Napa and “The Aspen Effect”

Monday, June 30, 2008

By MATT POPE

A populist frustration increasingly finding voice in Napa County is that the wine and hospitality industries are pulling in services and attractions that cater principally to upscale vacationers and tourists, while neglecting any sense of a local living wage and inadvertently threatening the very Ag preserve that those industries depend on through, among other things, jumbo-sized developments and hotel mega-resorts in areas that were once only the purview of B&B’s.  

Napa County has become a textbook example of what Cornell University Economics Professor Robert H. Frank calls “The Aspen Effect” — his term for traffic and other challenges resulting from that small Colorado resort towns’ transformation into a playground for the wealthy.

….{snip}….

An over-arching angst that I hear and read is that is that Napa County is undergoing a “Disney-fication,” becoming a simulacrum of a once-rural area that is quaint for tourists but not livable for locals or the people who work here.

….{snip}….

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/06/30/opinion/matt_pope/doc48655d4316b43966493572.txt

FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE OFFICER, FORMER LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPUTY AND TWO CO-CONSPIRATORS SENTENCED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE OFFICER, FORMER LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPUTY AND TWO CO-CONSPIRATORS SENTENCED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

LOS ANGELES – Former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Jesse Moya, former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy and California Corrections Officer Rodrigo Duran, and two co-conspirators, Steve Quintero and Geronimo Sevilla, were sentenced today in federal court for their roles in a series of home-invasion robberies over a two-year period, the Justice Department announced today.  Moya was sentenced to 30 months in prison, three years of post-incarceration supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. Duran was sentenced to 66 months in prison, and five years of post-incarceration supervised release. Sevilla received a sentence of 87 months along with three years of supervised release and a $ 1,500 fine. Quintero received a sentence of 57 months along with three years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine.

        Moya, Duran, Quintero and Sevilla all previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate civil rights.  In addition, Duran and Sevilla pleaded guilty to using a firearm during a crime of violence, and Duran pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law. Duran also testified in the January 2008 trial in which a federal jury found their fellow co-conspirators, William and Joseph Ferguson, guilty of conspiring to violate civil rights, conspiring to possess narcotics with intent to distribute, and possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

        Evidence presented at the plea hearings and the January 2008 trial revealed that the four defendants sentenced today were members of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy that committed more than 40 burglaries and robberies throughout the Los Angeles area between early 1999 and June of 2001.  Former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Ruben Palomares was the ringleader of this conspiracy, which included other law enforcement officers as well as drug dealers.  The robberies generally were committed after the group received information that a particular location was involved in illegal drug-trafficking.  The robbery teams usually consisted of multiple sworn police officers in uniform or displaying badges, including Moya and Duran, who would gain access to the residence by falsely telling any occupants that they were conducting a legitimate search for drugs or drug dealers.  The other defendants also assisted in these raids, by conducting surveillance for the raids or by selling drugs taken during the raids and sharing the profits with the other conspirators.  Victims were often restrained, threatened or assaulted during the searches.

        In all, 17 defendants, including law enforcement officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Long Beach Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the California Department of Corrections, have been convicted of federal crimes in connection with the conspiracy.  In prior sentencing hearings in this case, former Los Angeles Police Department officer William Ferguson was sentenced to 102 years imprisonment, his brother and former Long Beach Police Department officer Joseph Ferguson was sentenced to 97 months imprisonment, and former Los Angeles Police Department officer Ruben Palomares was sentenced to 158 months imprisonment.

        “These defendants and their fellow conspirators repeatedly abused their positions of trust to help them in their robbery and drug trafficking schemes,” said Grace Chung Becker,  Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  “While the vast majority of law enforcement officers carry out their difficult duties in a professional manner, the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute those who cross the line and commit such violent criminal acts.”

                “With former officers Moya and Duran now going to prison, five former law enforcement officials have been convicted and punished in this ugly case of police corruption,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien. “With this dark chapter in Southern California law enforcement now behind us, we will remain vigilant to ensure that other rogue officers do not smear the reputations of the vast majority of our police who serve their communities with honor and integrity.”

Air Board working with NASA to examine California’s air pollution

Air Board working with NASA to examine California’s air pollution
World’s most advanced technology studying state’s smog, greenhouse gas emissions

SACRAMENTO: At the request of scientists at the Air Resources Board, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will perform a series of flights between June 18 and June 25 to examine the atmosphere over the state to better understand the chemical dynamics of smog and greenhouse gases.

NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory is flying a series of flights originating at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Palmdale over southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and over the Pacific. The DC-8 is configured for atmospheric composition measurements as part of a large environmental science campaign to study the impact of air pollution on the Arctic’s atmospheric chemistry and changing climate. NASA is also sending a specially outfitted P3 aircraft from its Ames Research Center in Mountain View to fly over northern California for additional sampling during the same time period.

The flights will gather samples aimed at helping ARB to:

• Obtain a better picture of greenhouse gas emission sources throughout the state;
• Characterize the types of pollution into the state from off-shore; and
• Distinguish the differences in air mass chemistry between urban and rural areas.

“This collaboration will give us information on how pollution is created, transported and even destroyed,” said Bart Croes, chief of the ARB’s Research Division. “The use of highly sophisticated technology to gather data at heights far beyond our normal reach and collaboration with NASA’s very knowledgeable science and flight teams combine to create a rare opportunity.”

The Air Resources Board has been a world leader in developing and implementing aggressive, cutting edge pollution control measures to combat smog and particulate matter for 40 years. The agency is also now working to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 as required by the AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act that Governor Schwarzenegger signed in 2006

http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/nr061908.htm

Lightning sparks hundreds of wildfires

BY MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 10:34 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 11:16 a.m.

Fire crews are battling hundreds of wildfires across Mendocino and Humboldt counties caused by dry lightning strikes that swept through the area overnight Friday and Saturday morning.

“We’re inundated,” Cal Fire Capt. Pierre Boudreaux said from Howard Forest Station near Willits in Mendocino County, where more than 50 fires were burning Saturday morning.

Hundreds more were being chased in Humboldt County, pushing finite resources to the limit as the rising sun and forecasted triple-digit temperatures threatened to worsen conditions exponentially.

more: http://urlet.com/ext.serious

Feds tell irrigators Klamath salmon need more water

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal fisheries biologists want more water in the Klamath River to keep coho salmon from heading closer to extinction.After evaluating the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s latest plans for splitting water between irrigators and fish, the NOAA Fisheries Service said Friday more water is needed in the spring to flood rearing habitat for juvenile coho salmon, a threatened species.

The latest review - ordered by a federal judge - is known as a draft biological opinion, and comes in a long-standing battle over how much water goes to farms and how much goes to salmon in the Klamath Basin. The final version is expected later this year.

During a drought in 2001, the federal government shut off irrigation to most farms in the Klamath Reclamation Project near Klamath Falls and Tulelake, Calif., to keep salmon alive. But the next year when the Bush administration restored water to farms, tens of thousands of adult salmon died in low warm water conditions.

 

 

 

more:  http://urlet.com/column.creating

Court: Cintas Corp. ignored Hayward living wage laws

Court: Cintas Corp. ignored Hayward work laws

Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 13, 2008

In a precedent-setting ruling for cities across California, a state appeals court this week upheld Hayward’s living wage ordinance as constitutional and ordered Cintas Corp., a laundry business that had contracted with the East Bay city, to pay $1.4 million in back wages, interest and penalties to 219 workers.

 http://urlet.com/unfortunately.consisting

 

U.S., PacifiCorp discuss resolution of Klamath dams issue

6/10/2008, 5:28 p.m. PDT By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — PacifiCorp, the federal government and the states of Oregon and California are in talks over how to resolve a proposal to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River to help struggling salmon runs.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Alex Pitts confirmed Tuesday that federal agencies and the utility are in continuing “conversations” about a hydropower agreement, but would not characterize that agreement as a way to remove the dams.

http://urlet.com/wagering.hurt

Alarm sounds for low flows in Mattole River

Redwood Times

Sanctuary Forest is sounding the alert that water flows in the Mattole River are at new lows this spring.   Barring a significant rain event in the next few weeks, the lack of water in the river will only become more extreme as the dry season advances.  The result will be water shortages, dry rivers and creek beds, algal blooms and heavy losses to endangered salmon and other aquatic wildlife.  Residents of the Mattole watershed and surrounding areas need to prepare to implement water conservation measures immediately.

The Mattole watershed is in a prolonged low flow pattern.  Seven of the last nine years have been characterized by the lowest flows in 57 years of record-keeping.  This year appears to be headed towards the driest year on record, with flows already tracking below 1977, the lowest flow year documented.

more:  http://www.redwoodtimes.com/local/ci_9477412

Orca hits beach for seal meal

John Driscoll/The Times-Standard

Article Launched: 05/22/2008 01:32:02 AM PDT

A dozen or more people in Trinidad Tuesday witnessed one of the world’s rarest wildlife phenomena when an orca flushed a harbor seal onto Indian Beach in what may have been an attempt to teach its young to hunt.

It may be the first occurrence of its kind in the United States, researchers said.

Ruby Rollings from the Seascape Pier was alerted to the presence of the killer whales in Trinidad Bay just before lunch, and grabbed a pair of binoculars to watch. A large adult orca was swimming in the bay with a juvenile orca and two much smaller orcas, she said.

After observing for a while, Rollings said she watched as the larger whale rode a wave onto the beach and seized a harbor seal in its teeth.

”He bit it,

then he slammed the seal against the sand,” Rollings said.Rollings said the whale left the seal on the beach, then headed back into the bay, and eventually out to sea.

The behavior is rare among orcas. Washington-based Orca Network Director Howard Garrett was surprised to hear of the sighting and said the research community is very interested.

”That’s pretty amazing,” Garrett said.

more from Times-Standard:  http://urlet.com/authenticity.provision

Californian independence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The movement for Californian independence is a political movement in the U.S. state of California. The vast majority of the movement advocates secession from the Union through entirely peaceful means. Currently, this movement is mostly restricted to web groups^[1].

Precedent may have been set with actions such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signing a global warming treaty with the United Kingdom’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair ^[2], an action that could be construed as extra-constitutional regarding states signing foreign treaties. This action was ignored by the federal government.

Arguments in favor of the secessionist movement include California’s stem cell research initiatives, the fact that California tax payers are shouldering a disproportionate tax burden for the rest of the country,^[3] California’s relatively liberal views when compared to the growing conservatism in the rest of the country, as well as California’s economy (one of the top ten strongest economies in the world).^[4][5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californian_independence