California wild salmon harvest continues to dwindle with drought

Saving California

• As a Conservative John Muir conservationist I believe we need to protect our environment and food supply.  It disgusts me to see both parties put temporary gain ahead of long term planning.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  It’s still a little too early to tell for sure, but the news on the California wild salmon front is not good. A combination of low water levels in streams because of the drought and high summer temperatures resulted in a massive die-off of young salmon in Northern California.

This week the California Department of Fish and Game, in cooperation with its federal counterparts, will begin releasing young hatchery trout into tributaries of the Sacramento River. That’s something that happens almost every year, but this time the number of young salmon being released is three times the average.

More than 600,000 Chinook salmon fry are being released below Keswick Dam on the Sacramento River after biologists say warm water killed 95% of the existing salmon eggs this summer.

“We have never seen anything like this,” says Jordan Traverso of the Department of Fish and Game. “We’ve been experiencing bad years because of the drought, so we were prepared. In this particular instance, without hatchery production, there would be very, very few naturally spawned winter-run salmon in 2017.”

California salmon have had a rough several years. Long a staple fishery, the number of fish caught plummeted because of a devil’s brew of issues including water allocation, drought and ocean conditions that reduced the amount of krill — similar to baby shrimp — that the salmon feed on.

The catch, which peaked at around 7 million pounds in 2003, dropped to a little more than 1 million in 2006 and for all intents and purposes vanished entirely from 2008 to 2010.

Read More . . . .

Just Because
Just because a businessman wants to farm in a desert or build water sucking homes and golf courses does not mean he has the right to drain dry the natural rivers and lakes of California leaving us a dry dust bowl.

California to spend millions against e-cigarettes

Follow The Money

• As a non-smoker I say screw all this crap.  But e-cigarettes are way too new for scientific studies to have been held on their dangers.  
• So I say follow the money.  The People's Republic spends millions on TV and radio ads for Obamacare, anti-smoking and other programs.  The media machine that controls what passes for news on our TV desperately wants that cold, hard cash.  The fear of the state pulling their ads from a TV station could easily influence what stories make it on the news.   

California plans to launch a statewide campaign warning citizens about the health risks of electronic cigarettes.

The campaign, which will include television and radio advertising, follows a report released on Wednesday by California health officials declaring electronic cigarettes a public health risk. The report urged lawmakers to regulate them like traditional cigarettes.

“We really, really believe strongly people of California need to know what is in e-cigarettes and the harm that they can cause,” said Dr. Ron Chapman, state health officer and director, California Department of Public Health. He added studies show e-cigarettes release a mix of more than 10 toxic chemicals, such as benzene and acetaldehyde, that can cause cancer reports the Wall Street Journal.

California is the biggest state to plan a public-education campaign warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes. Alaska is the only other state to have one.

Dr. Chapman said the California health department released its report on Wednesday in response to e-cigarettes’ growing profile and what he characterized as misinformation about their safety. The number of stores selling e-cigarettes in California quadrupled between 2011 and 2013, and now exceeds 7,000 retailers, according to the state.

E-cigarette advocates criticized the California report, saying it repeated false claims that would confuse people and discourage smokers from switching to e-cigarettes, which are widely accepted as less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

The insanity of liberalism:
Pot is OK

Democrats to tax you for each mile you drive

New Democrat Taxes

• The device in Oregon tracks mileage and gasoline consumption. They send the information electronically from the car to private contractors, which provides motorists with a monthly bill.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  State officials have begun to seriously study a plan to replace California's gas tax with a fee for each mile motorists drive.

"We're going to have to find another way to finance the upkeep of the roads," Gov. Jerry Brown said earlier this month in rolling out his 2015 budget, noting that California has a $59 billion backlog of maintenance needs on state highways and bridges.

Brown gave no specifics. But last fall he signed a law that set up a commission to study a "road usage charge" and establish a pilot program by Jan. 1, 2017. The 15-member commission had its first meeting on Friday in Sacramento.

The idea is far from reality, but it's raising a hornet's nest of practical and political questions, from how government would track the miles to what happens when people drive out of state or on private roads.

But it is gaining momentum. This year, Oregon is beginning a test program in which 5,000 volunteers will pay 1.5 cents per mile driven, and be refunded each month what they paid under the state's 30-cent gasoline tax. Colorado and Washington state also are studying similar pilot programs.

"I think there's a long way to go before this is implemented. But we have a real problem when it comes to infrastructure in California," said U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Richmond, who wrote the bill when he was a state senator. "We have to do something."

Silicon Valley is getting involved early.

The chairman of the California Transportation Commission, which chose the 15 members of the study panel, is Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Guardino said he wants the new commission, formally called the California Road Charge Pilot Program Technical Advisory Committee, to explore every angle, and receive wide public and media scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Oregon's transportation department announced this month it has signed a contract with a San Jose company, Azuga, that makes GPS tracking devices that plug in below a vehicle's dashboard.

The devices Oregon intends to employ track mileage and gasoline consumption. They send the information electronically from the car to private contractors like Azuga, which provides motorists with a monthly bill.

Read More . . . .

Free Condoms in San Francisco County Jail

Free Condoms For Everyone

(NPR)  -  There's an inconspicuous metal box mounted on the wall of the gym at San Francisco County Jail No. 4.

When Kate Monico Klein turns a knob, the machine releases a condom in a small cardboard packet. Machines like this one — dispensing free condoms — are installed in all of the county's male jails.

"We set [the machine] off to the side, so that people would have a minor amount of privacy," explains Monico Klein, director of HIV services for Jail Health, a division of the county's health department.

San Francisco has been distributing condoms to inmates in county jails for decades, but a new California law requires condoms to be made available to all state prisoners. California is the second state after Vermont to do so, even though sex between prisoners is unlawful here.

"I get about 10 of them every time," says Jail No. 4 inmate Robert Greve, with a laugh. He has been in and out of prison in several states, but this is the first time Greve has been locked up somewhere that provided condoms.

"Condoms are very good to have around, I think, you know? Because it's a lifesaving device," he says. "A lot of people don't care about their health, I think."

Let's Go To Prison

15 state community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees

Foothill College in Los Altos Hills will offer 4 year degrees.

Shock - California Does Something Smart!

• It is about time to crack the monopoly of the Cal State and UC system.  Personally, many of my teachers at L.A. valley College were better than my Cal State teachers.

(San Francisco Chronicle)  -  Jubilant education officials chose 15 community colleges on Tuesday — including two in the Bay Area — to be California’s first to offer bachelor’s degrees in high-need fields as part of a pilot program meant to boost the economy and help students avoid costly for-profit programs.

Sometime before fall 2017, colleges up and down the state will offer bachelor’s degrees for about $10,000 in such fields as automotive technology, bio-manufacturing, emergency services, airframe manufacturing and mortuary science — fields that are hiring but which need better-skilled workers, college officials said.

Foothill College in Los Altos Hills will offer dental hygiene, and Skyline College in San Bruno will offer respiratory care — and students are already excited about it.

“It’s time for us to advance in our profession,” said Heather Esparza, who helps sick babies breathe as a respiratory therapist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She has a string of life-and-death responsibilities and is licensed to teach doctors and nurses about resuscitating the sickest children — yet there is a hole in her own education.

“My New Year’s resolution was to get my bachelor’s degree,” Esparza said. “There’s a lot more to learn. I can’t wait.”

Brice Harris, the state’s community college chancellor, called it a “historic day in the history of our community college system,” as the system’s Board of Governors prepared to approve the 15 schools. Each will offer one bachelor’s program in areas of health, science and technology not already offered at the California State University or the University of California.

California joins 21 other states where community colleges offer bachelor’s degrees. The pilot program will run until 2023 and shakes up California’s Master Plan for Higher Education. For 54 years, the Master Plan has defined separate roles for the state’s three higher-education systems, with community colleges able to offer only two-year associate’s degrees or vocational certificates.

But as health, science and technology jobs demand more schooling, students have run into trouble: The only programs open to them are often for-profit schools where quality is uncertain and price tags are high.

“There aren’t enough public schools with cheap tuition to provide this kind of education, and students are being moved to private schools with very high tuition,” said Joseph Bielanski Jr., who serves on the Board of Governors.

So the new program “is a major step in keeping California’s higher-education system affordable and accessible while also keeping our state economically competitive in the future,” said Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, who wrote the bill signed into law in September.

Block, a former community college trustee whose earlier two efforts to create such a law never made it out of the Legislature, said he kept trying because studies show that California needs 1 million more workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2025.

Under the law, each college can offer a four-year degree program in one field and charge $84 per unit of upper-division course work. Lower-division courses will still cost $46 a unit.

Of the state’s 112 colleges, 34 competed to be in the program and submitted detailed applications in the fall. Those included the Bay Area’s Napa (respiratory therapy), Solano (bio-manufacturing), Laney in Oakland (sustainable facilities management) and Ohlone in Fremont (respiratory care).

In San Diego County, Oceanside's MiraCosta College plans to offer
a bio-manufacturing degree by 2017, which would include biotherapeutics,
diagnostics, supplies and industrial products. 

Source: NBC San Diego 

Is your hospital trying to kill you?

Idiots on Parade

Some hospitals are so poorly run that there appears 

to be no interest at all in improving themselves.

Why are administrators & doctors not fired?

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Consumers might think twice about dining at a restaurant with a poor health grade posted in the window. And patient advocates say it shouldn't be any different when going to the hospital.

A detailed look at performance data shows many California hospitals continue to struggle with medical errors and injuries to patients — despite industrywide efforts to remedy those problems.

"We know there are still far too many deaths due to medical errors and far too many patients harmed," said Missy Danforth, senior director of hospital ratings at Leapfrog Group, an employer-backed nonprofit that tracks healthcare quality. "Not all hospitals are the same."

Since 2012, Leapfrog has been analyzing information it collects as well as data reported to Medicare to issue hospital scores in California and nationwide. The percentage of A-rated hospitals in California reached 43% late last year — the seventh-highest rate among states nationwide. That was up from 40% two years ago.

Nationwide medical experts say about 400,000 lives are lost annually to hospital errors. One in every 25 hospital patients will contract a new infection during their stay, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Find your hospital on their great interactive map.
Read more at The Los Angeles Times

Then there are the hospitals that 

know what they are doing.

California to host 2nd of 9 GOP presidential primary debates

Nancy Reagan with 2012 GOP presidential candidates

Caifornia - The #2 Debate

• Primary?  Why?  So mouth-breathers can vote for the candidate with the most special interest purchased TV ads? 
• If the California GOP cares at all about reaching out to average voters (which they don't) they should have Iowa-like grass roots caucuses at every high school in the state.  Right-of-center voters can gather in person on a Tuesday night, debate the candidates and elect delegates to county conventions.  The county conventions in turn can meet and elect delegates to a state convention.  Have the state convention elect 75% of the delegates to the GOP national convention.
• This is called democracy and is great publicity for the party.  A chance to involve people at the local level in Conservative politics.  That is why it will never happen.  The Elites will lose control.

The Republican National Committee, seeking to minimize intraparty damage to GOP presidential contenders, announced nine primary debates for the 2016 election cycle.

California will have the second debate, planned for September at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and airing on CNN.

A statement released from the RNC’s winter meeting in San Diego said officials decided to limit the number of debates by sanctioning no more than one debate per state. Party leaders have said that the large number of debates during the last presidential cycle – as many as 27 – left eventual nominee Mitt Romney bruised and battered as he faced off against President Barack Obama reports the Sacramento Bee.

“By constructing and instituting a sound debate process, it will allow candidates to bring their ideas and vision to Americans in a timely and efficient way,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “This schedule ensures we will have a robust discussion among our candidates while also allowing the candidates to focus their time engaging with Republican voters.”

State GOP Chairman Jim Brulte added in a statement of his own that the timing of the debate here “is a testament to the role California will play in the upcoming 2016 election.” In 2011, the Simi Valley stage served as the backdrop for Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recent entry into the presidential race. Perry tussled with Romney and defended his remarks that Social Security amounted to a “Ponzi scheme” for future generations.

Two months later, in Rochester, Mich. Perry endured his painful “Oops” moment where he couldn’t remember the names of the government agencies he wanted to abolish.

.
Blast from the past 2012 cartoons

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article7019879.html#storylink=cp

Thousands of Illegal Aliens Get California Driver's Licenses

The DMV line for your drive's license starts at the border.

Bend Over California

More than 11,070 illegal aliens were issued California 

driver's licenses during the first full week.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is checking up on immigrants in the country illegally who are applying for driver's licenses to see if they had older licenses under different identities. But officials said Tuesday that they won't penalize applicants whose records are otherwise clean.

Undocumented immigrants living in California are now eligible for driver's licenses under a program that started on Jan. 2. Immigrant advocates say some applicants who previously held licenses under Social Security numbers that were not their own have been told they will need to meet with a DMV investigator.

Armando Botello, a spokesman for the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, said those applications are being checked against the agency's databases to prevent duplication and ensure drivers don't have outstanding traffic tickets reports KCRA News.

"The person shouldn't worry about documents, shouldn't worry about a previous record if the record is clean and if the license has not been used (...) to commit a major crime" such as identity theft, Botello told the Associated Press after a news conference about the licenses in Sacramento.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in 2013 to allow immigrants to drive in a program designed to improve road safety and make immigrants' lives easier.

The state expects to field 1.4 million applications for the licenses over the next three years. About 46,000 immigrants started applying in the first three days of the program.

Immigrant advocates have urged applicants who previously used someone else's Social Security number to obtain a driver's license to check with a lawyer before applying.

The California GOP should not run a candidate for Senate

Typical California GOP Candidate
(AP File Photo)

Bye-Bye GOP

• Kamala Harris declares for U,S, Senate.  Expect a GOP defeat.  Every election cycle the California GOP spirals lower and lower.  The party is nearly irrelevant in the state and well on its way to extinction.
• The GOP Should Dissolve Itself  -  Non-Democrat voters deserve a real opposition party in the state that is independent of the GOP baggage.  The GOP should not run candidates for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and for most State Assembly and State Senate districts.  The party has had its chance.
• Non-Democrat voters should form a new "California First Party" that represents the interest of our state and that is truly independent of the corrupt GOP Washington D.C. money machine.

(ABC News)  -  People's Republic of California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Tuesday that she is entering what is expected to be a crowded field in the 2016 race to replace Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate.

In her announcement, Harris, the first woman and the first minority to serve as California's top prosecutor, borrowed from the mantra Boxer often used during her campaigns in describing herself as a fighter.

"I will be a fighter for middle class families who are feeling the pinch of stagnant wages and diminishing opportunity," Harris said on a campaign website. "I will be a fighter for our children who deserve a world-class education, and for students burdened by predatory lenders and skyrocketing tuition. And I will fight relentlessly to protect our coast, our immigrant communities and our seniors."

Attorney General Kamala Harris
Declares for U.S. Senate

Harris, 50, a Democrat and former two-term San Francisco district attorney, is a friend of President Barack Obama's and attracted national attention when she helped negotiate a settlement with major mortgage lenders and secured extra funding for California. She has been widely viewed as an eventual candidate for governor or U.S. senator.

Harris' announcement came a day after a potential rival, California Lt. Gov. and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said he would not run for the open seat created by Boxer's retirement next year.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Tom Steyer, a retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire who sought to make climate change an issue in the midterm elections, are also considering bids for the seat that Boxer has held for over two decades. Democrats are well-positioned to retain the seat in a state where the party controls every statewide office and both chambers in the Legislature.

As the state's chief law enforcement officer, Harris has focused her crime-fighting efforts on cross-border gangs that she says are increasingly engaged in high-tech crimes such as digital piracy and computer hacking to target businesses and financial institutions.

Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and black father, was elected California attorney general in 2010.

Read More . . . .

The GOP Should Abolish Itself

 In the biggest GOP landslide in decades the California Republican Party lost one Congressional seat.  It now has only 14 Congressional seats out of 53.  The race for Governor and other statewide races were a joke.  Voters have stated they have no interest the Republicans.  It is time for the party to stand aside and not run candidates for most offices and allow a new and independent California First type party to form without the GOP baggage.

R

California gubernatorial general election, 2014
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jerry Brown (Incumbent)	4,388,368	59.97%
	Republican	Neel Kashkari	2,929,213	40.03%
Totals			7,317,581	100%

Newsom will not run for Boxer's Senate seat

Gavin Newsom, left, and his ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom

Translation:

Newsom probably figured he cannot raise the mega 

amounts of cash that will be spent on this race.

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that he will not run for the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), becoming one of the highest-profile Democrats to remove his name from consideration and clearing the way for state Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), a possible contender and close ally.

"It's always better to be candid than coy," Newsom said in a statement on his Facebook page. "While I am humbled by the widespread encouragement of so many and hold in the highest esteem those who serve us in federal office, I know that my head and my heart, my young family's future, and our unfinished work all remain firmly in the State of California — not Washington D.C. Therefore I will not seek election to the U.S. Senate in 2016."

The decision by Newsom, a rising star, will stoke fresh questions about whether Harris, another up-and-coming politician, will run. Newsom and Harris are close, leading some to conclude that they would not both enter the field reports the Washington Post.

With Newsom out of the picture, Harris will be regarded by many as an early frontrunner if she make a bid.

Newsom's name has also been mentioned as a potential candidate for governor in 2018.

Boxer, who has been in the Senate since 1993, announced last week that this would be her final term.

Other Democrats have expressed interest in running.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) said in a  Facebook post Sunday that he is weighing a run for Boxer's seat.

"The urgency of the needs of the people of this great state have convinced me to seriously consider looking at running for California's open Senate seat," he said.

Another possible Democratic candidate is billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, state Senate President Kevin de Leon and Facebook executive Sheryl Sandburg, all Democrats, have said they will not run for Boxer's seat.

Members of the state's large congressional delegation may also consider a run.

California uses an all-party primary system in which the top two vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

California Indian tribe to farm marijuana

Now "Racist" Marijuana Farms

• Only the Indian racial group is allowed to own a casino in the People's Republic of California.  All other races can be sent to jail for gambling.
• Now the Indian racial group will be given special government protection to grow pot while members of other races face stiff jail time.

(San Luis Obispo Tribune) — A tribe in Mendocino County plans to be the first tribe in the state to grow and distribute a large amount of medical marijuana.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported the announcement late last week by the 250-member Pinoleville Pomo Nation. The deal authorizes a Colorado-based investor, United Cannabis, and Kansas-based FoxBarry Farms to grow and distribute products from thousands of marijuana plants at the tribe's rancheria north of Ukiah.

FoxBarry president Barry Brautman says the operation will sell marijuana only for authorized medical users and dispensaries, in line with state law. The business will include a 2.5-acre indoor growing facility, due to be completed in February, the tribe said.

Many expect Californian voters to legalize recreational use of marijuana next year, joining at least four other states.

"The tribes are just getting out ahead of the game," Mendocino County Supervisor Dan Hamburg said.

The U.S. Justice Department said last month that Indian tribes can grow and sell marijuana on their lands as long as they follow the same federal conditions set for states that have legalized the drug. Mendocino County officials say the Pomo pot operation will be exempt from most state and all local regulations, since it is on tribal land.

Mendocino County officials said they were surprised by the tribe's announcement Thursday of the planned marijuana business. Hamburg, the county supervisor, said he was concerned about the size of the operation, and said indoor facilities like the one planned by the tribe have a bigger environmental impact than outdoor marijuana plots do.

"From an ecological perspective, that does not sit well with me," Hamburg said.

United Cannabis and FoxBarry say they plan to launch two more similar operations in California. They have not disclosed the intended locations.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/01/10/3435781/northern-california-tribe-plans.html#storylink=cpy