Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Agriculture Daily News 12/5

As one warm storm leaves the Bay Area, a colder and longer one is expected to bring more rain to the region and more snow to the Sierra on Thursday and Friday.  No flooding is expected on Bay Area creeks or rivers, but the new storm may bring one to two feet of snow above 7,000 feet in the central and southern Sierra. Last year was dry, and this season also has been dry so far in Bay Area cities and in the Sierra, where the moisture in winter snow determines how much spring and summer runoff will be captured for drinking and irrigation water in summer and fall. CC Times 12/5/07

 

An expected vote on legislation overhauling California's $170 billion health care system has been postponed indefinitely, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders disagree on elements of the plan from tax subsidies to insurance reform. SF Gate 12/5/07

 

The Department of Homeland Security told the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that it planned to appeal a decision by a federal judge in San Francisco that temporarily blocked efforts to target workers with inconsistent Social Security data -- a linchpin in the government's efforts to stem illegal immigration.  Expected soon are new rules making it easier to bring foreign farmworkers into the country. LA Times 12/5/07

 

State water quality officials on Tuesday approved spending $600,000 to start a refuge population of Delta smelt, in case the fish goes extinct in the wild. The program will be created at the University of California, Davis, Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory, near the State Water Project Delta export pumps in Byron. Sacramento Bee 12/5/07

 

St. George Spirits of Alameda, recently sold the first bottle of absinthe to be distilled in the US since 1912. After a protracted application process they overturned a ban on the alcohol and have begun producing it. SF Chronicle 12/5/07

 

 

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