The massive federal pumps that export water from the California Delta to agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley entrained (trapped) over 370,000 threadfin shad, a major forage species on the Delta, in one week.

On one day, October 16, Bureau of Reclamation biologists observed 250,000 shad in collection buckets in the pumping facilities. After collecting the buckets, the federal workers put the fish into a tanker truck and released them into the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

“We were able to salvage most of the fish and get them back into the Delta,” observed Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, dismissing an earlier media report that some of the fish had to be buried.

McCracken said the large number of shad being taken in one week occurred when large schools of shad moved into the area of the Delta pumps, resulting in the entrainment of the introduced species.

Water Contractors Blame Striped Bass for Decline of Delta Smelt, King Salmon!

by Dan Bacher

The state water contractors, under their organization "Coalition for a Sustainable Delta," are playing hardball. They now want to blame the striped bass for the decline of delta smelt, steelhead, king salmon and other fish in the California Delta in order to divert blame from the state and federal export pumps, even though the striped bass successfully coexisted with native species for over 125 years.

The Coalition on October 25 filed a Notice of Intent to sue the California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) and the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) for "violating" the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). "State sport fishing regulations protect the non-native striped bass, a known predator of several native endangered and threatened species including the Delta smelt," according to the Coalition's press release.

“It is extremely counter productive for the state to implement programs that protect a known predator of federally protected threatened and endangered species at a time when federal courts are ordering significant cutbacks in water pumping operations to protect the same species,” said Michael Boccadoro, spokesperson for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta. “It not only doesn’t make sense, it clearly violates federal law.” '

The Department of Water Resources, in the face of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta food chain crash, is proposing to adopt State Water Project amendments, called the Monterey Amendments." These agreements, negotiated in secret by DWR in 1994, would prove disastrous to the Bay-Delta estuary ecoystem if permanently adopted. They would give away the largest water storage facility in the state and encourage the overpumping of Delta water in the winter and spring months. Overpumping has resulted in the massive decline of delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass, chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon and other California Delta fish populations.
For immediate release October 26, 2007

PRESS STATEMENT

State proposes to give away water resources
Monterey Amendments Draft EIR Released

Sacramento- Despite the recent crisis in the Delta and the Governor’s push for new dams, last week the Department of Water Resources (DWR) proposed to give away the largest water storage facility in the state and to eliminate drought safeguards for urban areas in California.

DWR’s draft decision, revealed in the Monterey Plus Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (http://www.des.water.ca.gov/mitigation_restoration_branch/rpmi_section/projects/index.cfm), would require the State to permanently adopt State Water Project contract amendments, called the “the Monterey Amendments,” negotiated in secret by DWR in 1994.

Where's the National Guard, Arnold?

Two stories: First a story on how the Ca. N.G. knew of and warned of equipment and manpower shortages because of Iraq - which Governor Dumbell talked about but did nothing; and the second is the whole article I posted about here

CA Guard Warned Of ‘Less Effective Response’ To Fires Due To Equipment Shortages Caused By Iraq

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last May that the California National Guard had been depleted and warned that severe “equipment shortages could hinder the guard’s response to a large-scale disaster,” such as a “major fire”:

In California, half of the equipment the National Guard needs is not in the state, either because it is deployed in Iraq or other parts of the world or because it hasn’t been funded, according to Lt. Col. John Siepmann. While the Guard is in good shape to handle small-scale incidents, “our concern is a catastrophic event,” he said.

“You would see a less effective response (to a major incident),” he said.

At a press conference five months ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) echoed these concerns, stating, “A lot of equipment has gone to Iraq, and it doesn’t come back when the troops come back.” The Chronicle reported that the California National Guard was missing about $1 billion worth of equipment.

Now, as 14 major wildfires rage across the state, those earlier warnings are materializing. While California currently has approximately 1,500 Guardsmen serving in Iraq, the strains on the disaster response teams are compounded by the missing personnel and equipment.

This is from June after the Tahoe fire. Where's the National Guard Arnold?

Arnold's Katrina? Governor vetoed bills to strengthen fire departments

by: djardin
Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 12:28:35 PM PDT

(Although this is from June, it is clearly relevant to this week's events. - promoted by Robert in Monterey)

As the Tahoe fire kicks off an extremely dangerous fire season, the Governor's budget-cutting has left the state's fire departments woefully short on recommended equipment and staff.

On May 20, 2007, the Los Angeles Times ran an article, Fire danger acute as '03 lessons fade, detailing the failure of the state to act on recommendations stemming from the worst wildfires in the state's history.

The article lays out many recommendations by Schwarzenegger's Blue Ribbon Fire Commission that have not been funded. Many of them are mission critical.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 13 vetoed AB 1032, the suction dredging bill supported by a broad coalition of fishing organizations and California Indian Tribes. The bill would have empowered the California Department of Fish and Game to take additional steps to protect endangered salmon, steelhead and trout against certain types of motorized gold mining activities in sensitive habitat on the Klamath, Salmon, Feather, American and other rivers.

This veto occurs within the context of Governor's increasing attacks on California's fisheries and ecosystems. The same Governor that vetoed this legislation is pushing a $9 billion water bond that would build two new dams, expand an existing reservoir and build an environmentally destructive peripheral canal. This water grab would result in the destruction of the California Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, and devastate its rapidly declining populations of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, steelhead trout, chinook salmon, green sturgeon and other fish.

Here is the press release about the veto of AB 1032 from California Trout, followed by the Governor's veto message:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 13, 2007
CONTACT: Severn Williams, California Trout
510-336-9566, C 415-336-9566

GOVERNOR PRIORITIZES GOLD MINING OVER ENDANGERED TROUT AND SALMON; VETOES AB 1032

Sacramento, CA - It's been thirteen years since the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) updated its regulations regarding instream mining activities. Since that time, multiple fish species, from the coho salmon to the Paiute cutthroat trout, have seen rapid declines and been placed on state and federal listings for threatened and endangered animals.

AB 1032 (Wolk), vetoed today by Governor Schwarzenegger, would have empowered DFG to take additional steps to protect these endangered fish against certain types of motorized gold mining activities in sensitive habitat. The law would have applied only to mechanical suction dredging and would not have affected recreational gold panning activity.

So, I'm reading orcinus and run across an interesting post from Dave with some not very well known facts about the mindset of the people behind the killing of Satender Singh; he links to this article from Casey Sanchez of The Southern Poverty Law Center. I'm going to pick out a few paragraphs below which are relevant to Sacramento ...

The Latvian Connection

The Watchmen
Gay rights activists blame Singh's death on what they call "The West Coast connection" or the "U.S.-Latvia Axis of Hate," a reference to a virulent Latvian megachurch preacher who has become a central figure in the hard-line Slavic anti-gay movement in the West. And indeed, in early August, authorities announced that two Slavic men, one of whom had fled to Russia, were being charged in Singh's death, which they characterized as a hate crime.

A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in the Sacramento Valley is centered among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking immigrants. Many of them are members of an international extremist anti-gay movement whose adherents call themselves the Watchmen on the Walls. In Latvia, the Watchmen are popular among Christian fundamentalists and ethnic Russians, and are known for presiding over anti-gay rallies where gays and lesbians are pelted with bags of excrement. In the Western U.S., the Watchmen have a following among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Members are increasingly active in several cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

The Alarming Parallels Between 1929 and 2007

Has deregulation left the economy at risk of another 1929-scale crash? Should the Fed keep bailing out speculators? Robert Kuttner testified yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee.

Robert Kuttner | October 2, 2007

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Robert Kuttner. I am an economics and financial journalist, author of several books about the economy, co-editor of The American Prospect, and former investigator for the Senate Banking Committee. I have a book appearing in a few weeks that addresses the systemic risks of financial innovation coupled with deregulation and the moral hazard of periodic bailouts.

In researching the book, I devoted a lot of effort to reviewing the abuses of the 1920s, the effort in the 1930s to create a financial system that would prevent repetition of those abuses, and the steady dismantling of the safeguards over the last three decades in the name of free markets and financial innovation.

Your predecessors on the Senate Banking Committee, in the celebrated Pecora Hearings of 1933 and 1934, laid the groundwork for the modern edifice of financial regulation. I suspect that they would be appalled at the parallels between the systemic risks of the 1920s and many of the modern practices that have been permitted to seep back in to our financial markets.

Although the particulars are different, my reading of financial history suggests that the abuses and risks are all too similar and enduring. When you strip them down to their essence, they are variations on a few hardy perennials -- excessive leveraging, misrepresentation, insider conflicts of interest, non-transparency, and the triumph of engineered euphoria over evidence.

Two stories: First, a story on the potential votes of women and how they could effect all elections, and second, how military moms could effect the outcome of the next election.

Millions of Women Still Fail to Cast Ballots

By Jacqueline Lee
Women's eNews

Tuesday 07 August 2007

US women mark their 87th year of suffrage under the 19th Amendment on August 26. But millions of women remain stubbornly disenfranchised by factors such as under representation, social instability and culture gaps.

In "Election Day," a documentary about the experiences of voters in the 2004 election, an Ohio woman is shown having trouble casting her ballot. She had moved, and despite re-registering, went to three different poll locations because her name didn't appear on the books.

"The woman in Shaker Heights is carrying her small child in the morning and she had been getting the runaround and go-around, going from one polling place to the next," said Maggie Bowman, producer of "Election Day," released in March. "A lot of the challenges faced by working people in general are more extreme for working women."

After his water bond bill was defeated by the State Senate this afternoon in a party line vote, Senator Don Perata announced that he will file papers with the Attorney General to place his measure as an initiative on the November ballot. It is expected that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Senator Dave Cogdill will also attempt to place their environmentally destructive competing bond measure on the November ballot. The Schwarzenegger-Cogdill water bond would build two new reservoirs, expand one existing reservoir and support the construction of a peripheral canal to increase water water exports to subsidized agribusiness and corporate water developers. If the Schwarzenegger and Cogdill measure ever becomes law, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's fish and ecosystem will be destroyed.


Senator Perata Vows to Pursue Initiative after Water Bond Fails to Pass Senate

by Dan Bacher

(Sacramento) The State Senate today (October 9) defeated legislation by Senate President pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) to place a $6.8 billion water bond, supported by a broad coalition of fishing and conservation groups, on the February 2008 ballot.

After the defeat, Perata announced that he would file papers with the Attorney General’s office to put his measure on the November ballot.

The “battle of the water bonds” has erupted at the State Capitol over the past two weeks after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in September called for a special legislative session to push through his health care and water bond legislation. The Governor’s competing water bond proposal (SB3xx), sponsored by Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto), provides funding for the construction of two new reservoirs and the expansion of one reservoir and supports the building of a peripheral canal.

Perata’s Safe Drinking Water Act of 2008, SB2xx, fell four votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority required for passage, according to Alicia Trost of Senator Perata’s office. The vote was 23 to 12 - and 27 yes votes were required to pass the bill. No Republican Senator voted to support the measure.

Restore the Delta Supporters Turn Out in Force for Water Bond Hearing

by Dan Bacher

The Senate Resources and Water Committee yesterday approved Senator Don Perata's water bond measure, SB2xx, and voted down Senator Dave Cogdill's SB3xx, the Governor's $9 billion water bond. This committee vote is a big victory for opponents of the peripheral canal and the Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs, since Codgill's measure would fund these two new dams, expand Los Vaqueros Reservoir and support the construction of a delta canal.

"The Schwarzenegger-Cogdill Bill allocates nearly $2 billion to increase pumping of freshwater from the Delta, which has already been decimated by freshwater diversions," according to an analysis by Friends of the River.

"The Governor's proposal guarantees more water to Californians, but provides no specific guarantees of water for Delta and Central Valley fish," said Dick Pool, of Water 4 Fish, a coalition of fishing groups. "In contrast, Perata's bill focuses on restoring the Delta and its fish."

Fish Groups and Indian Tribes Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to Sign Suction Dredge Gold Mining Bill

by Dan Bacher

A coalition of Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups and conservationists is urging Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign AB 1032, a bill that would empower the California Department of Fish and Game to regulate suction dredge gold mining in California rivers.

The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Lois Wolk in February, passed through the Assembly and Senate and was sent to Governor Schwarzenegger on September 12. The Governor can sign the bill, veto it or let it sit for on his desk for 30days, at which time it becomes law.

While suction dredge mining is heavily regulated in other states including Oregon, California suffers from surprisingly slack regulations. Harm to sensitive salmon and trout habitat is caused by the environmentally destructive motorized suction dredge mining that stirs up sediment and sends turbidity plumes down sections of river. The bill would:

.

The first is on SCHIP and the second is on the hi-jacking of the California healthcare plans by the insurance industry

Send a message to Congress about SCHIP here, or here

Send a free fax to your legislators about California healthcare here

Federal Court Hearing About Central Valley Salmon

Judge Oliver Wanger will be holding a hearing in Fresno today to review the merits of a case filed by a coalition of commercial and recreational fishing groups, conservation organizations and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. The coalition filed suit in federal court in 2005 challenging a long-term plan to strip away habitat protections from five imperiled species of salmon and steelhead to allow for increases in water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast.

While delta smelt are on the edge of extinction because of massive increases in state and federal water exports in recent years, Central Valley salmon and steelhead are also in rapid decline because of export pumping increases from the California Delta. Here is the press release from Earthjustice:


Media Advisory
Contact:
Brian Smith, Earthjustice 510-550-6700

Central Valley Salmon Runs at Risk
Federal Court Hearing - Wednesday, October 3, 9:00 am - Fresno

The California Senate water bond hearing scheduled for October 4 has been rescheduled for Monday, October 8, at 1 p.m., according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta. If you want to stop Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from building his peripheral canal and more dams and want to save delta smelt and imperiled salmon, please attend this important hearing!

Dear Restore the Delta Supporters,

The Natural Resources and Water subject hearing scheduled for October 4, 2007 has been rescheduled for Monday, October 8th at 1 p.m. or upon the Call of the Chair. This means that the hearing could begin as early as 9:00 a.m. Restore the Delta suggests that supporters arrive early, pack snacks, and bring either a good novel, or knitting. There is a cafeteria within the Capitol.

The meeting will be in room 4203 in the Capitol. The hearing will be on the following bonds: SBX2 1 (Perata), SBX2 2 (Perata), SBX2 3 (Cogdill), SBX2 4 (Cogdill), and SBX2 5 (Wiggins).

Here's the latest word on Lake Davis from the Department of Fish and Game:

DFG Continues Fish Collection and Cleanup at Lake Davis After Completing Treatment to Eradicate Northern Pike

Oct. 1, 2007 - Contact: Steve Martarano, DFG Office of Communications, (916) 804-1714 - Project Information Line: (530) 832-4754

PORTOLA – The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has finished chemically treating Lake Davis and all tributary streams, officials said. Meanwhile, DFG workers on Monday continued to collect and sample dead fish from both the reservoir and those washing ashore.

“We will continue to collect fish and monitor the chemicals as they break down in the reservoir,” said Ed Pert, the Lake Davis Pike Eradication Project manager. “The treatment phase of the project, which began on Sept. 10, went very well. We feel that all of the planning and preparation that went into this effort has really paid off.”

DFG workers have collected an estimated 41,000 pounds of fish. The collected fish are bagged, put into a refrigerated truck and then transported by a Plumas County disposal company to a landfill near Reno, NV. Of the number of fish collected, about 8 percent sampled have been northern pike. The vast majority of fish collected – about 75 percent -- have been brown bullheads. Rainbow trout collected have made up less than 1 percent of the total. Other species found in the reservoir include largemouth bass, golden shiner, and pumpkinseed sunfish. The dead fish pose no danger to wildlife, such as herons and coyote, which are scavenging in the area. The water is also safe for wildlife to drink.

Electoral initiative backers give up

Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.

In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds.

The reality is hundreds of thousands of signatures must be gathered by the end of November to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot.

---

Texas Hypocrisy

Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle (R) says she is concerned about the same person voting twice at the polls, so she is trying to pass a law requiring that anyone who wants to vote must have a photo ID. Another Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would "criminalize anyone who delivers a ballot for someone unable to drive to the polls."

Here's a video showing Rep. Riddle and many of her fellow representatives voting twice on the same issue in the legislature.

Later in the video, Riddle explains why its OK for her to cast ballots in other people's names: "We have a lot of votes. We have a lot of amendments. And there's times where we don't break for lunch, and we don't break for dinner, we don't have bathroom breaks."

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

The Governor's water bond proposal, sponsored by Senator Cogdill, Senator Ackerman and Assemblymember Villines, is not only a water grab that would destroy the ecosystem, but it is also "a full attack on the people, history, and culture of the five-county California Delta region," according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta. The coalition is instead supporting SB 1002, Senator Perata’s bill to provide $611 million to improve Delta habitat and infrastructure, including much needed repairs for levees that protect Delta residents, and the drinking water supply for our neighbors in other parts of the state.

The organization is also backing Senator Perata's water bond that seeks to promote regional water self-sufficiency and Delta restoration without providing the means for a peripheral canal ("conveyance system") that would result in the "final deathblow" to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest and most environmentally significant estuary on the West Coast. I urge you to send letters in support of Perata's two bills, since an entire ecosystem is at stake!

Dan

Delta Flows – Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta for the Week of September 24, 2007

“The robb’d that smiles steals something from the thief.”
--from Othello by William Shakespeare

Robbing the Delta of Fresh Water and Delta Water Users of their Rights to Delta Water

Restore the Delta staff has been working with other groups and statewide organizations to decipher what is happening with legislative proposals regarding water bonds and legislation during this season’s special legislative session.

State issues warning on lunch boxes

The promotional items handed out by health officials may contain elevated levels of lead.

By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:46 PM PDT, September 20, 2007

More than 50,000 lunch boxes given out by the state as part of its nutrition education effort may contain elevated levels of lead and the public should stop using them, officials said today.

The California Department of Public Health said testing found increased lead levels in three lunch boxes, which were made in China. They are green canvas and bear a logo that says, "Eat fruits & vegetables and be active." Officials urged the public to stop using the roughly 56,000 such boxes that have been handed out at health fairs and other events.