For a mere $115 million, homes in Marin County could soon be sucking de-salted bay water through their taps, according to an environmental report scheduled for release this week. Ratepayers will be given a voice in the decision because they will likely end up financing the construction through taxes or higher water rates. The proposal, as it stands now, is to build an expandable plant that would initially turn 5 million gallons a day of salty bay water into drinking water. The highly concentrated salt water, or brine, that remains would then be mixed with treated wastewater from the Central Marin Sanitation District, creating what experts believe would be a more natural byproduct for discharge back into the bay. SF Chronicle 11/5/07
For 14 years, Ventria has inched toward its vision of growing fields of genetically modified rice plants that would serve as cheap factories for medicine. Next year Ventria finally will release a mass-market product: an over-the-counter rehydration solution fortified with two anti-bacterial ingredients of human breast milk that grow in the company's proprietary rice. It would be the first genetically engineered "medical food" ever commercialized. The rice and food processing industries worry Ventria's medicine-rice will get mixed up in the food supply, leading to costly recalls. Still, federal regulators have given Ventria a tacit go-ahead to sell the rice drink, and the company is ramping up production at a newly built facility. After being chased out of California by rice farmers in 2004 and then stumbling in Missouri the following year, Ventria has planted 200 acres in Junction City, Kan. Sacramento Bee 11/3/07
San Francisco's groundbreaking health insurance ordinance went before a judge Friday to determine whether the city is violating federal law by forcing employers to help pay for coverage for 82,000 adult residents. The judge in the case stated Congress had made a "broad statement of pre-emption" in a 1974 federal law that prohibits state and local governments from regulating employees' benefits. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association contends in a suit against the city that the ordinance violates the federal law by requiring employers to provide coverage for their workers, at levels specified by the city, or pay a fee to support the city's new health care program for uninsured people. SF Chronicle 11/3/07
U.S. regulators have tightened restrictions on meat and poultry products from Canada because of concerns about testing practices at a Canadian firm that was the likely source of bacteria-contaminated meat that sickened 40 people in eight states. Contra Costa Times 11/4/07
After 40 years of following the mainstream, the California State University, Chico dairy in the spring completed a shift from conventional milk production to organic, making it the first educational facility in the West with that distinction. Two major reasons for the change: first, to meet the growing demand for organic food and, second, to bring new and exciting work opportunities to Chico State students. California Farm Bureau Federation 10/31/07
Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. But the growth of coal-burning is also contributing to global warming, and is linked to environmental and health issues including acid rain and asthma. In China a coal boom is bringing sudden wealth to otherwise rural cities, while crops in the area are choked by soot. AP 11/4/07
Starting Wednesday, crews will begin cutting a 12-foot-high curved tunnel through the solid rock of St. Joseph's Hill on the east side of the dam to the Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos. The reservoir will be drained the first time since it was constructed in 1952 to conduct upgrades that will allow it to more efficiently release water downstream into Los Gatos Creek. Two towns that were covered by water when the dam was built will be uncovered, offering a peak into the lives of people in the past. Contra Costa Times 11/3/07
President Bush delivered his threatened veto of a $23-billion water bill Friday, but Congress is virtually certain to reverse it in the first override of a Bush veto. The bipartisan response to the veto underscores the difficulty the president faces in his new zeal to hold down federal spending, especially when it affects highly visible construction projects cherished by lawmakers. The bill would authorize more than 900 projects nationally, and California, the bill authorizes $1.3 billion for 54 projects, including $106 million to strengthen the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levees, $25 million for revitalizing the concrete-bound Los Angeles River. Contra Costa Times 11/3/07
For the first time in the most current wave of immigration, U.S. Census figures show that 70 percent of California's Mexican population are U.S. citizens, blunting widespread belief the state is overrun by illegal immigrants. Contra Costa Times 11/5/07
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