County unveils lush Hilmar vision

2-1-08
Merced Sun-Star
County unveils lush Hilmar vision
If bypass project happens, downtown region along Highway 165 will get a makeover...CORINNE REILLY
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/130380.html
This community's most famous corporate citizen, Hilmar Cheese Co., was started in 1984 by a dozen dairy farmers seeking to raise the value of their Jersey cows' milk...
And although the next two decades will bring plenty of change to the small but fast-growing community, the town of 5,000 will stick to its agricultural roots.
That's the drift of a draft plan recently released by Merced County, meant to guide Hilmar's growth through 2025.
Besides setting an overall vision for Hilmar's future, the 120-page plan discusses specifics ranging from housing and economic growth to water supply, schools, public safety, what land to develop and what land to preserve.
County officials have been working since 2003 to develop the blueprint, relying heavily on input from residents and business owners in the northern Merced County community.
"This truly is the community's plan," said Supervisor Deidre Kelsey, who represents Hilmar. "They want to stay small and they want to stay unique, and I think this plan really reflects that. ... Now all we have to do is make it a reality."
In general terms, the plan calls for preserving Hilmar's agriculture-based economy, as well as its small-town atmosphere. It says Hilmar should work to become a pedestrian-friendly community with more schools, more parks, more shopping, a vibrant downtown, better roads and a wider variety of housing options...
Longtime Hilmar resident David Anderson, who also sits on Hilmar's municipal advisory council, said he's satisfied with the plan. "I think there might be some individuals who think it's too big or too small, or they might be upset their property was or wasn't included, but on the whole, I think what we have now will serve the needs of the community," Anderson said. "No one is ever perfect in these kinds of endeavors, but there really was an attempt to be thorough and thoughtful."
Kelsey agreed, saying the plan strikes the right balance between progress and preservation. "It respects the ag that's out there and the existing dairies, but it gives the people of Hilmar the amenities they're saying they need."
Finding the means to build the Highway 165 bypass and improving storm water drainage are the biggest challenges Hilmar will face in the coming decades, Kelsey said.
The county last adopted a community plan for Hilmar in 1982, though it was only about 10 pages long. "It's woefully inadequate," King said. "The new plan is long overdue."
To read Hilmar's draft community plan and its environmental reviews in their entirety, go to http://www.co.merced.ca.us/planning/hilmarplan.html, or contact the Merced County Planning Department.
Loose Lips: Does Merced really need Mal-Wart?
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/130387.html
Is the world's largest retailer so busy slashing prices that it doesn't have time to hire copy editors?
Loose Lips has learned that Wal-Mart's shiny new Web site (www.mercedcan.com) that backs up plans to build a distribution center here has a couple of full-price typos on it.
The site talks a bunch about how much Wal-Mart cares about little Merced, listing all the local organizations that have received charitable donations from Wal-Mart.
But in the section that asks citizens to rise up and make their voices heard about the distribution center, we saw signs that Wal-Mart may not know Merced as well as we would hope.
But in the section that asks citizens to rise up and make their voices heard about the distribution center, we saw signs that Wal-Mart may not know Merced as well as we would hope.
The site tells supporters: "You can communicate the benefits of a Wal-Mart Distribution Center to thousands of your Ceres neighbors and friends by writing a letter to the editor to one of your area newspapers." Ceres? Whaa? We thought the distribution center was going to save the economy of Merced, not some Modesto-in-training up Highway 99.
Meanwhile, over on the page that asks people to pitch the distribution center to local leaders, Wal-Mart misspelled the names of two council members...
In the interest of full disclosure, Lips must confess that mercedcan.com links to a story on the Sun-Star's Web site. Luckily, Wal-Mart didn't mess that one up. We like all the Internet traffic we can get.
But that's not all! The epidemic of careless editing goes on. This week the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce boldly declared its support of the proposed distribution center. Unfortunately, the last line of the e-mail announcement reads, "The Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce Board and its members consider it a privilege to fully support the constriction of the proposed Wal-Mart Distribution Center." Constriction? Does the Chamber want to see Wal-Mart succeed or do they want to encircle it with snakes and squeeze the air out of it?
Super June Day preview
Loose Lips can't wait for Super Tuesday. But we know how to multi-task, which is why we're also keeping a laser-like focus on the June race for the Merced County Board of Supervisors.
Last month, we raised the curtain on this race when we told you who had pulled candidacy papers for the three open seats...
John Pedrozo... Kathleen Crookham... Hub Walsh...
Meanwhile in District 4, incumbent Deidre Kelsey has a more pressing question on her mind: who is mystery woman Claudine Sherron, who pulled candidacy papers for a possible face-off against Kelsey? Kelsey told Lips she's not familiar with Sherron and doesn't know whether Sherron will actually end up becoming an official candidate. But she's feeling friendly at this early stage. "I don't know if she'll file, but more power to her if she does," said Kelsey. "There's always room in the political sandbox."
Modesto Bee
Snow's water content looking good
Figures for Sierra are higher than average...INGA MILLER
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/198365.html
Surveyors are trudging through the mountains to find out just how much snow there is, at least at spots they can get to...
The information that has come in looks good, said Elissa Lynn, senior meteorologist for the state Department of Water Resources.
Early estimates suggest that the water content of snowfall in the central Sierra is 103 percent of normal. That's the watershed for the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers. The southern Sierra, which is the source of the San Joaquin River, is estimated at 124 percent of normal. The statewide average is 113 percent.
"That is very good news because last month we were at 60 percent of average (for the state)" Lynn said. "And last year at this point, we were at 40 percent of average, so this is great."...
"But it has got to keep coming," Lynn said. "There are still some drought conditions in the central and southern parts of the state, and that isn't going to be eliminated yet. For that to happen, we still have to get all the way through the season at or above average.
"At this point, we're not making drought conditions any worse, but we have to see where the rest of the season goes. We still have a few months."
Denham combats recall as others fill war chests
Republican made a target for stance toward budget...ADAM ASHTON
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/198184.html
State Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced is stashing cash to deflect a recall campaign while other lawmakers from the Northern San Joaquin Valley build foundations for their November election bids.
Denham raised $250,200 in the second half of 2007. He brought in $461,874 for the year, spending $197,329 to defend himself against the recall, according to records disclosed Thursday by the secretary of state.
The state Democratic Party and a separate campaign committee are spending cash to unseat Denham in June. The recall campaign has until Feb. 13 to gather signatures to put their effort on the ballot...
Denham received more than 300 contributions from individuals and businesses around the state, many of them in $100 checks. He raised $297,000 in nine major contributions from tribal, law enforcement, dental and horse racing interests.
Dana Ferreira, a campaign spokeswoman for Denham, said voters in the district oppose the recall...
Feds protect 10,000 acres endangered fish's coastal habitat...last updated: January 31, 2008 03:13:25 PM
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/197609.html
Federal wildlife regulators are protecting 10,000 acres of coastal land to help restore populations of an endangered burrowing fish.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is designating the land as "critical habitat" for the tidewater goby, a small, grey-brown fish that lives in brackish waters along the California coast.
The new protections will restrict the use and development of marshlands in 12 counties from Los Angeles to the Oregon border.
The tidewater goby was listed as an endangered species in 1994, but the government did not start to protect its habitat until 2000 after environmentalists sued...
Peripheral canal would improve San Joaquin environment...GERALD H. MERAL
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/198189.html
A peripheral canal would transport water from the Sacramento River around the eastern end of the delta to the state and federal water pumps near Tracy. Construction of the canal would solve many major problems and would be good for Modesto...
Today, water entering the delta from the San Joaquin River is diverted from its route to the ocean, and heads directly to the export pumps... In that water are juvenile salmon trying to get to the ocean... Most don't make it; they are pumped down to Southern California or are eaten by predators lurking in front of the pumps.
The young salmon also lack rearing habitat in the south delta because all the wetlands are farmed. These farms pump water and young salmon from the channels without screening the water they divert...
With a peripheral canal, Sacramento River water would be diverted near Sacramento. The water in the San Joaquin River would resume its natural course to the sea. Funding associated with the canal would allow the creation of new habitat in the south delta for the rearing of young salmon, helping their recovery.
Environmental quality in the delta would actually improve with the canal. In late summer, after the irrigation season, salt water would be allowed to enter delta channels, as it did in previous centuries. This will repress harmful invasive species.
Rock dams placed in the delta to reduce the harmful effects of the pumps will no longer be necessary, improving boating access.
Improved flows in the San Joaquin River to restore fisheries will become possible. This will also help reduce the poor water quality conditions at Stockton.
No roads or waterways will be disrupted by the canal. Either bridges will be built or the canal will be siphoned under waterways such as the San Joaquin River.
If we really want to save the delta, we must stop farming on peat soils. These soils are oxidizing, compacting and blowing away; some islands are now more than 25 feet below sea level. It is no longer possible to prevent flooding of these islands, which will occur because of major storms, earthquakes or sea-level rise. We must start growing wetlands on these islands to restore their elevation, or they will be lost forever.
Building of new homes dries up...J.N. SBRANTI
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/198169.html
New home construction has plummeted dramatically the past two years throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Single-family home starts plunged 73 percent in Stanislaus County, 80 percent in Merced County and 64 percent in San Joaquin County.
About 14,000 homes were built in 2005 in the region, but only about 4,000 were built in 2007, according to statistics released this week.
"It's terrible out there," Pam Franco, president of the Building Industry Association of Central California, said Wednesday. "We've known the (2007) totals were going to be brutal, and we absolutely feel it."
During De- cember, for ex- ample, only 16 new home building permits were issued in Mer- ced County. Compare that with 317 permits issued in December 2005.
"There's a lot of housing inventory left in Merced County from foreclosures and from new homes (that were built for) buyers who bailed out because they couldn't get loans," said Franco, who co-owns the Heirloom Collection development in Atwater. "It's horrible to get a loan right now, even for people who have good credit."...
"A lot of different industries are suffering right now because of this housing downturn," said Franco, citing slow sales for cars, window treatments, home improvement supplies and even at restaurants. "Incredible amounts of people are out of work now."...
The California Building Industry Association said single-family home construction in 2007 fell to its lowest level in 25 years. Since the 2005 peak, the number of new California homes built has fallen 56 percent, to less than 68,000...
Construction spending plummeted in 2007...JEANNINE AVERSA , AP
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/198318.html
WASHINGTON — Construction spending fell by a record 2.6 percent in 2007 - mostly reflecting record cutbacks in home-building projects by private companies.
Private companies last year slashed residential projects by 18.3 percent, the largest drop on records dating back to 1993, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Such spending was flat in 2006 and was up by 13.5 percent in 2005.
The new figures were the latest evidence of the damage wrought by the housing bust...
The housing bust has led to sagging sales and weak home prices. Harder-to-get credit has thwarted some would-be home buyers, adding to a pileup of unsold homes. Builders have cut back on new building projects as they try to get rid of the backlog. They also have sweetened the pot, offering various incentives to lure buyers...
Low prices let nonprofits put needy in homes...J.N. SBRANTI
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/198201.html
There's a silver lining to the current real estate crisis: Plummeting prices are creating buying opportunities for nonprofit groups that help low-income and disabled people find homes.
Houses and apartment complexes are cheaper to buy, and so are construction materials. Building contractors are eager to offer competitive bids, and landlords are more willing to rent to those with special needs, according to several Modesto housing-assistance groups.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to make a difference in this arena," said Anita Hellam, executive director of Habitat for Humanity for Stanislaus County. Her organization is busy buying foreclosed and bargain-priced homes, which it will help new owners renovate.
"We're looking for houses in need of rehabilitating that we can buy for way below market rate," said Hellam, noting that five south Modesto homes already have been purchased for about $70,000 each. "We're in escrow on additional properties that banks have repossessed."...
Florida targets Countrywide
Subpoena seeks information about lender's loan procedures...DAVID FISCHER, AP
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/198193.html
Florida's attorney general is investigating Countrywide Financial Corp., a beleaguered California-based mortgage lender, for possible unfair and deceptive business practices related to its home loans.
The subpoena, dated Jan. 17, directs Countrywide to provide documents and other information describing procedures used to determine whether borrowers qualify for subprime loans, those for people with shaky credit.
The state also wants information on how Countrywide credited borrowers' payments anytime after January 2005. It also asks for documents that track applications of borrowers' payments to bankruptcy debt and a description of fees charged to mortgage holders during the same period...
Attorneys general in Illinois and California are conducting similar investigations...
Countrywide, like many in the mortgage industry, has suffered under the weight of the subprime fallout as thousands of customers default on home loans. Many experts criticize companies such as Countrywide for relaxing lending standards and contributing to the meltdown...
Fresno Bee
Welty is topic in Mehas hearing
Florez wants CSU trustee to scrutinize Fresno State leader...E.J. Schultz / Bee Capitol Bureau
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/362289.html
Pressing his case against Fresno State President John Welty, state Sen. Dean Florez on Wednesday threatened to seek the ouster of two CSU trustees unless they committed to giving Welty more scrutiny.
Welty, who has come under fire for his handling of three recent sexual discrimination lawsuits against the university, was a major topic of discussion in Wednesday's confirmation hearing for California State University trustees Pete Mehas of Fresno and Roberta Achtenberg of San Francisco.
Both trustees cleared their first hurdle with a unanimous vote by the Senate Rules Committee -- but not before lawmakers pressured them to move up the date for Welty's performance review.
Welty is scheduled for his three-year evaluation in September...
A date has not been set for the full Senate vote.
Mehas and Achtenberg said "mistakes were made" in the university's handling of the cases, which could cost CSU millions of dollars. But both trustees held firm against moving up Welty's review...
Fresno State could be on the hook for about $27 million in damages from three recent discrimination cases, about 10 times as much as the entire 23-campus system has paid out in similar cases in the past five years...
Bill Maze: Fresno State is a university, not a sports franchise...Bill Maze represents the 34th District
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/365211.html
Fresno State provides the main and -- for many -- only access to a university degree for tens of thousands of Fresno County residents. Like students across the nation, our students struggle with mounting debt and a rising cost of living while trying to get their degrees.
The leadership at our California State University, Fresno, seems determined to chase good money after bad. The latest proposal is to charge higher fees to all Fresno State students in order to shore up the school's deeply troubled athletics program.
This is a bad idea for myriad reasons. One obvious objection is that student fees throughout the CSU system are soaring. The average CSU student has seen fees rise by 94% in just six years, and in this terrible state budget year, systemwide CSU fees are likely to rise again. We have no idea how many students will give up on a college education simply because it's getting too expensive...
In a year when we face at least a $14.5 billion budget deficit in Sacramento, it is preposterous to think that the leadership of Fresno State would consider a proposal to increase student fees to augment athletics instead of education.
Someone needs to remind the president of the university, Dr. John Welty, that Fresno State is an academic institution. Raising the fees on students to augment the budget of an athletic program replete with legal and financial trouble is unacceptable.
In 2007 alone, lawsuits and judgments against the athletic department for gender discrimination cost the school $27 million. Three separate juries found that the university, and the athletic department in particular, fostered an atmosphere that was hostile to women. This fact seems even more absurd when you realize that the only NCAA National Championship for Fresno State was won by the 1998 Lady Bulldogs softball team.
This is not the first time Fresno State has put athletics ahead of academics. An NCAA investigation uncovered that at least $773,000 in matching donations from businesses was misdirected by administrators from academics to athletics against the wishes of the donors.
The California State University, with its 23 campuses, well over 400,000 students and millions of alumni is widely considered a jewel in our state's economy...
The whole CSU needs funding to see students through to college degrees, but this plan to tax students more to finance a dysfunctional sports program that has brought a cloud on our state university should be dropped.
We can't tax students already struggling to get bachelor's degrees in an era of soaring costs and expensive loans to support what amounts to an extracurricular activity.
Yes, sports are worthwhile, but not at the expense of access to the university for the benefit of all students.
Consumer advocates seek hearings on BofA plan to buy Countrywide...ALEX VEIGA
http://www.fresnobee.com/state_wire/business/story/366806.html
Consumer groups in four states asked congressional banking and finance committees on Friday to conduct hearings on Bank of America Corp.'s proposed $4.1 billion buyout of struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
The groups sent letters requesting that lawmakers investigate the possible impact of the buyout on Countrywide borrowers.
They also want lawmakers to press the companies to explain how borrowers having trouble making mortgage payments and those at risk of falling behind when adjustable rates reset can keep their homes.
Consumer groups from California, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina signed off on the letters sent to the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee...
Earlier this month, Countrywide said it helped more than 81,000 borrowers keep mortgage payments manageable in 2007 as part of a stepped-up campaign to stem growing defaults and foreclosures.
The Calabasas, Calif.-based company, which was servicing more than 9 million loans as of Dec. 31, said it worked with borrowers to modify loan terms, work out long-term repayment plans or take other actions.
That's not enough, the consumer groups argued, calling for Countrywide borrowers at risk of foreclosure to receive affordable, fixed-rate loans...
Stockton Record
Some Delta farmers may face hefty fines
State targets those who didn't join coalitions under waiver program...Alex Breitler
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/A_NEWS/802010313/-1/A_NEWS
The jig may soon be up for some Delta farmers who will be forced to monitor and report on pollution that spills from their fields into waterways.
State water cops over the next few years plan to order those landowners to file reports on their farms and runoff - orders which, if ignored, could lead to fines of up to $1,000 per day, according to documents from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Most farmers avoided this scenario by joining coalitions under the state's controversial "ag waiver" program, which started in 2003.
The program - currently being challenged in court by environmentalists - allows coalitions to keep tabs on water quality in select locations. Farmers in San Joaquin County pay $1.75 per acre for these services, which is far cheaper than the thousands of dollars it would cost to do it themselves.
Environmentalists argue the waiver lets farmers off the hook for their share of pollution problems that plague the Delta and other waterways. Now, farmers who declined to join coalitions will be held accountable.
A memo from the water board says that those who don't respond to the written orders will face "rapid" follow-up through property inspections, violations and citations...
In public comments before state water officials last week, the contractors said that tests from May 2004 through October 2006 found pesticides exceeding water quality triggers at 57 percent of the locations sampled, some of them in the Delta.
Bovine tuberculosis detected at Fresno County dairy (12:30 p.m.)...AP
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/A_NEWS/80201008
FRESNO (AP) -- California agricultural officials say a herd of cows in Fresno County is sick with bovine tuberculosis.
The chronic disease doesn't threaten the quality or safety of milk and meat produced in the state because most milk is pasteurized, and raw milk is regularly tested for TB. Cattle processed for meat are routinely inspected for TB, too.
The dairy farmer tested for the rare disease after he saw suspicious lesions on a cow being inspected for slaughter.
He's now working with state and federal animal health officials to eradicate the disease from the herd. Bovine TB was last found in California in 2003.
Cardoza tapped for DCCC slot...Hank Shaw's blog...1-30-08
http://blogs.recordnet.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?nav=main&webtag=sr-hshaw&entry=512
Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, has been chosen as a leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Frontline" campaign, which focuses the party's buck-raking and organization efforts in 29 key races across the country.
"Congressman Cardoza is a great addition to our outstanding Frontline leadership team of Congresswoman (Debbie) Wasserman Schultz and Congressman (Rahm) Emanuel. He is a well-respected leader within the Blue Dog Coalition and will be able to bring their expertise on fiscal issues and rural districts to our campaigns across the country. No one knows better than Congressman Cardoza how to win in tough districts." said DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen.
Yep, Cardo's neighbor Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, is in that list, as is Charlie Brown in retiring Rep. John Doolittle's 4th District.
Tracy Press
Man-made water woes?
A study co-authored by a Livermore Lab scientist says water losses in several Western states can be attributed partially to human activity...Bob Brownne...1-31-08
http://tracypress.com/content/view/13360/2242/
A new study from researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that the human contribution to global warming has already reduced the water supply in the western U.S.
The lab announced the release of the study Thursday. The report, posted by the online journal "Science Xpress," states that as much as 60 percent of the changes to the Sierra snowpack, river flow and wintertime temperatures in the past 50 years can be attributed to human activity that creates greenhouse gases.
Authors of the study include the lab’s Benjamin Santer and Tim Barnett of Scripps. One of their conclusions is that the state needs to build more effective flood control systems for its dams and rivers.
Researchers said the effect on the Sierra snowpack would cause more flooding in late winter and early spring seasons. The possibility also exists that mountain streams fed by melting snow could dry up by late spring and early summer.
Stop the developers’ water boys
A slow-growth proponent rails against what he sees as the City Council's favoritism toward mega-developments Tracy Hills and Ellis...Mark Connolly, Tracy Region Alliance for a Quality Community
http://tracypress.com/content/view/13368/2244/
You would have hoped Tracy Mayor Brent Ives and City Councilwomen Evelyn Tolbert and Suzanne Tucker would stop being water boys for their pet mega-developments Tracy Hills and Ellis after they were forced by court order to repeal their illegal attempt to circumvent Measure A, the city’s growth law. That was after voters rejected both projects by defeating Measures U and V. But they are again carrying the developers’ water.
To get Tracy Hills (5,500 homes) and Ellis (4,700 homes) forever protected from the voters and future councils with developer agreements, Ives, Tolbert and Tucker must get past the San Joaquin County Local Agency Formation Commission, an agency established by state law to regulate growth boundaries and municipal services planning.
LAFCo has told the city to prioritize growth and contract its sphere of influence, the area where Tracy will provide services. The city must prioritize where it plans to grow, which is what the council refused to do when it approved the city’s general plan in 2006. Ives, Tolbert and Tucker approved a sprawling plan with a vast 50-year surplus of residential area far beyond Measure A’s limits...
We need to do some simple math. LAFCo is requiring a 10-year growth map that forces the priority issue front and center. Measure A limits the number of residential permits to 3,542 for 10 years. Tracy Hills and Ellis combined want 10,200. Tracy Hills wants 5,500, and Ellis wants 4,700. The Bow Tie, downtown and other infill projects, not counting contiguous areas, need 2,559. All planning consultants have said the Bow Tie must receive all needed home permits to be successful...
The city’s proposal presented in January and to be considered Tuesday by the council will shift most of the permits that should go to the Bow Tie and infill/contiguous projects to Tracy Hills and Ellis. The Bow Tie would get less than 30 percent of what it needs...
The council’s attempt to get around Measure A so they could give Tracy Hills and Ellis special deals was ruled illegal. Now they hope to quietly adopt a plan that financially dooms Bow Tie and infill/contiguous projects to death by continued starvation.
None of the excuses will hold water, any more than will Ives’, Tolbert’s and Tucker’s false expressions of support for Measure A. These excuses will be used as political cover.
It is ironic that Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, whose initials adorn the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts’ main theater, is pushing this proposed plan to salvage the Tracy Hills/AKT Development Co./ETK project that will doom the downtown, Bow Tie and Grand Theatre redevelopment plan...
Ives, Tucker and Tolbert need to quit carrying water for Tracy Hills/AKT/ETK and Ellis. Carry Tracy’s water for a change. Otherwise, in 20 years, Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis’ limousine may drive through our decaying downtown past the contaminated and vacant Bow Tie area to the ETK Theater to spend a few dollars of the millions made from the Tracy Hills project that sucked the resources from the downtown and Bow Tie.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz moves to suspend student named in tree-sit case...J.M. BROWN
http://santacruzsentinel.com/story.php?storySection=Local&sid=65388
A UC Santa Cruz official has recommended suspending for two months an 18-year-old student accused by the university of supporting a tree-sit demonstration that opposes campus growth plans -- sanctions the student's attorney calls "excessive."
Cruz A. Molina, a Sierra Madre resident who is named in a lawsuit filed against the protest, is appealing the suspension and a university official's ruling that he remain off campus until March 20 under the threat of arrest. Disciplinary measures handed down by Doug Zuidema, the director of student judicial affairs, also recommend Molina serve 100 hours of community service and attend a "decision-making" workshop.
Molina's attorney, John P. Hannon II of Capitola, argues the university has violated Molina's free speech and due process protections by selectively targeting him and other tree-sit supporters, including a tenured professor. Hannon has asked Zuidema to reverse punishments recommended in a letter to Molina two weeks ago detailing findings of a student judicial investigation.
The suspension is the latest in the university's attempts to turn up the heat on the nearly three-month-long protest on Science Hill...
San Luis Obispo.com
Shopping Development Outside San Luis Obispo
Court nullifies Dalidio initiative of ’06
Judge says Measure J ‘is not a proper subject for an initiative’ and conflicts with state law; plaintiffs are elated, but property owner has little comment...Bob Cuddy
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/263713.html
A Superior Court judge has invalidated Measure J, the contentious ballot initiative approved by voters county-wide in November 2006 that would have led to a shopping center complex on the Dalidio Ranch southwest of San Luis Obispo.
In his ruling vacating the ballot measure, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Roger Picquet wrote: “Measure J is not a proper subject for an initiative.”
The county is “hereby restrained from taking action to implement Measure J or to process any applications to implement” it, he wrote.
Measure J was an attempt by rancher-developer Ernie Dalidio and his supporters to get public support to develop his 131 acres of farmland west of Highway 101 and south of Madonna Road. County voters approved it Nov. 7, 2006, with 65 percent of the vote...
Two local activist groups challenged the initiative in a lawsuit, arguing in a 27-page petition that Measure J conflicts with the county’s land-use laws and state law, and that it exceeds the limits of what citizens can do through an initiative. Picquet heard arguments in the case Nov. 2.
The County Counsel’s Office was not available for comment. The county was the defendant in the lawsuit and could appeal the ruling.
Legal issues in his decision were, according to Picquet, “complex and cover almost the entire spectrum of law with regard to land use and zoning matters in the state.”
“The ability of the people of San Luis Obispo County to use the initiative to enact legislation is an extremely important constitutional right,” Picquet wrote. “Nonetheless, it is not unlimited.”
His decision said Measure J is not within the purview of a local initiative mainly because it conflicts with state law, specifically the State Aeronautics Act. That law requires local airport land-use commissions to establish plans for safety around airfields.
Measure J, he noted, lumps “policy, land use, construction types and conditions of approval … all in a single integrated document.”
Measure J had created a unique zone for the Dalidio project...
The Dalidio zone, unlike the others, didn’t merely specify what could be built on the land and under what circumstances; it specified what will be built.
The decision also was significant for what it did not address —specifically, building and financing an overpass from Prado Road over Highway 101 to Dalidio Drive.
Under Measure J, Dalidio agreed to pay $4 million and donate land worth $4 million. But estimates for an overpass, should one be built, run as high as $60 million. ..
Read Judge Picquet's ruling (PDF document)...1-31-08
http://media.sanluisobispo.com/smedia/2008/01/31/19/MeasureJDecision.source.prod_affiliate.76.pdf
Case No.: CV 070164
Wal-Mart scales down store proposal in Atascadero
New plan cuts nearly 25 percent off previous one so that it meets the city’s General Plan rules...Stephen Curran
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/263712.html
Wal-Mart plans to submit a scaled-down proposal today for a combination department and grocery store in Atascadero, a company spokesman told The Tribune.
Progress on the controversial store stalled after the City Council’s Oct. 29 decision to shelve applications by Wal- Mart and developer The Rottman Group for a 195,000- square-foot store and an adjacent shopping center at El Camino Real and Del Rio Road
At 146,507 square feet, the newest plan is nearly 25 percent smaller than the company’s previous proposal...
Debate over the proposed Wal-Mart has raged for more than two years, pitting supporters who say it will bring much-needed sales tax revenue against opponents who say such a large store will devastate independently owned businesses...
The council’s 4-1 vote derailed a legally mandated environmental and economic analysis of the proposed store and shopping center, which together form a project the companies have named The Annex. Should the council allow the new application to proceed, those studies would still be required.
The City Council, however, must still decide whether to rezone a portion of the land on which the store would sit.
Los Angeles Times
Water troubles in the West may worsen
A study finds that man-made global warming has been steadily reducing snowpack along mountain ranges. States must make plans now to adapt, scientists say...Alan Zarembo
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-sci-water1feb01,1,3341424,print.story
Human-caused global warming has been shrinking the snowpack across the mountain ranges of the West for five decades, suggesting that the region's long battle for water will only get worse, according to a computer analysis released Thursday...
As temperatures have increased, more winter precipitation has fallen as rain instead of snow, and the snow is melting sooner, according to the study published in the journal Science.
The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the spring, raising the risk of flooding, and slower in the summer, raising the risk of drought.
"These trends will only intensify over the next few decades," said Richard Seager, a research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, who was not part of the study.
The changes will be felt differently throughout the West, scientists said. In Colorado, colder temperatures will probably protect the snowpack and reservoirs are large enough to store several years of water supply, said Brad Udall, a Western water expert at the University of Colorado at Boulder who was not involved in the study.
But in California, reservoirs already operate on a delicate balance. They are kept well below capacity during the winter as protection against flooding. After the rainy season, they are filled with the spring snowmelt, storing water to be released during the dry summers...
"The handwriting is on the wall," said lead author Tim Barnett, a marine geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "Mother Nature is going to stop being our water banker."...
To manage the coming water changes, Udall said, the Western states must begin to adapt. Possible solutions include building more reservoirs, increasing water conservation and diverting water from agriculture to meet the increasing demand from fast-growing cities.
Pets losing homes, humans in foreclosures
People often can't find apartments that allow animals. Many are abandoned or brought to shelters...Martin Zimmerman
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pets1feb01,0,6577820,print.story
...As more and more Californians are turned out of their homes by foreclosures or forced sales, family pets -- especially dogs and cats -- are being left behind to fend for themselves.
"These people don't know what's going to happen to them, and they figure someone will take care of the cat," said Jacky deHaviland, who works with a Los Angeles-area group called Muttshack Animal Rescue. "They say, 'I can't even deal with this. How can I deal with that?' "
For DiAnna Pfaff-Martin of Newport Beach, founder of the Animal Network of Orange County, the wake-up call came last week when she got five new adoption cases -- four dogs and a cat -- because their owners had lost their homes.
"This is the first time I've had this kind of problem since I started doing this in 1996," Pfaff-Martin said.
As the housing crunch worsens -- foreclosures in California hit a record 31,676 in the last three months of 2007 -- so will the problem of homeless pets, she said. "I think this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Real estate professionals and other animal welfare organizations are reporting similar trends...
Leo Nordine, a Hermosa Beach broker who specializes in selling repossessed homes, said he finds abandoned dogs at least once a month these days. Sometimes they're chained in a yard, sometimes locked in the house. They're often emaciated, if they're alive at all...
In Corona, shelter manager Darryl Heppner has seen a 16% jump in the number of animals brought in during the last six months...
In California, abandoning a pet is a crime punishable by a $500 fine, up to six months in jail or both. But offenders are rarely prosecuted, activists say, in part because they can be surprisingly difficult to find.
Washington Post
Biologists: Sage Grouse Needs More Help...AP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102822_pf.html
CASPER, Wyo. -- The best available science indicates that the current level of sage grouse protection implemented in oil and gas fields is not enough to maintain the bird's population, according to wildlife biologists in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah.
In a 10-page report to their supervisors, the state biologists agreed that research by Matthew Holloran, David Naugle and more than a dozen other published works is the best available science on which to base policy and resource management decisions regarding sage grouse and energy development.
The research has indicated that the current level of federal restrictions on the oil and gas industry is not enough to adequately protect the sage grouse...
Ben Deeble, sage grouse project coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, said the report confirms that more limitations should be applied to oil and gas development in order to prevent the sage grouse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.
"What the (Bureau of Land Management) has been applying, in terms of common stipulations to protect sage grouse, are leading to their local extinction," Deeble said...
Last year, U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill in Idaho ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to start another 12-month review of whether the grouse deserves federal protection, after finding that a 2005 decision against listing was inappropriately influenced by politics and not based on science.
But Casper geologist Gene George, a consultant to Yates Petroleum, insists that the industry's own research of information provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department seems to indicate that BLM's sage grouse stipulations are successful at protecting the bird.
"Regardless of what the published theories are, the Wyoming Game and Fish database doesn't support the conclusion that drilling in the Powder River Basin is causing the bird's demise," George said...
Conservation groups say many of the proposed BLM management plans leave sage grouse areas at risk of being wiped out by oil and gas development...
Groups Challenge Alaska Petro Lease Sale...DAN JOLING
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020100019_pf.html
Groups of conservationists and Alaska Natives sued the federal government Thursday to stop a petroleum lease sale of a large area of the sea off Alaska.
The plaintiffs claim the environmental review by the Minerals Management Service did not fairly evaluate the potential effects if offshore petroleum fields were developed in the lease area, just smaller than Pennsylvania.
They also say the federal government has ignored changing conditions in the Arctic Ocean, including record low summer sea ice, that already are stressing polar bears, whales and other Arctic sea life...
However, Alaska's lone U.S. representative, Don Young, condemned the lawsuit.
"These groups intend to use polar bears and the Endangered Species Act to shut down resource activities in Alaska the same way they used the spotted owl to shut down the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest," said Young, a Republican...
The sale is scheduled for Wednesday in Anchorage. Earthjustice attorney Eric Jorgensen said the lawsuit does not seek an injunction to block the sale, but asks the court to declare leases invalid if they are sold improperly.
Jorgensen said the lawsuit seeks a more thorough environmental review. The groups claim the existing review lacked certain wildlife data and considered only one offshore field producing a billion barrels of oil, the minimum deemed economic to develop, even though more fields are likely to be developed.
Steve Oomittuk, mayor of Point Hope, an Inupiat Eskimo coast village of 737, said his community opposes any activity that endangers villagers' way of life.
Trish Rolfe, Alaska region representative of the Sierra Club, said it's irresponsible to move forward with a lease sale when no technology exists to clean up spills in broken ice...
"The biggest concern that we have is the risk of an oil spill in an Arctic environment and how that would impact not just wildlife and endangered species, but how it would affect Native villages that rely on the wildlife," Rolfe said.
Wal-Mart prepares small U.S. stores to fend off Tesco...David Schwartz, Reuters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102194_pf.html
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is actively working to open its first small-scale grocery stores in Arizona, according to city planning officials, as the world's largest retailer looks to fend off competition from British supermarket rival Tesco (TSCO.L).
Tesco entered the U.S marketplace last year, opening Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. The company is seeking to woo U.S. shoppers with smaller convenience stores that emphasize ready-to-eat meals and fresh produce.
Wal-Mart, whose No. 2 British supermarket chain Asda competes with No. 1 Tesco in the United Kingdom, has long been rumored to be planning a new, smaller store concept that would rival the Tesco's stores in the States.
According to planning officials for four different cities in Arizona, Wal-Mart is now refining plans it submitted to launch convenience store-sized markets -- some close to recently opened Tesco stores -- in former drug stores in four cities southeast of Phoenix...
The application plans call for the stores to occupy roughly 15,000 sq. ft.. That is less than half the average size of Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market grocery stores, and a fraction of the size of its Supercenters, which combine grocery stores with general merchandise and can be more than three times the size of a U.S. football field...
The Boom Was a Bust For Ordinary People...Barbara Ehrenreich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102828_pf.html
...For years now, that strange stimulus-crazed beast, the economy, has been going its own way, increasingly disconnected from the toils and troubles of ordinary Americans.
The economy, for example, has been expanding, at least until now, and growth is supposed to guarantee general well-being. As long as the gross domestic product grows, World Money Watch's Web site assures us, "so will business, jobs and personal income."
But hellooo, we've had brisk growth for the past few years, as the president has tirelessly reminded us, only without those promised increases in personal income, at least not for the poor and the middle class. According to a study just released by the Economic Policy Institute, real wages actually fell last year. Growth, some of the economists are conceding in perplexity, has been "decoupled" from widely shared prosperity...
Growth is not the only economic indicator that has let us down. In the past five years, America's briskly rising productivity has been the envy of much of the world. But again, there's been no corresponding increase in most people's wages...
We like to attribute our high productivity to technological advances and better education. But a revealing 2001 study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. also credited America's productivity growth to "managerial . . . innovations" and cited Wal-Mart as a model performer, meaning that our productivity also relies on fiendish schemes to extract more work for less pay. Yes, you can generate more output per apparent hour of work by falsifying time records, speeding up assembly lines, doubling workloads and cutting back on breaks. That may look good from the top, but at the middle and the bottom, it can feel a lot like pain.
And what about the unemployment rate? The old liberal certainty was that "full employment" would create a workers' paradise, with higher wages and enhanced bargaining power for the little guy and gal. But we've had nearly full employment, or at least an official unemployment rate of under 5 percent, for years now, without the predicted gains. What the old liberals weren't counting on was a depressed minimum wage, weak unions and a witch's brew of management strategies to hold wages and salaries down...
I could see this when I was doing research for a book on white-collar unemployment in 2004. Although the economy was officially on an upturn, I met laid-off people who'd been searching for a job for more than a year and often ended up -- after selling their homes and borrowing from relatives -- taking low-wage work as big-box sales clerks or even janitors.
In the months ahead, we can expect the hard times to spread. Citigroup has announced plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs; investment banks in general will shed 40,000. The mortgage industry is in a meltdown; Business Wire predicts a 37 percent increase in the number of companies planning layoffs this year. This is what a stimulus package needs to address: the persistent and growing struggles of the middle class and the working class, which is increasingly conterminous with the working poor.
There are reasons for doing so other than compassion. The chronically poor and the battered middle class have become a tripwire in the American economy -- generating defaults on debts, depressed consumption and global market turmoil.
Consider how we got into the current credit crisis in the first place, through defaults on subprime mortgages. These went to plenty of affluent folks and have wreaked havoc in gated communities...
When personal finances are squeezed hard enough, you have the possibility of a genuine recession...
Government intervention, whether short-term or long-term, needs to get to the heart of this problem by offering a hand to the poor and the unemployed... Nothing could be more stimulating than putting money in the hands of those who will spend it quickly.
But you can't jump-start a car that lacks a working battery. We need less titillating talk about "stimulus" and more commitment to some fundamental repairs -- higher wages, a real safety net and a return to progressive taxation among them. The challenge isn't just to prop up stock prices but to rebuild an economy in which everyone shares the good times -- and no one is consigned to a permanent recession.