Firings fuel immigration debate in Humboldt County

By Susan Ferriss - sferriss@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, June 27, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1

ARCATA - In Humboldt County, where references to buds often mean marijuana, Lane DeVries runs a successful cut-flower operation, one of the biggest in the United States.

….{snip}….
Agents sent a letter to DeVries, alerting him to the 283 discrepancies.

The message between the lines: The Sun Valley Floral Farms employees could be illegal immigrants, and DeVries would be held accountable.

So on June 9, he gathered workers from among the vast complex of greenhouses and announced that he would dismiss 283 of them.

….{snip}….

“It was his own decision,” she said of DeVries’ move to fire his workers.

In Humboldt County, Sun Valley workers represent about 20 percent of the seasonal farm labor work force, county officials estimate. And agriculture, they say, generates about 44 percent of local wages.

….{snip}….

DeVries declined to comment, except to say in a statement: “This incident drives home that we must immediately turn our attention to immigration reform.

 

….{snip}….

DeVries, who initially spoke to local media about the firings, told them that he followed all federal hiring laws. He did not say whether he used the E-Verify system, and would not discuss it with The Bee.

Humboldt County Supervisor John Woolley, whose district includes Arcata, acknowledged that employers have unknowingly and knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

 

….{snip}….

Sun Valley has put out an urgent call for part-time summer employees.

“Our region’s economic and workforce development community believes the solution is not penalizing our small businesses for hiring what is often the only labor available for entry-level production jobs, nor is it turning back immigrants,” Woolley and the county’s other supervisors wrote in their letter to Chertoff and their congressional representatives.

“Our nation and community would be better served if legislative energy focuses on funding and programming solutions that could equip native workers with the skills and attitudes to compete with foreign workers, while also providing a path to citizenship for currently undocumented immigrants.”

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1043861.html

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

Foreclosures Lead to Pot Farming

From NBC2, in Fort Myers, Fla.:

A vacant house in Lehigh Acres may look like just another foreclosed home, but deputies actually found out it was a ‘budding’ business.

Deputies removed around 100 marijuana plants from the home….Deputies say it’s one of two new scenarios: a grow house operator with no intent of ever paying the mortgage, or someone simply noticed that the house was empty and set up shop.

http://urlet.com/death.participants

Northern California Lightning Caused Wildfire Summary

Northern California Lightning Series Summary

Northern California Lightning Series Summary Incident Information:
Last Updated:	June 23, 2008 5:30 pm
Date/Time Started:	June 20, 2008 12:00 pm
Administrative Unit:	CAL FIRE Operational Units
County:	Various counties and locations throughout Northern California.
Location:	Various counties and locations throughout Northern California.
Acres Burned:
Containment
Conditions:	Summary of Fires by UnitSiskiyou Unit: All 8 fires have been contained for a total of 10 acres. The Klamath National Forest has the Siskiyou Complex which is near Happy Camp that is 600 acres with no containment. Humboldt-Del Norte Unit: 51 fires for more than 900 acres, with 4 new fires today. The Paradise Fire is Northeast of Shelter Cove and is 600 acres and 5% contained, The Redcrest Fire is 30 acres, the High Fire is in Humboldt Redwood State Park with unknown acreage or containment, the Carson Fire is 40 acres and 50% contained, the Hansen Fire is 2 acres with unknown containment, the Williams Fire is 25 acres and 50% contained, In the BLM Headwaters Forest there are three additional small fires buring. Mendicino Unit: Approx. 131 fires have been reported, buring more than 8,900 acres. Incident Command Team #4 has been assigned to this complex. The Orr Fire is 200 acres and has evacuations of the Orr Springs Resort and 50 homes in the area, the Navarro Fire is 1,400 acres and 5% contained, the Cherry fire is 50 acres and 50% contained, the Foster Fire is 50 acres and 50% contained, the Table Mtn. Fire is 1,000 acres and 5% contained, the Mallo Pass Fire is 800 acres, and the Juan Creek fires (2) are at 100 acres each. There are 8 additional fires at 30 acres each. The Mendocino Fire Information Number is (707) 972-3846.

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=277

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

Northern California Wildfire Map

 

 

 

Active Fire Map:  http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/activefiremaps.php?op=maps&rCode=cgb

California Active Fire Map:  http://firecenter.berkeley.edu/cafiremap/gmap_html/gmodis.html

Louisiana Man Busted after Medical Marijuana Shipped from Mendocino

Thibodaux man arrested for medical marijuana

JOHN DeSANTIS
City Editor

Published: Monday, June 23, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, June 23, 2008 at 11:33 a.m.

GRAY — A shipment of medical-grade marijuana allegedly bound for Louisiana from California was intercepted by State Police Thursday, resulting in the arrest of two men living in a Thibodaux apartment on drug charges.

State Police Troop C spokesman Gilbert Dardar said local troopers were contacted Wednesday by authorities in Mendocino, Calif., and notified that a “large amount of marijuana” was en route from a private delivery service to 2316 St. Bernard Road, Apt. E.

more:  http://urlet.com/desired.trumps

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999: Bush: Marijuana Laws Up to States

Bush: Marijuana Laws Up to States

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, October 22, 1999; Page B7 

 

Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush says he believes individual states should choose whether to ban the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but is stopping short of saying the District should enjoy that privilege.

The Texas governor, who in recent weeks has distanced himself from several positions taken by conservative Republicans in Congress, said that when it came to congressional efforts to ban a medical marijuana law here, he was in Congress’s corner.

Campaigning in Seattle on Saturday, Bush answered questions about medical marijuana laws by saying, “I believe each state can choose that decision as they so choose.”

http://urlet.com/brevity.belarus

And thanks:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/021642.html

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

NY Assembly Passes Medical Marijuana Bill

ALBANY — The New York Assembly passed a bill today that would protect New Yorkers with life threatening or debilitating conditions from arrest for using medical marijuana when their doctors believe it would be the best treatment option, 79-48.

    The bill is similar to the medical marijuana bill the Assembly passed last year. The version passed today was modified to address concerns voiced by members of the Senate, who have until June 23 to pass the bill before the legislature recesses.

 

http://www.hvpress.net/news/126/ARTICLE/4588/2008-06-18.html