Blogs

Fresno Judge Halts Protection Plan For Winter Run Chinook

by Dan Bacher

(Fresno) Federal Judge Oliver Wanger on Friday afternoon put a temporary hold on a federal plan (biological opinion) protecting salmon from the fish-killing California Delta pumps that deliver water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.

The ruling, in place for 14 days, allows for unlimited pumping, at least unless the projects hit "take" limits for salmon killed at the pumps or until Delta smelt protections are triggered in the Delta. The ruling can be extended by the judge for 14 more days.

Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and other water districts requested the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) so that water exports from the Delta could be increased. The pumping restrictions are designed to protect migrating juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon from being killed in the massive federal and state project pumps.

No, it's not Rex, the Coelurosauravus in the youtube above, it's an Anchiornis huxleyi as you'll read about below

Fossil Feather Colors Really ARE Written In Stone

Rapper-activist Chuck D: Challenge authority, consumer culture

By Carla Meyer
Published: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 3B

In the two decades Public Enemy frontman Chuck D has rapped and lectured about fighting the power, rap music has been swallowed by the mainstream, record companies have lost ground to the Internet, and the United States has elected an African American president.

Yet Chuck D, 49, the rapper, author and activist in town Thursday night to speak to California State University, Sacramento, students, still delivers what is in essence the same message: challenge authority and the consumer culture and make the most of educational opportunities.

In other words, as he told the crowd of 1,200 at the University Union during a free-form, humor-filled talk, "Have full capacity of yourself and do not be a robot."

That means always questioning what one is being fed, whether it is by MTV or people using the catchphrase "post-racial."

Appeals court rejects move to keep Sacramento strong-mayor proposal on June 8 ballot
Published Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010
http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/2514372.html

A request to delay a Sacramento judge's decision to block Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor initiative from the ballot has been denied, effectively ensuring the initiative will not appear before the voters in June.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Thursday it was denying a request by attorneys for the strong-mayor initiative to delay Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster's ruling until after the June 8 election. The court also denied a request to expedite an appeal of McMaster's ruling.

Mokelumne River Steelhead Run Increases In Recent Years
by Dan Bacher

The numbers of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in recent years don’t compare to those at Nimbus, Feather and Coleman fish hatcheries, but they are a vast improvement over many years when no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

No steelhead came back to the hatchery, located on the river right below Camanche Dam, for 10 years from 1976 through 1986. Again in 1998-1999, no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any rainbows in the river during these years. The river hosted a popular resident trout fishery for fly, bait and lure anglers, but relatively few of the 100,000 steelhead yearlings released every year went to saltwater and returned.

I'm glad someone finally put this up on youtube. Tell it like it is Mr. West...

Cornel West's note to Obama

Cornel West's note to Obama, BBC News, January 20, 2010.

 

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2010/0120_poverty_kneeb...

On Page 75 is the profile of Sacramento. There are a handful of good statistics including how much the poverty rate has increased in the suburbs. The profile is pasted below.

Shamus

The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000–2008

Metro Area Profile for Sacramento-Roseville, CA

The primary city or cities in the Sacramento-Roseville, CA metro area include: Sacramento, Roseville

The surrounding suburbs include: El Dorado County, Placer County, Sacramento County, Yolo County

Findings:

* In 2008, 80,898 people in the primary city lived below of the poverty level ($21,834 for a family of four), compared to 166,702 poor in the surrounding suburbs. This represents no change for the city compared to 2000, and a significant increase for the suburbs.

The Karuk Tribal Council on January 28 voted unanimously to sign the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement.

Karuk Tribe

P R E S S R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release: January 28, 2010

For more information: Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator, Karuk Tribe, cell 916-207-8294

Westlands Water District, the "Darth Vader of California water politics, is requesting a federal judge to order lifting restrictions on the operation of huge delta water pumps and canals from February through May, according to a news release from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Water4Fish.

The move takes place as Westlands Water District, southern Calfornia water agencies, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature are pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal and new dams to export more water from the California Delta. If the peripheral canal is built, it is likely to result in pushing Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish into the abyss of extinction.

From the Dutch version of Comedy Central. Make sure you’re not drinking anything at the 1:39 mark ;-)

Help! My Water is Glowing!

January 28th, 2010 by Bunny

I’ve never seen the ocean glow, but Katie Spotz did this week. She has been rowing in the Atlantic Ocean for 3 weeks now, getting closer to South America each day. A recent tweet from her:

“Can anyone explain what these glowing specks in the water are? Every night I see them and have no clue what they are”

[...]

Bioluminescence in the water has puzzled people for thousands of years, starting with Aniximenes in 500 B.C. Many have guessed over the years.

The glow is likely from bioluminescent dinoflagellates—that is, marine plankton that light up. The plankton light up when they sense a predator. The purpose is to attract a bigger predator that will eat the plankton’s predator!

Not saying the Kings don't deserve some help for a new arena, but KJ is making a huge mistake with these sharks

Related: Why are Financial Terrorists (JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley...etc.) getting away with attacking America?

Sucker city

Team K.J. sent out another “rules of the game” communiqué last week, announcing that investment bank Goldman Sachs had accepted the mayor’s invitation to evaluate proposals for, and possibly help finance, a new Kings arena.

“Anybody who knows anything about the financial world knows what it means to have Goldman Sachs on your side,” Mayor Kevin Johnson wrote. “Simply put, Goldman is one of the largest, most influential and important investment organizations in the world.”

Let's take a look at Goldman Sachs

This is an updated version of an article regarding Big Oil's undue influence over "marine protection" in California published on the counterpunch website: http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher11132009.html.

Meet Cathy Reheis-Boyd

Big Oil Takes Over Marine "Protection" in California

by Dan Bacher

Corporate greenwashing in California under Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "green governor," has become so bizarre and egregious that no political satirist, comedian or novelist could concoct fictional schemes that rival the reality of current politics in the state.

Only in Schwarzenegger's California would a governor appoint an oil industry lobbyist to a key administration position supposedly promoting "marine protection" at a time when oil companies are seeking to expand drilling operations off the California coast. Schwarzenegger strongly supports linking $140 million in annual funding for State Parks to approval of the Tranquillon Ridge oil-drilling project off the coast of Santa Barbara (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/22/oil-parks-plan-derided-bl...).

With this in mind, it is not surprising that Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman in August 2009 announced the Governor's appointment of Cathy Reheis-Boyd, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Western States Petroleum Association, as chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force for the remainder of the MLPA South Project.

Related: Healthcare by the numbers

Leno’s single payer “Medicare for All” health bill passes Senate