Badlands Journal

“In the end,” says Davidson, who spent a month in Germany studying the Energiewende, “it isn’t about making money. It’s about quality of life.” -- Thomas Hedges, Truthdig, Nov. 15, 2012

9-26-12
Inland Valley News
CA Governor Brown Signs Human Right to Water
http://www.inlandvalleynews.com/2012/09/26/ca-governor-brown-signs-human-right-to-water/

Sacramento, CA–The basic human right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water became part of state policy today when Governor Brown signed AB 685.

A.B. 685 directs relevant state agencies to advance the implementation of this policy when those agencies make administrative decisions pertinent to the use of water for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.

“Safe, affordable water is a basic essential of survival. We applaud the Legislature and the Governor for recognizing this and taking the bold action to cement it into law,” said Alecia Sanchez of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), a member of the Safe Water Alliance that has worked on this issue.

For years, grassroots activists, community leaders, faith-based groups, and dedicated environmental justice, public health and environmental organizations, drawn together by a shared commitment to improve access to safe drinking water in our poorest communities, have been advocating at the local, regional, and state level, combating powerful, entrenched interests determined not to change the status quo in California water policy.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/if-you-thought-nafta-was-bad-you-aint-seen-nothing-yet/#more-20955

Although no one in the media seems to be talking about it, a meeting is taking place in Virginia that could cement the same economic interests that lead us to the 2007 crisis. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) being negotiated by 13 countries would lead to increased gas exports and increased imported foods, while undermining our domestic laws and increasing the financialization of nature.

Immediately on finishing, in fact while still reading this appendix to the first part of Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics, we couldn’t help thinking of the many fine religious people, especially political leaders and decision-makers, who ‘paved paradise and put up a parking lot,’ often  in the name of the same god who had so guided man’s wisdom that he had created the greatest tool in history: an eternally rising real estate market.

11-06-11
Modesto Bee
DA says Andersen knew of asbestos risk in Merced school
By Victor A. Patton
http://www.modbee.com/2011/11/06/1935528/merced-county-andersen-knew-of.html

MERCED -- Merced County's former education chief broke state law by knowing that high school students were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos, but waiting more than a year to notify law enforcement.

Those accusations have been lobbed against former Merced County Office of Education Superintendent Lee Andersen after an investigation by the Stanislaus County district attorney's office. Prosecutors say that Andersen would have been charged with a misdemeanor had the one-year statute of limitations not run out.

Andersen, in a letter to the Merced Sun-Star, insists he acted quickly to look into the asbestos exposure. He told a grand jury that he wasn't obliged to report it "because it was in the past." He asked the people of Merced to keep an open mind in reading the report.

7-16-11

Merced Sun-Star

High-speed rail: Ag worries over project voiced

Elected officials and growers discuss effects on farmland… AMEERA BUTT

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/07/16/v-print/1971373/high-speed-rail-ag-worries-over.html

Farmers in Merced County voiced their concerns about the impact of high-speed rail on ag land at a joint hearing organized by state senators Friday afternoon.

Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, and Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, who leads the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, held a joint hearing, "From Food to Rail: High-Speed Rail Impacts on Agriculture" on Friday.

Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, also attended.

The event weighed the effects on ag land by the proposed railway, intended to carry passengers between San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles by way of the San Joaquin Valley at speeds of up to 220 mph.

Cannella said the event provided a chance for politicians to hear from the agricultural community, a major part of California's economy. It generates more than $30 billion a year in revenue.

Site 1B -- Riverside Motorsports Park (formerly Pacific ComTech Park and Morimoto Industrial Park:)

This property was foreclosed upon and subsequently purchased at public auction on November 12, 2009 by Castle Farms, Inc.---Merced County Board of Supervisors Agenda Item 52, December 14, 2010.

And so ... John Condren, CEO of Riverside Motorsports Park, bought Pacific ComTech Park when Morimoto went bankrupt in 2005, and now Castle Farms, Inc., which plans to develop a large property between the former Air Force base and Merced, has bought the property at public auction.

Castle Farms, Inc., a 2,600 planned community destined for annexation into the City of Merced went through its own approval process with the city about a year before RMP requested that the county Airport Land Use Commission override the noise/safety zone for Castle airport. Without the override, the race track could not be built. Coincidentally, Castle Farms, Inc. stood to gain the ability to develop several hundred acres of its land blocked by the existing Castle airport noise/safety zone.

The California High Speed Rail Authority held a technical advisory council meeting on Monday, Dec. 7, at a public meeting hall called the Sam Pipes Room, in the Merced City Hall. Two members of the Merced public, representing the San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center and Protect Our Water (POW), wished to attend. The regional director of the San Joaquin Valley unit of the rail authority had told the members of the public that a meeting would take place on Monday at a different location. The members of the public wrote to the regional director twice last week inquiring if they would be permitted to attend the meeting and asked her by phone. She replied that she had received the request and would talk to rail authority legal counsel. The members of the public requested that if they were not permitted to attend, that rail authority counsel provide written legal justification, considering that the authority was consulting with special interests like water districts, the farm bureau, insurance companies, etc. Not hearing back from the regional director at the end of last week or Monday morning, the members of the public called the rail authority headquarters in Sacramento and were informed of the time and different location of the meeting and that there should be no problem with public attendance of the meeting.

The price of dirt – Part 4, the Williamson Act.

To give readers a larger view of relations between Merced County and the state’s Agriculture Preserve and Williamson Act laws, we offer a case study from a 2005 paper by UC Davis researcher, Christoper Butcher, since 2007 an associate in the prestigious Sacramento law first of Remy Thomas Moose & Manley. It serves as a preface for Part 4 of “The Price of dirt.” We will say in advance, that we think it is highly unlikely that anyone taking part in the budget hearing on the Williamson Act in Merced County this year has ever read this paper, and its concluding case study on how Merced County essentially corrupted the entire purpose of the Act and the underlying law concerning the Agricultural Preserve.

MERCED, CA (June 20, 2008) --Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Humphreys signed this week the judgment for the lawsuit between San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, Protect Our Water, Citizens for the Protection of Merced County Resources (petitioners), against the County of Merced and real party of interest Riverside Motorsports Park (respondents).

Judge Humphreys ordered in favor of petitioners that the following approvals of the Merced County Board of Supervisors on the RMP project be voided and vacated:

Resolution No. 2006-219;
Ordinance No. 1800;
Zone Change No. 03-007;
General Plan Amendment No. 03-005
Removal of project site from the Williamson Act Agricultural Preserve;
Amendment to the Merced County General Plan to redesignate the project site from "Agricultural" to "Castle Specific Urban Development Plan Industrial";
Rezone of the project from "A-1" and "A-2" to "Planned Development";
Approval of the project master plan;
Text Amendment to Merced County General Plan to modify policies in the Circulation Chapter that would exempt the project from traffic Level of Service standards for feature and major events.

The Court also ordered the County of Merced to refrain from further approvals on this project until the County and RMP undertakes further environmental review "to correct the deficiencies in the EIR and as otherwise required under the California Environmental Quality Act."

"We have nothing but the highest praise for our legal team," said San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center President Lydia Miller. "Gregory Maxim, Julie Garcia, Marsha Burch and their law firms, Sproul Trost LLP of Roseville and the Law Offices of Don B. Mooney in Davis."

"This judgment is a tremendous victory for the citizens of Merced County," said Gregory Maxim. "This lawsuit was brought for the purpose of ensuring that the citizens were provided with a full and fair opportunity to review and comment on all project impacts. This judgment, and the voiding of nine of the project's prior approvals, will provide the citizens with this opportunity."

"We are overjoyed at this positive outcome for the Raptor Center and Protect Our Water," Miller continued. "But we were particularly pleased with the strong support we received throughout the process of this lawsuit from the Citizens for the Protection of Merced County Resources, led by Suzy Hultgren, Paul van Warmerdam and Stacey Machado."

For further information contact:

Lydia Miller GREGORY L. MAXIM
San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center Attorney at Law
Protect Our Water Sproul Trost LLP
(209) 723-9283, ph. (916) 783-6262 tel

Citizens for the Protection of Merced County Resources

Suzy Hultgren-(209) 358-2339 ph, (cell) 209-769-8583
Paul van Wamerdam- (209) 678-2251 ph,(cell) 209-678-2251
Stacey Machado-(209) 564-8361 ph,