Badlands Journal

The Merced Sun-Star's big agricultural/environmental story today was a Modesto Bee story about a press conference called by Rep. Dennis Cardoza-Merced, about the plight of the honey bee. Perhaps Madame McClatchy is concerned about brand identification with a collapsing species. Cardoza seems concerned that research doesn't focus too much on pesticides.

6-1-07
Merced Sun-Star
Cardoza seeks help for beehive deaths...John Holland...Modesto Bee
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/13643077p-14237641c.html
Dan Avila's farm was the site of a news conference held Thursday by Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and others concerned about the bees. Cardoza is seeking a boost in federal funding for research on the die-off, which started in the fall. Some beekeepers have had little or no damage, while others have lost most of their colonies. Experts say the causes of the die-off — dubbed colony collapse disorder — could include parasites, pesticides, drought or cold snaps. "They feel that it is most likely a combination of factors causing colony collapse disorder, and that makes it more difficult to do the research," Cardoza said. Cardoza said he could not estimate how much federal research money might be provided. He did say that lawmakers have discussed boosting farm research in general by several hundred million dollars. Congress could act by September on the funding, said Cardoza, chairman of the House subcommittee on horticulture and organic agriculture.

The SF Chronicle, attending the same event, got a remarkably different story.

San Francisco Chronicle
Many causes blamed for honeybee die-off...George Raine
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/01/BUGQ2Q5AAI22.DTL&hw=uc&sn=003&sc=352
A team of entomologists and other scientists studying the alarming die-off of honeybees across the country is expected to report that there are multiple causes of the deaths, called colony collapse disorder. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater (Merced County), said he has seen portions of the report being prepared for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to be released later this month...said it lays out several possible causes, including parasites and a lack of genetic diversity. The challenge, Cardoza said, will be to tailor research efforts to return the most benefit. "Most likely it is a combination of factors,''..."When you look at multiple factors it really complicates the research,'' he said. Cardoza gathered reporters, beekeepers, farmers and a UC Davis Extension apiculturist for an update on colony collapse disorder... Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., introduced a bill in March that would give the USDA $50 million over five years to study colony collapse, but Cardoza, a fiscally conservative Democrat whose district includes Stockton, Merced and Modesto, said that is too costly and he prefers to narrow the research target. He said conversations are taking place about a possible emergency appropriation and also additional research money for colony collapse added to the farm bill that is expected to be considered in September.

Sonny Star filled its front page with a photo of meth-lab remains and a big story on the newest UC Merced chancellor's view that the Valley suffers from a college-degree deficit. Oh, and Smoky the press guy retired from the paper.

Meanwhile, out in the world ...

5-31-07
DELTA SMELT BRIEFING TODAY‎
From: Thomas, Ted (tthomas@water.ca.gov)
Sent: Thu 5/31/07 1:39 PM
To: tthomas@water.ca.gov
Security scan upon download
att5bea2.jpg (15.0 KB)

Advisory

May 31, 2007

Contacts

· Don Strickland, Information Officer (916) 653 9515

· Ted Thomas, Information Officer (916) 653-9712

MEDIA BRIEFING ON DELTA SMELT AT 2:30 P.M. TODAY

SACRAMENTO – Department of Water Resources Director Lester A. Snow and Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick will conduct a telephone news media conference call at 2:30 p.m. today to discuss measures regarding the endangered Delta smelt population.

The conference call number is 1-877-536-5793 Code 344390.
--------

Delta Smelt Press Release‎
From: Thomas, Ted (tthomas@water.ca.gov)
Sent: Thu 5/31/07 2:12 PM
To: tthomas@water.ca.gov
Security scan upon download
att222a6.jpg (15.0 KB)

News for Immediate Release - DRAFT
May 31, 2007

Contacts:
Sue Sims, Assistant Director for Public Affairs, (916) 651-7242
Ted Thomas, Public Information Officer (916) 653-9712

DWR Stops Pumping to Protect Delta Smelt

Sacramento - The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced it will stop pumping at State Water Project (SWP) facilities in the Delta to provide maximum protection for Delta smelt. This action follows the observed entrainment of juvenile smelt between May 25 and May 31 at the Harvey O. Banks pumping plant facility.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “While there are clearly many factors at play in the current decline of smelt in the Delta, we must act on the one that is within our control. That is why DWR will stop pumping in the Delta as a preventative measure to protect endangered fish that are currently located near our facilities.”

Snow also challenged other public agencies with jurisdiction over activities affecting Delta smelt to take aggressive actions to protect the species. Scientific studies indicate that pelagic fish are affected by many stressors. Water project operations can affect fish, however, invasive species, toxics, and diversion by many other water users in the south Delta have dramatic effects on these fish.

This year’s toxic events in the Sacramento River system in the Delta occurred at a time and location where adult Delta smelt were concentrated and spawning. The extremely low numbers of young smelt, identified earlier this month, are likely a direct result of these toxic events. Regardless of the cause of this drop in Delta smelt, all agencies need to be taking actions to protect those that are left.

DWR stopped pumping at the Harvey O. Banks pumping plant this morning. Some water deliveries will be made to South San Francisco Bay users from water supplies already in the aqueduct. DWR will collaborate with other agencies to evaluate water conditions in the Delta and health and safety needs for water users.

"Our actions to save the smelt will place a real hardship on some water users in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California,” said Snow. “However, given the concerns about the Delta smelt, this is a prudent action at this time."

The State Water Project supplies water to 25 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland.

In early 2005, scientists working on the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) first identified the decline in pelagic fish species. Since then, the state has initiated extensive and expensive studies to determine the causes for the decline in pelagic fish productivity in the Bay/Delta Estuary. In addition to considering the impact of state and federal water project operations, scientists have identified many other causes of a changing ecosystem.

In response, DWR has initiated measures to protect the Delta ecosystem, and minimize the effects of exports on fish and their habitat.

This year, the SWP modified its operations by use of the adaptive Environmental Water Account. From January through mid-May, about 300,000 acre-feet of water were used to reduce exports to help protect Delta smelt. During this time period, no delta smelt were recorded in the SWP fish salvage operations at the Banks Pumping plant. In mid-May, exports were reduced again due to the distribution of Delta smelt into areas that made them more susceptible to pumping. On May 24, Delta smelt began to appear at Banks pumping plant in low numbers. These numbers have increased in recent days triggering DWR’s response today.

“This is another indication that the Delta is broken and needs to be fixed,” said Snow. Governor Schwarzenegger time and again has said that we need to invest in our water systems, including more storage, conservation and a long term strategy for the Delta.

Last year, the governor initiated a comprehensive Delta Vision process and appointed a Blue Ribbon Task Force to recommend future actions that will achieve a sustainable Delta. In addition, many state and federal agencies and environmental groups signed a formal Planning Agreement in September 2006 and are developing Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) for at-risk fish species under the provisions of the State Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (NCCPA) and the federal Endangered Species Act under Section 10 that allows for Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). These efforts will provide a framework for future action.

The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.

Contact the DWR Public Affairs Office for more information about DWR's water activities.
---------------

6-1-07
Modesto Bee
Ten-day window for West Side water...Michael G. Mooney
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/13643115p-14237682c.html
West Side farmers and residents of Diablo Grande, a golf and resort community in the foothills west of Patterson, could be left high and dry should south San Joaquin Delta pumps remain shut down for more than 10 days. "I'm a little nervous about the situation," said Bill Harrison, who manages the Oak Flat Water and Del Puerto water districts in western Stanislaus County. "We need the water." Thursday morning, the California Department of Water Resources turned off its massive pumps near Tracy... DWR director Lester Snow said the pumps will remain off for seven to 10 days. He said that no farmer, business or resident would be forced to go without water during that time.

Fresno Bee
Exports of delta water stopped after fish deaths...Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/51149.html
State Department of Water Resources officials said the action is expected to last seven to 10 days, until water conditions allow the fish to move to safer areas. Shortages are not expected for the 25 million Californians who get water from the delta, including some San Joaquin Valley farms... if the shutdown lasts longer, some water agencies, mainly in the Bay Area, may have to impose mandatory conservation or rationing measures. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also has shut down all but one of the six pumps at its separate, federal delta water export facility, an unprecedented step. The delta is the hub of the state's water system, channeling abundant snowmelt in the north to dry regions in the south. But that function is increasingly threatened by crumbling levees, poor habitat and climate change. For now, the state water project pump stoppage will not keep water from being delivered to San Joaquin Valley users. Those south of the San Luis Reservoir, near Los Banos, will continue to receive water from that reservoir... In the Central Valley, the Kern County Water Agency is the largest state project water user, accounting for about 25% of the allocation...will continue to receive water from the San Luis Reservoir. The Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles gets about 50% of the water, and 27 other water agencies make up the remaining 25%, said Jim Beck, Kern County Water Agency general manager. It already has been a dry year, and as a result, state water project users are receiving 60% of their maximum annual allocation, Beck said. Politicians and biologists have struggled unsuccessfully for years to balance the competing needs of wildlife and water users, and it has become increasingly clear that a balance cannot be struck given how the delta is used today.

Sacramento Bee
Delta pumps halted...Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/201715.html Graphics
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/201715.html Print
Shortages are not expected for the 25 million Californians who get water from the Delta...if the shutdown lasts longer, some water agencies, mainly in the Bay Area, may have to impose mandatory conservation or rationing measures. Many have called on customers to adopt extra voluntary conservation steps amid what is already one of the driest years on record in the state. Environmental groups speculated the DWR's move to halt pumping was aimed to avoid rigid action by the courts. Jennings said his group planned next week to seek a restraining order against state pumping operations to protect the smelt. Water users south of San Luis Reservoir, near Los Banos, will continue receiving deliveries as expected during the shutdown from that source, which stores water pumped from the Delta. Those served by the South Bay Aqueduct, however, will not receive any Delta water during the shutdown and will have to rely on local sources.About 2 million people in the Bay Area depend on that water for part of their supply... The only farms affected if the shutdown lasts more than 10 days are those that use water from canals and pipes fed directly by the Delta pumps. These include about 2,200 acres of almonds, alfalfa and vegetables in the Oak Flat Water District near Patterson... Bill Harrison, general manager of the Oak Flat district, said his area has poor groundwater but should be able to irrigate for a week using water already pumped into the canal that runs from the Delta to San Luis Reservoir. After that, he said, "about 1,300 to 1,400 acres would be high and dry."

Water Wars: Be careful what you wish for...Hank Shaw's blog...5-31-07
http://blogs.recordnet.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=sr-hshaw&redirCnt=1
...giant water pumps near Tracy grinding to a halt... “Drastic times call for drastic measures,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “While there are clearly many factors at play in the current decline of smelt in the Delta, we must act on the one that is within our control. That is why DWR will stop pumping in the Delta as a preventative measure to protect endangered fish that are currently located near our facilities.” Snow then threw down the gauntlet, daring the feds to stop their pumps, too, and urging the local farmers to limit pesticide use in the area. DWR's theory is that some unusual pesticide event in the Delta this year is the chief cause of the smelty meltdown, not operation of the pumps. Was there a fish kill no one heard about? If so, why on earth was no one told? ...DWR seems to be putting as much emphasis on pesticides that their opponents put on the pumps. It is a dry year, remember, so what better way to gin up support for resumed "normal" pumping than to cut off the tap and rattle the natives? Is this what Snow is up to? Of course it may just be a case where doing the right thing happens to give you a political advantage at the same time...or it may not be.

On June 1, the Lathrop Sun-Post reported that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced paid the Lathrop City Council a visit on May 29 to warn Lathropians that the Federal Emergency Management Agency "is in the process of redrawing flood-plain maps and casting more stringent levee requirements in a post-Hurricane Katrina, climate-changing world ..."

Alarming them with pictures of immanent catastrophe, Cardoza urged the council to participate in a "regional approach" to ensure flood protection.
The Sun-Post goes on to mention that former Rep. Richard Pombo, Buffalo Slayer-Tracy just signed a $100,000 contract with Stockton to lobby for state and federal flood-protection funds.

When we hear about the "regional approach," our minds instantly turn to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. This "regional" commission, appointed two years ago by the governor, is co-chaired by Fritz Grupe, Stockton's premiere developer. Several months before Grupe was appointed to lead this regional planning effort, he hosted a fund-raising luncheon for Pombo and Cardoza. The two split about $50,000 in developer contributions and launched their next assault on the Endangered Species Act before the end of that year. They also earned the name "Pomboza" to connote their "aggressive
bipartisanship on the House Resources Committee. Since the Democratic Party took over Congress last year, the committee's earlier title, Natural Resources, has been restored.

However, another part of the mysterious political movements of the Pomboza and the regional Mr. Grupe was the successful July 2006 move by Pombo and Cardoza to block the new FEMA flood plain maps on the Delta area, at least until after the November 2006 election.

7-3-06
Sacramento Bee
Reality bites…Editorial…7-2-06
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/v-print/story/14273956p-15083900c.html
Delaying release of FEMA maps would help politicians, not communities at risk. Egged onby 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. The
problem is that new maps frighten local officials… Given the money at stake, it’s highly suspicious that U.S. Reps. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and other lawmakers are urging FEMA to delay the release of preliminary maps. As Cardoza notes, these FEMA maps are preliminary. The reason for releasing them is so communities can review them, debate them and understand how they might affect insurance and land-use plans before any final versions are approved. FEMA recently bowed to pressure in remapping flood plains in New Orleans, putting thousands at risk. It shouldn’t do the
same here — especially not for a handful of politicians who would rather enhance their
re-election chances than face the realities of floods.

Lurching back to the present, Grupe Investments, AG Spanos Construction and the Delta Building Industry Association are suing the City of Stockton, claiming that the city is discriminating against developers by demanding they pay fees to preserve farm land at a 1:1 mitigation ratio. This reminds us that the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley is really simply a partnership between developers and politicians for more irresponsible urban development in the Valley.

To wrap it up, Cardoza, acting on behalf of Pombo, Grupe, Spanos and other developers in San Joaquin County, scares the bejeezuz out of the Lathrop City Council about those dreaded FEMA floodplain maps that cannot fail to discourage more development on the Delta. (At least Lathrop is in Cardoza's district, which we misreported as being in McNerney's yesterday.)Meanwhile, McNerney jumped to Rep. Ellen Tauscher's district to talk up a VA hospital in Livermore.

None of these Congress persons are saying a word in opposition to the biowarfare lab that UC/Bechtel et al/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory wants to build on Site 300, the bomb-testing range outside Tracy. Perhaps, when the proposal makes the short list this month, the Pomboza, McNerney and Tauscher can all join hands and declare a Valley War Pork Month.

Badlands editorial staff

Summary of Meeting at Hilmar Grange Hall, 5/29/07, 6:00PM
by Stevinson Citizen's Group

People in attendance: Table in front of everyone - Jesse Brown, MCAG Executive Director; Senator Jeff Dunham; Kome Ajise, Cal Trans rep for Merced County. Others in attendance: Robin Adams, rep for Kathleen Galgiani; Supervisor Deidre Kelsey (arrived at very end); Merced County Planner, Bob King; about five guys from Livingston, including their mayor and city councilmen; Dan Bohan, Developer for Stevinson Ranch; Diana Westmoreland Padrozo, Merced Co. Farm Bureau, ED; Reporter from Modesto Bee; probably about 75 citizens or more. MAC members: Robb Mitchell, Pat Sparks, Karen Wolchek and Connie Lourenco. Didn't see Dave Anderson or any of the others and I continually looked around for them. Even George and Patty were not there. By the way, I sat right by Dan Bohan.

First Speaker was Robin Adams representing Kathleen Galgiani. He said she would do anything that she can to move road projects forward.

Second Speaker was Kome Ajise, Cal Trans. One sure bet of funding is Hwy 99 projects. 1 billion is going to be spent from Bakersfield to Redding. 1/4 billion for Merced County with the projects being the Mission Project to Madera County line widening to six lanes. Other projects next in line are Los Banos bypass and widening of 99 by Livingston.

Jeff Dunham asked Kome what are ways for counties to be self help. His response was 1. Sales Tax measures (19 counties now have it)
2. Traffic impact fees (mentioned El Dorado County has one.
He said Merced County has one too but it is different from
El Dorado County one. He did not elaborate on how it is
different)
3. Toll roads (Area not right for those. Need more pop and
roads that people have no choice but to take)
4. Developer fees (he called it "straight levee on rooftops")
Kome stressed that state is reluctant to take on any more projects than those already in process. Hwy 165 is not considered in process at this time.

Second Speaker was Jesse Brown, MCAG. Said that MCAG is responsible for
creating a regional transportation plan for Merced County. Merced County receives federal dollars every year from our tax dollars, but it is all spent on road maintenance. 1.9 million was available and it was all used for maintenance. 2.6 million came from congestion funds but has to be used for transportation issues like mass transportation.
Jesse Brown stated MCAG's reasons for allocating funds:
1. safety
2. congestion
3. leveraging more money from other sources.
4. efficiency
He spoke about Hwy 165 Bypass:
1. Has to be placed in regional transportation plan, which it is.
2. MCAG only has money for project study report (being done now)
3. Next step is the EIR (8 years)
4. Engineering (1 1/2 years)
5. Right of way (2 1/2 years)
6. Build road (3 years)
He said that MCAG has many priorities before Hwy 165 bypass is in top tier. Top tier projects are proposed to be built within the next 20 years. It was in top tier, but because Measure G failed it no longer is. He said that he can guarantee that the soonest it could be built would be at least 20 years and not before that time. Remember Deidre was always saying 10 to 15 years.
Of course, he stressed that we need to become self help. He thanked Hilmar for overwhelmingly voting to pass Measure G. He said the Measure failed in Atwater and Merced so that is where they will put most of their effort this time around.

Then the floor was open to questions. One of the most interesting was a man from Livingston who is on the city council. He brought a map. He said that he and others are proposing to put the highway interchange in Livingston and route 165 bypass people over there to it. Never gonna happen. He had a very fancy aerial map with the plan on it. He thanked Senator Dunham several times for inviting him to come. So it looks like Livingston is gunning for the interchange. There must be a lot of money to be made by putting fast food restaurants and such by those. Look at what Livingston has done at the interchange at the Winton Rest Stop. They are licking their chops for this one too.

I was the last person to go to the microphone to ask a question. None of the previous questions dealt with developments so I had to think how I could tie it in to the issues discussed. I told Denham and the Cal Trans man about all of the master planned developments proposed that would be serviced by Hwy 165. When I mentioned 3,700 homes in Stevinson the Cal Trans man straightened his back, shook his head and frowned. Denham turned his head and looked at the Cal Trans man when this happened. I said that within a 13 mile stretch 11,000 homes are being proposed (Stevinson, Turlock Golf Course, Turlock's platinum triangle) and that traffic would be serviced by a two lane bypass. I said that it is not going to work. There will be too much traffic for a two lane bypass. Then I said how people have told me that you cannot even speak of four lanes because of costs. So, I just said that the numbers do not add up and the two lane bypass is too costly for the service it will provide.

One man said that it takes too long for EIR's. He said they need to shorten the process. He said that once they are done Mrs. Miller does a lawsuit and it takes another two or three years. He said that she did it on the UC Merced and now she is doing it on the racetrack. Kome said that it cannot be shortened because it is the law. The man said they need to change the laws.

Rob Mitchell got up and gave a very good speech about the idiotic idea of self help. He was pretty mad and said that we have already put in our money and that the self help concept is holding money we have already paid hostage until we put more money into the system. He got a large applause with that comment.

After the meeting I stayed around and talked to people. A woman came up and said that she is sure they are not going to use Griffith. She said they will take property off of the backside of people's land between Griffith and Golf.

Better regional planning will help make the state's metro areas more attractive and livable, and that will allow them to grow and attract jobs in a cleaner, healthier setting.-- Sacremento Bee editorial, June 4, 2007

Endorsing a bill authored by state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the Sacramento Bee editorialized today that the Sacramento Area Council of Government's (SACOG) "blueprint" should be made statewide policy for urban areas.

(That's too much Sacramento for one sentence. Might as well throw in the Sacramento Kings, the Sacramento River, Old Sacramento, and West and South Sacramento, too. Nevertheless, the bill proposed is pure Sacramento.)

We were unable to think of one bit of open space SACOG has ever saved from Elk Grove to Auburn and plenty of ground its transportation policies have made more attractive for development. What little open space that has been saved in the SACOG region has been saved by lawsuits mainly under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). One exception might be the Sunset Industrial Zone between Roseville and Lincoln, designed to provide space for industrial development and job creation. Roseville is very proud of its superior jobs/housing ratio. We would guess the current largest employer in the zone is an Indian casino across the road from a regional land fill. The zone is under constant developer pressure from both Roseville and Lincoln, particularly along transportation corridors.

To get local government buy-in, Steinberg is offering cities and counties certain exemptions from CEQA, while promoting his bill as part of an anti-global warming package in the state Senate.

The devil is in the details, particularly on CEQA exemptions, and this bill is a Steinberg work-in-progress special, but right now it looks like another Developer Trojan Horse.

Counterpunch editor and publisher, Alexander Cockburn, has written a series of recent articles challenging the scientific connection between human activity and global warming. Cockburn has taken a lot of "heat" from environmentalists for his position, but his eye for damaging policies world-wide that result from the global warming panic is dead on.

Trust the term-limited Legislature of California, a wholly owned subsidiary of lobbyists for finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE), to use global warming as an excuse for weakening the best state law in the country for protecting land that is not smog producing.

The hypothesis that carbon emissions are causing global warming is a useful one. Another useful one is that smog has stupefied Sacramento.

Badlands editorial board
--------------------

6-5-07
Fuelish sprawl...Editorial
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/204393.html
Sacramento area's award-winning "Blueprint" plan has hammered home two key points. First, endless sprawl is not inevitable in our region; second, through incentives, local governments can work to contain leapfrog development and promote transit and alternatives to the automobile. The Blueprint doesn't have the sweep of regulatory measures -- such as Oregon's urban growth boundaries -- but it has changed the dynamic of local planning decisions. Every time a major project is proposed, people now ask this question: Does it comply with the Blueprint? That raises another question: Why don't we have Blueprints in every major metropolitan area of California?... state Sen. Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento is working on a measure that could imprint the Blueprint statewide. Senate Bill 375 would require the California Transportation Commission and regional agencies (those with populations larger than 800,000) to conduct the kind of modeling and planning that SACOG has done in this region. If local governments comply with the growth scenarios envisioned by a region, they would be exempted from certain requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. That's a significant incentive. Steinberg is promoting SB 375 as part of a Senate package to fight global warming. Blueprint planning, the thought goes, would limit the growth of greenhouse emissions from vehicles and trucks. That's a timely and reasonable argument, but the real reason to support this bill is much closer to home. Better regional planning will help make the state's metro areas more attractive and livable, and that will allow them to grow and attract jobs in a cleaner, healthier setting.

The decisions that have created the enormous mess in real estate in the north San Joaquin Valley were made by corrupt local land-use authorities, corrupt state and federal regulatory agencies, with state and federal politicians working the backrooms, all for the benefit of finance, insurance and real estate.

“This year, we’re going to see prices drop in every market across the country for the first time since the Great Depression,” said Steven Smith, a property appraiser and consultant from San Bernardino. -- Modesto Bee, June 3, 2007.

This is the result of all those "win-win, public-private partnerships." This is the result of "One Voice" lobbying delegations. This is the result of public officials making the "hard, right decisions." This is the result of the wholesale demonization of common sense by rightwing radicals at all levels of government. This is the result of "shrinking government to where it can be drowned in a bathtub."

This is the result of a nationwide betrayal of the meaning of public service.

This is the result of American citizens total abdication of the responsibilities of that citizenship.

The possibility of economic depression creates the possibility of real fascism, real resistance, and real social unrest. Nice going, FIRE.

We here in the north San Joaquin Valley have been recently bedazzled by the illusion of "higher learning," as the great American economist, Thorstein Veblen called university education, in the form of UC Merced, the most compelling anchor tenant for reckless urbanization to hit the Valley since the Southern Pacific Octopus.

But, what of the "lower learning"? Those of us of a certain age remember the riverbanks crowded with the campfires of migrant farmworkers whose native language was English. We remember hoboes on our creeks and under our bridges. We remember working tramps passing by on railroad gondolas and in boxcars.

The Great Depression lasted a long time in the San Joaquin Valley and I believe it haunts us even now. And for the fear of it, we may have contributed -- given the interlocking nature of finance, insurance and real estate -- to its return.

The only thing to fear is fear itself, FDR said. Will we be lucky enough to find another such leader, to lead us into world war? Because, when the newspapers say the economy is bad, it is much, much worse than we or the newspaper want to admit.

The "lower learning" is what Roosevelt called the "mother sense" good politicians had in the depths of the Depression, regardless of gender. It was a sense of care and protection for their constituents, which would be about the exact opposite of the economic rape and pillage our politicians have aided and abetted in our communities in the Valley. It would have been the sense that dominated Huey Long, FDR's greatest rival on the left. One of the greatest, most contradictory examples in American history of "mother sense" was Lyndon Johnson, who could never really decide between his heroes Long and Roosevelt and who did so much to complete the New Deal in the midst of the Vietnam War. The greatest of all in our livespan was Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let us turn to song, as they did on the banks of the Tuolumne across from the Modesto Reds ballpark in the Fifties, where I heard them singing every evening during the gigantic Cling Peach Harvest-- so many guitars, so much chat and the sounds of forks and spoons hitting plates, the sounds of children -- the sounds of the human camp in the Great Depression still going on then, for those of us fortunate in our lower learning opportunities.

When I ask memory to speak, I turn to Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel.

Questions of 1934

The tearing up
and moving out
bothered little kids
quite a bit
especially Jody Penshaw
he would ask
every night
Mama,
where will we sleep
tomorrow night
and who could blame him
that question was on
the mind of every
mother
and father too
though the men pretended
it didn't upset them
they had to concentrate
on that Road 66
that was running
through their minds

--Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, A prince Albert Wind, A Mother Road Production, 1994.

Buy it!

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

6-3-07
Modesto Bee
Realty red flags...J.N. Sbranti
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/13651010p-14244449c.html
A bleak picture was painted of the region’s housing market at a recent conference for real estate appraisers...Appraisal Institute’s Northern California Chapter focused on housing trends and the slumping real estate market throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Statistics released recently by building and real estate associations also show a troubled market:
• Home prices falling: The worst of the housing price slump may not be over...home values throughout the country will fall 25 percent to 50 percent below what they were at their peak...the median-priced new home in Merced County was $310,990, which was nearly 22 percent below March 2006...
• Slow home sales: It’s taking much longer for homeowners to sell their property compared with last year, according to the Central Valley Association of Realtors. New home sales also are very sluggish.
• Why home buyers commute: ...prices drop $6,000 per mile
• Investors gone: Many of the homes purchased during the region’s real estate boom years were bought by investors and second-home buyers, but such buyers have disappeared...
• Exotic mortgages: untradi- tional loan terms...“These buyers took shortcuts to homeownership with ‘stated income loan.’ Today they’re called ‘liar loans,’"...“The ‘toxic’ mortgages taken out in 2004, 2005 and 2006 are resetting, causing problems for many who gambled on continued appreciation,” Race said. “They were playing ‘house poker,’ and many are ‘all in’ right now.”
• Subprime loans in trouble: About 18 percent of mortgages in the Northern San Joaquin Valley are subprime loans...
• Foreclosure homes for sale: Homeowners at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure often try to sell before it’s too late...there were 1,733 homes for sale in the Northern San Joaquin Valley that were in process of foreclosure or already had been taken back by the lender
• Loans tougher to get: Rising foreclosure rates on subprime loans are expected to make mortgages harder to get...
• Building permits decline: The Northern San Joaquin Valley building boom is over. Merced County building permits fell 64.6 percent during the first four months of 2007, compared with the first four months of 2006.
• Realtors quitting: Membership is shrinking in the Central Valley Association of Realtors... a drop of 800, or 24 percent.
• Time to buy: “The best time to buy anything is when nobody else wants it,” Zagaris said. “Next year we’re still going to be in this real estate correction.”

Why are Merced taxpayers footing the bill for a study "to analyze the economic impact of a recent ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that listed thousands of acres of both city and county land as 'critical habitat'"?

Isn't that basically an economic issue for developers and landowners?

How would somebody living in central or south Merced expect to benefit by the City of Merced spending $23,000 on the study and the Board of Supervisors presumably putting in $20,000?

Hasn't the economic impact from the critical habitat designation for vernal pools and their associated endangered species been studied, argued in court, and ruled on several times in the last decade?

Hasn't Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced spent his best years in Congress pushing bills to eliminate the critical habitat designation?

Hasn't the US Fish and Wildlife Service provided extensive economic analyses?

Isn't the "$10-million analysis" one of the reasons that Department of Interior official Julia MacDonald is under investigation right now? Will this city consultant produce MacDonald II?

If the study is focused on one development, why isn't the developer paying for it?

What is the involvement of the Old Shrimp Slayer in this expenditure of public funds for the benefit of his special interest contributors?

Is the study -- paid half by the city, maybe half by the county -- a part of some deal between the city, the county and the developer that one party is unhappy with, now that the speculative housing boom is over? Did somebody plan for something that did not happen?

Whatever the story is, the article raises more questions than it answers. Ordinarily, we'd blame the newspaper, but city department heads, like their county colleagues, know how to give a report that confuses the public, mystifies the reporter, and provides no answers for questions the public might ask, while leaving no problem the public doesn't care about unexplained. It looks like government, it sounds like communication, but the performance leaves a big hole.

Badlands editorial staff
-----------------------

6-5-07
Merced Sun-Star
Council hires firm to analyze critical habitat ruling
Law that protects species in thousands of acres of both city and county land could stall or permanently halt developments like Bellevue Ranch, which could cost the city money
by Leslie Albrecht
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/13655960p-14249106c.html

A consultant will aim to put a price tag on the impact of possible fairy shrimp habitat in North Merced, following a City Council vote Monday night.
The council approved a plan to enter a $43,000 contract with Berkeley-based Environmental & Planning Services. The city will pay for $23,000 of the proposed contract. The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote next week on whether the county will pay for the remainder.
The firm will analyze the economic impact of a recent ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that listed thousands of acres of both city and county land as "critical habitat."
That means the land could be home to fairy shrimp and other protected species. If it is, development of the land could be stalled or permanently halted, which could cost both the city and county development-related revenue.
A 2005 report by the federal government found that the critical habitat listing could cost county landowners $10 million in lost development opportunities.
In the city, 260 acres of the critical habitat land is inside Bellevue Ranch, the largest development planned within the city limit. The community could one day hold as many as 6,600 houses and apartments, as well as shopping centers and schools.
In March, Bellevue Ranch master developer Crosswinds Communities asked the city for permission to skip over the critical habitat acreage during Bellevue Ranch's next phase of development.
Instead, Crosswinds wants to build its next 1,300 houses in two areas surrounding the critical habitat land just south of Old Lake Road.
The city is still negotiating the request with Crosswinds, said Director of Development Services Jack Lesch.

Sonny Star had an intimate chat with Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, the other day and described itself as "encouraged" that he was "leading the charge at the congressional level to get special funding to fight (Honey Bee) colony collapse disorder," but that Congress should get on with the task.

This was the finest bit of witless or cynical buffoonery yet from this newspaper, but you know Sonny.

Any species of wildlife in an endangered condition is dead meat in Cardoza's hands.

Let us speculate how it's going to work. First, independent bee scientists already have a pretty good idea about what is happening, but all the news is bad and much of it relates to a number of other ecosystems crashing in the Valley and elsewhere due to the utterly destructive win-win, public-private relationships between pesticide corporations that are now seed corporations and corporate and university biotechnology.

Migratory birds have been dying for years in the Valley due to pesticides, herbicides and now, probably GMO crops. We have no idea the extent of the ecological catastrophe unleashed by these corporations and their university partners, led by the University of California. And it is not a subject of research likely to get a dime of federal research funds as long as the Biotechnology Industry Organization exists.

Cardoza tipped his hand recently in the agricultural subcommittee he chairs when he added a section to the Farm Bill that outlaws local and state governments from passing laws against genetic engineered crops in their jurisdictions -- a flat payoff to biotechnology corporations and a finger flip in the face of progressive agriculture throughout the nation.

In Merced County, we are deeply experienced in ecological disaster due to the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge. However, Sonny's clipping files will hold almost nothing about the mid-1980s disaster that continues to take wildlife in a toxic soup of heavy metals. Nor has the solution to the problem been found, although a last-ditch atttempt to take advantage of Bush administration corruption is now underway, led by Cardoza's good friends at Westlands Water District.

Initially, Cardoza, then an assemblyman, wanted to look like he was playing nice with agriculture and natural resources. He supported the county's application for the Williamson Act in 2000, while working tirelessly behind the scenes to corrupt the permitting process of UC Merced. He supported the Natural Communities Conservation Plan-Habitat Conservation Plan for eastern Merced County, which would have permitted all the takes of endangered species UC and developers could have asked for, at bargain-basement prices. It was only when the NCCP-HCP was defeated by a coalition of local farmers and environmentalists that the Shrimp Slayer took the gloves off on behalf of the contributors to his career in Congress. Since he has been in Congress, he has introduced two bills to eliminate the critical habitat designation in the Endangered Species Act. Acting as the rear end of the famed Pomboza with former Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Buffalo Slayer-Tracy, he next introduced a bill to gut the entire ESA.

Let us speculate further how this is going to work. If the Honey Bee goes, the almond industry goes. If the almond industry goes, there is going to be a great deal of farm land on the market at the bottom of the real estate cycle. Although Cardoza will fail utterly by design to get any meaningful research on colony collapse disorder, he will cry to the skies for emergency funds to bail out the poor almond growers. So landowners with almond orchards will very quietly receive their disaster checks from the feds and sell their land to developers.

This will fit marvelously with the Grupe-Spanos California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint, the bullet train, the eastside freeway, a peripheral canal and an eastside canal -- all aimed at turning the San Joaquin Valley into a giant urban slurb.

Valley farmers/landowners are sunk in such lagoons of hypocrisy and corruption that at one county-sponsored meeting on the problem nearly a decade ago, the representative for the local building industry association looked across the table at the representative of environmental organizations, threw up his hands and asked her why the Hell the BIA and the environmentalists were the only organizations in the room trying to protect agriculture.

There is another pork angle: the new biowarfare lab to excite Cardoza's greed: UC/Bechtel/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory wants to establish near Tracy on Site 300, where the lab tests bombs containing depleted uranium. The biowarfare lab is being promoted as a possible replacement for the Plum Island USDA Animal Disease Laboratory. Cattle and poultry organizations have been brought on board because the biowarfare lab promises to be studying diseases like foot-and-mouth and Avian flu. Strong evidence suggesting Plum Island security lapses resulted in the release of ticks laden with Lyme Disease, and released W. Nile Fever and possibly Newcastle's Disease into its neighborhood, has met a solid wall of denial for reasons of "National Security." But, what the heck, it makes sense to bring these pathogens incredibly lethal to the huge, nearby cattle, dairy and poultry industries, right?

Agriculture does not control agriculture anymore than Cardoza represents agriculture. However, a pork angle exists and no doubt will be exploited. Another win-win, public-private, emergency-funded program, involving all the usual suspects led by UC will be congregated to engineer a Frankenbee to replace the Honey Bee, which is probably toast. The public will pay for the biotech fix, it will take years, by which time it won't matter anymore except for whatever damage the Frankenbee might cause other ecosystems.

It is even possible that, if UC Merced doesn't get exactly what it wants out of federal resource agencies, "for reasons of National Security" it could begin work on something to extirpate the endangered species in the way of the historical UC mission to expand in Merced. UC Merced already has an animal lab, said to be studying human diseases at an undisclosed level of biosecurity. Meanwhile, cattle, dairy and poultry industries downwind from the Tracy biowarfare lab had better play nice with developers on the UC Board of Regents, or something could happen, because biowarfare lab security isn't always perfect.

Valley agriculture has been through disasters before. Each time, it has picked itself up and gone forward, erasing any memory of the last disaster. But, these days, the historical baseline for Valley agriculture is defined by finance, insurance and real estate, a graph without any reference to Nature. One very rarely hears from farmers or ranchers descriptions of a growing season.

However, there is another historical baseline, the ecology of the Valley, which some do remember. Those people note that every advance in the so-called "development" of the Valley in the last four or five decades has been matched by the crash of ecosystems, the endangerment and extinction of species, and the disappearance of generations of farmers who spoke in terms of seasons and of politicians who would defend agriculture.

Silent Spring is high-balling down the tracks.

Badlands editorial staff
-----------------------------

Agriculture doesn't control agriculture.

Silent Spring is coming.

Kesterson showed the way.

What an irony that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, should be This is a man whose entire political resume has been a fight against endangered species. Even his fight against the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, in the state Assembly, was a fight to irradicate an agricultural pest, not to save the most valuable, commercially exploited pollinator in the nation.

It appears, in Merced at least, that the issue is totally economic, concerning the almond crop. If the argument remains in that piddling political frame, the honey bee is history, because the almond crop occurs mainly in only three or four congressional districts out of 435 districts. Incidently, the almond industry would be history, too. The collapse of the population of the nation's major pollinator is a much larger issue than that, but how are other members of Congress going to feel about a member who has introduced three bills to weaken the Endangered Species Act for the benefit of the special interests in his district coming to them to ask them to save a species for the economic benefit of another special interest in his district?

I can't imagine a worse congressman to represent the interests of the honey bee or the almond industry dependent on it. After years of expressing the utmost contempt for habitat critical to the survival of species adapted to living in and near vernal pools, including species of bees that only live near vernal pools, how can Cardoza reinvent himself as the champion of an insect?

An early indication of the strength of the Shrimp Slayer's charge to save the Honey Bee is a section in the current Farm Bill added by the subcommittee he chairs. The section would outlaw state and local anti-genetic engineering laws and ordinances, a great boon to Monsanto and the other members of the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization. There is already a reputable line of independent scientific research that Honey Bee colony collapse is related to GMO crops. Cardoza's promotion of GMO ethanol-corn varieties and his promotion of UC Merced's biotech future all suggest he would not support research into the relationship between GMOs and the Honey Bee.

If, in fact, the most fruitful line of research is that the Honey Bee is the "canary in the waving fields of golden GMO grain," US agriculture is in big trouble. Does anyone remember in the entire FDA and USDA permitting process for GMOs any discussion about something this drastic before that seed was spread across every major agricultural area in the US and Canada?

In any event, it would take a member of Congress with a touch of heroism to suggest the possibility publicly, and that ain't Cardoza. There may not even be a pork angle for University of California and UC/Bechtel/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory because Penn State seems to be the national center for bee research. However, perhaps UC could get federal funding to genetically engineer a Frankenbee to replace the Honey Bee some day.

It may be essential that the government take draconian action, as if as has been said, this disorder is the foot-and-mouth disease of the Honey Bee. Much of these efforts involve NOT doing things that are being done, rather than doing more for example. Perhaps NOT feeding commercial bee colonies GMO corn syrup might help. Perhaps, NOT stressing colonies with trips across America to California almond orchards would help. Perhaps, if contagion is proved to be an issue, more than half the Honey Bees in the nation should NOT congregate here to pollinate almonds.

While these lines of thought might make sense scientifically and agriculturally, they don't make sense politicially or economically, at least not for the 18th congressional district. This could put Cardoza in the position of harming the almond economy of his district for the greater good -- saving a species vital to all agriculture. If, as bee scientists say to dramatize their arcane research, ever few mouthfuls of food you eat is the result of bee pollination, the Speaker should put the task in the hands of a

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

6-5-07
Bee deaths at crisis point...Our View
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/13655974p-14249127c.html
In 2005 alone, honeybees pollinated $15 billion of U.S. crops, with a third of that amount coming in California. Based on economics alone, it's essential that government get involved to help fight colony collapse disorder... Merced County is one of the largest almond-producing counties in the world, and any shortage of bees during key pollination times would be detrimental to this region's economy. It's officially a crisis — and the federal and state governments need to get involved to make sure enough money is freed up to fight the problem before it becomes a catastrophe. We're encouraged that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, is leading the charge at the congressional level to get special funding to fight colony collapse disorder. But we were discouraged to learn that Congress probably won't act on the matter until September, which wastes valuable research time. Beekeepers need help and they need it now. It's up to political leaders to get it.
-----------

SEC. 123. EFFECT OF USDA INSPECTION AND DETERMINATION OF NON-REGULATED STATUS.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no State or locality shall make any law prohibiting the use in commerce of an article that the Secretary of Agriculture has —
1 inspected and passed; or
2 determined to be of non-regulated status.

"The collapse of the Delta Estuary is really a regulatory collapse." Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

But the regulatory process doesn't collapse all by itself. Delta fish populations were declining 15 years ago. Collapses began a few years ago. Meanwhile, CALFED met to "fix the Delta." The collapses occurred while regulators dithered, environmental stakeholders groups bought into a collaborative process, water agencies sued, and Bush appointees and federal and state legislators muscled resource agencies and starved them of funds.

At the moment, while Congressman Cardoza alarms Lathrop city officials about the terrors of FEMA floodplain maps and poses in farming districts as the savior of the Honey Bee, former Congressman Pombo signs with Stockton to lobby on water issues, and witless Congressman McNerney sojourns in Livermore, Jennings brings us up to date on the slaughter in the Delta...

Much attention has been focused on the expanded salvage numbers of Delta smelt, as identified by DFG, DWR and Bureau representatives in the press. Unfortunately, they have misled the public regarding the actual numbers of smelt killed by the pumps. The real number of smelt killed by the pumps is not 448 (208 by the SWP and 240 by the CVP), but closer to 11,000 smelt killed during May. It is this number that must be compared to the handful of fish found in the Delta by DFG during the May trawls.

I became curious about agency claims after reading a 1994 article in the SacBee by Jim Meyer that quoted DFG biologist Dale Sweetman as saying, “The actual fish kill is at least 12 times the number of fish salvaged” because since “they can’t measure how many fish are killed, the pump’ operators use the number of fish saved by screens as a gauge to estimate the loss.”

I asked biologist Dan Odenweller (retired DFG chief of screening) about the actual killed versus salvaged rates. Dan pointed out that only an estimated 5% of fish are actually diverted around the first set of fish screens to the secondary channel and only about 5% of those are then diverted around the second set of screens to the salvage buckets. In other words, about 99.5% of smelt are neither “salvaged” nor counted. They continue down the DMC toward the Tehachapis. Of course, none of the “salvaged” Delta smelt survive and these numbers don’t include the larval stage of smelt (less than 20 mm) that can’t be detected. Added to the smelt that pass unrecorded through the screens, is the large number killed by predators in Clifton Court Forebay before they get to the pump inlet. The federal facility is somewhat different and doesn’t experience the same degree of predation as the SWP.

Attached is a simple model developed by Odenweller. Based on his best professional judgment, Dan estimates that CVP pumping killed approximately 2,896 smelt during May and the SWP pumping (assuming forebay predation for smelt is the same as salmon) killed 8,533, for an approximate total of 11,429. This is far different that the 448 smelt killed by pumps that we’ve seen widely quoted in the press. The bottom line is that, during May, the project pumps killed somewhere in the vicinity of 300 times the number of smelt DFG found in surveys throughout the Delta.

I’m sure everyone remembers that the CalFed ROD promised state of the art fish screens. That was before the water contractors bluntly stated that they wouldn’t pay for them.

With respect to the current surveys, the 2007 Survey #6 is finished and most of the information has been posted (as of Sunday night). This latest survey found smelt at 6 sites (115 trawls) with a total catch per unit equivalent (CPUE) of 18.28. This compares to last year’s Survey #6 that found smelt at 19 sites (121 trawls) with a total CPUE of 1,273.8. I haven’t seen the total numbers of smelt captured posted but, using the CPUE as an indicator, it’s clear that this year’s Survey #6 shows a massive drop from the corresponding survey last year. Indeed, it’s clear that DFG found far fewer smelt in this year’s Survey #6 than the paltry 25 smelt identified in the immediately preceding Survey #5. The splittail and longfin numbers also reveal a dramatic drop from last year. Striped bass look about the same.

With respect to the alleged reduction (minimized) in pumping at the federal CVP that was almost universally touted in the press, I note that export rate during the first two days in June is exactly the same as pumping throughout May (1,692 Acre Feet, 855 cfs). Farmers get their water despite adverse effects on Delta smelt; municipalities scramble to find supplies from storage. Sound familiar?

Bill Jennings, Chairman
Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
3536 Rainier Avenue
Stockton, CA 95204
p: 209-464-5067
c: 209-938-9053
f: 209-464-1028
e: deltakeep [at] aol.com

Merced SWAT
The Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team

Attn: Bill King
City of Merced Planning Division
678 W. 18th St.
Merced, CA 95340

The Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team (SWAT) is writing to comment on South Merced Specific Plan Draft EIR. We are a grassroots organization of over 2,000 Merced teachers, health professionals, business owners, parents, students, community leaders and residents working to protect the quality of life in Merced. Many of our leadership live in or near South Merced, and would be directly affected by this Plan.

Over the past year, SWAT has conducted research into air quality issues and its effect on community health. What we have found has concerned us and has raised our awareness to the impact that planning decisions can have on air quality in our community.

It is with this heightened attention and concern for proper air quality control measures that we submit the following comments on the South Merced EIR:

1) AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT STANDARDS
We would suggest that the South Merced Specific Plan include more mitigation and air pollution reduction measures that go above and beyond the basic requirements set forth by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD). Merced is the 6th most ozone polluted area in the United States according to the American Lung Association’s 2007 “State of the Air” report. We should be setting the bar for air pollution reduction efforts, not meeting the minimum requirements set out by one of the State’s least effective air districts. On April 30, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District approved an 8-hour ozone state implementation plan that moves the Valley into “extreme non-attainment,” putting us on par with Los Angeles as having the worst air quality in the U.S. and delays clean air attainment in the Valley until 2024. As our air quality public health crisis worsens, it is incumbent on local elected representatives to make responsible land use decisions that protect the health of vulnerable populations, especially children, the elderly, and low-income residents with little or no access to health insurance.

We request that you include some analysis of the potential impact of using stricter air quality standards such as those set forward by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has been very effective at moving communities towards cleaner air planning.

Additionally, the SJVAPCD has entered into a number of agreements with developers in the Bakersfield area in the South Valley, where concentrations of ozone and PM pollutants are even higher. These agreements would mitigate emissions to zero, meaning that through a combination of onsite measures and offsite pollution reduction projects, emissions associated with each development are effectively offset.

We are concerned that the proximity of new industrial development and construction projects to schools and residential areas as proposed in the South Merced Specific Plan will lead to increased respiratory illness, absenteeism from school and work, and a deterioration of family and social life. Through proactive leadership beginning at these earliest stages of planning, we can craft a vision of South Merced that creates jobs and fosters community without sacrificing the health of our children.

2) LAND USE AND SENSITIVE RECEPTORS
An ongoing concern of ours is the proximity of “sensitive receptors” as defined on page IV-A-12 of the Draft EIR to high pollution sources, both mobile and static. The South Merced will include residential areas and schools (both considered sensitive receptors) along with industrial and commercial uses. Since the Specific Plan document will be used to guide healthy planning decisions, we request that the EIR include additional information about safe and recommended distances that should be maintained between various types and sizes of land uses (including major roads) and sensitive receptors.

Additionally, we applaud SP Policies T-1.1 and T-1.2 (pg IV-A-15) for their attempt to develop alternative routes for heavy-duty vehicles to reduce localized concentrations of criteria pollutants (particularly diesel) around sensitive receptors. We hope, however, that the additional information and recommendations requested above can help decision makers approve healthier projects and adequately balance SP Policy CE-1.1 that aims to reduce the distance residents need to travel for retail and employment opportunities. In some circumstances these two policies may be at odds and require additional guidance from these planning documents.

Additionally, we find it confusing that the South Merced Specific Plan has been drafted concurrent to the Citywide General Plan Update process and without apparent coordination.

Thank you for your attention to these issues.

Sincerely,

The Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team

The north San Joaquin Valley has gained another first. No doubt, Modesto-based UC/Great Valley Center is ecstatic to see that its "smart growth" agenda has been so hugely successful. Our area is now the nation's leader in mortgage foreclosures as the San Joaquin Valley bids to surpass Los Angeles as the worst air pollution region in the nation. The north San Joaquin Valley is now a suppurating financial wound for finance, insurance and real estate special interests. Who knows how far the infection will spread?

Our region was so convulsed by greed in a speculative housing boom that the Pomboza (representatives Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced and former Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Buffalo Slayer-Tracy), backed by cash raised by Fritz Grupe, Stockton's preeminent developer and the active co-chair of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, were determined to break the back of the Endangered Species Act in order to build out on all those seasonal pastures that provide the existing residents of the Valley with their watersheds and what clean air still exists.

Who do you blame?

Let's start with who you can't quite blame. You can't blame a realtor for doing her job. You can't blame a mortgage lender for selling another subprime mortgage, and you can't blame a family for getting in on the American Dream of Home Ownership even if they can't pay for it or understand the mortgage that enables it. You cannot blame the Silicon Valley retirees for taking the advice of their financial consultants to roll over their 401Ks in the hottest real estate market in America. You'd be unwise to blame the flippers, because, hey, there was a market that encouraged flipping.

But, you can blame government that is supposed to look out for the common good, despite the cynical claim that the concept of the common good no longer exists. If the government doesn't look out for the common good, the common people are going to have to rise again, somehow, in a disciplined political movement intent on one aim: Throwing the bums out.

Government in Merced County cannot deny it was told. It cannot deny that critical, well informed, citizens spoke in public hearings on development for the last eight years, starting with UC Merced, the anchor tenant for this whole real estate feeding frenzy that has ended as a national disgrace to American financial prudence. Government, local land-use authorities, and only local land-use authorities, had the duty and the power to resist this obscene greed fest. And the governance of elected officials at the federal, state and local levels abdicated the dignity of their offices and enabled the addiction to real estate speculation that has produced this.

Local land-use authorities cannot deny that they have been presented documents filled with substantial arguments against the path they took. They cannot deny they have been sued by their own public on numerous occasions -- and sued more often successfully than not -- on these issues. Elected officials of local land-use authorities have been well and fully warned of the consequences of their decisions.

But, these warnings were delivered largely by environmentalists. Due to their psychotic hatred for environmentalists, elected officials did not listen, could not hear, other warnings. Finance, insurance and real estate special interests charged forward, enthused with their own mythology, and government rolled over, sold out and abdicated its regulatory function. A land-use authority is supposed to regulate land use. These bums opened the doors to a frenzy of speculation.

We aren't talking about a lack of wisdom here. We are talking about a lack of the most elemental common sense.

Below, find one of our more recent cautionary letters to the Merced County Board of Supervisors. Below the letter, you will find the latest report on the shameful irresponsibility of government in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties, all lying within the district of Cardoza, the rear end of the Pomboza. Now that Pombo has become a lobbyist in Cardoza's district, no one can say the Pomboza is dead. Electoral defeat has only encouraged the beast.

Reckless, wholesale destruction of natural resources, at least in the San Joaquin Valley, is a recipe for financial destruction as well. John Muir's refrain haunts the boardrooms: "All things hang together."

Badlands editorial board
----------------------

To: Opponents of the Riverside Motorsports Park
From: Central Valley Safe Environment Network
Date: Nov. 10, 2006
Re: Join us in calling for a moratorium on projects like RMP, Wal-Mart, the UC Community Plan, the UC Parkway and other growth, destructive to agriculture, communities and the environment, until Merced County has fully and legally updated its General Plan.
Calling for a moratorium on growth is a drastic step. However, we ask you to join the 16 groups that have already called for it, for the following reasons:
· Merced County has been amending its General Plan, approved before UC Merced was conceived, to make way for every project developers, County planning commissioners and the Board of Supervisors desire. Although there is an update process working now, despite a public call to halt development until the process was completed three of the largest, highest impact projects will receive county approval before a new general plan is in place – RMP, Wal-Mart, the UC Community Plan, and the UC Parkway and others.
· Meanwhile, a mile-long, 42-inch sewer trunk line heading south out of Livingston, lies buried, uninspected and unpermitted in County jurisdiction awaiting subdivisions on prime farmland to serve.
· Meanwhile, thousands of acres of seasonal pasture containing federally listed endangered species have been deep-ripped without any permits and put into orchards and vineyards to hold for future subdivisions.
· Meanwhile, cities and communities update their general plans, expand their sewers and spheres of influence without reference to a coherent county General Plan.
· Meanwhile, the Merced County Association of Governments – despite its third defeat in trying to get residents to hike their sales taxes to pay for more growth-inducing roads – goes on furiously planning more roads.
· Meanwhile, by the ceaseless political meddling of the Great Valley Center in partnership with UC Merced, there is a whole parallel state planning drive, called variously the San Joaquin Valley Partnership and/or Blueprint.
· Meanwhile, the San Joaquin Valley air basin continues to be in severe non-attainment of its quality goals and is today the worst air-polluted farming area in America.
· Meanwhile, our officials ceaselessly blabber about the “inevitability of growth.”

Special interests are in the process of creating a planning map for Merced County created out of continual overlays. The purpose is to create a GIS planning map from Hell to provide a perpetual motion machine of non-accountability for the growth of slurb.
So, why not try something new and comprehensible: Just say NO to more growth until our leaders produce a fully legally compliant county General Plan to guide future growth in Merced County?
Central Valley Safe Environment Network

Coalition Statement on Merced County Planning Process

We call for a moratorium on County General Plan amendments, variances, minor sub-divisions changes to existing projects, zoning changes, and annexations of unincorporated county land by municipal jurisdictions, MOU’s and developments with private interests and state agencies, until a new County General Plan is formulated by a fully authorized public process – and approved locally and by the appropriate state and federal agencies.
The continual process of piecemealing development through amendments, willfully ignoring the cumulative impacts to infrastructure and resources, for the benefit of a small cabal of public and private special interests, is illegal and reprehensible conduct on the by elected and appointed officials of local land-use authorities.
We also call for a permanent moratorium on indemnification of all local land-use jurisdictions by private and public-funded developers.
Indemnification is the widespread, corrupt practice in which developers agree to pay for all legal costs arising from lawsuits that may be brought against their projects approved by the land-use authority — city or county. Without having to answer to the public for the financial consequences of decisions made on behalf of special interests, local land-use authorities can be counted on to continue unimpeded their real policy: unmitigated sprawl, agricultural land and natural resource destruction, constant increases in utility rates, layering of school and transportation bonds on top of property taxes, and the steady erosion of the county’s infrastructure.

Adopted 2006

San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
Protect Our Water
Central Valley Safe Environment Network
Merced River Valley Association
Planada Association
Le Grand Association
Communities for Land, Air & Water
Planada Community Development Co.
Central Valley Food & Farmland Coalition
Merced Group of Sierra Club
Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge
VernalPools.Org
California Native Plant Society
Stevinson Citizen’s Group
San Bruno Mountain Watch
San Joaquin Valley Chapter of Community Alliance with Family Farmers

CENTRAL VALLEY SAFE ENVIRONMENT NETWORK
MISSION STATEMENT

Central Valley Safe Environment Network is a coalition of organizations and individuals throughout the San Joaquin Valley that is committed to the concept of “Eco-Justice” — the ecological defense of the natural resources and the people. To that end it is committed to the stewardship, and protection of the resources of the greater San Joaquin Valley, including air and water quality, the preservation of agricultural land, and the protection of wildlife and its habitat. In serving as a community resource and being action-oriented, CVSEN desires to continue to assure there will be a safe food chain, efficient use of natural resources and a healthy environment. CVSEN is also committed to public education regarding these various issues and it is committed to ensuring governmental compliance with federal and state law. CVSEN is composed of farmers, ranchers, city dwellers, environmentalists, ethnic, political, and religious groups, and other stakeholders.
P.O. Box 64, Merced, CA 95341

6-13-07
Modesto Bee
Foreclosures: Valley leads nation
By J.N. SBRANTI
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-dp_morning/story/13684201p-14274141c.html

We're worst in the nation. That's what home mortgage foreclosure statistics reveal for the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
The region's foreclosure rates were nearly seven times higher than the national average in May, according to data gathered by RealtyTrac.

San Joaquin County had the highest percentage of properties in default on their mortgages. Merced County was second-highest. Stanislaus County was third.

"I'm surprised at how high your foreclosure numbers are. They've really jumped," said Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac, which publishes a national database of properties facing foreclosure. "You've got an exponential increase."

That's for sure.

Just two years ago, foreclosures in the valley were virtually unheard of. Now they're a daily occurrence.

For example: In Stanislaus County during May 2005 there were just 78foreclosure filings, most of which were notices of default, which is the first step in the process. This May, those filings skyrocketed to 1,278. That's more than 16 times higher than two years ago.

Merced County foreclosure filings are a whopping 31 times higher, rising from 22 two years ago to 688 last month.

San Joaquin County filings are 18 times higher, rising from 120 to 2,157.

By comparison, nationwide foreclosure filings are 2.4 times higher than two years ago.

The vast majority of homeowners who enter the foreclosure process traditionally have been able to get out of it without losing everything. They could refinance their mortgages or sell their homes before the bank took over.

That's no longer the case. Statistics from RealtyTrac show massive jumps in the number of homes being repossessed by lenders.

"People have gotten into home mortgages that stretch them too thin," Blomquist said. "They were anticipating home values continuing to go up, so they could bail themselves out by selling or refinancing. But the market is not cooperating now."

Homeowners these days often owe more than their homes are worth, so there's no easy way to escape their mortgage burden. As a result, increasing numbers of homeowners who fall behind on payments are having their homes taken over by lenders.

Last month in Stanislaus County, 162 homes were repossessed. In May 2006, no homes were lost that way.

Lenders have taken over so many homes, in fact, that they're flooding the resale housing market with so-called distressed properties.

Forty-seven of those lender-owned homes will be put up for auction June 25 in Modesto, with starting bids as low as $89,000. That auction, by the Real Estate Disposition Corp., has many starting prices at less than half the home's previous value.

"Those auctions are an indication that lenders are more desperate to get rid of those (repossessed) homes," Blomquist said. He said buyers are getting harder to find. "A lot of investors are very gun-shy about getting into this market right now."

Homeowners are having a hard time finding any kind of buyer.

Only 774 homes have been sold in Modesto this year compared with 1,548 at the same time last year, according to the Central Valley Association of Realtors.

New home sales also have plummeted. In Stanislaus County, only 82 new houses sold this April compared with 212 in April 2006, according to the California Building Industry Association.

And home values continue to fall.

The Realtors association reports that the median-priced Modesto home sold for $325,000. That's $18,000 less than at this time last year.

In Stanislaus County, new homes in April sold for a base price of $429,990, which was $16,000 less than last year, the building association reported.

Another sign of the real estate market's troubles is the rising rate of delinquent property taxes.

In Stanislaus County, nearly 7.7 percent of landowners have yet to pay their 2006-2007 property taxes, which were due in April. Tax Collector Gordon Ford said that delinquency rate is on track to set a record.

Many of the region's real estate woes are expected to be discussed today at the Valley Real Estate & Economics Conference at the DoubleTree Hotel in Modesto.

That conference will include sessions on what's ahead for the region's real estate market and investment opportunities. The event starts at 7:30 a.m.; tickets are $50 at the door.

staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.