Badlands Journal

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.

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.

We were not impressed by Wal-Mart's public forums, held months ago, to sell its distribution center to the Merced public. We took one look at the corporation's discount hucksters (we dubbed them "empty T-shirts"), dutifully took notes, listened to the local chamber of commerce types, and were not surprised by anything said. Project proponents said the center would bring jobs, jobs, jobs. Opponents said it would bring low-paying jobs and a great increase of air pollution, traffic congestion and noise, lowering property values around the site. No one has changed their tune.

The entire political class of the city and county seem to be behind the Wal-Mart project because its entire economic development policy consists of begging for outside investment as if economic development was a form of New Guinea cargo cult. (Primitive hill tribesmen in that region build false runways to try to attract airplanes to crash so that they can gather the salvage.)

However, Paul Krugman pointed out some new employment trends at Wal-Mart:

If you want to see how the war against wages is being fought in the United States, and what it's doing to working Americans and their families, consider the latest news from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart already has a well-deserved reputation for paying low wages and offering few benefits to its employees; last year, an internal Wal-Mart memo conceded that 46 percent of its workers' children were either on Medicaid or lacked health insurance. Nonetheless, the memo expressed concern that wages and benefits were rising, in part "because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases."

The problem from the company's point of view, then, is that its workers are too loyal; it wants cheap labor that doesn't hang around too long, but not enough workers quit before acquiring the right to higher wages and benefits. Among the policy changes the memo suggested to deal with this problem was a shift to hiring more part-time workers, which "will lower Wal-Mart's health care enrollment."

And the strategy is being put into effect. "Investment analysts and store managers," reports The New York Times, "say Wal-Mart executives have told them the company wants to transform its work force to 40 percent part time from 20 percent." Another leaked Wal-Mart memo describes a plan to impose wage caps, so that long-term employees won't get raises. And the company is taking other steps to keep workers from staying too long: In some stores, according to workers, "managers have suddenly barred older employees with back or leg problems from sitting on stools."

It's a brutal strategy. Once upon a time a company that treated its workers this badly would have made itself a prime target for union organizers. But Wal- Mart doesn't have to worry about that, because it knows that these days the people who are supposed to enforce labor laws are on the side of the employers, not the workers.

Wal-Mart, of course, is not just a local problem. Wal-Mart is just a part of a global corporate disgrace:

Economic growth since early 2000, when the Dow reached its previous peak, hasn't been exceptional. But after-tax corporate profits have more than doubled, because workers' productivity is up, but their wages aren't - and because companies have dealt with rising health insurance premiums by denying insurance to ever more workers.

From an environmental point of view, the distribution center is an abomination. How interesting it is when you discover that if you look at an environmental abomination, you often find a socioeconomic abomination. At is almost as if John Muir were correct when he said that everything hangs together, somehow.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's new employee policies are nothing new. Corporate brutality to older, better paid workers in America has been legendary for decades, growing steadily worse as unions dwindled in power and influence. These policies have meant the loss of loyalty to the company and a badly trained, often unmannerly, minimum-wage -- but definitely young --workforce, many of them married with children and homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages -- but that's next year's story.

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

Reference:

A Brutal Way with Wages, Paul Krugman, October 7, 2006, International Herald Tribune
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1007-28.htm

Well, folks, here they are again. The Big Shots that want you to raise your sales taxes to fund the roads to their development projects have brought out Dennis Cardoza to make their arguments. Cardoza explained today in the local McClatchy Chain outlet how, if you vote to raise your sales taxes, he might be able to use it for leverage when petitioning the Federal Highway Administration, The Mother of Pork.

Unfortunately, his arguments aren't any more convincing than those in the primary election brochures that featured the farmer looking across his field to his barn, somewhere in Minnesota. Predictably, he chose two projects to emphasize -- the UC Merced Campus Parkway interchange and an interchange for highways 99 and 165, north of Hilmar.

The Campus Parkway, he says, "will be a critical element in the success of the development of the new UC Merced campus and the surrounding community."

It makes you wonder how Stanford University and UC Berkeley ever survived, surrounded by highly congested urban streets and boulevards. How on earth can UCSF compete in medical research, stuck way out there in the middle of San Francisco and its legendary traffic?

The UC Campus Parkway is for urban residential and commercial development. It is a boulevard with two anchors: the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center at the 99 end; UC Merced at the other end. We think it is going to take more than the proposed parkway to draw an adequate number of students to UC Merced and to fix the environmental problems created when Cardoza and others railroaded the UC Merced project through. In the middle, there is the proposed UC Community, a new town UC says it needs to house faculty and staff.

However, given the present state of the Merced housing market, it is being argued that UC Merced has no need to provide additional housing for faculty and staff: there are enough homes for sale at shrinking prices right here in town.

The 99/165 interchange will pave the way for development in Stevinson. The idea is that Cardoza may be able to get federal highway funds to build the interchange, which provides the transportation link to a huge proposed development by the two largest landowners in the Stevinson area. The transportation link would meet the sewer link, built by Greg Hostetler, from Livingston toward Stevinson through another parcel owned by one of the Stevinson developers. Hostetler built the 42-inch sewer trunk line entirely on unincorporated land under the jurisdiction of Merced County without any county permits at all.

But, we forget. Cardoza's Merced district office is located on the third floor of the Merced County Administration Building, right down the hall from the County Counsel's office, the Board of Supervisors' offices and the Board Chambers.

"It is a constant challenge to keep pace with our region's explosive population growth and development," intones Congressman Cardoza, Hypocrite-Merced. No politician worked harder to create this explosive population growth and development than Dennis Cardoza, opposing, dodging, and vilifying every law and regulation established to control such speculative housing bubbles all the way from the state Capitol to Washington DC. He did it for real estate profit, not for the Merced community. When it was still seeking millions to build the campus, then state Sen. Pro Tem John Burton, D-SF, accurately described UC Merced as the "biggest boondoggle" he'd ever seen, and Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters accurately described it as "nothing but a land deal."

The developers must be getting pretty desperate to trot out Cardoza at this time in the election season for another stab at passing this measure to raise your taxes to underwrite profits for rich landowners, investors, developers and banks. Just because he is essentially unopposed for his next term does not mean he is not accumulating baggage. Due to his close relationship with Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy, the corruption being exposed in Pombo's campaign is drifting south like dust from North Pombozastan, where UC wants to build a biowarfare plant full of the most toxic substances on earth.

The pathetic thing about all this is that there is no guarantee these projects will receive federal funding, This additional sales tax revenue is just "leverage," "matching funds" to sweeten the pot.

In order to secure more federal -- and often state -- funds, a sizeable local match is critical.

The reality is, given the expense of major transportation and infrastructure projects, Congress is often hesitant to approve funding in the absence of demonstrated support from the state and local level. The concern from the federal perspective is that the federal portion will be wasted if there is not sufficient local funding to help complete the project.

The passage of Measure G would greatly increase Merced County's leverage when asking Congress for increased investment in local highways. More importantly, Measure G would qualify Merced County for the so-called "matching funds" that come with a commitment of financing from local communities. The bottom line - Measure G would reap dividends far beyond the cost of the half-cent sales tax.

It's just a theory, but Cardoza and his little crew of special interests may be inviting the citizens of Merced County to waste their money. If you want to see the way federal highway pork is delivered in the House of Representatives today, you need look no farther than how House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, did it on a little downstate real estate deal (see "Dennis Hastert's Real Estate Investments" below). We wonder if Cardoza, even with his Blue Dog connections, has that kind of juice.

Now, if Cardoza would rename it the Prairie Parkway II, maybe he'd get somewhere . On the other hand, in the interests of honest labeling, it should be called the UC Merced Campus Porkway.

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

Reference:

Measure G must pass to secure federal dollars...Dennis Cardoza
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/12849549p-13532887c.html
In June, Measure A -- a half-cent sales tax increase to fund country transportation -- fell just short of the two-thirds support...This November Merced County voters will once again be asked to decide the fate of this important initiative (now Measure G). Obviously, none of us is eager to vote for increasing our own taxes. We pay enough as it is. I would...like to offer some insight into the role these local funds play in securing federal dollars for important transportation projects. We are all very much aware of the need for significant improvements to Merced County's roadways...constant challenge to keep pace with our region's explosive population growth and development...increasing strain on our transportation infrastructure and growing congestion...a pressing need for major improvements to our roads and highways. As your representative in Congress, one of my highest priorities is to secure federal investment for important projects in Merced County and the Central Valley. For example: $2.4 million in funding for the Campus Parkway in Merced County, critical element in the success of the development of the new UC Merced campus and the surrounding community...$1.4 million for a study to build a Highway 99 interchange between Highway 165 and Bradbury Road near the Merced-Stanislaus County border...members of Congress from the Central Valley are continuing the push to make Highway 99 an interstate... Congress is often hesitant to approve funding in the absence of demonstrated support from the state and local level...passage of Measure G would greatly increase Merced County's leverage. I understand...this is a tough decision. Voters already feel the burden of balancing your tax bill with numerous other expenses. I hope that you will consider the issues I have addressed and the benefits that Measure G could provide to the long term success of our wonderful Valley community.

Dennis Hastert's Real Estate Investments
by Bill Allison
Under the Influence -- June 14, 2006
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/793
Read more: Earmarks (see all terms)
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert☼ has used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, a highway project for which he's secured $207 million in earmarked appropriations. The trust has already transferred 138 acres of land to a real estate development firm that has plans to build a 1,600-home community, located less than six miles from the north-south connector Hastert has championed in the House.
Hastert's 2005 financial disclosure form, released today, makes no mention of the trust. Hastert lists several real estate transactions in the disclosure, all of which were in fact done by the trust. Kendall County public records show no record of Hastert making the real estate sales he made public today; rather, they were all executed by the trust ...

A: Quintero: We want to provide job opportunities, retain our position as a regional market, and then take Merced's economy to the next level, which would be the knowledge-based economy.

Q: When you say knowledge-based economy, what do you mean?

A: Cahill: It tends to focus on industries which are more cutting-edge industries, where the products have a shorter life cycle, where the products are unique, rather than being commodities.

Thirty years ago when people talked about this, they were talking about computers, 20 years ago, people talked about computer software, 15 years ago people started talking about bio technology. Ten years ago the Internet and Web-based applications were the rage.

But this is more than flavor of the month, it's trying to make sure that we have industries which are cutting edge and which tend to be among the industries adding most value, and because of that, paying good wages and having good jobs.

Q: We have a low-skill, low-education work force -- how will those people be included in Merced's new economy?

A: Cahill: First of all, we're not walking away from the old economy. There will still be a lot of production jobs. We have a labor force which is very well qualified for semi-skilled and moderately skilled production jobs. (Also), there are production jobs in the so-called new economy.

I think we're going to find that many folks locally are in fact well prepared to do those jobs. Education and training is very important to be able to move us fully into having a more advanced labor force and being able to satisfy the labor demands of knowledge-based industries.

Q: The draft of the city's new economic development business plan lists developing jobs for spouses of UC Merced employees as a top priority. Why?

A: Cahill: It's been an issue for the UC. It's an issue for any university in America that's located in a small town. When a highly talented person is being recruited for the university, they're often accompanied by a highly talented spouse. That person needs a job opportunity as well, so it's important to try to create or access those opportunities in order to get good people into the university.

--Merced Sun-Star, Sept. 29, 2006

I was interested in the City of Merced officials’ description of “knowledge-based economy.” It seems to present an industry requiring educated technologists producing technology for rapid obsolescence. I gather the idea is that once an economy makes it into the technological sector (through the help of the University of California), it can count on ceaseless innovation, constantly producing these bits of technology with short half-lives. This assumes a rather ideal market, without resistance, which has never existed on earth nor ever will, but we’re not in the knowledge-based economy yet here in the Valley, so how would we know?

The “people” talking about how computers were hot 20 years ago, etc., we suppose, are local government economic development officials and their trade magazines rather than those industries themselves.

By the details of the City of Merced economic development plan are covered over with a magic term, “cutting-edge.”

In fact, the City and County of Merced have a major problem on their hands. The advent of UC Merced provoked a housing boom, which is now busting, without having provided any housing/jobs balance. And real estate speculators do not make neighborhoods out of subdivisions.

Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, associate editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and contributing editor of National Review, reported (CounterPunch, Sept. 30, 2006) American “knowedge-based” jobs occur in the service sector. Yet, former Federal Reserve vice chairman Alan Blinder concluded (in Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006) that between 42 and 56 million American service sector jobs are vulnerable to offshoring and, regardless of whether the jobs leave, they will be vulnerable to wage competition from foreigners willing to work for lower wages.

Software engineers and information technology workers have been especially hard hit. Jobs offshoring, which began with call centers and back-office operations, is rapidly moving up the value chain. Business Week's Michael Mandel compared starting salaries in 2005 with those in 2001. He found a 12.7 per cent decline in computer science pay, a 12 per cent decline in computer engineering pay, and a 10.2 per cent decline in electrical engineering pay. Marketing salaries experienced a 6.5 per cent decline, and business administration salaries fell 5.7 per cent. Despite a make-work law for accountants known by the names of its congressional sponsors, Sarbanes-Oxley, even accounting majors, were offered 2.3 per cent less.

Using the same sources as the Business Week article (salary data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and Bureau of Labor Statistics data for inflation adjustment), professor Norm Matloff at the University of California, Davis, made the same comparison for master's degree graduates. He found that between 2001 and 2005 starting pay for master's degrees in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering fell 6.6 per cent, 13.7 per cent, and 9.4 per cent respectively.

On February 22, 2006, CNNMoney.com staff writer Shaheen Pasha reported that America's large financial institutions are moving "large portions of their investment banking operations abroad." Offshoring is now killing American jobs in research and analytic operations, foreign exchange trades, and highly complicated credit derivatives contracts. Deal-making responsibility itself may eventually move abroad. Deloitte Touche says that the financial services industry will move 20 per cent of its total costs base offshore by the end of 2010. As the costs are lower in India, the move will represent more than 20 per cent of the business. A job on Wall Street is a declining option for bright young persons with high stress tolerance as America's last remaining advantage is outsourced.

And, speaking of unique products in the great technology economy,

According to Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, even McDonald jobs are on the way offshore. Augustine reports that McDonald is experimenting with replacing error-prone order takers with a system that transmits orders via satellite to a central location and from there to the person preparing the order. The technology lets the orders be taken in India or China at costs below the U.S. minimum wage and without the liabilities of U.S. employees.

U.S. manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17 per cent of the manufacturing work force. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job.

The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a "supereconomy" that is "the envy of the world." In five years, communications equipment lost 42 per cent of its work force. Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37 per cent of its work force . The work force in computers and electronic products declined 30 per cent. Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25 per cent of its employees. The work force in motor vehicles and parts declined 12 per cent. Furniture and related products lost 17 per cent of its jobs. Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force. Employment in textile mills declined 43 per cent. Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its jobs. The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15 per cent.

For the five-year period, U.S. job growth was limited to four areas: education and health services, state and local government, leisure and hospitality, and financial services. There was no U.S. job growth outside these four areas of domestic nontradable services.

Merced has two tax-paid areas of job growth: education (K-14 and UC Merced) and state and local government. However, it’s engine of growth is and remains agriculture. But, that’s part of the “old economy” of non-tradeable commodities, and of course, most of the work is being done by immigrants, who "will work for less. "

From time to time, it is true, UC officials state that UC Merced will become a high-tech, bio-tech engine of growth for the Valley. But, what we actually see is UC Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory bidding for a level-4 biowarfare laboratory on a site near Tracy. Again, “cutting edge” takes on a somber tone. Although it is supposed to be a lab to develop defenses against biological attack by terrorists, which some say we are producing by the thousands by our belligerent foreign policy, there are two problems with this approach. First, what better target for terrorists than a lab full of Ebola? Second, given the record of this administration is preparing for Avian Flu, what hope do Americans have that antidotes would be available? This government cannot even protect its citizens against E. Coli.

We don't think much of the city officials' economics. They talk about the "old economy," based on "commodities," and a "new economy" based on "unique products with shorter shelf lives," and of course that "cutting edge." In fact, the hottest commodity in Merced County for the last several years has been farm and ranch land, bought for urban development. Agricultural land is a unique product of an extremely complex, not fully understand process of Nature that has taken a very long time, but it loses both its uniqueness and all its shelf life when it is bulldozed for a subdivision in a few days or weeks. And whether the people who buy the tract houses to live in or for speculation even find that cutting edge job is of no concern to either the land owner, the local government who granted the permit, the developer who destroyed the agricultural land to build his subdivision, or any of the lending institutions involved.

It is an easy thing to rip up farm land and build a subdivision. You can get in and out in a few years. You can call it Vista de la Chingadera -- unique! To build a good farm or ranch takes a generation, maybe more, if it is ever more than a real estate investment. But you can't farm a subdivision. It ceases to be productive land and become merely a site for housing stock that isn't getting any younger. And in California, land of fabuous real estate wealth, population growth and the two worst air pollution basins in the nation, we've found that new subdivisions do not always become neighborhoods and old neighborhoods often cease to be neighborhoods. Communities lose through this fabulous, cutting edge, new housing product with its short shelf life. It is unique only in its economic, environmental and political destructiveness -- although the present era is probably comparable to the era of total domination of the state by the Railroad.

Another class of unique products with short shelf lives is the environmental review local government provides for many of its permits for sprawl, frequently on the cutting edge of California Environmental Quality Act violation. In this category, a very unique product that has been on its shelf long after its expiration date is the Merced County General Plan, which has not been updated since before UC Merced was proposed. The amendments to the county General Plan make it resemble a gallon of milk on the supermarket refrigerator shelf with a number of new expiration dates stamped on it, one on top of the other.

Judging from the pay raises local government officials have been receiving, these cutting edge products are successful entrepreneurial ventures.

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

References:

Sept. 30, 2006
CounterPunch Special Report
How the US Government Planned America's Downfall
The New Face of Class War
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The attacks on middle-class jobs are lending new meaning to the phrase "class war". The ladders of upward mobility are being dismantled. America, the land of opportunity, is giving way to ever deepening polarization between rich and poor.
The assault on jobs predates the Bush regime. However, the loss of middle-class jobs has become particularly intense in the 21st century, and, like other pressing problems, has been ignored by President Bush, who is focused on waging war in the Middle East and building a police state at home. The lives and careers that are being lost to the carnage of a gratuitous war in Iraq are paralleled by the economic destruction of careers, families, and communities in the U.S.A. Since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s, the U.S. government has sought to protect employment of its citizens. Bush has turned his back on this responsibility. He has given his support to the offshoring of American jobs that is eroding the living standards of Americans. It is another example of his betrayal of the public trust.
"Free trade" and "globalization" are the guises behind which class war is being conducted against the middle class by both political parties. Patrick J. Buchanan, a three-time contender for the presidential nomination, put it well when he wrote1 that NAFTA and the various so-called trade agreements were never trade deals. The agreements were enabling acts that enabled U.S. corporations to dump their American workers, avoid Social Security taxes, health care and pensions, and move their factories offshore to locations where labor is cheap. The offshore outsourcing of American jobs has nothing to do with free trade based on comparative advantage. Offshoring is labor arbitrage. First world capital and technology are not seeking comparative advantage at home in order to compete abroad. They are seeking absolute advantage abroad in cheap labor...

9-29-06
Merced Sun-Star
A peek into Merced's future...Leslie Albrecht
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12803889p-13493414c.html
Merced's future...city transformed from a dusty agriculture town to a center for high-tech innovation over the next decade. Development Manager Frank Quintero and Assistant City Manager Bill Cahill sat down with the Sun-Star for a question-and-answer session on the city's new economic development business plan, which is being updated for the first time since 1999.
Q: Why does a city have an economic development strategy? What's the goal of the plan?
A: Quintero: We want to provide job opportunities, retain our position as a regional market...take Merced's economy to the next level, which would be the knowledge-based economy.
Q: When you say knowledge-based economy, what do you mean?
A: Cahill: It tends to focus on industries which are more cutting-edge industries, where the products have a shorter life cycle, where the products are unique, rather than being commodities.
Q: We have a low-skill, low-education work force -- how will those people be included in Merced's new economy?
A: Cahill: First of all, we're not walking away from the old economy...
Q: The draft of the city's new economic development business plan lists developing jobs for spouses of UC Merced employees as a top priority. Why?
A: Cahill: It's been an issue for the UC...highly talented spouse...needs a job opportunity as well.
Q: The new strategy also points to the wastewater treatment plant expansion as important to economic development. Why?
A: Cahill: ...You simply cannot have development without adequate sewer capacity.
Q: How has economic development in Merced changed since the city wrote its first economic development plan in 1991?
A: Cahill: ...early 1990s approach was on the basis of price...strategy being developed now...not on the basis of price. It's on the basis of having a unique community asset in the University of California that we can build upon to make sure that we are not just trying to sell the cheapest commodity...instead something that is unique and valuable and has fundamentally different implications for where we go economically. (Companies are) moving a greater number of managerial and technical people or highly-paid skilled people here. They recognize that just to get the work force that they need, they need...other quality community characteristics.

Lydia Miller
San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
(209) 723-9283, ph. & fax
raptorctr@bigvalley.net
sjrrc@sbcglobal.net

Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
(209) 523-1391, ph. & fax
sburke3105@sbcglobal.net

Merced County Planning Commission
2222 M St.
Merced CA 95340
Tel: (209) 385-7654
Fax:(209) 726-1710
Email: jholland@co.merced.us

Date: Oct. 11, 1006 Via- email and fax

RE: MINOR SUBDIVISON NO.05021- STILLMAN FAMILY TRUST – CEQA
INITIAL STUDY, MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION,STAFF REPORT
AND RECOMMENDATON FINDINGS AND ACTIONS

On Oct. 11, 2006 Merced County Planning Commission is holding a public hearing on the Stillman Family Trust, and new information can be received in a public hearing.

Merced County Planning and Community Development Department Staff Report and Recommendation.

III. Background
We find erroneous the assertion that “county wetland and wildlife habitat maps show no sensitive wildlife or biological resources as being located on, or adjacent to, the subject properties.” We have attached maps that fundamentally contradict this statement.

IV. Analysis
A. We believe the project violates all four goals drawn from the existing county General Plan, and agree with the planner’s comment that this subdivision is “a potential conversion of the land.” Without irrigation, (the parcels lie outside the MID service area) these smaller parcels could not be intensely farmed. The project plan is to sell them for ranchettes.

10/03/2005
PLANNING COMMISSION STAFF REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
MINOR SUBDIVISION APPLICATION NO. 05021 — STILLMAN FAMILY TRUST
PAGE 3
Policy 7.3 (chapter I, Page 58)
Premature and uncoordinated division of land which forces the early cessation of valid agricultural uses shall be avoided.
The Merced County General Plan goals and objectives cited above, together with the analysis of the issue of minimum effective parcel sizes for Commercial agriculture provided in the Agricultural Chapter of the Plan (Chapter VII pages 23.26), indicate that the subdivision of agricultural land into parcels of 20 to 39 acres in size may result in the land becoming less likely to stay in long-term agricultural use. This is due to these smaller parcels lacking the size to (Individually) support a full- time farming operation, rendering them more susceptible to being acquired for ‘hobby farming’ purposes. If it is accepted that hobby farmlands are likely to be used less intensively than commercial farmland (According to the General Plan, “While the small farms are operated by the land owner in most cases, it is a secondary activity and source of income. Chapter VII, Page 25, a division of a large parcel into smaller parcels could be seen as a potential conversion of the land.

B.4.
The subdivision would be incompatible with existing agricultural uses and cropping patterns in the vicinity, where it appears that while half the small parcels (11) are homesites on adjacent farms and ranches, the property is surrounded by medium sized cropped fields and larger cattle ranches. However, the greater problem with this staff report is that it appears to gain more than a thousand acres from the 2005 Planning Commission staff report and recommendations, yet the one-half radius remains the same, so there is no way to understand how the parcel sizes, the numbers of parcels, the acreage, and the averages for different parcels between the two staff reports relate to one another (see attachment).

4. Compatibility with Existing Agricultural Uses and Cropping Patterns In the Vicinity
Information provided by the applicant on the ‘Form or Assessing General Plan Consistency For Agricultural Land Divisions (copy attached), indicates that both the proposed parcels will continue to be used for either fish farming, or, remain fallow. Eased on this information, the proposed minor subdivision would appear not to conflict with established agricultural activities in the immediate area. The design of the proposed subdivision does, however, raise the possibility of much of this land, being rendered non-viable for commercial agriculture due to the low amount of farmable land being created for Parcels B, U and F and associated access issues for Parcels D and F. This issue is compounded by the observed recreational (Ski) boating use of the existing fish pond- Upon division and sale of the land, the future owners of Parcels S U, F and G would presumably become part owners of the fish pond, providing them with shares of and access to a private recreational facility. This outcome would have the effects of producing a potentially incompatible land use in a predominantly agricultural area and substantially reducing (or eliminating) the possibility of commercial agricultural use of much of these parcels.
It should also be noted that any sale or purchase of the land could result In the construction of one or more new homes per parcel, increasing the potential for conflicts with existing agricultural land uses and reducing the potential for commercial agricultural use of the land. – 10/03/05 Planning Commission staff report

However, the greater incompatibility is with natural resource conservation. The property is surrounded on three sides by natural habitat conservation easements purchased to mitigate for UC Merced on large cattle ranches. The Stillman property contains vernal pools, and is in fact adjacent (on the north and east) to the major vernal pool concentration in the county.

The property contains a synthetic wetland (commercial cat-fish pool) an estimated 20 acres in size. This is an attraction for wildlife that inhabits the adjacent conservation easement land.

The applicants’ reasons for the proposed division, ‘family planning, farm operation finances,’ may be too vague to be meaningful. All it might mean is selling off ranchette parcels for a lot of money to divide among the family, perhaps putting some of it into the catfish farm.

V. Environmental Review
We agree with staff’s assertion that “a survey of the project site by an appropriately qualified wildlife biologist is necessary in order to properly determine the presence or absence of these resources (vernal pools, wetlands, other listed plant species and wildlife habitat) and appropriately provide for their protection.” This issue has been raised by the California Department of Fish and Game.

Therefore, we do not believe the Planning Commission can approve the project because of findings 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10:

· The subdivision is incompatible with the agricultural preservation policies of the county General Plan (4,5)
· The project has not been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife (6)
· The proposed parcels and future land uses are incompatible with existing agricultural uses and cropping patterns in the vicinity (9)
· The 20-acre parcel size is incompatible with surrounding parcel sizes, according to “Adjacent Parcel Size Analysis,” which shows no average parcel size close to 20 acres (10).

Notice of Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration

The public is under no obligation to “provide mitigation measures (conditions) and/or modification to the project, which might avoid or reduce the level of environmental impact(s)” to either the local land-use authority or to state or federal agencies.

County of Merced California Environmental Quality Act Initial Study for Minor Subdivision Application No. 05021

Brief Project Description:

Do efforts to protect a commercial catfish farm conflict with the needs of wildlife? What means does the catfish farm use to drive birds and wildlife away from its pond?

Utilities and Services Description:

Without a county groundwater plan, how can it be estimated what effect well-drilling would have on the aquifer and surrounding wells? What effect on groundwater quality would new septic systems have? How many residences are projected in this project?

Other Agencies Whose Approval is Required:

Both state and federal natural resource agencies do have approval authority over this proposal because of the natural resources on the site and its location adjacent to the richest area of natural resources in the eastern half of the county, much of it already under perpetual conservation easement.

Environmental Factors Potentially Affected:

Where is the evidence the drainage that runs through the entire property does not, as similar drainages in that part of the county do, contain valuable aggregate resources?

Dismissal of cultural resources along such drainages is not advisable, as CalTrans mentions in its comment letter.

1.Aesthetics:

The project would cause substantial damage to the visual character and quality of the site and its surroundings, which at the moment provide an unobstructed view from the Valley into the Foothills and to the Sierra beyond.

4. Biological Resources:

On Sept. 25, the state Department of Fish and Game advised the County to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on federal Endangered Species Act and federal Clean Water Act issues on the project. The packet contains no information that indicates either the Service or the Army Corps were ever contacted or commented. Without comment from these two federal agencies, the significant impacts discussed in sections a, b, c, d, and f fail for lack of adequate information.

Biological Resources Discussion

The project is mis-described as primarily a farming area “modified by agricultural activities with the passage of time,” when, in fact, the large area to the north and east of the site has been in seasonal pasture cattle ranching with very little “modification” beyond fences, ever. This area is entirely protected by natural habitat conservation easements to mitigate for UC Merced, the most compelling evidence of abundant state and federally protected wildlife and plant species imaginable. The natural drainage traversing the project site is a wildlife corridor.

Concluding “there are no sensitive plant or wildlife species located on the project site,” based on Merced County General Plan maps fails because the general plan has not been updated since before the UC Merced project was initiated which, as the planning commission and the county Planning Department well know, produced abundant data on sensitive, threatened and endangered species in the area. The state Fish and Game Departments letter of Sept. 25 contradicts the consultant’s opinion that Fish and Game believes there are no sensitive species on the site.

Concludes & Data:

It would be impossible to know how affected federal agencies would assert jurisdiction over the drainage channel or any other part of the site if they have not been informed of the project by the local land-use authority.

5. Cultural Resources:

Conclusions & Data:

There was no consultation with local tribal authorities or the state native American Heritage Commission, who possess detailed maps of ancestral sites. Therefore, the conclusions fail for lack of competent research of available evidence.

6. Geology and Soils

There is no mention of the Bear Mountain Fault Zone that lies immediately east of the eastern border of Merced County.

7. Hazards & Hazardous Materials

In view of the past problems Merced County has had with commercial aquaculturists, it is fair to ask what hazardous materials may be used in the Stillman commercial catfish farm. We also note that there is no discussion of what an attractive nuisance a 20-acre fishpond poses to new residents, especially children.

8. Hydrology & Water Quality

Although there are on-going studies on groundwater supply in eastern Merced County, through MAGPI and BAP, they are not completed; therefore impacts to groundwater supply and quality and from surface runoff cannot be accurately estimated. Construction of “residences and appurtenant facilities would affect groundwater recharge on this site.

9. Land Use & Planning:

Conclusions & Data:

The documents in this packet do not provide enough information for the consultant to conclude, “The majority of the site can be expected to remain in open space and agricultural production.”

The reason the project “will not conflict with any habitat conservation plan or natural community conservation plan that is in effect within the area surrounding the project site” is because there are none. On the other hand, this project has the potential for adversely affecting the quality of the perpetual habitat conservation easements adjoining the site.

11. Noise:

Conclusions & Data:

The project will produce more noise and traffic, permanently. Like the permanent addition of more light and glare, these will adversely affect state and federal listed wildlife on the site.

12. Population & Housing:

Discussion:

The inclusion of “secondary residences” could create as many as six houses per parcel, adding many more than 16 people to the property.

13. Public Services:

Conclusions & Data:

It cannot be concluded, “the project will not directly result in the need for new public facilities,” because we don’t know how many people will inhabit the site in “secondary residences.” However, we do know that the residential subdivision will contribute to cumulative impacts to the region’s public services. Without any adequate statement of how many people will be using the septic systems, it is impossible to analyze these systems’ affects on the groundwater.

14. Recreation:

Planning Department indicates that the existing fishpond is also used for water skiing. Private recreational uses may not directly conflict with commercial agriculture. The proposed division could, therefore, have the effect of creating a private recreational activity on agriculturally zoned land without the required Conditional Use Permit being obtained (Zoning Code, Section 18.02.02 Table 4).

15. Transportation & Traffic:

Conclusions & Data:

There is no way of telling how much this project will increase traffic because it is impossible from these documents to determine how many houses, people and vehicles will occupy the site. If, for example, a number of the “secondary residences” were rented to groups of farmworkers, many of whom owning cars, the project could have a sizeable impact on local traffic. The same would be true if the “secondary residences” were rented to UC Merced students.

16. Utilities & Service Systems

Without consultation with the Army Corps and other federal and state agencies on wetlands issues on this site and on the conservation-easement land uphill from it, there is not enough information for assessing the impacts from this project (or proposed series of projects) on the site, on its natural drainage system, or on land and habitation below it.

Section 4: Mandatory Findings of Significance

A.

Analysis of the potential adverse physical environmental impacts of this project is so incomplete and flawed that no determination can be made. Reducing mitigation to one flawed mitigation measure (Section 5) is wholly inadequate.

B. The conclusion reached in this section is wrong because it does not take into account the potential impacts on the UC Merced easements surrounding the site on three sides, it encourages leap-frog development, it doesn’t take into account the recent 20-percent loss of natural habitat through illegal takes in eastern Merced County, and there is no analysis of the impacts to the region’s groundwater supply and quality.

C. The project will have potentially significant unless mitigated impacts on the environment because – although studies are not completed -- it is known by residents and agencies that there is very little groundwater in the region, therefore the addition of an unknown quantity of wells would have potentially significant impact on groundwater supply. Septic systems for a growing number of people inhabiting “secondary residences” would have a potentially significant impact on groundwater quality and potentially on surface water as well in the case of flooding, particularly with the characteristic sheet flooding of the region. As the number cars increases, there will be more impacts to traffic than are recognized by this initial study.

Section 5: Applicant’s Agreement to Mitigation

For reasons stated above, this measure is inadequate to mitigate for the impacts the initial study has identified, and wholly inadequate to mitigate for the impacts that the initial study has not identified.

Attachment “A” Project Communications/Comments

The environmental review failed to address the comments submitted by the public and the agencies.

California Environmental Quality Act Issues

A Mitigated Negative Declaration is not adequate for this project. An Environmental Impact Report must be prepared.

In order for a Mitigated Negative Declaration to be approved, it must pass the “fair argument standard” of CEQA. This does not.

A “negative declaration” is a “written statement by the Lead Agency briefly describing the reasons that a proposed project ….will not have a significant effect on the environment and therefore does not require the preparation of and EIR”. (CEQA Guidelines, § 15371). A negative declaration must be prepared when after completing an initial study, a lead agency determines that a project “would not have a significant effect on the environment.” Public Resource Code, § 21080, subd. (c).) Such a determination can be made only if “[t]here is no substantial evidence in light of the whole record before the lead agency” that such an impact may occur. (Public Resource Code, § 21080, subd. (c)(1) (emphasis added). See also CEQA Guidelines, § 15070, subd. (a).) [1]

CEQA requires a lead agency to prepare an EIR whenever substantial evidence in light of the entire record supports a "fair argument" that a proposed project may have a significant adverse impact on the environment. Even when other substantial evidence in the record supports the opposite conclusion, CEQA s "fair argument" standard requires the lead agency to prepare an EIR prior to approving or carrying out a proposed project. [Pub. Resources Code, § 21080, subds. (c) & (d); CEQA Guidelines, § 15064, subd. (a)(1); 15070, subd. (a); Stanislaus Audubon Society, Inc. v. County of Stanislaus (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 144,150-151.] If there is any doubt about a project s significant environmental consequences, the "benefit of the doubt" is given to full environmental review.

There is substantial evidence before you in light of the whole record that a significant impact may occur, therefore an EIR must be prepared.

The “fair argument” standard creates a “low threshold” for requiring preparation of an EIR. (Citizens Action to Serve All Students v. Thornley (1st Dist. 1990) 222 CalApp.3d 748 [272 Cal. Rptr. 83]; Sundstrom v County of Mendocino (1st Dist 1988) 202 Cal.App.3d 310 [248 Cal.Rptr.352]. The standard is founded on the principle that, because adopting a Negative Declaration has a “terminal effect” on the environmental review process”, an EIR is necessary to resolve “uncertainty created by conflicting assertions” and to “substitute some degree of factual certainty for tentative opinion and speculation” (No Oil, Inc. v City of Los Angeles, (1974) 13 Cal.3d 85).

Even if the “fair argument” standard were not applied, the mitigated negative declaration the project proposal is not complete. All mitigation measures have not been provided for. Public Resource Code § 21081.6. (a) states:
When making the findings required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 21081 or when adopting a mitigated negative declaration pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 21080, the following requirements shall apply:
(1) The public agency shall adopt a reporting or monitoring program for the changes made to the project or conditions of project approval, adopted in order to mitigate or avoid significant effects on the environment. The reporting or monitoring program shall be designed to ensure compliance during project implementation. For those changes which have been required or incorporated into the project at the request of a responsible agency or a public agency having jurisdiction by law over natural resources affected by the project, that agency shall, if so requested by the lead agency or a responsible agency, prepare and submit a proposed reporting or monitoring program.

Additionally there is reliance in the mitigated negative declaration on mitigation measures which have not been approved or are otherwise inapplicable. There are also studies and analysis called for that have not been done.

The sole mitigation measure, Section 5, is not legally compliant.
Section 5 defers mitigation because of failure to do the required biological surveys and consultations with agencies.

“Mitigated negative declarations cannot be used when they rely upon the presumed success of future mitigation measures that have not been formulated at time of project approval (Sundstrom v. County of Mendocino, (1988) 202 Cal.App.3d 296, 306-314.) Any proposed mitigation measure to reduce or avoid a significant adverse impact that a project may have on the environment must be made available for public review at the time the negative declaration is circulated for public review and comment prior to project approval. A mitigation measure cannot be left to be formulated in the future. (Gentry, supra, 36 Cal. App.4th at 1397); but see Sacramento Old City Association V. city Council of Sacramento (1991) 229 Cal.App.3d 1011, 1028-1029, mitigation plan upheld where “the agency can commit itself to eventually devising measures that will satisfy specific performance criteria articulated at the time of project approval.”) For example, in Gentry, the court of Appeal determined that a city’s mitigation measure requiring the permit applicant to comply with a non-existent biological report improperly deferred mitigation. (36 Cal.App.4th at 1396.)Whenever no mitigation measures are considered in the negative declaration and a mitigation plan is left to the preparation of the applicant after project approval, mitigation of a significant adverse environmental impact has been illegally deferred (Sacramento Old City Association, supra, 229 Cal.Ap.3d at 1028).”

--Citizen’s Guide to the California Environmental Quality Act, Yeates, PCL, January 2000, p. 10.

In closing we re-iterate: a mitigated negative declaration is inadequate. Studies are not sufficient, needed information is not provided (defeating a primary purpose of CEQA), analysis and mitigations are incomplete. The "fair argument" standard cannot be met. An EIR must be completed.

Respectfully,
Lydia M. Miller Steve Burke

Attachments:
EastMercedBirdList.doc (0.05 MB),
Silveira.pdf (0.10 MB)
Stillman-TerraServerMaps.doc (0.02 MB), SlopClassificationRegionalAmphibianHabitatAssessment-.pdf (0.42 MB), SlopeClassificationRegionalAmphibianHabitatAssessment-.pdf (0.44 MB), AmphibianHabitatRegionalPlanningMap-ExistingLandUse.pdf (0.36 MB), BranchiopodHabitatregionalPlanningMap-ExistingLandUs.pdf (0.34 MB), BranchiopodHabitatregionalPlanningMap-ExistingLandUs.pdf (0.34 MB), StillmanBOSappeal10-4-05.eml (0.90 MB),
10-3-05.eml (0.05 MB)
10-11-2006 02;13;37 &10-11-2006 02;13;00
10-11-2006 02;12;20 &10-11-2006 02;11;48

Cc:
Badlandsjournal.com
Marsha Burch, Esq.
Maryann Owens, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Kathy Norton, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Other interested parties

Some recent clips on one of the greatest enemies of working people.

If this keeps up, Wal-Mart may go down in history as the poster child for resurgent unionism in America. If so, thank you, Wal-Mart, for being such a loud, domineering, shrill, braggart, rapacious and ugly corporation that you have become a huge symbol for corporate harm to working people, even to the extent of creating sustained, militant labor resistance to the pain you have caused through almost every one of your policies.

Wal-Mart is no longer a business firm; it is pure matastasis of unregulated capitalist greed and political juice. It will stand as the domestic retail-business equivalent of the Iraq wars as the legacy of the Republican Reagan and Bushes regimes.

Wal-Mart's plans for Merced would bring nothing but harm to public health and safety. Yet it continues, with the connivance of Merced City officials and the enthusiastic, suicidal rantings of the chambers-of-commerce crowd.

If the history of this period is written, it will be mentioned that the road to the Hell of global warming, class warfare, and air that kills was paved by local land-use authorities who ignored the cumulative impacts of environmentally, economically and socially destructive projects demanded by the sheer, energetic stupidity of business interests, rendered brain-dead Babbitts by Republican and church-sanctified greed.

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

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1013-05.htm
WakeUpWalMart.com Statement on Wal-Mart's Decision to Target Democrats in the 2006 Midterm Elections
WASHINGTON - October 13 - The following is a statement from WakeUpWalMart.com on Wal-Mart's decision to target Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections, as reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Today's Star Tribune reports, "The world's largest retailer is about to take the unusual step of distributing information about specific candidates to its 1.3 million employees nationwide, according to a company official. …Wal-Mart said it will specifically target local, state and national leaders who appeared this summer at a series of anti-Wal-Mart rallies organized by WakeUpWalMart.com, a union-backed group that has called on the retailer to offer workers better pay and benefits."
The following statement is attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com:
"Rather than embrace our positive vision for a better America, Wal-Mart has officially declared war on the Democratic Party, elected leaders, and every American who believes we should pay workers a living wage, provide affordable health care to all, protect American jobs and keep America safe.
Even though an overwhelming majority of Americans, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents, now reject President Bush's right-wing agenda that has brought us a culture of corruption, repeated scandals, shipped American jobs overseas and even jeopardized our national security, Wal-Mart is launching a political campaign to help keep President Bush in power by trying to defeat Democrats who called on Wal-Mart to be a more responsible employer.
From this day forward, no citizen, regardless of their party affiliation, should doubt how right-wing Wal-Mart's agenda really is. By opposing expanding health care to hard working families and their children, opposing a living wage of $10 per hour, lobbying to ship American jobs to China, and even lobbying against strengthening America's national security, Wal-Mart's agenda is extreme, misguided, and wrong for America. It is an agenda that no American could support, jeopardizes the future of our country, and is one of the key reasons why Wal-Mart's public image continues to collapse.
On behalf of the American people, we are not going to allow big corporations like Wal-Mart to take America in the wrong direction. In that spirit, WakeUpWalMart.com, with the help of 276,000 grassroots supporters, will be announcing a major new initiative next week that will make it clear to Wal-Mart and its right wing operatives that our movement will never stop fighting until the day Wal-Mart truly changes for the better.

Wal-Mart loses suit on work breaks...AP
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart13oct13,1,18655,print.story
Philadelphia - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. forced employees to work through rest breaks and off the clock, violating Pennsylvania labor laws, a state jury found Thursday. The jury, however, ruled in Wal-Mart's favor on the claim that it denied workers meal breaks. The jury now must decide damages in the class-action suit, which covers as many as 187,000 current and former hourly Wal-Mart workers. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant is facing a slew of similar suits around the country. Wal-Mart settled a Colorado case for $50 million and was appealing a $172-million award handed out last year by a California jury. "This is the second [verdict]. With 56 more to go, I think it reinforces that this company's sweatshop mind-set is a serious problem, both legally and morally," said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com, a union-funded effort to improve working conditions at the stores.

Washington Post
Wal-Mart workers win wage suit...Amy Joyce
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201608_pf.html
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. violated Pennsylvania labor laws by forcing hourly employees to work through breaks and beyond their shifts without overtime pay, a jury decided yesterday. The lawsuit, brought by two employees on behalf of almost 187,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees, claimed that the company made workers in Pennsylvania miss more than 33 million rest breaks from 1998 to 2001. At least 57 other wage-and-hour cases have been filed across the United States against the world's largest retailer, and many of them are awaiting class-action certification, according to company filings. In court, the lawyers argued that the company denied breaks to cut labor costs and increase productivity. The case is one of several class-action wage-and-hour suits against the company to go to trial. In December, a jury awarded $172 million to about 116,000 current and former Wal-Mart and Sam's Club workers in California who claimed that they were illegally denied lunch breaks. Wal-Mart is appealing the verdict. In 2002, a federal jury in Oregon found that Wal-Mart employees were forced to work off the clock and awarded back pay to 83 workers. In 2004, Wal-Mart settled a similar lunch break case in Colorado for $50 million. One of the pending cases, which accuses the company of paying men more than women nationally, is the largest private employer civil rights class action in history. Wal-Mart has asked an appeals court to overturn the class-action status of the case.

New York Times
Jury says Wal-Mart must pay $78 million in damages...Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-retail-walmart-damages.html?pagewanted=print
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania jury said on Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, must pay $78.47 million in damages to current and former Pennsylvania employees for forcing them to work ``off the clock'' or during rest breaks. On Thursday, a state jury in Philadelphia found in favor of Michelle Braun and Dolores Hummel, formerly employed by Wal- Mart, saying the company violated Pennsylvania labor laws by failing to pay employees for the work. It awarded about $2.5 million for off-the-clock working and about $76 million for lost rest breaks between March of 1998 and May of 2006. The award was another blow to Wal-Mart's image, which has been tarnished by accusations by labor unions, politicians and others that it pays poverty-level wages and mistreats workers. Before deliberations began in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, Donovan argued that Wal-Mart employees were forced to work through their breaks because the company wanted to maximize profits.``Wal-Mart doesn't understand anything but numbers,'' he said. ``In order for Wal-Mart to understand this, it needs to see numbers, big numbers. ''Neal Manne, an attorney for Wal-Mart, who asked the jury to award $287,000 for off-the- clock working and $6.65 million for missed rest breaks, argued that many employees had in fact taken breaks without swiping their ID cards to indicate they were on a break. In December, a California jury ruled that Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, should pay $172 million in damages and compensation to about 116,000 current and former employees for denying meal breaks. Plaintiffs in the 2001 California lawsuit claimed Wal-Mart had failed to pay hourly employees for missed or interrupted meal breaks.

City going wrong way...John S. Holmes, M.D., Merced...Letters to the editor
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/12892244p-13552691c.html
Valley only going to get hotter," Sept. 30, and "Work still needed on our air," Oct. 4...You correctly point out that our air quality is still bad and that global warming is looming as a huge problem in the near future. You also make the connection to automobiles and trucks as major culprits. What is so perplexing is why you have so much difficulty connecting the dots to the kinds of economic development Merced County is pursuing. The Riverside Motorsports Park and the Wal-Mart Distribution Center will only aggravate our air quality problems. The local air board has all but admitted we won't be able to meet the 2010 deadline for clean air. Economic development is important, but only within responsible parameters that protect the public health. Your editorial "Study underscores need for clean air," April 4, clearly shows the extent air pollution in the Valley is jeopardizing the public health. A free, independent press is essential for our democratic system to function properly by holding those in power accountable. It is past time for the editors to start connecting the dots on air quality issues.

City wants subdivision to build roads, fund fire station...Adam Ashton
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12892435p-13552938c.html
Modesto released a draft environmental impact report Thursday for a development that would bring more than 3,200 homes and a regional commercial center to the city's northeast border...Tivoli...454-acre project backed in part by Modesto real estate magnate Mike Zagaris...the city expects Tivoli's backers to cut checks for everything from widening roads to wetlands preservation. As is, Tivoli requires a zoning change because the area's land-use designations would limit the project to about 900 fewer homes. The city's zoning restrictions also would permit less space for commercial development. The initial environmental report urges city leaders to require that developers: Set aside money for farmland preservation by contributing to an agricultural resource fund. Designate land for a new fire station and give the city money to build it. Pay their share of a series of road improvements, including projects to extend and widen Claratina Avenue, expand three McHenry Avenue intersections and add lanes to Briggsmore Avenue.
Take steps to limit air pollution during construction by refraining from idling trucks, using new technology and building wind barriers. Encourage alternative transportation options by installing bike lanes and reserving space for bus routes. Dig two new wells to maintain water pressure. People have 45 days to comment on the environmental report before the city begins revising it.

An odd letter appeared in the Merced Sun-Star on Oct. 12. It was written by local attorney, Ken Robbins, in praise of Dennis Cardoza, who represents this area in the House of Representatives. The ,letter appeared about the time a spate of letters in praise of Cardoza appeared. Apparently, in our Valley, we praise a politician who has no serious competition in an election.

In any event, what was so odd about the letter was its strange factual natural. Robbins praised Cardoza's leadership as chairman of the Assembly Water Committee, for example. Those of us who have misspent portions of our adult lives in the halls of the state Capitol were trying to remember the Assembly Water Committee. Some said that maybe such a committee existed back in the days of Speaker Jesse Unruh, others thought that if such a committee ever existed, it had pre-dated Unruh.

One bright young staffer suggested that Robbins might have confused Cardoza, who was chairman of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and the Assembly Rules committee with Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, who was once state Sen. Jim Costa, chairman of the state Senate Ag and Water Committee. But other textual evidence suggested that Robbins was aware that Cardoza represented Merced, not Fresno.

But, admittedly, the problem of state Legislature committees is tricky, which is why it helps to look things up. For example, state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Salinas, Merced or Livingston, depending on what press release you read, is presently chairman of the new state Senate Agriculture Committee. They took the water away from the committee, you see, when they made Denham its chairman.

Robbins praised Cardoza's "steadfast support of UC Merced before the City County," presumably meaning the Merced City Council -- not Fresno, Salinas or Livingston city councils. The only problem with the praise is that no one can remember Cardoza ever appearing before the Merced City Council in steadfast support of UC Merced. He is well remembered for legislative bills and for working the backrooms of the state Capitol on behalf of the project. However, beside the time the Merced City Council voted to violate its own ordinances to provide UC Merced with sewer and water hookups, the city has relatively little to do with UC Merced planning and permitting. That could be because the campus is located in Merced County and its planning conducted by the County of Merced UC Development Office, out of its offices at the former Castle Air Force base.

But Robbins letter, "Cardoza a true leader," is only using Cardoza's background as chairman of a non-existent state Assembly committee to build up his argument for Cardoza's "leadership in the U.S. Congress," specifically as a member of the House Resources subcommittee on water and power. According to Lawyer Robbins, Cardoza "reached across party lines" to exert this leadership to protect irrigation and water districts downstream from the Friant Dam from the terrible destruction they imagined would be wrecked by a large group of farmers and environmentalists settling an 18-year-old lawsuit to permit the San Joaquin River to flow again without a 60-mile dry area in the middle of it. Fifteen thousand farmers who have been using water drawn from Lake Millerton behind the Friant Dam for 50 years, agreed with environmentalists that killing the second longest river in California halfway across the San Joaquin Valley and converting its entire north-south reach from Fresno County to the Delta into an agricultural waste drainage ditch was no longer favored by law. So they made a settlement, which included draft congressional legislation to fund it.

It is one of the most ambitious river restoration projects in the nation. This settlement is actually worth great praise.

However, Cardoza's role in the appropriations bill negotiations, was to lead the obstruction of as much as possible of it, on behalf of Robbins' client, the Merced Irrigation District, Westlands Water District, and the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts, who were each experiencing their own kind of angst over the settlement.

The chairman of the water and power subcommittee is Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, in whose district the lake, the dam, and parts of the river and of the canal are located. While we are not personally acquainted with the exact number of good political deeds Radanovich has done in his career in Congress, his work with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, speacial interests like Robbins and Cardoza represent, to get an appropriations agreement in accord with the settlement agreement's requirements, was certainly one good deed, for which he is being severely punished. The Fresno Bee, for example, recently came out with an endorsement for his opponent.

Seven of the subcommittee's 17 members are from California, as is chairman of the Resources Committee, Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy. But two are ex-officio, leaving 15 voting members. Four of the Californians -- Pombo, Radanovich, Cardoza and Costa -- are from the San Joaquin Valley. How much more could Pombo have loaded up the subcommittee committee for a hearing on this issue?

Nevertheless, rightly fearing worse if the settlement broke down for lack of appropriations and went back to federal court, Feinstein and the other representatives soothed Cardoza's troubled spirit on behalf of the irrigation districts and got a bill out. At least their press release says they got a bill out.

Then, after their anxious moment having to deal with farmers and environmentalists agreeing on a major California water issue and making a positive proposal, they turned to more familiar work and began punishing Randanovich.

"During extensive negotiations regarding the San Joaquin River settlement implementing legislation," Robbins wrote, "Dennis played a pivotal role in protecting the water rights of Merced and Stanislaus counties and the private property of landowners along the San Joaquin River."

At this point in Robbins' letter, we develop more angst than an irrigation district afraid a few endangered salmon might swim up its river instead of up another irrigation district's river. We want to feel the same warm feeling for Cardoza that Robbins does. Here, after all, is a congressman so incredibly popular in his district "across party lines," that the other party doesn't even bother to mount a serious campaign against him. We wish to participate in this general good will toward Dennis Cardoza that spreads all across the 18th Congressional District of California -- if we could understand why we should feel this way toward a man who introduced three bills to chop up or destroy the Endangered Species Act, just in his first two terms of office.

What are the water rights of Merced and Stanislaus counties? Do counties have water rights? We realize that Robbins is a top man in his field of water law, therefore he must be right. We also know he is incredibly generous with Merced Irrigation District water, once offering 25,000 acre feet ("a drop in the bucket") to UC Merced, years before Cardoza did not appear at the Merced City Council when it agreed to supply the campus with water. But we don't quite know why he's right. Perhaps, that Assembly Water Committee thing still niggles.

We are aware of county-of-origins water laws, by which water agencies in the county in which the water originates get first rights on the use of the water. That must have been what he meant.

But then another problem immediately arises, in fact several problems for those of us who are not top water people. First, the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers empty into the San Joaquin River well downstream of the Friant Dam. But, even more confusing, none of those rivers originate in Merced or Stanislaus counties. Thirdly, the irrigation districts have use rights to rivers: they can use so many acre feet per year. With more explanation, perhaps not in the same breathe with which he is praising our favorite congressman, perhaps Robbins could make it clear how some salmon would jeopardize the water rights of these counties.

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in upcoming negotiations on hydroelectric plants on these rivers when the water agencies apply for relicensing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Fish, water, dams, hydroelectric turbines, irrigation districts in the energy business, federal resource agencies -- that sort of thing. Why would Lawyer Robbins have wished to mix up nightmares like that with praise of our all-popular congressman? We suppose top water lawyers like Robbins make good money in FERC relicensing negotiations, though. A real top water lawyer could probably send a Little League Baseball team to Harvard on a serious and complex relicensing negotiation with FERC, particularly if a few endangered salmon were sighted in the river.

However, we were unequivocably proud of how our congressman protected the private property rights of landowners along the San Joaquin River. We know that Cardoza has always been a zealous defender of private property rights, wherever he can find them in conflict with law or regulation protecting the natural habitat of fish or wildlife. Yet we know, in the same way that we know that Lawyer Robbins speaks with sincerity and truth, that Cardoza cares for our environment. From reading our one newspaper with many names, the McClatchy Co., we know of two farmers whose homesteads lie along the San Joaquin River on the west side of the Valley, who expressed deep concerns about the settlement agreement. They farm cotton on tiny plots they inherited from the Miller-Lux and Wolfsen estates. Presumably -- it's not too clear from the articles -- they have angst that if the river were allowed to flow again, it might flow in places where it used to flow but where they now farm, possibly wiping out the tiny plots where they grow subsistence cotton crops as did their ancestors in a way of life unbroken through countless generations of English-speaking people in the San Joaquin Valley.

Lawyer Robbins urges local voters to join him in reelecting Cardoza to the House. Residents in his district will have to tax the resources of their imaginations to find any alternative to voting for Cardoza. We don't really have a credible choice and we can't tell, certainly from his party label, what Cardoza's affiliations really are. The record suggests he's basically an anti-environmentalist in a rural county experiencing rapid growth.

But that's what happens when the district residents allow a small cabal who display a characteristic as odd as Robbins' "facts" of getting richer as the majority gets poorer, to completely control its local, state and federal slates of political candidates.

Bill Hatch
------------------------
References:

Letter to the Editor: Cardoza a true leader
Merced Sun-Star -- October 12, 2006
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/12876067p-13548945c.html

Editor: I have known Dennis Cardoza for many years and have had the pleasure of working with him on many issues vital to Merced. His steadfast support of UC Merced before the City Council and in the legislature mark him as a true leader for our community.
Recently I also was able to observe his leadership in the U.S. Congress. Dennis' term as the chairman of the Assembly Water Committee has served us well as that experience has translated to his work on the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House Resources Committee, of which he is a member.

During extensive negotiations regarding the San Joaquin River settlement implementing legislation, Dennis played a pivotal role in protecting the water rights of Merced and Stanislaus counties and the private property of landowners along the San Joaquin River. As a member of the Valley Congressional delegation, Dennis reached across party lines to help secure a compromise that will result in restoring the San Joaquin River while protecting those of us that were not part of the litigation.

This deal would not have happened without Congressman Cardoza. This is just more evidence of his effectiveness on our behalf in Congress. I will be voting to re-elect him and I hope you will, too.

KENNETH M. ROBBINS
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House Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power

Mr. George Radanovich, California, Chairman
Mrs. Grace F. Napolitano, CA

Republicans Democrats
Ken Calvert, CA Raul M. Grijalva, AZ
Barbara Cubin, WY Jim Costa, CA
Greg Walden, OR George Miller, CA
Thomas G. TancredoCO Mark Udall, CO
J.D. Hayworth, AZ Dennis Cardoza, CA
Stevan Pearce, NM vacancy
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, WA vacancy
Louie Gohmert, TX Nick J. Rahall, II, WV, ex officio
Richard W. Pombo, CA, ex officio
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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.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza voted twice against the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which eliminates right of habeas corpus for classes defined by the executive branch of the federal government. Habeas corpus is a safeguard against illegal imprisonment as old as the Magna Carta (13th century). The bill passed and the president reportedly will sign it tomorrow. Demonstrations throughout the country are scheduled to coincide with the presidential signing.

Among House Blue Dog Democrats, Cardoza was in a bare majority, a dozen voting once, 11 voting twice against the bill.

Cardoza deserves praise for trying to protect habeas corpus and he will receive it from local opponents of his environmental policies.

Thank you, Dennis, for voting against this tyrannical law.

Bill Hatch
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Reference:

Dennis Cardoza | Congress votes database | washingtonpost.com: See how Dennis Cardoza voted on key votes -- the most important bills ... 9/29/06, Vote 508: S 3930: Military Commissions Act, No, Yes, No ...
projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001050/ - Similar pages

Today's top story in the Merced Sun-Start was about more than 470 claims filed by residents near the city of Merced who suffered damage from flooding last spring. The are against the Merced city, county and Merced Irrigation District. The newspaper did not inquire whether the Franklin-Beachwood area is in a flood zone, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency 's 20-year-old maps. Possibly, none of the lawyers interviewed, who had their statements duly recorded, mentioned the fact either. It seems, from an insurance standpoint, the fact might have some bearing on the cases.

FEMA flood-plain maps around certain parts of the city of Merced were objects of concern to building department officials as early as 2000, but in the wake of Katrina, FEMA decided to draw new maps. Evidently, the effect these maps might have on the forward march of development in Pombozastan aroused the suspicions of representatives RichPAC Pombo, Whale Slayer-Tracy, and Dennis Cardoza, Polar Bear Slayer-Merced, who were able to block the circulation of these new maps until after the election.

Below is a collection of the major articles on the fix in chronological order. We were happy to learn that "the probability is higher that you won't have big floods," and that once again in Pombozastan honest graft was found to be the universal solution to all human complaint.

Bill Hatch
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Editorial: Reality bites
Delaying release of FEMA maps would help politicians, not communities at risk
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, July 2, 2006

Egged on by developers and local politicians seeking re-election, several Central Valley congressmen are urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to delay the release of updated maps that will provide homeowners and businesses a more accurate picture of flood risks.
FEMA should resist this pressure. The government hasn't updated most of these maps for 20 years, despite several damaging -- and revealing -- floods during that period. Following Hurricane Katrina, there has been a major national push to update the cartography. It needs to happen as quickly as possible.