Blogs about the local area

11-09-09
GE News List

From: Laurel Hopwood, Chair
Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Action Team

To: Bill Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102

Dear Mr. Gates

Sierra Club, the world's largest grassroots conservation organization, has
concerns about your statement at the World Food Prize forum last month. You claimed that environmentalists opposed to genetic engineering of farm crops are against anything that increases yields.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Genetic engineering - the artificial splicing of genes into a completely
different species - does not increase crop yields, according to a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. One means to increase crop yields which does not pose risks to the environment is marker-assisted selection (MAS), a high-tech method of speeding up the process of conventional plant breeding.

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 The dilemma poses a test for Pelosi: will she stand with her favored Blue Dogs or go with the progressive/liberal majority of Democrats who want to solve the problem?

Are the leaders of the Democratic Party soulless or are they just stupid? Or does the problem lie with the people in these "suburban and rural districts" that keep reelecting Blue Dogs who sell out their constituents to health insurance companies and bankers? Who are these Blue Dogs, always whining about poverty in their districts and voting with the finance, insurance and real estate lobbyists?

Badlands Journal editorial board

 

11-13-09

The Nation/CommonDreams 
The Blue Dog: Money Man's Best Friend...William Greider
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/13-7

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Katherine Hart Johns, well known in Merced County for her unsuccessful defense the County's approval of the Riverside Motorsports Park environmental impact report, has been accused of corruption in her office as Vice Chair of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Shocking!

We sincerely hope that the alleged acts of malfeasance in office, if true, were caused by normal political-appointee exuberance at the public trough and not due to financial problems arising from Ms. Hart's involvement with the insolvent racetrack project.

Badlands Journal editorial board

 

 

11-12-09

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
“An Advocate for Fisheries, Habitat and Water Quality”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information
Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director: 209-464-5067, Cell 209-938-9053, deltakeep@aol.com
Richard McHenry, CSPA Dir. Of Compliance: 916-851-1500, Cell 916-801-1952

CSPA Files Complaint against Regional Board Vice Chair with Fair Political Practices Commission and Attorney General
Alleges violations of Political Reform Act, Water Code and Government Code

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11-07-09
Rep. Dennis Cardoza
Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California
Congressman Cardoza supports health care reform legislation 
Commitments for UC Merced Medical School funding will ease Valley physician shortage 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:  Mike Jensen
(202) 225-6131 
 http://www.house.gov/list/press/ca18_cardoza/PRHEALTHVOTE.html

 WASHINGTON, DC –  This evening, I voted for H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This bill is a historic and positive national step forward and offers the greatest improvement to the quality of health care for all Americans since the creation of Medicare. It will provide health insurance to 96 percent of our citizens. It stops the obscene insurance industry practice of denying people health care coverage due to “pre-existing” medical conditions. In the 18th  Congressional District, an estimated 107,000 more residents will qualify for affordable health care insurance. 

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There seems to have been an interesting speaker in town last week, Vaughn Grisham, director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at Ole Miss. The elite was there, led by Bob Carpenter, Mr. UC Merced. According to the local McClatchy Chain outlet, Grisham thought Merced had it made in the shade because of UC Merced. It made us wonder if that was his view, why he was invited at all to the sixth most economically stressed county in the nation with one of the three highest national foreclosure rates. But, apparently, Mr. UC Merced is now leading something called the Tupelo Committee of Merced County.

 

Prior to looking into Grisham and McLean, the editorial board only knew about Tupelo for two of its famous sons, Jimmy Rogers, the Singing Brakeman, and Elvis Presley, “T for Texas” and “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog (jest a-cryin’ all the time).”

 

George McLean was a great man. We’ve included some very inspiring material below about him and what he did in his lifetime in northeast Mississippi.

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Today, I wanted to share a sad story with you. It's about the breakup of a relationship.

As told with Beatles songs. Some are covers, but all were performed by the Beatles. Enjoy.

"Martha, my dear."
"Oh, Darling..."
"Love me do."
"I will."
"Why don't we do it in the road?"
"You can't do that!"
"Wait..."
"Leave my kitten alone!"
"I want you."
"I should have known better."
"Honey, don't!"
"All you need is love."
"Don't let me down."
"I'm so tired..."
"Tell me why."
"Because."
"That means a lot."
"You like me too much."
"It's only love!"
"We can work it out..."
"Hold me tight!"
*No reply*
"Julia..."
"What goes on?"
"Honey Pie!"
"Another girl?"
"Help!"
"How do you do it?"
"I want to tell you."
"Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey."
"She came in through the bathroom window. I saw her standing there."
"She loves you?"
"Tell me what you see."
"I've just seen a face."
"I'm a loser."
"Bad boy."
"Baby, it's you!"
"Don't bother me."
"I need you!"
"Getting better..."
"I wanna be your man!"
"If I needed someone..."
"I'm happy just to dance with you!"
"That'll be the day."
"I'll get you."
"When I'm 64!"
"I'll keep you satisfied."
"Boys."
"Any time at all."
"Get back."
"Long, long, long..."
"It won't be long."
"I'll be on my way."
"Good night."
"I lost my little girl..."
"You won't see me."
"I'll cry instead."


The End

Merced Alliance for Responsible Growth (MARG), Tom Grave, Kyle Stockard and Joel Knox filed suit against the Merced City Council and  Real Parties of Interest Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P., Wal-Mart Stores East, Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 28, 2009 in Merced Superior Court, according to the court’s register of actions.

 

The case number is CV000593.

 

The case will be heard by President Judge of Merced Superior Court John D. Kirihara.

 

The law firm of Lippe Gaffney Wagner LLP represent plaintiffs MARG, Grave, Stockard and Knox.

 

 

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Now, even with new legislation that will determine the future viability of Westlands’ critical import irrigation infrastructure, it seems inevitable that the political clout of the nation’s most powerful irrigation district will somehow prevail to perpetuate this culture of social, economic and natural inequity. – Carter, p. 40.

 

“Reaping riches in a wretched region:  Subsidized industrial farming and its link to perpetual poverty,” by Lloyd Carter, Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal, Symposium Edition, Fall 2009

http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary/environmental_law_journal/eljvol3/attachment/Carter.pdf

 

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10-29-09
Sacramento Bee
Sacramento let developers get jump-start before formal permits...Ryan Lillis
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2290221.html
For three years, the city of Sacramento has allowed developers to start work on their projects before receiving formal permits.
The practice, covered by the controversial Facilities Permit Program (FPP), is now part of an expanding city investigation into the operations of its Community Development Department.
That investigation was launched after city officials said the son of a city councilman improperly allowed new homes to be built in the Natomas flood zone – months before permits for those homes were issued.
Questions about the permit program surfaced this week after city officials determined that construction of a new Nestlé water bottling plant was permitted to start with a verbal approval and authorization letter – and not a formal building permit.
As a result, the FPP program was suspended Tuesday.
City Attorney Eileen Teichert said at Tuesday's City Council meeting that current work on the Nestlé plant began weeks before the building permit for the work is scheduled to be issued Nov. 10.

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The claims for economic, social and environmental justice are ultimately based a moral claim not to waste, oppress or despoil the biosphere. The idea is that if people rationally consider the arguments, they will go and do better in these areas. However, a completely different side of those arguments is provided by natural reality: the economy is based on oil, the quantity of oil is diminishing, therefore the economy will have to

change; systematic impoverishment of the working class destroys the market for the nation's industries and leads to sharper and sharper criticism of the rich and finally to social unrest; and impacts of accelerating global warming are themselves the greatest material argument for the existence of a grave environmental crisis.

 

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I would have killed for something like this when I was a kid. Well, okay, I would've killed for the Internet when I was a kid. But I saw that Marvel has a little create your own comic app on the Marvel Super Hero Squad site.

It's a pretty simple drag-and-drop design, and you can scale the graphics and word balloons. You even get a choice of cool comic fonts to use as well.

If you don't feel like you have an epic comic book story to tell, you can start with a single comic strip. I gave that a shot, and I was surprised how quickly you can put something together. Click to embiggen.




Yeah, I think we can see why I don't work for Marvel...

You old people like me may remember laboring over making a banner in Print Shop on your Apple II or your Commodore 64, picking the perfect graphic and selecting the right font, only for the damn thing to rip in half when you actually tried to hang it.

This is, of course, assuming you didn't accidentally tear it when you were taking off the pinfeeds.

Do you find yourself feeling oddly nostalgic when you hear the sound of a dot-matrix printer? I inherited our old Commodore 128 (we used it almost exclusively in C64 mode) and discs, and while I was moving the storage bin around the other day, I poked around the inside and found the old reference card for Print Shop.

There were a few years there in the mid-80s when I thought Hallmark was going to fold because I was making so many birthday cards myself. With eight fonts and 50 graphics, I'm surprised with the number of different cards, posters and banners I was able to make. And once we got Print Shop Companion, I had even more options.

My font of choice was Tech. Surprise, surprise. Least favorite: Party. Even to this day I hate that font--and fonts like it. I call it Dingleball.

And my favorite among the graphics? No. 26, the skull. I was told after a few times that while cool, it was not necessarily the best choice for birthday cards. Whatever.

Just looking at this thing brought back so many memories of spending time in front of my trusty Commodore or in front of one of the Apples in my junior high school's computer lab. I liked my Commodore better, of course, since it had a full-color monitor; those Apple monitors were a pain in the ass for me to see, either because they were overused or because of my mild color-blindness.

Plus, one of our neighbors down the street was an avid C64 junkie, and he'd hook my brother and me up with all sorts of games, from Space Taxi to Impossible Mission. It makes me wonder if in the future, my kids will look at the tech of today with a bit of nostalgic love, or if they'll regard it as just another ubiquitous appliance like a toaster.