Thanks to all the rescue workers. Whenever there's any disaster, no matter how big, or small, you're there. Thanks!

Missing Family Found Alive In Butte County

INSKIP, Calif. -- After days of huddling in a culvert to stay warm in the snowy mountains of Northern California, a wet, shivering family from Butte County was lifted to safety.

The foursome went to the Inskip area Sunday to find a Christmas tree, but they got lost in a heavily wooded area and weren't spotted until Wednesday -- by a California Highway Patrol helicopter making its last pass before more winter weather moved in.

"When you love your kids ... and you see your kids freaking out, when you see them scared, when you see them just beside themselves, you just calm down, you take control, and you get them calm and you pray," Frederick Dominguez said.

Dominguez, 38, and his three children -- Christopher Dominguez, 18; Alexis Dominguez, 15; and Joshua Dominguez, 12 -- were found by a California Highway Patrol helicopter in the backcountry. All four were suffering from hypothermia, but their injuries were not serious. ...

Butte County Family Found Safe

By Dan Bacher

November’s San Francisco Bay oil spill and Prospect Island fish kill were huge environmental disasters spurred by government ineptitude and poor planning. At the same time, an even worse environmental calamity, the collapse of the California Delta food chain, is taking place as you read this, courtesy of the same state and federal governments that blundered during the oil spill and fish kill.

The delta smelt and other California Delta fish populations continue to plummet towards extinction, according to preliminary data from the latest fall midwater trawl survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).

The population collapse has been caused by record and state water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the West Coast’s largest and most significant estuary, since 2001. For example, State Water Project exports increased from 1.8 million acre feet of water in the 1990’s to 3.7 million acre feet of water in 2006, according to Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

California’s Presidential Primary Has 53 Separate Congressional District Races for Delegates—You Can Make a Difference

By Frank D. Russo

Most political analysis on the Democratic Presidential race focuses on polls, either nationally or in selected states. Coverage of California’s race and predictions have also focused on the state, sometimes with regional and other breakdowns. What is missing in this is the crucial fact that most—three quarters of delegates elected on February 5, 2008 will be elected at the local level in California’s 53 Congressional Districts.

California’s Democratic Presidential Primary election is a “binding” primary and not a beauty contest. What’s binding is the election of 241 delegates on a proportional basis to a candidate’s share of the vote in each of these 53 races and another 81 “At-Large” delegates who are elected based on the state vote in proportion to the vote for each candidate. All a candidate needs to receive statewide delegates is 15% of the statewide vote. All a candidate needs to receive in a Congressional District to be considered for distribution of delegates is that same 15%.

To put it in common parlance, “It’s the delegates, stupid.”

Click for video of the first day of the 2007/2008 contest

Picture by Kevin German from Sac Bee's photo series of the 2006/2007 contest

[Make sure you scroll down for a really cool animation showing the path the waves take when going over the reef formed by earthquakes and the approach into the bay]

... Over the last decade, the Mavericks surf break has captured international attention. An interesting question is, "Why do such big waves break here?"

This is a map of shaded bathymetry with wave lines on it. The blue lines show hypothetical large wave crests propagating in to shore from the west. As the waves move into shallow water, they begin to interact with the seafloor ("shoal") and their crests slowly bend to try to maintain their roughly parallel orientation to the bottom contours. The more the waves interact with the seafloor, the more they slow down and bunch up. Wave "rays", or the pathways of wave energy, move perpendicular to the wave crests. In areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, diverges, the wave height decreases. Conversely, in areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, converges, the wave height increases. Due to the steep topography of the bedrock reef at Mavericks, the wave energy rapidly converges and the wave height rapidly increases, creating a huge wave compared to the adjacent areas.

The dominant wave direction off the central coast of California during most of the year is from the northwest. These waves propagate over the much gentler topography to the northwest of Sail Rock and are generally too small to shoal and break at Mavericks. Sometimes during the winter months, however, strong North Pacific storms generate large, long-period waves from more westerly directions that shoal and break over the bedrock reef just to the east of Sail Rock. The abrupt topography of the bedrock reef causes wave energy to converge over the reef, causing the wave to rapidly slow down, shorten in length and substantially increase in height relative to the areas just to the north and south of the east-west trending reef. This interaction of the geology and oceanography is what makes the wave at Mavericks so spectacular compared to many other locations along central California.

A force of volunteers descended on Prospect Island, located between Miner Slough and the Sacramento Deepwater Channel, over the past three days and saved thousands of fish that otherwise would have perished.

Volunteer Rescue An Overwhelming Success!

by Dan Bacher

A force of 42 volunteers rescued 1466 stranded striped bass on Saturday from a certain death on Prospect Island in the California Delta. On Sunday, the volunteers saved an additional 177 striped bass before concluding the operation early because of rising water conditions on the island, bringing the number of total of fish rescued since Friday to 1831 stripers.

In addition, anglers using nets and buckets transported largemouth bass, bluegill, Sacramento blackfish (a native minnow) and other fish from a seep in the levee where a variety of fish species were concentrated. When you include baitfish and fry, many thousands of fish in addition to the stripers were saved.

After receiving permission from Bureau of Reclamation personnel on Friday morning, a dozen volunteers that afternoon rescued 188 striped bass from Prospect Island and put them into Miner Slough, according to Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport.

Town hall abruptly ended when Lungren tires of answering hard questions

by Randy Bayne

The town hall meeting Wednesday night with Congressman Dan Lungren (CA-3) was not his typical town hall gathering, especially for Folsom. Lungren usually has plenty of supporters in attendance making sure he gets what must be a predetermined number of softball questions for which he has what seem to be canned answers. It is always interesting to watch as he keeps his eyes on the thick binder he has at the podium. Rarely does he make any direct eye contact with the audience. He maintains contact with his binder like a small child reaching for his security blanket, and stares at the walls as if he will find his answers scratched into them somewhere.

Lungren's supporters seemed to be a rare commodity at this particular town hall. This became evident when most of the questions were off the predetermined topics Lungren presented at the beginning of his show. He flashed slides on a screen of what his chosen topics; the Folsom Dam road, "working to prevent another terroist attack," and illegal immigration were to be. These were things that he said constituents were interested in, and they probably are, but there is more, much more that he would rather avoid. He doesn't like to be confronted with hard questions, tough real life questions.

Click for some Rolling Stones

Free holiday meals

Last Updated 7:39 am PST Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

THURSDAY - THANKSGIVING DAY

Folsom – A Thanksgiving dinner will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at Community Bible Church, 600 Persifer St. For more information, call Claudia at (916) 320-2141 or Community Bible Church at (916) 985-4536.

Oak Park – The Oak Park Thanksgiving to the Streets will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Charles McClatchy Building, 4320 Stockton Blvd. Blanket donations are welcome. For more information, call (916) 457-6555.

Placerville – A Thanksgiving dinner will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at St. Patrick's Parish Center, 3109 Sacramento St. Free meal delivery is available for those who are house-bound. Call (530) 642-8183.

Pollock Pines – A Thanksgiving dinner will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Pollock Pines-Camino Community Center, 2675 Sanders Drive. Those who are house-bound and would like a meal delivered may call (530) 647-8005 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. through Thursday.

Sacramento – The Progressive Elks Lodge No. 1587 will hold a Thanksgiving dinner from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3634 Marysville Blvd. For more information, call (916) 922-0266 or (916) 922-5126.

Sacramento – The Salvation Army will sponsor a Thanksgiving meal from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Salvation Army shelter, 1200 North B St. For more information, call (916) 442-0331.

West Sac curfew must be revised

Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

WOODLAND – Yolo County prosecutors will have to redraft curfew provisions in a proposed West Sacramento anti-gang injunction after an appeals court ruled similar provisions in a Ventura anti-gang measure were too vague.

Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden said Tuesday the changes would delay the case against alleged members of the West Sacramento street gang the Broderick Boys and that lawyers representing those targeted by the injunction will have time to respond.

The next court date in the matter is scheduled for Jan. 31.

– Hudson Sangree

Background info here and here

The massive Cosco Busan oil spill on San Francisco Bay and the adjoining ocean waters continues to kill and injure birds, sea mammals and fish. It is a huge environmental tragedy, caused by corporate and government incompetence and mismanagement. This is the action alert about the oil spill from the Baykeeper from their website, http://www.baykeeper.org.



Citizen Response to San Francisco Bay Oil Spill

Let us know if you would like to get involved by signing up to help or by making a donation to support Baykeeper's efforts to clean up Bay pollution.

Wednesday’s spill of bunker fuel from a South Korea-bound container ship is shaping up to be much more serious than early reports indicated and appears to be the worst ship-related spill in more than a decade. The Coast Guard estimates that over 58,000 gallons of fuel were spilled from the accident, up from their initial approximation of only 140 gallons. Only a fraction of those gallons of fuel have been contained thus far.

San Francisco Baykeeper is investigating why initial reports underestimated the size of the spill and why the Coast Guard failed to immediately coordinate its response with the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the state agency charged with responding to oil spills.

From Wu Ming's blog, surfputah

I came across this post a couple of days ago, and was waiting to see what the Sac Bee said about it, but I haven't seen any mention of it surface so far. From the Maritime Worker Monitor:
On August 23, West Sacramento cops and private SSA security guards viciously attacked, two Local 10 brothers returning to work after lunch on the SSA terminal. When the guards demanded to search the car, the brothers asked to see the MARSEC (maritime security) reg and called the Local 10 business agent. This enraged the guards who called the cops. While talking by phone to BA MacKay and without provocation, they were assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed, charged with “trespassing”. How the hell can a longshoreman be “trespassing”, after returning to work at the terminal. They’d already shown PMA ID and a driver’s license. This is racial profiling and police brutality. The longshoremen were black and the cops white. Such is the brutal face of the “war on terror” on the docks. It’ll get worse unless we take united action to defend these brothers. An injury to two is an injury to all!

With noone else reporting on it, this is pretty much the only side of the story we've got, although I suspect more will come out at the trial in Woodland next Thusday morning. The longshoremen have called for protests at the Courthouse:

All Out for ILWU Protest
Rally at Yolo County Superior Court
213 Third St.; Woodland, CA
Thursday October 4, 2007
BUSES LEAVE FROM LOCAL 10 @ 6AM — Oct. 4

Click header for the entire post with links

Attend a Townhall Meeting or Vigil and Tell Congress to Take A Stand and End the War

We need to make sure our representatives head back to Washington with their constituents' demands for a speedy withdrawal at the forefront of their minds. That's why we're helping to organize "Take A Stand" townhall meetings and "Stand Up In September" vigils on August 28th --

National Take A Stand Day.
Time: Friday, August 24, 2007 - 7:30pm PST

Assembly Democrats Cave on Hospital Dumping (SB275)

by: Brian Leubitz
Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 13:58:58 PM PDT

No politician is perfect. Of that much I am painfully aware. But I like to think that Democrats will stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Well, I was proved wrong about that when Lou Correa and Ron Calderon blocked committee approval of SB 275, the ban on hospital dumping. Eventually, it was passed by removing the two Senators, who apparently value and/or fear the AHA (the American Hospitals Association-a corporate lobby group) more than they care about the true toll this takes on real human beings.

You know hospital dumping as the practice featured in SiCKO. Michael Moore talks about it in this video clip from his premiere for SiCKO at Skid Row.

So, SB 275 attempts to deal with this problem. Under the bill, as passed by the Senate, the transportation of patients against their will was a crime, not just a finable offense, but a real misdemeanor. Real people could get real convictions for this deplorable practice. The prospect of criminal charges meant that this law would have teeth. Well, the AHA decided that they totally didn't dig on the idea of having their staff arrested for doing what the CEO demanded. So, the Assembly accepted a hostile amendment to neuter the law by removing criminal penalties until the third offense, as if the first two homeless people don't matter.

The author, proud progressive, and my personal-favorite senator, Gilbert Cedillo spoke against the hostile amendment.

" Our offices have been committed to a thoughtful process on this issue. We do not want to do something that is not significant," said Cedillo.

.

No human hazard seen in using poison against predator in Lake Davis.

By Jane Braxton Little - Bee Correspondent
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, June 21, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B4

PORTOLA -- A $12 million plan to rid Lake Davis of invasive northern pike has cleared one of the final hurdles to permitting state officials to apply chemicals to the Plumas County reservoir.

A study by the state Department of Health Services determined the toxic chemicals would have no short- or long-term adverse health effects on Lake Davis or surrounding wells used for drinking water.

"Detection levels for these contaminants are below levels known to be safe," the 13-page report concludes.

Really??? Not so much according the MSDS [PDF File] which says ...

SECTION 2: HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION SUMMARY

KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN – DANGER – POISONOUS – Fatal if inhaled. May be fatal if swallowed. Causes substantial, but temporary, eye injury. Causes skin irritation. Do not breathe spray mist. Do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing. Wear goggles or safety glasses. This product is an orange, viscous liquid with slight petroleum odor.

How did NBA Commissioner David Stern bury any chance of the Kings getting a new arena?

Watch this. Look at Robert Horry's left arm as he hits Steve Nash. Now, what do I care about the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs?

I don't care about either team.

But it means everything for the Kings, which I'll get to in a minute.

Because the NBA (David Stern and Stu Jackson) suspended two players from the Suns who left the bench during the "altercation" (I'll get to this below). Here's how it was reported ... important parts hi-lighted

WMV version

φ is pronounced fee

The Golden Mean (or Golden Section), represented by the Greek letter phi, is one of those mysterious natural numbers, like e or pi, that seem to arise out of the basic structure of our cosmos. Unlike those abstract numbers, however, phi appears clearly and regularly in the realm of things that grow and unfold in steps, and that includes living things. The decimal representation of phi is 1.6180339887499... .

The News and Review has a great cover story that asks the question (Will Doolittle do time?), and gives reasons for the estranged feelings for the sardonic, rapacious Representative from CD-4. What follows is part of his political bio from the article ...

Avalanche of animus

First, the personal qualities and character of Doolittle must openly and frankly be dealt with, for there is no figure currently on the California political stage who has consistently engendered as much overt loathing and disgust as Doolittle--as much from members of his own party as from his ideological counterparts. When he was fined by the Fair Political Practices Commission for laundering money to swing his 1984 election, his defeated opponent, former Senate Republican colleague Ray Johnson, foresaw that it would not be an adequate penalty to stop future misbehavior. “Oh God,” Johnson lamented in 1987 in the California Journal, “can’t we just drown him and get it over with?” A year after that comment, on the verge of Doolittle winning re-election based on another vicious campaign, Sacramento Bee columnist Pete Dexter couldn’t constrain his contempt. In print he pronounced Doolittle “a lying, unprincipled, crooked piece of human garbage.” Even for Dexter, this was strong stuff.

What evoked these and other expressions of outrage was the combination of characteristics that arises with regularity in American political life: the religious hypocrite, the sanctimonious scumbag. In Doolittle’s case, it is the devout Mormon with a highly selective ethical compass, which since the very beginning of his career consistently has drawn out such a continuous avalanche of animus toward him.

From Doolittle’s perspective, there must have been some considerable measure of spite and vengeful malice that motivated him and bridged the contradiction in his character. While many of the 1960s youth were struggling for political and cultural and personal liberation, the teen-aged Johnny Doolittle was dreaming of Richard Nixon. When he graduated as a history major from UC Santa Cruz in 1972, the town of Santa Cruz voted 96 percent for George McGovern. In the 1970s, while South America was in the throes of overcoming a century of colonialism and imperialism, Doolittle landed in Argentina as a Mormon missionary. Read the Doolittle-opoly.

In the Black(water)

JEREMY SCAHILL
June 5, 2006

Tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims remain without homes. The environment is devastated. People are disenfranchised. Financial resources, desperate residents are told, are scarce. But at least New Orleans has a Wal-Mart parking lot serving as a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center with perhaps the tightest security of any parking lot in the world. That's thanks to the more than $30 million Washington has shelled out to the Blackwater USA security firm since its men deployed after Katrina hit.

Mom irate; son says teacher kept denying restroom permission

By Bobby Caina Calvan - Bee Staff Writer

Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, April 27, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

[...]

The teacher, the youth said, had declined 20 minutes of repeated requests for a hall pass to use the restroom.

The teacher threatened him with suspension if he left the classroom, said Patterson, 14, who carries a B average in the school's Gifted and Talented Education program.

So [Michael] Patterson, [an eighth-grader at Goethe Middle School] ... an empty Gatorade bottle in hand, went to a corner of the classroom, his back turned to his classmates, and urinated.

"I was embarrassed," he said, recounting the Tuesday incident.

His mother is furious. So is the NAACP.

First what it does. And then how it ties in with the previous posts

The new Terror Czar legislation

Negotiations by Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to create a new California "security czar" drew fire from an unexpected quarter - the American Civil Liberties Union. ...

At issue is a provision in draft legislation that civil libertarians say offers a broad definition of terrorist activity which could lead to sweeping powers for state officials. As written, the bill defines terrorist activity as any activity that "involves an act that is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure," violates any criminal law and "appears intended to intimidate or coerce the civilian population."

"As written, the bill defines terrorist activity as any activity that ... is ... potentially destructive

This just gets deeper and deeper. Now it comes out that they're forcing this through the local planning process.

About a third of the way down ...

The facility would house as many as 360 instructors and students at any given time, in a town of only 840. Remarkably, the project has already been approved by the Potrero planning group (an advisory body) in a 7-0 vote last December. Not that all members of the planning group support Blackwater mind you.

Jan Hedlun is the lone Potrero planner opposing the project. Elected in November, Hedlun didn't vote at the December meeting because she says she wasn't told she was eligible. "I'm in the middle of a battle," Hedlun said. "I am a lamb in a lion's den. They're pushing this through quicker than anything I've ever heard in my entire life."

The San Diego Reader concurs, calling it an "ambush." While Blackwater was busy laying the groundwork gaining the support they'd need to get the OK from the planning group during much of last year, the public wasn't informed of the plan until October.

The planning for this assault was well down the road before Potrero citizens even knew about it. "They have been trying to build support without notifying anybody here," says resident Carl Meyer. "I have proof that since May they [Blackwater] have been meeting privately with Department of Planning and Land Use personnel. They have been trying to get standards lowered" in noise, roads, and other parts of the plan.

Not even Representative Bob Filner, in whose district the training camp would reside, was immune from the ambush. According to The San Diego Union Tribune: