Northern California

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

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

Another evacuation ordered in Pacifica

Henry K. Lee,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 21, 2010
(01-21) 11:13 PST Pacifica --

Several residents at a seaside Pacifica apartment building were ordered to evacuate this morning because of an eroding bluff that has already forced the red-tagging of the structure next door.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received a briefing on the status of Eureka earthquake recovery efforts as the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force was holding its meeting in Crescent City on January 14.

Schwarzenegger Tours Earthquake Damage As MLPA Proceeds on Fast Track

Salmon Returns Down At Coleman, Up at Other Central Valley Hatcheries

by Dan Bacher

In the coming weeks, biologists will be compiling the statistics on the 2009 fall-run Chinook salmon returns on Central Valley rivers as the state and federal fishery agencies prepare to develop the fishing regulations for the 2010 salmon season.

Based on preliminary estimates, Sacramento River Chinook salmon counts for the fall of 2009 are down and could be headed to another all time low, according to Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish.

The numbers of fish that returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery, the Central Valley’s largest salmon producer, were down considerably from even last year's dismal run, while salmon numbers were up from 2008 at the Nimbus, Feather River and Mokelumne River fish hatcheries. The complete numbers of salmon that spawned naturally in the rivers, based on carcass surveys, are not available yet.

“State water mismanagement continues to spiral the populations downward," said Pool. “It is clear that the over pumping of water from the California Delta and the failure to protect fish in the state's water policies are to blame. A 2010 salmon fishing season is in question again."

by John Lewallen, only one member, Public Ocean Access Network, oceannetwork [at] mcn.org

There has to be another word to define the “foundation-funded corporations” such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which calls itself an “environmentalist” organization. Created by oil money and awash in Pew Charitable Trust funds, the NRDC brings big oil’s agenda wherever it operates.

On California’s North Coast, the NRDC is working in tandem with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation to make sure the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) gets the Foundation-preferred alternatives enacted on tight schedule.

All twelve links will open in this window, so be sure to click the back button to come back

Taser abuse videos

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=police+taser+abuse&search_ty...
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Federal appellate court limits cops' use of Tasers

A federal appeals court on Monday issued one of the most comprehensive rulings yet limiting police use of Tasers against low-level offenders who seem to pose little threat and may be mentally ill.

In a case out of San Diego County, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals criticized an officer who, without warning, shot an emotionally troubled man with a Taser when he was unarmed, yards away, and neither fleeing nor advancing on the officer.

Sold as a nonlethal alternative to guns, Tasers deliver an electrical jolt meant to subdue a subject. The stun guns have become a common and increasingly controversial tool used by law enforcement.

There have been at least nine Taser-related fatalities in the Sacramento region, including the death earlier this month of Paul Martinez Jr., an inmate shot with a stun gun while allegedly resisting officers at the Roseville jail.

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2425481.html
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Sacramento Sheriff McGinness defends Taser use after ruling

http://www.sacbee.com/crime/story/2427227.html
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Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?

http://www.aclusac.org/node/196
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Death reignites Taser debate

Over the weekend, a Sacramento man joined the growing tally of people who have died after police attempted to subdue them with Tasers.

There's a war going on - bet you didn't know it was here in the West. Watch this video

More info here

Wild Horses Shot To Death Near Calif.-Nev. Border

RENO, Nev. -- Investigators are looking into the suspected shooting deaths of a group of wild horses in Nevada and the possibility the case could be linked to heated debate over the future of mustangs in the West.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman John Dearing said Friday that five horses died of apparent gunshot wounds, while the cause of death of a sixth horse nearby was unknown.

The bodies were found Saturday on public land along the Nevada-California border in Washoe County, about 120 miles north of Reno. Authorities believe the animals had been dead for about two weeks.

[...]

You ever wonder why there doesn't seem to be any money for parks or libraries or schools or police or firefighters and why they have to close clinics? But they have a $40 million gift for somebody who doesn't even live here

The high-end retailer is supposed to be a key player in the K Street renovation, which has already cost the city about $40 million in property-acquisition costs. Joe Zeiden, Z Gallerie's founder and president, has spearheaded similar developments in San Diego and Pasadena.

And can't even run a business

Now the company, based in Gardena, is retrenching. Twenty-one stores closed last month, the retailer said in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers, and three more are expected to close soon. The shutdown lists don't include the two Sacramento-area stores, at Downtown Plaza and Roseville's Fountains shopping center.

And this is just one instance. What they could have done is loan 20 people who actually live here $2 million each, to hire and employ people who actually live here and spread that money around in the local economy, but no, the geniuses get worked again

Los Angeles Corporate Welfare: Ritz-Carlton and AEG

Rich entities siphon taxpayer money while real communities struggle

Take A Stand Event Against MLPA A Big Success
by Dan Bacher

Local environmentalists, fishermen, seaweed harvesters, Native Americans and other supporters of environmental justice showed in force at the "Take A Stand Concert and Seafood Tasting" against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process in Albion, Mendocino County, on September 22. Over 500 people attended, enjoyed great music, and won lots of raffle prizes.

More: Stop Nestlé Waters; Cosmo Garvin - Going against the flow; Source Watch; Atty. Gen. Brown Warns Nestlé Of Legal Challenge To (McCloud) Water Bottling Plant; All Bottled Up: Nestlé’s Pursuit of Community Water; and last but not least, click the top picture for the trailer to Tapped, the Movie review here

What Nestle doesn’t want you to know about its plans to open a water bottling plant in Sacramento

• Nestlé and the City of Sacramento worked hard to quietly fast-track this project so Nestlé could open its South Sacramento bottling plant by January 2010. The project was only announced in a brief back page article in the Sacramento Bee at the end of July.

• While Sacramento residents are required to abide by city-imposed water restrictions, Nestlé would be able to siphon water from our municipal water supply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. According to one staff member at the Economic Development Department, the only limit on the amount of water Nestlé can pump is the size of their pipes.

• Nestlé claims the Sacramento plant would be a “micro-bottling plant,” bottling only 50 million gallons of water per year. However, according to the Department of Utilities, the estimated water usage is 215 thousand – 320 thousand gallons of water per day (78 – 116 millions per year). This would make Nestlé one of the top ten water users in Sacramento at a time when we are in our third consecutive year of a drought.

• According to Nestlé, approximately 30 million gallons of water would come from Sacramento’s municipal water system and 20 million would be trucked to the plant from “private springs.” City staff have refused to answer questions about the springs and Nestlé has provided no information about their location, other than telling the Sacramento News & Review that they are somewhere in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

  

• Bottling 50 million gallons of water a year would create 800 million water bottles annually. It takes over 400,000 barrels of oil to produce that much plastic. Only 14% of plastic bottles get recycled – the rest end up not only in our landfills, but also in our forests, streams, and oceans.

• The diesel fuel required to truck 20 million gallons of water from the “nearby springs” to Sacramento and 800 million bottles across the state is enormous. Diesel truck emissions contain carbon dioxide and diesel soot, which both contribute to global warming. Diesel exhaust also contributes to air contamination, which is known to cause cancer and other health problems.

• Nestlé would take our tap water and sell it back to us after marking it up over 1,000 times what they paid for it. If Nestlé is allowed to build a water bottling plant in Sacramento, they can take as much water as they want, for as long as they want, without any limits or accountability.

• Water is becoming scarcer as the population grows and the drought continues. The water in Sacramento should be for the plants, animals and humans in this region to live on, not for big companies to amass enormous wealth. If Nestlé is allowed to build this plant, we give up even more control of our water for as long as that plant exists. The City says that Nestlé has a right to move here. Shouldn’t Sacramentans have a right to a secure water supply?

**MEDIA ADVISORY***

Delta Activists Protest Sham Bay-Delta Conservation Plan Water Meeting

Delta Community Groups Gather to Have Voices Heard

SACRAMENTO – Delta activist groups will gather at the Martin Luther King Park in Stockton on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 to protest the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) water meeting, taking place across the street at the Civic Auditorium later that afternoon.

WHO: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta

WHAT: Delta Water Policy Press Conference and Rally

WHERE: Martin Luther King Park (across from the Civic Auditorium)
Stockton, CA

WHEN: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
3:00 p.m.

Loving Couple Divorces To Stay Afloat Financially

For Mary McCurnin and husband Ron Bednar, money trouble has followed health trouble. In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery.

Now, after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living expenses, they're broke. To improve their chances of growing old together, they've filed for divorce.

"It occurred to me that I could get my first husband's Social Security," said McCurnin. Her first husband, to whom she'd been married 20 years, died in 1989. When she turns 60 in November, McCurnin said she will be eligible for $1,200 in monthly survivor's benefits from the previous marriage. As the Social Security Administration told her, she can't have the survivor benefit if she's married to someone else.

The Rancho Cordova, Calif. couple has been scraping by with the occasional freelance gig -- both are graphic artists -- and Bednar brings in $1,000 a month in Social Security benefits. They haven't made a payment on either of their mortgages in two months and fully expect a foreclosure. McCurnin told the Huffington Post that they don't bother opening mail from their credit card companies, to whom they owe at least $10,000.

McCurnin said she suspects their horrendous credit is a huge obstacle to either of them landing a job, and Bednar talks about the "gray wall" that faces perfectly qualified older workers.

"We literally live from week to week," said McCurnin. "We got $300 in the bank."