John Sutter statue removed in Sacramento

Leftists Abolish California History

The article does not even get history correct

• Sutter became a citizen of Mexico.  He did not "lay claim" to land. He was given a land grant from the government of Mexico.

(AP)  -  A statue honoring a colonizer who laid claim to the land where the discovery of shiny flakes of gold sparked the California Gold Rush was removed Monday outside a hospital bearing his name in the state capital.

Several dozen people cheered as a work crew lifted the statue of John Sutter — a 19th century European colonizer of California who enslaved Native Americans — off its pedestal outside Sutter Medical Center in the latest reckoning of historical figures being removed from public display.

Across the U.S. and Europe, statues of Confederate officers and colonial figures are being toppled, sometimes forcibly by protesters, as the uproar over racism spreads after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“OK, he’s Sutter, but he’s a real son of a b——,” said Frank Condon, a playwright who was walking to a doctor’s appointment. He had marveled hours earlier that it was still standing and wondered why it hadn't been taken down.

Sutter, a European immigrant who had built a fort in Sacramento in the mid-1800s, had laid claim to land on the American River in Coloma about 35 miles (56 kilometers) away in the Sierra foothills. James Marshall, a carpenter, was building a mill there for Sutter when he discovered gold in 1848.

The two tried to keep it a secret, but word got out and men flocked to the foothills in search of their fortune.

In addition to the replica fort in downtown Sacramento that still bears his name across from the hospital, there is a county and several schools and streets named for Sutter across California.

“Out of respect for some community members’ viewpoints, and in the interest of public safety for our patients and staff, we are removing the John Sutter statue that was originally donated to Sutter General Hospital,” a Sutter Health spokesman said in a statement.

Sutter Health did not say whether it was considering removing Sutter’s name from the nonprofit hospital system.

Read More . . . .

Is your hospital trying to kill you?

Using an "A" to "F" grading system Hospital safety grade.org
publishes the safety scores for hospitals in California.

14 Hospitals penalized by California Department of Public Health

(Los Angeles Daily News)  -  More than a dozen California hospitals, including two in the San Fernando Valley, were fined nearly $1 million in penalties by the state’s health department for everything from failing to prevent patient deaths to causing serious injury during surgery.

Pacifica Hospital of the Valley, in Sun Valley, faces a $75,000 penalty because the facility failed to maintain exit alarms that could have prevented a patient from leaving his room and jumping from the roof to his death in 2013, according to an inspection report conducted by the California Department of Public Health. The fine was the hospital’s second “immediate jeopardy” administrative penalty.

State health inspectors said in their report a patient who was agitated was able to leave his room. He then “entered the stairwell and gained access to the roof top through the unlocked door (door alarm was not functioning), dropped from the roof top landing onto the patio concrete below causing his death.”

Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys was penalized $50,000 by state officials because a patient sustained burns on her right earlobe, right lower neck and right chest wall during a surgery in which a laser was used in a highly oxygenated room.

Requests for statements from officials at Valley Presbyterian and Pacifica Hospital went unanswered Friday.

Meanwhile, Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park also faces a $50,000 fine for “failing to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow procedures for safe distribution and administration of medication,” according to a statement issued by the department.

The penalty comes as a result of an incident at the hospital in November 2012 in which a nurse administered the incorrect medication to a pregnant mother. As a result, the baby’s heartbeat slowed abnormally, and the mother was forced to deliver via an emergency cesarean-section procedure.

The mistake put the unborn baby at risk for bleeding in the eye, irregular heartbeat, seizures and slow heartbeat, according to a department report.

Read More . . . .

San Francisco Bay Area

Hospital safety grade.org

Sacramento Area

Central Valley Area

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Los Angeles Area

Inland Empire Area

Hospital safety grade.org

Orange County Area

San Diego Area

Jerry Brown's Rape of the Sacramento Delta Moves Forward

The Sacramento Delta in a Jerry Brown wet-dream.

The Gang Rape of the Delta

"I'm not willing to sacrifice my land for somebody 

growing cotton in the desert."   

Chuck Baker, Delta Farmer

(San Luis Obispo Tribune)  -  Federal and California agencies have filed some of the first permit applications for a proposed project involving the construction of twin 30-mile tunnels to help carry water from the northern to southern and central regions of the state, officials said Thursday.

As part of the project promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown, the state Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation want approval to build three giant water intakes, each longer than three football fields, to draw water from the Sacramento River to feed through the tunnels.

The state Water Resources Control Board, which must approve or reject the request, expects to complete its review within two years, barring unforeseen developments, agency spokesman Timothy Moran said.

Brown and his administration have pushed for construction of the tunnels, which the state estimates will cost $17 billion, saying the current systems that carry water from the delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers are inefficient, outdated and vulnerable to earthquakes.

Southern California water agencies, which hope to obtain more water through the tunnels, have supported the project but not yet publicly submitted a financing plan.

State and federal authorities said they submitted the application to start the process but will expect an answer only after a final assessment of the project's impact on the delta, its habitats and wildlife.

Gov. Jerry Brown
(AP File Photo)

"The petition to the state water board begins a long process that includes public input," Nancy Vogel, spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources, said in an email.

Delta farmers, fishing groups and some environmental organizations have opposed the tunnels. They say removing water from the delta for the tunnels would destroy farms, wildlife and habitat that depend on the delta, one of the West Coast's largest estuaries.

The project currently is under public and federal review of its environmental impact.

Tunnel opponents say the state should wait for assessment of the environmental impact on the delta, and federal environmental approval of the overall project, before moving ahead.

Last week, tunnel opponents released an August 2014 plan by the state's contractor outlining plans to use eminent domain, if needed, to acquire land from delta farms for the project.

The land-acquisition plan and permit application "show these agencies consider the democratic process is just a side-show" when it comes to building the tunnels, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, head of the group Restore the Delta, which opposes the project, said in a statement.

Vogel, the state Department of Water Resources spokeswoman, said the permit application and the environmental report submitted earlier this year involve different issues and public processes.

"It's typical on all construction projects to start seeking permits from multiple agencies in parallel with the environmental review and its public comment process," she said in the email.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/08/27/3780711/california-us-seek-permits-for.html#storylink=cpyRead More . . . . 

Save The Delta

A rally at the State Capitol to oppose Governor Brown's proposal to build peripheral tunnels to divert water from the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta to pump south.

Kill the Canal

A
Drain the Delta Dry
With one hand the liar political hacks claim they want to "save" the Sacramento Delta.  Then with the other hand they plan to send the Delta's water south to use on Southern California front lawns, crops and golf courses.

See one our many articles:
Jerry Brown wants to destroy the Sacramento Delta

Scalia trashes California in Gay marriage ruling

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Ripping Sacramento's Kennedy

• Kennedy was appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan and has come down on both the Conservative and Liberal side of issues.
• It has been argued that "libertarian principles play prominent roles in Justice Kennedy's judicial opinions in several areas of the law," especially "privacy rights, race, and free speech."  (Wikipedia)
• The Gay marriage ruling has set off Justice Antonin Scalia and social Conservatives into full melt down mode.

(Breitbart News)  -  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took a swipe at California in his dissent of Friday’s landmark 5-4 ruling that made gay marriage a constitutionally protected right under the Fourteenth Amendment and legal in all 50 states.

In his now-infamous opinion, Scalia wrote that “a system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy,” adding:

Judges are selected precisely for their skills as lawyers; whether they reflect the policy views of a particular constituency is not (or should not be) relevant. Not surprisingly then, the Federal Judiciary is hardly a cross-section of America. Take, for example, this Court, which consists of only nine men and women, all of them successful lawyers who studied at Harvard or Yale Law School. Four of the nine are natives of New York City. Eight of them grew up in east-and west-coast states. Only one hails from the vast expanse in-between. Not a single Southwesterner, or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner (California does not count).

Of course, California counted very much on Friday; the deciding vote in the Court’s decision on gay marriage came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native.

Unhinged?
Justice Antonin Scalia

“The limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples may long have seemed natural and just, but its inconsistency with the central meaning of the fundamental right to marry is now manifest,” Kennedy wrote in his opinion.

In many ways, Kennedy’s opinion reflects the longstanding public opinion shift toward the approval of gay marriage that got its start in the Golden State.

As The Sacramento Bee points out, then-San Francisco mayor, and now-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, was the first in the country to order city officials to perform gay weddings in 2004. Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, was passed in California in 2008, then overturned just a few years later.

“At long last, marriage equality in the United States,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee reportedly told a cheering crowd Friday, after the Court handed down its decision. “We started that movement. We started that movement right here in San Francisco.”

At a news conference on Friday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris called the day “an incredible day in history,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“California is validated. We are validated,” Harris said. “Each day that one of those couples have to go without being able to have their marriage and their love legally recognized … is one day too long.”

Harris also reserved some sharp words for Scalia: “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.”

“Justice Scalia has caused many people to question the dignity of the Court when he makes statements such as the statements he’s made in connection with this case,” Harris added. “And that’s unfortunate.”

Read More . . . .

Personally I could care less if Gays want to marry.
There are real issues to worry about.

California GOP moving HQ to Sacramento

The GOP Moves - Why Bother?

• The GOP abandons their Los Angeles HQ for a move to Sacramento.
• But really, does it even matter?  When the GOP last controlled the Governor's office they increased spending, increased debt, increased taxes and "reformed" our elections by banning smaller opposition political parties from the ballot.  
• As far as I am concerned the Republican Party might as well disband and become Democrats.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  After three decades with a Burbank mailing address, the California Republican Party is moving its base to downtown Sacramento.

The state GOP has paid $1.6 million for the fourth floor of an office building one block north of the Capitol at 1001 K St., party Chairman Jim Brulte confirmed Wednesday. The purchase, first reported by the Sacramento Business Journal, follows the sale last year of the state party’s Southern California headquarters.

The property at the corner of K and 10th streets was formerly a Roos Atkins department store. It went through extensive upgrades between 2008 and 2013, according to the real estate firm marketing the property, Turton Commercial Real Estate. Sharif Jewelers anchors the ground floor.

1001 K St., soon to be the home of the California Republican
Party headquarters, will be named the Ronald Reagan
California Republican Center. | Jon Ortiz The Sacramento Bee

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article23056629.html#storylink=cpy

Like its old headquarters, the new Republican base will be named the Ronald Reagan California Republican Center, in honor of the former governor and U.S. president.

Political sensitivities being what they are, particularly when it comes to California’s own Republican icon, “I didn’t want to be the guy to sell the Reagan headquarters in Burbank,” Brulte said.

So before the building went on the block, he asked former first lady Nancy Reagan for her approval. She gave it, and Brulte said he promised the party’s new base also would carry the Reagan name.

The move is a no-brainer, Brulte said, because nearly all the party’s 21 staff members already work in Sacramento.

“We just have two employees in Burbank,” he said, and the building – built in the 1970s – needs renovation to accommodate modern technology.

Party officials settled on the K street property because of its proximity to the Capitol for fundraising events and because much of the space is already gutted and ready for immediate customization, Brulte said.

“Anything outside a three-block radius might as well be five miles away,” Brulte said. “And this is like a blank canvas” that can accommodate up to 30 employees.

Party officials would like to move in by year’s end, but Brulte thinks the first quarter of next year is more realistic.

“Our drop-dead is March,” he said, because that’s when the 2016 election season will kick into high gear.

In keeping with the law, both the sale and purchase transactions were handled by the California Republican Party Building Fund, which is independent of the party’s political operations, Brulte said.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article23056629.html#storylink=cpy

Read More . . . .

California voters gather to view the
nearly extinct Republican Party.

Jerry Brown Lied, Moves Forward With Rape of Sacramento Delta

Jerry Brown - The Great Liar

• Jerry Brown and the corrupt campaign money giving businessmen and labor unions looking to get government contracts, never intended to protect the Sacramento Delta.  
• Promised protections are now being massively scaled back.  Look for even more reductions until the Delta becomes a dust bowl.

(AP) — California officials have dramatically scaled back the habitat restoration planned during construction of two massive tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to send water to farms and millions of people.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham told The Associated Press Wednesday that the project now calls for restoring 30,000 acres for wetland and wildlife habitat — down from 100,000 acres.

Governor Jerry Brown
(AP File Photo)

Bonham said the amount of land targeted for environmental improvements was revised because there was "too much complexity" in the original 50-year plan, given the need to get permits from federal wildlife agencies against a backdrop of uncertain future climate change impacts.

The original environmental improvements were projected to cost $8 billion, and officials said the new plans to be announced Thursday will cost about $300 million.

"We need to restore habitat in the Delta," Bonham said. "We've known that for a long time. There's no dispute there. Let's get going and do it."

The plan immediately prompted criticism from environmental and conservation groups.

Under development for eight years, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan calls for building two underground tunnels, 40 feet across and 30 miles long, to send water from the Sacramento River around the Delta. The water currently irrigates 3 million acres of farmland in the Central Valley and serves 25 million people as far south as San Diego. The projected cost of the tunnels is $15 million.

The plan, supported by Gov. Jerry Brown, is designed to stabilize water supplies for cities and farms south of the Delta. But it has drawn strong opposition from Delta farmers and environmentalists, who contend that the tunnels will allow salt water from San Francisco Bay to degrade the Delta's water quality and damage habitat for endangered salmon and tiny delta smelt.

State officials decided to split their plans for the Delta into two parts — the construction of the tunnels and efforts to restore wildlife habitat along waterways.

"Separating them doesn't change the science," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta and a critic of the plan. "The tunnels are going to leave us with a permanent drought in the Delta."

Read More . . . .

Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Without a public vote, the Southern California water interests claim they want to build these massive water tunnels under the Sacramento Delta and not take any additional water.  
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Come on now.  You want to build new tunnels in order NOT to take more water.  
Do you think we are all fucking stupid?

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The Bessie Brady steamship on Owens Lake.
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Before Los Angeles sucked it into a dry dust bowl, Owens Lake served the communities of the eastern Sierras.  Now the L.A. water interests say they need the Sacramento Delta water.  They say "Don't worry about a thing."
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In Owens Valley on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range, desert steamers once served the silver mining boom of the 1870’s. This curious maritime history began in 1872 when the first steamboat was christened on the saline waters of Owens Lake. The pioneer steamer, the Bessie Brady, proudly proclaimed to be "The Pioneer inland steamer of the Pacific Coast.” Though this was untrue, as steamers had already been used in Lake Tahoe in 1864, in Meadow Lake in 1866, and Donner Lake a few years later, the sight of a steamboat in the midst of Death Valley must have been a strange site.    
(legendsofamerica.com)

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Owens "Lake" Today.
Los Angeles drained the Eastern Sierra Nevada lake dry and created a dust bowl environmental disaster as part the city's endless quest to suck down every drop of water.  Now the political hacks are leering at the beautiful Sacramento River Delta.

Jerry Brown's fraud exposed on Sacramento Delta tunnel project

Lies and Damned Lies

• Pro-tunnel supporters lied from day one.  You don't spend $25 Billion and not send even one more drop of water south.
• The entire corrupt project is designed to rape the Sacramento Delta in order to repay campaign contributors wanting to suck on the public teat.
• Again, corrupt special interests want to destroy the natural beauty of California so agri-business corporations can farm in the desert and new strip malls, housing and golf courses can be built in ScCal.  Building desalination plants instead is never even addressed.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  Governor Jerry Brown has billed his $25 billion plan to build two massive tunnels under the Delta as a way to not just make it easier to move water from north to south, but also increase the reliability of water supplies and bring back salmon and other endangered species

But now the Brown administration is proposing a major and politically risky change: dropping a 50-year guarantee to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's environment. A centerpiece of the project, the environmental plan included $8 billion to preserve 100,000 acres of wetlands and dozens of other restoration efforts.


The dramatic course correction, whose details have not yet been made public, comes after biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies told the state they won't issue permits for the environmental plan. The reasons, the biologists say, is that the state cannot prove it will restore salmon, smelt, sturgeon and other wildlife struggling for survival in the Delta.

Losing the guarantee of 50 years of environmental restoration would create a substantial political problem for one of Brown's signature projects.

it would also be harder to gain support from water districts around the state -- whom Brown is counting on to pick up the $17 billion cost to build and operate the tunnels. That's because the 50-year "habitat conservation plan" was supposed to guarantee them reliability from endangered species lawsuits and decisions by the federal government that have limited Delta pumping in recent years to protect endangered fish.

Richard Stapler, a spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency, confirmed Friday that the state in the next few months will release an addendum to the project's environmental impact report that reflects the proposed change.


Read More . . . .

$25 Billion in Government Spending
Follow the money.  Businesses and labor unions are lining up to rape the Sacramento River Delta so they can get a slice of a monstrously huge government spending project.

A
Sacramento Delta Must be Saved for Future Generations.

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.