring board approval. The move goes beyond what was required in a ruling
by an Alameda County Superior Court judge in August in a case brought by The Chronicle
against the university, but it does not go so far as to open up pay raise discussions
prior to the vote. "We are a public university. We do have to balance privacy rights of
individuals ... but we are carrying out the public trust and we have a responsibility to
be transparent and accountable to the public," Parsky said. "We are planning to go well
beyond the court ruling." Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, whose legislation
barring the regents from meeting behind closed doors when considering the compensation
of high-ranking executives has stalled, said that while the university's new move is
laudable, it still falls short.

UC mental health help called in crisis...Tanya Schevitz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/20/BAGFNL45ER52.DTL&type=pri
ntable
University of California campuses have reached the crisis point in providing mental
health services to a growing number of students with depression and more serious
psychiatric problems, as well as plain old homesickness... Mirroring a national trend on
college campuses, suicide attempts and severe mental health problems have grown
dramatically on UC campuses in recent years. At the same time, UC's mental health care
budgets have shrunk. The report says that there were 29 suicides on the 10 UC campuses
between the 2000-01 school year and the 2004-05 school year... numbers understate the
problem

Sept. 19, 2006

Tracy Press
Council to talk about bio-lab...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4177/2/
City Council debate about the proposed Level 4 bio-lab - it's the last item on tonight's agenda. Councilwoman Irene Sundberg said Monday she doesn’t want the Department of Homeland Security laboratory built next to Tracy - and she is expected to ask the rest of the council to join her in officially denouncing the project...she became opposed to the project after eating dinner with a scientist who scared her with stories of the “horrific things that could happen” should something go wrong in such a lab. The discussion will be broadcast live on Channel 26. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300, which would host the laboratory, is just outside Tracy’s southwestern limits, next to a swath of AKT Development-owned land earmarked for habitat protection on the long-debated Tracy Hills housing project. Laboratory spokeswoman Susan Houghton said that information on the Web site www.universityofcalifornia.edu/nbaf/uc.html would help counter false information surrounding the proposal.

Discuss bio-lab's pluses, minuses...Our View
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4166/2/
Tracy residents know where City Councilwoman Irene Sundberg stands on the proposed federal Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Corral Hollow Canyon...she has the issue in the public forum, and it is important that all voices are heard. Some say the bio-lab would bring 300 research scientists and other new jobs to the area. But others say locating the lab here is risky - or, as one former LLNL supervisor cautioned, “If an animal with a level 4 pathogen ever got loose, the entire valley would be gone, not just Tracy.” BioSafety Level 4 is the highest level of containment for biological organisms. Not located in populated areas Wrong. Level 4 labs are in Atlanta and San Antonio and on Plum Island, off the New York and Connecticut coast. There have been no reports of a pathogen ever escaping such labs. We urge all the council members to learn the facts about the proposed bio-lab, listen to the citizens and make an informed judgment...

Sept. 17, 2006

Stockton Record
UC offers to fight deadly pathogens...Alex Breitler
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060917/NEWS01/609170325/1001
TRACY - If it is built in the hills southwest of Tracy, a high-security laboratory where moon-suited scientists study a handful of the world's most dangerous pathogens would be one of perhaps a half-dozen such labs across the country, according to experts. The University of California has submitted a bid to the federal government to build the laboratory at a weapons testing site at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dedicated to agricultural and biological defense, at least part of the new lab would fall into the highest security category, known as "Biosafety Level 4." There are plenty of precautions, officials said. But the critics are not appeased. The University of California's application has not been released to the public, adding a veil of secrecy to the project and further spurring criticism...the university established a Web site to keep people informed. A Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs conservation group spokeswoman said it filed a public records request for the university's application but was denied. Although there are other Level 4 labs, this would be the first to combine agricultural, animal and public health research. Community acceptance is one factor the government said it will take into account when deciding where the lab should be built.

Sept. 14, 2006

Job suits cost UC $12 million in 3 years...Tanya Schevitz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/14/BAGPJL5DHN1.DTL&type=printable
The University of California paid out at least $12 million over three years on employment lawsuits involving allegations such as sexual harassment, discrimination and "consensual relations" between faculty and students, according to an internal audit and letter obtained by The Chronicle...payout covers cases arising out of the 10 campuses, various medical centers and two national laboratories -- Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley -- under UC's management. Specific details about the cases were not disclosed. About $9.3 million involved 168 employment cases at the campuses and medical centers from 2002 to 2005...university paid at least $3 million to resolve 18 employment cases at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which it manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. That amount does not include two large class-action discrimination cases that were settled. Many more complaints were settled before they reached litigation, UC has reported in the past. Of the 168 cases reported on the campuses and medical centers, 55 were resolved for amounts of less than $100,000 and five for more than $250,000 -- with an average indemnity per claim of $55,000, according to Blair's letter. Of the 18 cases at the labs, 10 were settled -- six for less than $100,000 and one for $990,000. The damages paid after two court verdicts against the university exceeded $1 million in each case. Sheldon Steinbach, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education, which represents 1,800 colleges and universities, said the amount UC spent on litigation is not out of line with other universities. "When one looks at these numbers at first glance, they look overwhelming and possibly excessive, but in the litigious 21st century America, they are not overwhelming."

Sept. 12, 2006

Tracy Press
Meeting tonight on bio-agent lab...Phil Hayworth
http://tracypress.com/content/view/3932/2/
Local folks will get a chance to voice their concerns and compliments...about possibility of a biolab being built near Tracy...workshop from 7 to 9 tonight at the Sarvey Shoe Store, 501 W. Grant Line Road. The University of California, which manages Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the Department of Energy, said the lab submitted a proposal to Homeland Security to build a half-million-square-foot lab on 30 to 100 acres at Site 300, a bomb test site west of Tracy. If built, it would be one of the world’s largest biolabs...where experimental studies on pathogens such as avian flu would be conducted. The UC has thus far refused to release any formal information to the public about its proposal, Miles contends.

Sept. 8, 2006

Merced Sun-Star
UC Notebook: Professor to explore reasoning...Corinne Reilly
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12689362p-13387979c.html
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to UC Merced professor Evan Heit to fund research that will explore human reasoning. UC Merced shares the grant with the University of Massachusetts, which will send graduate students to Merced to participate in the project. Green campus...UC Merced has launched a campuswide recycling program...tall blue collection bins are now all over the campus. On-campus offices have offered recycling bins for the past three years, but this is the first campuswide program to be implemented. Last year, university officials estimate the campus produced about 155 tons of waste, about 67 tons of which was recycled. Research honored...UC Merced professor Roland Winston has been honored for his research in solar technology. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers...chose Winston to receive its first-ever Frank Kreith Energy Award for his work in nonimaging optics. Natural sciences professor Michael Dawson was also recently honored for his research on jellyfish and the movement of ocean waters...shares the 2006 Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research with a team of researchers who developed a new computer model for that helps track water movement...new technology could shed new light on climate change.

Below, you will find a series of abstracts of newsclips about the San Joaquin River Settlement. On Sept. 13, fourteen environmental and recreational organizations and 29 irrigation and water districts and four federal agencies, submitted a settlement agreement to United States District Court, Eastern District of California. The agreement proposes a plan for one of the greatest river restoration projects in American history.

One of the most important laws considered in the federal court's decision, which forced the parties into settlement negotiations, was California Fish and Game Code, Section 5937.

The owner of any dam shall allow sufficient water at all times to pass through a fishway, or in the absence of a fishway, allow sufficient water to pass over, around or through the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam. During the minimum flow of water in any river or stream, permission may be granted by the department to the owner of any dam to allow sufficient water to pass through a culvert, waste gate, or over or around the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may
be planted or exist below the dam, when, in the judgment of the department, it is impracticable or detrimental to the owner to pass the water through the fishway.

However, much -- though not all -- of the press coverage of the settlement reflects the frontier attitude of a former manager of the Merced Irrigation District:

"The price of a water right is eternal vigilance."

---------------------------

Sept. 28,2006

Lawmakers settle river dispute...Michael Doyle, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12785879p-13478049c.html
WASHINGTON -- Exhausted Capitol Hill negotiators agreed Wednesday on legislation to revive the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam. Establishing a new "experimental population" of salmon, while still protecting operations on local dams and water projects, were the keys to the compromise. The next big problem is time... In part, the new deal reassures water agencies that they can renew their Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses on the Merced and Tuolumne rivers without additional environmental requirements solely because of the new salmon population...guarantees that federal officials in protecting the salmon "will not impose more than de minimus water supply reductions, additional storage releases or bypass flows" on the water districts...agreed to devote the capital repayment from Friant water customers to the river restoration project for the next 20 years. Even so, some Valley lawmakers voiced dissatisfaction with the haggling that included environmentalists making a last-minute push for an additional concession... Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza, while supporting the final compromise, added that "this process should never be repeated (because) legislating by lawsuit is not the way to do public policy." "I'm pleased with the progress that's been made," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, but "we have to look at this seriously. The Congress has to take its time; we have to hold hearings."

Valley well-represented in river-restoration talks...Editorial
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/12786191p-13478313c.html
In poker, you can't win if you're not at the table. The same thing is true in water negotiations. Fortunately, we had a seat - several, in fact - at the table where a deal to restore the San Joaquin River between Fresno and Merced has been worked out. Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced a deal... Included were some key third-party representatives. Among them was Modesto Irrigation District General Manager Allen Short, who represented the five irrigation districts - Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale, Merced and South San Joaquin - that depend on and manage the San Joaquin's tributary rivers. Joining him was Ken Robbins, a lawyer for Merced Irrigation District, and all five valley members of the House of Representatives. The negotiations on the bill are complete, but this game is not over. Getting this bill passed will require the help of the entire valley congressional delegation...it is doable.

Sept. 27, 2006

Sacramento Bee
River lawsuit ends; will restoration work?...Editorial
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/29845.html
It took a lawsuit by environmental groups and a sympathetic federal judge in Sacramento named Lawrence Karlton to force a compromise. The question now is how will the salmon regard the settlement? They are the true judges here. And is this legal settlement the last word? Not really. Many affected parties along the river weren't at the negotiating table. Neither was Congress, which is now wrestling with coming up with the money and deciding how a reintroduced salmon population should be regulated under the federal Endangered Species Act. The end of this contentious lawsuit means the beginning of a long and delicate process -- more negotiating, more political arm-twisting and more scrutiny of river ecolology -- with the goal of accomplishing something on a scale that has never been tried before in California. Beware of anyone declaring this mission accomplished. But celebrate an important milestone for a very troubled river.

Sept. 26, 2006

Salmon may be replenished in San Joaquin River...Michael Doyle, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12777978p-13470708c.html
WASHINGTON -- The negotiators returning to Capitol Hill today hope to finish crafting the legislation needed for the river's restoration. The end result of the haggling in Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's third-floor office eventually could be an estimated 500 or more spring-run chinook salmon back in the now-depleted river...the San Joaquin River salmon would swim in the shadow of the California condor, the Yellowstone area gray wolf and Florida's whooping crane. Like them, the San Joaquin River salmon would be dubbed an experimental population -- a move that can ease regulatory burdens and soften political resistance...it's become apparent that the San Joaquin River fix likely will include declaring the newly reintroduced salmon as a "non-essential experimental population." Under an Endangered Species Act provision known as 10(j), this will set the salmon apart from other protected plants and animals. Property owners wouldn't have to worry about regulators designating their land as "critical habitat," because experimental populations don't get critical habitat. It doesn't impose new regulations on private land, though critics like Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, say it can still depress land values. For that reason, the Bush administration sparked anxiety when it designated 450,288 acres as critical habitat for the California red-legged frog and 199,109 acres as critical habitat for the California tiger salamander.

Sept. 25, 2006

Fresno Bee
River worries flood west side...Mark Grossi
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/12774415p-13467443c.html
LOS BANOS - A farm road runs through the shriveled San Joaquin River where chinook salmon are supposed to swim in seven years. This peaceful farming belt may be the stage for the next legal fight over restoring the dammed and dried San Joaquin. Farmers here are afraid a restoration agreement announced this month might wind up ruining some of their land. Their lucrative crop fields butt against the old stream bed. They fear a restored river will waterlog their land and prevent crops from growing. Now their representatives are in Washington, D.C., trying to protect their interests in legislation to restore the river. Among other concerns, west-side farmers want to make sure there is enough money to properly study the effects of a restored water flow in their area. They also would like to see money set aside to pay for property damage in their area. Otherwise, they say they will have to file suit if damages occur. Aside from funding, there is another sensitive question: Will the nearby flood-control channel known as the Eastside Bypass also be used in the restoration?

Sept. 24, 2006

Stockton Record
Flow will be slow...Allen Short, Modesto Irrigation District, San Joaquin Tributary Agencies and Daniel Nelson, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060924/OPED02/609240307&SearchID=73257838248384
After 18 years in the courts, a settlement on restoring the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the Merced River has arrived - but only partly...still must gain the blessing of a federal judge...needs legislation authorizing the expenditure of funds for projects to finalize the settlement. The driving force behind the settlement is restoration of river flows on the San Joaquin River to allow a return of the spring-run Chinook salmon. Specifically, the final settlement resolution must include a reasonable approach to:
» Solve fishery concerns.
» Fully fund infrastructure and mitigation for restoring 142 miles of river habitat.
» Protect water rights, including groundwater, of parties not involved as well as farms, rural communities and cities that rely on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries for water.
» Guarantee that ongoing successful river and chinook salmon restoration on San Joaquin River tributaries aren't adversely impacted.
» Protect all third parties from endangered species penalties regarding reintroduced spring- run salmon.
» Provide an inclusive process for the impacted third parties to have meaningful input into the program.
Legislators and others involved must implement a balanced, long-term solution that is fair to all parties affected by San Joaquin River restoration.

Sept. 23, 2006

How is this a successful river restoration?...Cannon Michael, Los Banos...Guest commentary
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/12767877p-13460874c.html
Last week, when the settlement to restore the San Joaquin River was announced...I was surprised to see such positive coverage from local media...it is important for Valley residents to remember: the restoration of the San Joaquin River was not born out of a collaborative desire to bring salmon back to the river, it was brought about by litigation. The environmentalists won their lawsuit and Friant was forced into a settlement that they felt would be better than what Judge Karlton would impose upon them. NRDC has never estimated the number of spring-run Chinook salmon the restoration program would restore... My family farms along a stretch of the San Joaquin River that will be the most difficult and costly to restore, a stretch that has been termed Reach 4-b. The settlement calls for the East Side Bypass to handle some of the initial "pulse flows" required for the restoration while the capacity is increased in Reach 4-b...the bypass would be a far less costly option than creating a new channel in Reach 4-b. I am not against trying to make the restoration work, but I hope that it can be done in a balanced and fiscally responsible way.

Sept. 22, 2006

Merced Sun-Star
Politicians get a look at river restoration plan...Michael Doyle, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12762086p-13456203c.html
WASHINGTON -- Negotiators are still refining an ambitious San Joaquin River restoration plan, with a tentative agreement this week to classify as "experimental" the salmon that will reclaim the river as its home. "experimental" label would mean the Merced and Modesto irrigation districts have less to fear from federal regulators. It is also a sign that river negotiators...may soon resolve completely how Congress will make the San Joaquin live again. One key solution...involves designating the newly reintroduced San Joaquin River salmon as a "nonessential experimental population." Under a rarely used portion of the Endangered Species Act, this softens the accompanying regulatory burden; for instance, critical habitat would not be designated for the salmon. Separately, negotiators seemingly outflanked a controversy over restoring a 22-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River that ends in Merced County..."upper 4-B" stretch is now depleted, causing doubts about its potential revival. Consequently, negotiators say they have agreed to call for a feasibility study... Remaining sticking points...what to do about federal hydroelectric licenses. The Merced Irrigation District's license for the Merced River Project expires in 2014, and the Modesto and Turlock districts' license for Don Pedro Reservoir expires in 2016. Negotiators must also resolve how to handle salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta...

San Francisco Chronicle
San Joaquin River plan stall in House...Kimberly Geiger
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/22/BAGHNLAO5E1.DTL&type=printable
Conservationists and federal water authorities have reached a compromise to end an 18-year dispute over the damming of the San Joaquin River, but House lawmakers who reviewed the agreement Thursday said they will pursue changes to the plan before passing legislation required to complete the deal. The deal laid out a scheduled release of water from the dam to restore the river over the next 20 years -- and required lawmakers by year's end to pass a bill authorizing federal funding and oversight of the project...lawmakers at a House hearing Thursday said the settlement overlooks the effects on farmers and other water agencies that were not included in the negotiations. Lawmakers concluded the hearing with a request that the parties to the settlement negotiate a compromise with third-party interests before legislation goes forward.

Sept. 21, 2006

The cost of victory...Alex Breitler
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060921&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=609210342&SectionCat=&Template=printart
MODESTO - A resurrected San Joaquin River could prove even more expensive than originally thought - costing perhaps $1 billion - while causing unintended consequences for fish, some downstream water users claim. Flows from Friant Dam near Fresno could be too warm for migrating fall-run chinook salmon, they say. Meanwhile, repairing levees and widening a channel that hasn't seen flows in half a century could require huge investments and the retirement of thousands of acres of farmland. The settlement is not the final chapter...as officials from several water districts are expected to testify before a House of Representatives subcommittee today and ask for federal funds. This week...water districts that also rely heavily on the San Joaquin drainage - but were not a part of the lawsuit - are tempering that enthusiasm. Some have spent millions over the past few decades supporting fall-run chinook populations in tributaries such as the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. Also, they fear the sudden reintroduction of spring-run chinook, a threatened species, could mean new water and property-use restrictions under the Endangered Species Act. A summary of the settlement says that the document was tweaked to include the perspectives of others and that no "material adverse impacts" were expected to third parties.

Sept. 20, 2006

Fresno Bee
Reshaping Nature...Mark Grossi
http://www.fresnobee.com/special/150/story/12749797p-13444961c.html
The damming of the San Joaquin helped change the Valley floor, for better and for worse. San Joaquin River was plugged as part of the Central Valley Project, a massive plan to control flooding and provide irrigation water. The sky no longer darkens with millions of ducks and geese, feasting on the river's smorgasbord of insects...the water that no longer feeds the river has helped feed the county's growth through farming and land development. To accommodate farming, swamps and wetlands were drained. The land was leveled. On the west side, large channels were built to funnel the occasional big flows of the river around areas that flooded regularly...agriculture blossomed on 170,000-plus acres in the county as well as on an additional 800,000 acres along the Valley's east side...farming further expanded when the federal Central Valley Project began delivering water from Northern California to the west side. Tinkering with the San Joaquin began long before Friant Dam. In 1911, Southern California Edison began putting together an extensive hydroelectric system in the Sierra... Harold Tokmakian was the Fresno County planning director in the 1960s before becoming a professor at California State University, Fresno...the Valley is being eroded by "lateral expansion" -- also known as sprawl. There are other reasons, too, to value river habitat, said Bob Winter, 81, a Fresno City College biology instructor for more than a half century. For instance, the kangaroo rat might someday help medical science understand kidneys better, he said.

Planting our roots in rich Valley soil...David Mas Masumoto
http://www.fresnobee.com/special/150/story/12749818p-13444972c.html
Generation of farmers of all nationalities have transformed a desert into a garden. Then came the liquid gold from the Sierra: water. They could grow most anything here...So long as they had irrigation water. This liquid treasure, combined with an entrepreneurial spirit, gave birth to generations of farmers and their families. Fresno became a magnet for farmers...the land provided a refuge to a variety of crops and farming methods. Cattle ranches and dairies, wheat, cotton, grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines, vegetables, melons, row crops. Each decade brought new seeds of change. For some, the reality did not match their dreams. Nature played no favorites when destroying a harvest. Others found the greed of humans was no different in this Valley than any other place. Years passed and the pressures did not stop. Valley agriculture became part machine, part something else, what was grown in the fields now merely raw products for others to profit from. The old family farm with farmers and their families working to grow, harvest and sell a crop has almost vanished. Or are family farmers being vanquished -- caught between the forces of business and the explosion of growth? Could land be better suited to growing houses than peaches or grapes? They came as pioneers and today still cling to the land. They are desperate to use any means to maintain a way of life. Some call them fools, stubborn individuals refusing to let go of the bounty of this Valley. Most are still dreamers; that's why they still farm.

Sept. 15, 2006

Two parties at odds over San Joquin restoration costs...Michael Doyle, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12717970p-13413996c.html
WASHINGTON -- Many farmers and environmentalists now agree on restoring the San Joaquin River. They do not, however, agree on how much it will cost. Environmentalists believe $250 million will suffice. Farmers served by Friant Dam think $800 million is more like it. On Thursday, Department official Jason Peltier joined with four members of Congress, myriad staff members and top negotiators for a closed-door, Capitol Hill briefing on the ambitious San Joaquin River restoration plan... Radanovich is expressing optimism, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, exited the briefing Thursday as angry as ever...insists there's a lot more concern bubbling beneath the public surface. Representatives of the Merced Irrigation District and the so-called "exchange contractors" from the San Joaquin Valley's West Side are crafting alternative proposals in Washington this week. They hope to modify the proposed legislation that's needed to implement the river restoration plan; for instance, to protect them from further Endangered Species Act obligations when the salmon is reintroduced. The big gap in cost estimates, for instance, stems largely from uncertainty over what standards new levees will have to meet. State regulators could get the final say, as they will eventually set the levee standards.

Sept. 14, 2006

9-14-06
NRDC Press Release...9-13-06
Attachment:
Peter Moyle, Professor of Fisheries Biology, University of California Davis..."Bringing the San Joaquin River back to life will be one of the greatest restoration projects ever undertaken in the United States. Over 150 miles of river will once again provide vital habitat for not only salmon but for a wide array of other native fish, plants and wildlife. Restoring one of California's long lost salmon runs will be a strong symbol of our willingness to make California a better place for both wildlife and people. I also anticipate that restoring flows to the river will have a positive effect on the Delta, an ecosystem in crisis. This monumental restoration effort could not come at a better time."
Zeke Grader, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association..."Over the past century, West Coast salmon rivers have been devastated by water development and other activities. This agreement provides salmon fishermen with a ray of hope...
Dante Nomellini, Manager and Co-Counsel, Central Delta Water Agency..."Drying up the San Joaquin River harmed more than fish...
Philip Atkins-Pattenson, Outside Counsel for the NRDC Coalition, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton LLP..."This settlement represents the triumph of optimism and collaboration among the parties...
Gary Bobker, Program Director, The Bay Institute...The San Joaquin River is the missing limb of San Francisco Bay...
Bill Jennings, Executive Director, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance..."This is a truly historic settlement that not only breathes life into a dead river but will measurably improve water quality and lessen human health impacts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta...
Lydia Miller, President, San Joaquin Raptor Wildlife Rescue Center..."Restoring the San Joaquin River will benefit salmon and numerous other native wildlife species, and it will improve the natural habitat along much of the river. It will also improve the quality of life for Valley residents and provide recreational opportunities."
Walt Shubin, Fresno County Raisin Farmer..."As a farmer who grew up on the San Joaquin River, I know that salmon and farming can coexist - I've seen it...
Chuck Bonham, Senior Attorney, California Director, Trout Unlimited..."This settlement shows the remarkable things that people can accomplish when they work together to restore damaged ecosystems...

Merced Sun-Star
River plan needs support in D.C...Michael Doyle, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12713171p-13409800c.html
WASHINGTON -- The political headwaters for the San Joaquin River now shift to Capitol Hill, where Congress is supposed to turn a river restoration plan into reality...ambitious river plan formally rolled out Wednesday relies on quick congressional action... Theoretically, the new San Joaquin River settlement could collapse if Congress doesn't act by Dec. 31. Ken Robbins, an attorney for the Merced Irrigation District, and other California water professionals will be listening closely on Capitol Hill today as negotiators brief lawmakers about the deal that until Wednesday remained under tight wraps. The Merced Irrigation District, for instance, is a "third party," because it was not part of the lawsuit. Robbins said the district worries about sufficient funding for river channel improvements, and new Endangered Species Act burdens resulting from the reintroduction of the threatened spring-run salmon by 2013. "It poses some enormous problems," Robbins said, adding that "we're going to propose some changes to (the bill.) ...This raises other problems, though, because the settlement agreement requires that the legislation be approved "substantially in the form" that it's been proposed by the original negotiators. On Capitol Hill, congressional staffers expect some changes, and suggest neither farmers nor environmentalists will be too quick to back out. Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced, while applauding the work done on the settlement, cautioned that he could not support a deal if it comes "at the expense of those not party to the legislation." Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia, characterized the proposed legislation as a "gun to the head" of Congress.

Fresno Bee
Accord pumps new life into river...Mark Grossi and E.J. Schultz
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/12713238p-13409904c.html
The historic deal is finally done, and the San Joaquin River - barring unforeseen snags - will flow freely again...a settlement that will launch what could be the largest river restoration in the history of the American West. The deal, announced in front of a federal courthouse in Sacramento, ends an 18-year-old federal lawsuit... Environmentalists heralded the agreement as the beginning of a new era, not only for the state's second-longest river but also for the state's vast waterways. "This agreement provides that once again the San Joaquin will flow from its headwaters in the High Sierra all the way to San Francisco Bay," said Hal Candee, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the lead plaintiff in the case. The San Joaquin Valley River Exchange Contractors Water Authority, representing west-side farmers, wants to make sure there is enough money to buy land and rebuild the river where it has not existed for decades. A hydrologist for the Bay Institute, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the water used for restoration could be pumped back to farmers for use in the fields after it travels through the river. Once river water reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta pumps, it can be sent back through canals to farmers. "We've done it already in tests, and it works," said hydrologist Peter Vorster...

A river shall run through it...Editorial
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/12713227p-13409910c.html
A marathon legal battle over the fate of the San Joaquin River inched closer to a settlement Wednesday... If the deal is finally done, over time it will change the face of the Valley — and for the better, we believe. Federal funds and state bond money would be tapped to pay for the costs of the restoration, as part of a "San Joaquin River Restoration Fund" created under the deal. There are obstacles...a particular concern downstream...settlement language apparently includes a guarantee that land will be purchased only from "willing sellers... Another touchy subject is language in the settlement that appears to place a year-end deadline on Congress to pass the necessary enabling legislation. Here's hoping this deal turns out to be a model for future compromises, rather than an ephemeral aberration.

Stockton Record
Parties agree to go with the flow...Alex Breitler
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060914/NEWS01/609140344/1001
SACRAMENTO - Described by conservationists as the "missing limb" of San Francisco Bay, the San Joaquin River will again flow... The resurrected river will flush out pollutants and improve water quality in Stockton and San Joaquin County, conservationists say. Fish will return, followed by recreation and tourism dollars. And the algae blooms that often turn the river's waters a sickly pea green may be diminished. Wednesday's agreement among farmers, environmentalists and the federal government ends nearly two decades of courtroom clashes over water diversions at Friant Dam... The San Joaquin will become "a living ecosystem instead of a contaminated drainage ditch," said Hal Candee, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which first filed suit against the federal government and agricultural water users in 1988. "The federal government for years took a callous attitude toward the river," said Dante Nomellini, a Stockton water attorney who represents water users through the Central Delta Water Agency. While some farmers were praising the restoration plan, concerns remain over how much water they will lose...plan includes several strategies to make up for that loss, including bolstering groundwater supplies during wet years, transferring water from other groups and, when possible, recirculating any excess water from the Delta. "In many respects, the litigation has been the cork in the bottle for restoration efforts on the river," said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources. "While that litigation was pending, it's been very difficult to pursue restoration. "We can now move forward."

Sept. 13, 2006

Restoring the San Joaquin...Michael Doyle, Bee Staff Writer and Mark Grossi, The Fresno Bee
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12708691p-13405707c.html
WASHINGTON - More water should start flowing down the San Joaquin River by 2009 under a long-awaited settlement... Farmers and environmentalists have worked out the details during months of negotiations. The agreement will be presented to a federal judge in Sacramento this morning, in hopes of settling an 18-year-old lawsuit...agreement includes an apparent deadline for Congress to approve by Dec. 31. Feinstein will introduce the legislation to authorize the river fixes. Outside parties not allowed to sue...draft of the legislation authorizes the federal government to buy land from "willing sellers." All environmental laws must be complied with - a blow to some water agencies hoping for exemptions. Outside parties - such as the Merced Irrigation District - can't sue if they're unhappy with how the settlement works. The proposed legislation establishes a "San Joaquin River Restoration Fund... The agreement will not automatically dissolve if the legislation strays beyond the deadline, said Friant Water Users Authority lawyer Dan Dooley.

Irrigation districts worried about costs, loss of water...Michael G. Mooney, Bee Staff writer
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12708700p-13405719c.html
Stanislaus and Merced water agencies are voicing concern about an agreement to restore a 153-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River. The $1 billion plan - assuming it wins congressional approval - will be one of the largest river restoration projects in the nation's history... would send more water through the San Joaquin River by 2009 and reintroduce salmon by 2013. "We believe there should be a settlement," Garith Krause of the Merced Irrigation District said Monday, "but that settlement shouldn't add additional burdens to those of us downstream." The Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts have questioned the settlement pact, as have the Westlands Water District, San Joaquin River Exchange and the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority. Key concerns include:... Allen Short, general manager of the Modesto Irrigation District, and the others will lobby for legislation that will:... If the legislation substantively differs from what negotiators agreed to, at least one lawmaker said, the deal could fall apart.

Stockton Record
Agreement reached on river restoration (11:05 a.m.)...The Record
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060913&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=60913002&SectionCat=&Template=printart
A historic agreement to restore water flows for salmon in the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam near Fresno while undertaking one of the West’s largest river restoration efforts was announced today by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Friant Water Users Authority and U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce...settlement, filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, ends an 18-year legal dispute over the operation of Friant Dam and resolves longstanding legal claims brought by a coalition of conservation and fishing groups led by NRDC.

San Francisco Chronicle
Settlement will restore San Joaquin River...Glen Martin
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/13/BAGG9L4KHQ1.DTL&type=printable
The San Joaquin Rive will be restored under a settlement announced today...be announced at news conferences in Sacramento and near Fresno, is the result of years of negotiations over a lawsuit filed in 1988 by environmental groups and fishing advocates. Sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a federal gag order, told The Chronicle that the settlement between water users and environmental groups requires that Friant Dam release between 364,000 and 462,000 acre-feet of water in normal years to help restore spring and fall salmon runs. One acre-foot is equivalent to 326,000 gallons, or roughly enough to meet the annual needs of five people. Kole Upton, a farmer and chairman of the Friant Water Users Authority, said the judge's decision required everyone involved to compromise. "If you have a judgment inflicted from above, you can end up feeling like the Germans after the Treaty of Versailles." "The important thing here is that we now have a partners in restoration and mitigation, not adversaries. That makes all the difference."

Sept. 12, 2006

Modesto Bee
Be careful about restoring San Joaquin River...Allen Short, general manager of Modesto Irrigation District and represents the San Joaquin Tributary Agencies
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/12704925p-13402258c.html
After 18 years in the courts...a settlement of the San Joaquin River...but only partly. The driving force behind the settlement is restoration of river flows to allow a return of the spring run Chinook salmon. Millions of dollars have been expended and more than 500,000 acre-feet of water released by irrigation districts and water agencies to provide conditions in the tributaries to improve and sustain the fall run. These efforts might be severely jeopardized if water temperatures exceed safe limits for fall run salmon fry. This could happen if sufficient Friant water does not flow through the existing shallow San Joaquin River channel upstream (south) of the Merced River on its way to the delta. These efforts must be recognized and protected from any negative effects as a result of the court and legislative action needed to complete the settlement. Specifically, the final settlement resolution must include reasonable approaches to:... Now is the time to support our representatives' efforts to obtain authorizing legislation that will complete the settlement process. Legislators and others involved must be careful to implement a balanced, long-term solution that is fair to all parties affected by San Joaquin River restoration activities.

The UC Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is on the short list to play host to the most dangerous type of biological warfare laboratory in the United States. It is seeking to locate the level 4 lab just outside the city limits of Tracy.

Tracy is the hereditary capital of that area composed of the adjoining congressional districts of RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy, and Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, called in these pages, Pombozastan.

The general idea -- if it reaches the level of an idea -- of local, state and federal
government in Pombozastan is to urbanize as much farm and ranch land as possible, rendering the environment toxic in the process. But, the level-4 biowarfare lab is a twist worthy the Chairman Himself, Pombo, who heads the House Resources Committee, guiding it with fervent pre-World War II faith in the infinity of land and natural resources, and the infinite capacity of the globe to stay cool and the air to cleanse itself.

One Tracy city councilwoman tried to get the rest of the council to vote on the issue earlier this week. The mayor adroitly deflected the issue to a 9-member committee called Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond. One possible interpretation of "Beyond" was mentioned by a former UC/LLNL supervisor: “If an animal with a level 4 pathogen ever got loose, the entire valley would be gone, not just Tracy.”

A typical level-4 pathogen is Ebola Zaire, which rapidly turns its victims' organs into slime, producing a high percentage of mortality. Moreover, there doesn't seem to be a cure for Ebola at present.

All Valley residents should feel safer now, knowing the decision will be made by the wise, far-seeing Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond Committee. But somehow, not all of us do feel safer. UC/LLNL flaksters insist that there is no example of the most lethal pathogens ever escaping a biowarfare lab. Supposing that there had been an escape at some point, we also suppose it would have been a matter of the highest national security not to reveal it, for fear of making the public nervous or worse.

The American public is generally aware that the Bush administration is promoting the redesign and upgrade of the largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, ours, and is also promoting development of a new generation of biowarfare weapons, necessary for development of antidotes to protect the public in case of biological attack. What remains murky, however, is the testing of the weapons and the defenses against them on the American public.

Particularly murky is the issue of consent to be tested.

Heather Wokusch, author of The Progressives’ Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now (Volume I), explained to readers of Commondreams.com this morning:

There’s a tricky clause in Chapter 32/Title 50 of the United States Code (the aggregation of US general and permanent laws). Specifically, Section 1520a lists the following cases in which the Secretary of Defense can conduct a chemical or biological agent test or experiment on humans if informed consent has been obtained:

(1) Any peaceful purpose that is related to a medical, therapeutic, pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial, or research activity.

(2) Any purpose that is directly related to protection against toxic chemicals or
biological weapons and agents.

(3) Any law enforcement purpose, including any purpose related to riot control.

The definition is a little too open-ended for comfort; apparently there are a lot of
circumstances under which the Secretary of Defense can test chemical or biological agents on human beings, but at least informed consent has to be obtained in advance.

Or does it. Get a load of Section 1515, another part of Chapter 32, this one entitled "Suspension; Presidential authorization": After November 19, 1969, the operation of this chapter, or any portion thereof, may be suspended by the President during the period of any war declared by Congress and during the period of any national emergency declared by Congress or by the President.

You got it. If the President or Congress decides we’re at war then the Secretary of
Defense doesn’t need anybody’s consent to test chemical or biological agents on human beings. Gives one pause during these days of a perpetual "war on terror."

It’s not a stretch to wonder what kind of clandestine WMD tests the Defense Department could be conducting in the US right now, on military or civilian populations, without consent, let alone on populations abroad.

Nov. 19, 1969 -- Nixon remains among us.

It's probably just a coincidence, but ...

Normally, people of some agricultural experience would look at the statements of the federal government and the press concerning the outbreak of E. Coli as merely more of the laughable and witless distraction we have come to expect from an administration, one of whose most subtle, effective forms of domestic terrorism is absurd utterance.

Otherwise, we can look at it as the inevitable result of the corporate vegetable deal, setting aside for a moment the question of why lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers and green onions grown in the Salinas and San Benito valleys somehow escaped suspicion.

Earthbound Farms, the suspected producer of the tainted spinach, claims
to farm 26,000 acres, all or most of it in organic vegetables for the fresh market. It also claims to employ more than 1,000 people. Earthbound is reported to have sales of $500 million in 2006, a dramatic increase from a reported $156 million in 2004.

From this information, the public would not be illogical to assume that the corporation, probably together with the largest distributors in that trade, have dispatched to Washington DC a phalanx of expensive attorneys of impeccable reputation and deep personal relationships with members of the administration. Perhaps the lettuce growers also have sent some legal representatives to the capital to make damn sure none of this wipes off on them. There, they are no doubt meeting with officials of the Food and Drug Administration, the agency whose corruption has turned the entire American public into unwitting guinea pigs for the biotechnology industry and has done severe damage to American growers in some international grain markets. Together, they are pointing
fingers here, there, and everywhere, in order to evade liability.

In short, common sense and experience would suggest a medium-sized fix is in -- nothing as big as Mad Cow Disease, but a serious corporate effort at damage control. However, who really knows these days?

Bill Hatch
-------------------

References:

Rumsfeld’s Guinea Pigs: US Citizens at Risk for Military-Weapons Testing
by Heather Wokusch
CommonDreams.org - Sept. 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-31.htm

Discuss bio-lab's pluses, minuses...Our View
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4166/2/
Tracy residents know where City Councilwoman Irene Sundberg stands on the proposed federal Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Corral Hollow Canyon...she has the issue in the public forum, and it is important that all voices are heard. Some say the bio-lab would bring 300 research scientists and other new jobs to the area. But others say locating the lab here is risky - or, as one former LLNL supervisor cautioned, “If an animal with a level 4 pathogen ever got loose, the entire valley would be gone, not just Tracy.”
BioSafety Level 4 is the highest level of containment for biological organisms. Not located in populated areas Wrong. Level 4 labs are in Atlanta and San Antonio and on Plum Island, off the New York and Connecticut coast. There have been no reports of a pathogen ever escaping such labs. We urge all the council members to learn the facts about the proposed bio-lab, listen to the citizens and make an informed judgment...

Under the microscope...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/4203/2/
The same nine-citizen committee that helped plan Tracy’s soon-to-be-built aquatics park will review a University of California proposal to build an anti-biological terrorism laboratory near Tracy. Mayor Dan Bilbrey referred the proposal to the City Council-appointed Tracy Tomorrow & Beyond Committee during a public discussion Tuesday night. The discussion heard from six Tracy residents, four City Council members and a public affairs representative from the university, which has been short-listed to run the laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories’ Site 300. University spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the Department of Homeland Security would call for public comment and thoroughly investigate the site if it is included in six finalist
sites this fall. “There is a very good chance the University of California’s proposal
will not make that list, but if it does we will engage (the community), as will all
entities,” Houghton said. “All the questions that have been raised tonight are really very good ones, and they’re questions that the Department of Homeland Security needs to address.” Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert...“You can love this country deeply and not always have to trust your government — it’s the duty of being an American”...

UC regents vote to bid for Livermore contract...Michelle Locke, AP
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/09/20/state/n100606D58.DTL&type=printable
Leaders of the University of California took a step toward solidifying their role as
national nuclear steward Wednesday, voting to put in a bid to continue running the Lawrence Livermore weapons lab...expected to be ratified by the full board Thursday, comes nine months after UC successfully bid to keep running the Los Alamos nuclear lab in New Mexico. UC in partnership with engineering expert Bechtel Corp. won the Los Alamos competition last December, beating out a team of the University of Texas and defense contractor Lockheed Martin.The 10-campus UC system will partner with Bechtel in its bid for Livermore.

E. Coli Pervades Harvest Area; Salinas Valley waterways are known to carry the bacteria that poisoned at least 145 people and killed one who ate tainted spinach
Los Angeles Times – 9/21/06
By Marla Cone
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water21sep21,0,2311007.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The bacterium that has sickened people across the nation and forced growers to destroy spinach crops is so pervasive in the Salinas Valley that virtually every waterway there violates national standards.
"There are many sources of water coming into the watershed, and I guarantee you that they all have generic E. coli," and many carry the deadly E. coli strain linked to food poisonings, said Christopher Rose, an environmental scientist at the state's Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which tests the region's waterways...

Earthbound Farms: http://www.ebfarm.com/About/EarthboundInnovations.aspx

Live Oak native’s work found in kitchens all over the US
Suwannee Democrat-Sept. 12, 2006
http://www.suwanneedemocrat.com/suwannee/local_story_255165107.html?keyword=topstory
...With the explosion of growth in organic foods, even Wal-Mart has jumped on board. Sweat has steadily guided Earthbound Farm's sales from $50 million in 1998 to $500 million in 2006...

Nutrition Business Journal: January 2005: NBJ's Business Achievement Awards & Executive ReviewBronze: Earthbound Farm for expanding organic sales by 28%. ... 30, 2004, gross sales were $165 million or 56.5% higher than the same period in 2003. ...
nbj.stores.yahoo.net/ja20nbbuacaw.html - 46k

Monterey Herald
Ire over plan's ag land proposal...Larry Parsons
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/15571138.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
A proposal to offset the future loss of Monterey County farmland to development in the proposed county general plan provoked heated protests Wednesday before county planning commissioners. Another proposal to require water-quality tests on new agricultural wells in the draft general plan -- a 20-year growth blueprint for unincorporated areas -- also hit sore points with members of the public and some commissioners. Christopher Bunn Jr., a farm industry spokesman, said the proposal to require farmland developers to preserve twice as much farmland elsewhere in the county "is particularly designed to send a
farmer's blood pressure up." County planners said the farmland-protection measure was suggested as a means of mitigating the inevitable loss of important farmland to development during the next 20 years. Commissioners suggested changes that would make the program an option, rather than a requirement, to move ahead with a farmland-conversion project...critics said, the proposal would increase land and housing costs and prove very expensive to developers seeking to acquire farmland conservation easements from a shrinking pool of farmland owners willing to sell development rights.
The Planning Commission is in the midst of reviewing the draft general plan -- the
fourth land-use blueprint produced by the county during a seven-year, politically charged debate over rural growth...

The Three Mile Island of Biotech?
John Nichols
The Nation -- Dec. 12, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20021230/nichols

... According to research by the ACGA, US corn farmers have already lost more than $814 million in foreign sales over the past five years as a result of restrictions on genetically modified food imports imposed by Europe, Japan and other countries.

"When it comes to what is being proposed, and what is actually happening with regard to genetic modification of food crops, we're absolutely navigating uncharted waters at a high rate of speed. And we're being pushed to speed up by people with dollar signs in their eyes and no concern whatsoever for farmers or consumers," says Nebraska Farmers Union president John Hansen. "There may be a television program here or an article there about what's happening, but I don't think most Americans have any idea of the extent to which things have been pushed forward without the kind of research and precautions that ordinary common sense would demand." ...

Top Department of Interior watchdog, Inspector General Earl E. Devaney, testified last week before a House subcommittee that Interior was corrupt and incompetent.

"Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior, Devaney told the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy and resources.

"I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department," he continued. "Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials -- taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias -- have been routinely dismissed with a promise 'not to do it again.' ''

Devaney reported that through bureaucratic neglect, incompetence or "stovepiping," billions in royalties owned the federal government have been lost on deep ocean oil wells. When department officials discovered the error in the contracts, they tried to cover it up, Devaney told the subcommittee.

These charges ought to concern the San Joaquin Valley because Interior controls the Bureau of Relamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Minerals Mangement Service, US Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. These agencies have major responsibilities in the Valley on issues as diverse as last week's Friant Dam settlement agreement, enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, Yosemite National Park, oil and gas leases, geological mapping and Indian casinos.

Officials at Interior are under relentless pressure from chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy, other members of his committee like Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, their contributors and other special interests. The public has witnessed examples of Interior officials giving in to that pressure. However, Devaney said his office was under constant pressure from congressmen and senators, special interests and Interior officials, yet he managed to do his job at least in this report. Yet, without an investigative article by the New York Times in March, he might not have had the political support to do it.

"I have unfortunately watched a number of high-level Interior officials leave the department under the cloud of OIG investigations," Devaney said, referring to the Office of Inspector General. "Absent criminal charges, however, they are sent off in the usual fashion, with a party paying tribute to their good service and the secretary wishing them well, to spend more time with their family or seek new opportunities."

The Times reported Sunday:

Three years ago, Devaney scathingly criticized the Interior Department's auditing program for oil and gas royalties. Beyond finding that investigators had missed millions of dollars in underpayments, his office uncovered evidence that agency auditors had lost key files and then tried to fool investigators by forging and backdating the missing documents. In an acid rebuke of the agency, Devaney noted that the agency gave a bonus to the official who came up with the false papers.

We hope the government reform committee might oversee Interior and members of the resources committee who require constant watching.

-------------

References:

September 13, 2006: Chairman Issa: Interior Cover-up Prevented Price Threshold Omission from Being Fixed
http://reform.house.gov/ER/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=50033

Interior Dept. blasted for ethics breaches
Agency officials accused of ignoring cover-ups, cronyism
- Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Friant Water Users Authority reached an unprecedented settlement agreement Wednesday to restore the flow of the San Joaquin River. NRDC, representing a number of local, state and federal environmental groups, and the FWUA had been at war in court for 18 years.

"Bringing the San Joaquin River back to life will be one of the greatest restoration projects ever undertaken in the United States,” said Peter Moyle, professor of Fisheries biology at UC Davis.

A 60-miles stretch of the river in western Fresno County has been dry since the dam was built in the late 1940s due to irrigation diversions south in the Friant-Kern Canal and north in the Madera Canal.

The settlement agreement documents were handed at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning to the court of Judge Stanley Karlton, United States District Court, Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.

It is anticipated that the increased flows to the river will be enough to provide for both spring and fall runs of Chinook salmon. Before the Friant Dam was constructed, creating Lake Millerton at the base of the Sierra foothills east of the City of Fresno, the San Joaquin River was the southernmost range of the Chinook.

“As a farmer who grew up on the San Joaquin River, I know that salmon and farming can coexist-I’ve seen it,” said Walt Shubin, Fresno County raisin farmer.

Between now and 2026, between 15-20 percent of the water formerly flowing to long-term Friant irrigators will go to restoring the river. A number of financial devises, which the settlement agreement suggests in draft federal legislation should be under the control of the secretary of the Department of Interior, will pay for restoration of the river channel and flood control downstream of the Friant Dam. Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, chairman of the House Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water and Power, has already scheduled in hearing to hear this suggested legislation. Both sides expressed optimism Wednesday that the House could pass it before the end of the year. According to the settlement, the agreement is void-able if the resources committee – chaired by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy – does not approve the bill.

Kole Upton, representing the 15,000 farmers on about one million acres and a number of towns in FWUA, already experienced in conjunctive use techniques, expressed optimism that the irrigators would find the right combination of recirculation, recapture, reuse and exchange or transfer programs to continue farming. He said the irrigators needed certainty about the amounts of water they would receive, which the settlement gives them.

The settlement proposes that about $11 million per year in fees currently paid by the irrigators will be dedicated to river improvement; the proposed legislation (part of the agreement) could produce an additional $250 million in federal funds, either through bonding, guaranteed loans or other financing. The settlement also anticipates financial participation by the state of California. Greg Wilkerson, attorney for FWUA, said the $5.4 billion Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006 (Prop. 84) contains $100 million earmarked for San Joaquin River restoration.

After the press conference, Hal Candee, lead attorney for NRDC, released an orphaned Red-Tailed Hawk, raised by the San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center before a crowd of about 50 people from the media and parties to the lawsuit.

What people are saying about the settlement agreement:

Restoring the San Joaquin River will benefit salmon and numerous other native wildlife species and it will improve the natural habitat along much of the river. It will also improve the quality of life for Valley residents and provide recreational opportunities. – Lydia Miller, president, San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center

… Over 150 mile4s of river will once again provide vital habitat for not only salmon but for a wide array of other nativ3 fish, plants and wildlife. Restoring one of California’s long lost salmon runs will be strong symbol of our willingness to make California a better place for both wildlife and people. I also anticipate that restoring flows to the river will have a positive effect on the Delta, an ecosystem in crisis. This monumental restoration effort could not come at a better time. – Peter Moyle, professor of fisheries biology, UC Davis.

Over the past century, West Coast salmon rivers have been devastated by water development and other activities. This agreement provides salmon fishermen with a ray of hope. A restored San Joaquin River will literally bring back to life one of California’s greatest salmon rivers. Our fishing communities deserve a little good news. – Zeke Grader, executive director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association

Drying up the San Joaquin River harmed more than fish. It virtually destroyed the water supply for farmers in the Delta. Restoring the San Joaquin River will help rectify a national disgrace by restoring fisheries and improving water quality, benefiting farmers along the San Joaquin River and in the Delta. Restoring the river is good for farmers, the Delta and all of California. – Dante Nomellini, manager and co-counsel, Central Delta Water Agency.

This settlement represents the triumph of optimism and collaboration among the parties. A jointly supported restoration plan is the best outcome for all. It reverses a historic wrong by reviving a living San Joaquin River for the California public, which owns this important resource. This agreement also demonstrates that the laws protecting the public’s rivers are alive and well. – Philip Atkins-Patterson, outside counsel for the NRDC Coalition, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton LLP

The San Joaquin River is the missing limb of San Francisco Bay. Dewatering the river severed the connection between the Bay and a critical part of its watershed. Restoring flows and salmon to the San Joaquin will not only revive a great river but also improve water quality and habitat conditions in the Bay, at a time when it is facing unprecedented threats. – Gary Bobker, program director, The Bay Institute

This is a truly historic settlement that not only breathes life into a dead river but will measurably improve water quality and lessen human health impacts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. State and federal agencies would do well to consider the elements of this settlement as they begin to fashion a vision for the future of the Bay-Delta estuary. – Bill Jennings, executive director, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

…this agreement to restore the San Joaquin can bring back this important part of our natural heritage. In fact, restoring flows for salmon could be the best thing to happen to our overdrafted aquifer in Fresno and Madera counties in 60 years. Walt Shubin, Fresno County raisin grower

The settlement shows the remarkable things that people can accomplish when they work together to restore damaged ecosystems. Trout Unlimited and its 15,000 California members are thrilled that this historic agreement puts California on a course to bringing salmon back to this once-mighty river. – Chuck Bonham, senior attorney, California director, Trout Unlimited.

Some irrigation districts north of Fresno, who unsuccessfully tried to enter the settlement meetings before the agreement was reached, have expressed concerns about its impacts on them and are lobbying for a say in decisions during the implementation stage of the agreement.

Today, UC Merced, through its local outreach organ, the Merced Sun-Star, proclaimed that it is taking extraordinary pains to build the campus to be "earth-friendly."

This reminds us of the frequently heard claim of developers before local land-use jurisdictions that they are "creating open space" when they put a golf course in a subdivision built on a sprawling expanse of seasonal pasture.

UC Merced and its congressman, Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, are riding the alternative energy fashion for all its worth, to hide major failures. UC Merced failed to even apply for its Clean Water Act permit before building its first phase and now, seeking to expand onto critical habitat land, there is a danger the US Army Corps of Engineers will reject its CWA application. Meanwhile, in the past three years, Cardoza has introduced three bills -- two to change the critical habitat provisions in the Endangered Species Act and a third to gut the whole act of its power to enforce -- and all have failed.

Cardoza's pompously titled "Empower America Act of 2006" heavily backed by the solar industry, merely extends existing federal subsidies for solar power already in place and lifts some other language from existing bills. But it comes in tandem with the state Legislature's "California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006," largely a policy statement leaving the thorny issues of implementation and enforcement to another day.

Both UC Merced and its congressman are rapidly disappearing into clouds of techno-babble about solar energy, costuming themselves in jungle-green camouflage. Nevertheless, the rapid urbanization of the Central Valley will be the most proximate cause of rapid snow melt in the Sierra in coming years.

Of late, there has been a great deal of talk about regional planning in the San Joaquin Valley. It is driven by county-wide associations of governments charged with promoting transportation expansion to accommodate new growth while simultaneously paying lip service to cleaning up air pollution in our extreme non-attainment basin. They are responsible for several of county sales-tax-increase measures to chum the local pork barrel with local contributions to entice federal highway funds.

But regional planning is not yet perfected in the two congressional districts known locally as Pombozastan (Cardoza's and the adjoining district of Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy). The problem is again the University of California Board of Regents and it sovereign land-use authority. The UC Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is in the running to site a biowarfare laboratory of the highest level of danger on Corral Hollow Road, on the same site as its explosives lab, about 60 miles from the UC Merced campus. I don't think there are enough tons of green UC flak to cover that one over.

Meanwhile, to make our born-again green cross even more of a burden, Angelo Tsakapoulos is threatening to sue the City of Tracy if it does not approve a sprawling development called Tracy Hills, also located on Corral Hollow Road.

We hope and pray that Tsakapoulos will offer a solar option on his housing products and that there willbe no accidental explosions at the lab that disperse Ebola over his subdivision and strike down golfers putting on open space.

Bill Hatch
-------------

References.

9-9-06
Merced Sun-Star
UC Merced succeeding in goal to be Earth-friendly campus...Corinne Reilly
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12695010p-13392585c.html
UC Merced say they're taking unprecedented measures among college campuses to conserve resources. While numerous environmental groups have questioned where the university is building - at full buildout, UC Merced's proposed 900-acre campus would destroy about 70 acres of rare wetlands - criticism of how the university is building is hard to come by. UC Merced has pledged to construct every campus building to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's "silver" standard - a mark no other college campus has met... Mark Maxwell, who oversees the UC Merced's environmental building efforts, said environmental stewardship became a priority at the campus long before construction began. Last year, a small group of students founded the UC Merced Green Club, which lobbied to start the campus-wide recycling program launched last week.
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Tracy Press
Trouble in the Hills...John Upton
http://tracypress.com/content/view/3900/2/
Nearly a decade after it was given the green light...proposed Tracy Hills development

remains a controversial project. Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert has described a 5,500-home

project slated for southwest Tracy since the 1970s as a mistake by today’s planning

standards...said AKT Development’s lawyers could bankrupt the city if development there is

nixed. The project would, however, take up a swath of land that is home to a bounty of

local wildlife. About 2,000 acres of habitat for raptors, rattlesnakes, coyotes and

endangered tiger salamanders would be bulldozed for the project seven miles from Tracy’s

heart, but AKT was forced to abandon more than 3,500 acres of rugged land that is almost

completely covered with native grass species under strict laws that protect endangered

species. Tracy Hills was dreamed up in the 1970s as a county project, and it was lassoed

into city limits in 1998. AKT bought the land from Grupe Development in 2001 after Tracy’s

voters passed a slow-growth law. AKT will level the land and lay infrastructure, while

Souza will help the company navigate city politics and sell land to builders, according to

Mike Souza of Souza Realty.
Site 300 is wrong spot...Beverly King, Livermore...Your Voice
http://tracypress.com/content/view/3878/2/
Putting a biolab that will deal with deadly pathogens in the hills outside Tracy is simply

a bad idea. Site 300 is LLNL’s high – explosive testing range, and it is already so

heavily polluted with radioactive and toxic contaminants that it is a federal Superfund

cleanup site. LLNL’s mission is to design nuclear weapons of mass destruction. A scary

truth about the biological research to be conducted at Site 300 is that it is “dual

purpose,” meaning it could be used for defensive or offensive purposes.
-----------

Site 300 is wrong spot
Written by Tracy Press/
Putting a biolab that will deal with deadly pathogens in the hills outside Tracy is simply a bad idea.

EDITOR,

I recently read about the dangerous proposal to build a huge bio-warfare agent research complex at Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300 on Corral Hollow Road. The new facility would cover 30 acres and have 500,00) square feet of lab space, including a BSL-4, which looks like a science fiction movie where researchers wear moon suits and special breathing apparatus to experiment with deadly pathogens for which there is no known cause, such as Ebola virus.

A Site 300 spokesman said that the bio-facility would research diseases that affect agriculture and animals as well as humans. Site 300 is LLNL’s high –explosive testing range, and it is already so heavily polluted with radioactive and toxic contaminants that it is a federal Superfund cleanup site. Do we want biological agents like live anthrax, mad cow disease and bubonic plague spreading from Site 300 as well

LLNL’s mission is to design nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The lab is developing a new submarine-launched nuclear warhead. How I the lab going to assure the world that it is not interested in researching new bio-weapons A scary truth about the biological research to be conducted at Site 300 s that it is “dual purpose,” meaning it could be used for defensive or offensive purposes.

I thank the Tracy Press for covering this issue and I urge your readers to become involved by attending a study group and workshop from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Sarvey’s Shoes, 501 W. Grant Line Road.

Beverly King, Livermore

Hypocrisy at Davis (1)

UC Davis, where pedestrians must constantly dodge bicyclists, presents itself as an environmental paradise. Recently, it has decided to voluntarily study its own greenhouse emissions, joining a group of 88 members of

the climate registry ... created by state law in 2000 as a strictly voluntary program for businesses, governments and organizations wishing to measure their output of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the
atmosphere.

Davis "prides itself on environmental research, eight cents of every research dollar goes to air-quality studies." It also graduates legions of environmental specialists who become consultants to teach local land-use authorities how to dodge the California Environmental Quality Act, the federal Endangered Species, Clean Air and Clean Water acts so that California can continue to grow, particularly in the only two areas -- Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley -- where air quality has reached a unique nadir: "extreme non-attainment" of the health goals set by the Clean Air Act.

In the last decade, UC Davis has also sought to include the most dangerous level of biowarfare laboratory in the nation (and probably the world) on its campus. The Davis City Council made its extreme displeasure known and UC backed down. Now, UC's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is trying to site the same kind of facility just outside Tracy. UC Davis successfully defeated a citizen's group in court in its plans to build faculty housing on a plot originally deeded to the campus for agriculture. This housing project will worsen air quality in Davis.

UC Davis was perhaps responding to the hoopla around the recent passage by the state Legislature of AB 32, California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

"I give them a lot of credit because they're willing to do this," said Joel Levin, the registry's vice president of business development. "Some of the campuses are very reluctant to turn the microscope on themselves."

This is despite avid support by the UC Office of the President for systemwide
participation.

Maric Munn, associate director of energy and utilities for the UC system, said many of the campuses are growing, and officials are nervous that their global-warming emissions are rising as a result.

"They're afraid of criticism from the outside," Munn said. "That's been a huge
impediment."

UC Merced's former chancellor, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, is so nervous about global warming that in public she called it "climate change."
------

UC Bobcatflak

The Discovery Room (2)

At UC Merced, thanks to a donation from the Gonella family, it seems as if both the campus and students will have a place to test new technology. First in line is an electronic blackboard.

Our only question is so dumb it is almost not worth asking, nevertheless ... Given the enormous amount of flak ceaselessly generated from the most efficient offices at the campus, its public relations group, this is supposed to be the greenest, most environmentally friendly UC campus among the 10 of them. Completely contradicting this claim is the equally ceaseless barrage of flak about the high energy-use technology installed there. It is as if, in the weird world according to bobcatflak, in order to be a legitimate UC campus, UC Merced must master the bad-faith lingo of environmental hypocrisy while bulking up on energy-squandering technological gadgets.

"This is like the IMAX classroom instruction," said Instruction Librarian Michelle Jacobs.

"It really engages students."

Dude!
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Meanwhile, down on the boardwalk (3)

UC Santa Cruz is suing to obstruct two measures that would give City of Santa Cruz residents the right to vote to approve extending sewer and water services to further expansions of the campus beyond Santa Cruz city limits.

This is viewed by UC flak as a "town and gown" problem, of the sort the new town beyond the city limits of Merced is supposed to cure (with other peoples' sewer and water services). It is also intended to conjure up images of barefoot Parisian beggars mugging gowned professors disputing nominalism and realism during the Black Plague.

What the story fails to mention, because it is sourced solely from UC flak and city officials, is that local citizens -- neither barefoot, poor or uneducated -- have brought an excellent suit against UCSC expansion plans on environmental grounds.

The local rebellion against UCSC expansion also reveals that UC can almost always come to some sort of agreement with the local land-use authority, whose pro-growth elected officials seem to nearly squeal with joy to be in the company of UC officials, while the citizens of the city and surrounding region are no longer charmed.

Another coastal cloud shadowing these proceedings is the recent state Supreme Court decision concerning nearby CSU Monterey Bay (the former Fort Ord), which clearly states that public universities and other state agencies in California can no longer get by with just identifying off-site impacts from their construction and growth -- they have an obligation to pay for them.
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UC Merced

Guinea Pigs (4)

The campus received a $300,000 grant to

work with undergraduate students over the next three years to gain new information about how humans make logical and intuitive decisions.

The research aims to produce a computer model of how the brain works when making decisions, and to determine if people can be taught to use logical deliberation, even when it conflicts with their intuition and personal beliefs.

Apparently, the grant is shared with the University of Massachussetts, which will dispatch graduate students to study UC Merced undergraduates.

Bobcatflak claims the study as

an opportunity to engage more undergraduate students in research -- a top priority for the university.

From guinea pig to research scientist in one easy lunge for the pork!

Problems we see in this study:

U Mass is not a bastion of California culture, considered by a number of students of the state to be one of the most complex cultures in the world. UC Merced takes great pride that its students are the "true face of California." There are going to be some interesting culture clashes that may not relate too clearly to either logic or intuition.

The way to teach logical deliberation is to teach logical deliberation. There are books on the subject -- a great many of them, all the way back to the Greeks. You teach and study them to develop an understanding of logic. It is called education. It is quite a venerable tradition that has worked for a lot of people.

The way to develop intuition in students is to give them good literature to study and to discuss it with them.

Students' personal beliefs ought to be left alone. That route can very quickly lead to violation and psychological trouble.

The purpose of an education is to develop the students' capacity for both logic and intuition. It is not to make them guinea pigs in an experiment to develop a computer model.

The bobcatflak, of course, contradicts the fundamental rules of such research projects and invites the problem of the "dreaded Hawthorth Effect," in which the human objects of the study become engaged in the study and contaminate the data. Either the flak is just the usual UC babble to the barefoot townies, or these people are incompetent to run such a study.

In fact, the whole idea of UC involvement with logic is suspect, given that its public utterance is almost entirely purile sophistry, only occasionally leavened with a bit of mediocre rhetoric.

In the Badlands editorial board's research into logic, we have noted that it is often accompanied by critical thinking. We propose that UC Merced students be placed before the environmental impact reports on the campus and asked to grade them according to logic. Following that exercise, perhaps they could study transcripts from the hearings of the various local land-use authorities that approved these documents, the legal briefs arising out of those approvals, and the judges' decisions. From this study, they might intuit something new and different, something critical, in fact.
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Bobcatflak

A real heavyweight (5)

Dr. Rolland Winston received the first annual Frank Kreith Award for his advanced original work in non-imaging optics, which improve the efficiency of solar power panels, among other applications. This year Dr. Winston also completed the first textbook on the subject.

If the community, the university, and its shared newspaper had any sense of priority in these matters, this item would have led, because this is authentic research, brought to fruition and of great potential significance.

We live in a community whose congressman, Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, has just introduced a modestly title bill, "Empowering America Act of 2006," to provide more federal government subsidies to the solar power industry. No more gutting the ESA for the former Shrimp Slayer. He's into
energy now.

Solar energy lobbyists analyze the bill this way:

The "Empowering America Act of 2006" would extend federal solar investment tax credits for homeowners and business through 2015, and make modifications similar to those contained in S. 2677 and H.R. 5206, the "Securing America's Energy Independence Act." The popular solar tax credits are currently set to expire next year.

In other words, small potatoes with a pompous title, about what we would expect.

We have also seen in the last week passage of a bundle of alternative energy bills in the state Legislature, the largest of which is the momentarily famous California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

Kreith, a professor of mechanical engineering in Colorado, worked for years at the government's solar power lab in Golden.

Winston did most of his work at the University of Chicago. In 2004, a North Carolina-based company, Solargenix, obtained from the University of Chicago exclusive worldwide licenses and rights to develop and market Winston's technology for "all solar applications."

Art Linkletter, a Solargenix investor, proclaimed at the time with a hyperbole to which Cardoza could only aspire, “We have, through Dr. Winston, a patent on the sun.”

What Linkletter and other investors had, in fact, was technology good enough to interest Acciona, a Spanish construction and energy corporation, who bought a controlling interest in Solargenix in February of this year for around $30 million.

The solar industry strategy of the moment is to use solar power as a domestic or
commercial peaker plant, supplying the last 10 percent of energy during peak-use times. This seems to account for the problems of manufacturing and installation. The California bill provides more subsidy in the beginning than at the end of the program. It doesn't seem to make sense from the solar industry point of view, but it may relate to expectations of lower state revenues in coming years.

Cardoza installed solar panels on his house. More people in town ride bicycles, too, but mainly because they are desperately trying to save on gasoline bills. Cardoza's installation and a great many more like it, if they occur, are not going to lift this Valley out of the extreme non-attainment category it shares only with Los Angeles.

The problem is primarily the cars that come with all the new houses, not the houses themselves. But, if, like Cardoza, you've made your entire career out of politically clearing away obstacles to the manic growth boom -- starting with siting the UC campus in Merced on through the various attempts to change environmental law and pressure the regulatory process -- you have done nothing but worsen the environment and public health in Merced, feathering a few favored nests along the way.

It is almost impossible to imagine in the midst of this housing boom, but there are 10 states in the northeast and the midwest with static populations and North Dakota is losing population.

Hats off to Dr. Winston for his achievements. But, we should not be diverted by the glamor of UC technology or Winston's fame, from the fact that air quality, water quality and quantity, and public health diminish here with this manic construction boom induced by the location of UC Merced. In the Valley we don't need UC to teach us how pork barrels work and for how few they work.

Bill Hatch
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References

1. UC Davis takes stock of its own air impact
School with a reputation for environmental study tallies its greenhouse emissions as part of a climate registry program.
Sacramento Bee - Sept. 5, 2006

At the University of California, Davis, which prides itself on environmental research, eight cents of every research dollar goes to air-quality studies. Yet the university does not know how much its campus contributes to global warming pollution.
An answer to that question is coming.
As one of the newest members of the California Climate Action Registry, UC Davis is in the midst of calculating its own emissions of greenhouse gases.
Once an obscure exercise done mainly by organizations most interested in environmental stewardship, taking inventory of greenhouse gases is going mainstream ...

2. UC Merced opens room for technology
Merced Sun-Star - Sept. 7, 2006

Today's college students are accustomed to living in a technology-infused world. Laptop computers and the Internet are standard in most college classrooms.
But as a 21st century research university, UC Merced is aiming to take campus technology to the next level, university officials say.
In a small classroom on the second floor of the university library -- the Gonella
Discovery Room -- some of the latest technology is auditioning for a campuswide role.
Among the technologies the university is testing is a Smart Board, a modern-day chalkboard that operates electronically.
The 72-inch board allows instructors to project an interactive image of a computer screen large enough for students in the back of the room to see.
Colored electronic marking pens -- they work by sending signals to the computer
controlling the board -- allow teachers and students to "write" on the board over
projected information, such as lecture notes, outlines, maps or diagrams.
"This is like the IMAX classroom instruction," said Instruction Librarian Michelle Jacobs.
"It really engages students."

3. UC sues Santa Cruz over water measures that could limit expansion
San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/06/BAGD7L01C71.DTL&type=printable

The University of California is suing to block...city of Santa Cruz from casting ballots on two measures that could restrict expansion of UC's local campus...measures placed on the Nov. 7 ballot by the Santa Cruz City Council and would...give city voters the final say over providing water and sewer services for future campus growth. The university...opened its Santa Cruz campus in 1965, believes the measures would undercut and violate its historic water rights granted under agreements signed with the city decades ago. In two weeks, UC's governing Board of Regents is expected to discuss a long-range development plan that would expand the Santa Cruz campus northward to add about 4,500 more students by 2020. All of UC's nine undergraduate campuses are expected to grow in coming years. Measure I would bar the city from providing any municipal services for the northward expansion outside city limits until the university has mitigated any negative impacts from the growth, particularly on housing, traffic and water. Measure J would amend the City Charter to require voter approval before the City Council could provide water and sewer services for the new growth. The university's suit alleges that the city did not do an adequate environmental review as required by state law before
placing the measures on the ballot and did not provide enough opportunity for public review and comment. In addition, the suit says, the city and university have contracts dating to the 1960s for the city to provide UC Santa Cruz with water service. Under agreements from 1962 and 1965, the city is obligated to provide water services to all parts of the Santa Cruz campus, including areas outside city limits, the suit says. Santa Cruz City Attorney John Barisone...We are not opposed to growth. What we are opposed to is campus growth that is not mitigated....the city relies on surface water, and during the last drought, the city had to impose water rationing...the city wants the university to delay its expansion until the city knows it will have more water.

4. Professor to explore reasoning
Merced Sun-Star -- Sept. 8, 2006

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to UC Merced professor Evan Heit to fund research that will explore human reasoning.
Heit will work with undergraduate students over the next three years to gain new
information about how humans make logical and intuitive decisions.
The research aims to produce a computer model of how the brain works when making decisions, and to determine if people can be taught to use logical deliberation, even when it conflicts with their intuition and personal beliefs.
Heit says the research is not only a way to discover new information about how humans think, but also an opportunity to engage more undergraduate students in research -- a top priority for the university.
Eventually, the research could help track the development of thinking skills in elementary and high school students.
UC Merced shares the grant with the University of Massachusetts, which will send graduate students to Merced to participate in the project.

5. Research honored
Merced Sun-Star -- Sept. 8, 2006

UC Merced professor Roland Winston has been honored for his research in solar technology.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which honors innovations in conservation and renewable energy, chose Winston to receive its first-ever Frank Kreith Energy Award for his work in nonimaging optics.
Winston will accept the award in Chicago in November at the ASME's annual conference.

6. National Center for Photovoltaics, PV Roadmap, Executive Summary

The state Legislature passed a bill to address global warming.

www.leginfo.ca.gov, AB 32, Enrolled

AB 32, Nunez Air pollution: greenhouse gases: California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

This bill would require the state board to adopt regulations to
require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas
emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with this program, as
specified.

The bill would require the state board to adopt a
statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide
greenhouse gas emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, as
specified.

The bill would require the state board to adopt rules and
regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum
technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission
reductions, as specified.

The bill would authorize the state board to
adopt market-based compliance mechanisms, as defined, meeting
specified requirements.

The bill would require the state board to
monitor compliance with and enforce any rule, regulation, order,
emission limitation, emissions reduction measure, or market-based
compliance mechanism adopted by the state board, pursuant to
specified provisions of existing law.

The bill would authorize the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to be paid by regulated sources of greenhouse gas emissions, as specified.

Nearly the same dismal roll call of Valley Assembly members that helped defeat a bill to add a doctor and an environmental specialist to the Valley air board voted against this one:

NOES

Aghazarian, Blakeslee, Cogdill, Matthews, Maze, McCarthy, Parra and Villines.

The political careers of Valley Assembly members hinge on their ability not to see air pollution, smell it, hear about it or speak its name. The believe in the Maricopa County AZ version of heaven: carpenters building houses for other carpenters.

Assemblyman Dr. Keith Richman, who declared to the Sacramento Bee this weekend that "the system is corrupt," also opposed this historic bill. He must have taken the Hypocritic Oath.

The bill passed in the Senate along straight party lines.

How does a commitment to confronting global warming violate Republican Party principles? Is the only kind of aggressive bipartisan support in this political system to be acts of destruction of environmental law, like the gut-the-ESA bill launched last year in Congress by representatives RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy and Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, on behalf of the greediest, most environmentally destructive special interests in their districts?

The bill is fairly vague and there will be a lot of room for polluters to maneuver -- but it showed some political imagination, at least. If, however, this "vision" is allowed to overcome reality, nothing will be done about the present, the urgent, the immediate environmental problems, as local, state and federal resource agencies vie to ignore or sidestep existing law and regulation and to create firewalls against having to enforce any of them. Bellowing a vision is impressive, but in these matters a large stick is required.

The bill was opposed by the entire array of agribusiness, aggregate and shippers, the Building Industry Association, the state Chamber of Commerce and several Valley chambers.

It was supported by nine pages of impressive, diverse and prominent interests. But it is entirely possible the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is just a huge LA feel-good con and and a latter-day gasp of California can-do arrogance.