Health:
*State budget stalemate halts funding -- The state this week began cutting off Medi-Cal payments to nearly 4,700 community clinics, nursing homes, senior day programs, hospitals and other organizations because a $2 billion contingency fund has run out of money. Payments to such institutions will not resume until the state budget impasse is resolved. Inside Bay Area 8/1/08
Kaiser patients can now carry medical histories with them -- Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center is piloting a program that offers USB flash drives — small data memory storage devices, loaded with a patient's medical history. If the program is successful, the service will be offered at all Kaiser medical centers in the Northern California region this fall. Inside Bay Area 8/1/08
Labor and immigration:
*Schwarzenegger orders pay cuts, layoffs for state workers -- The pay cuts would not take effect until September at the earliest, and a pitched political and legal battle may ensue to block them. As for the layoffs, the administration has not yet specified which employees will be exempt, so it's unclear exactly how state services will be affected. Generally, the order calls for exceptions for those in public safety and emergency medical care jobs. SJ Mercury 8/1/08
Schwarzenegger's layoff plan could lengthen lines for state services -- Beaches at Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake will go without lifeguards. Drivers could wait longer for licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles. But state officials said Thursday that they couldn't predict how much state services will suffer now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has laid off an estimated 10,300 temporary workers. Sacramento Bee 8/1/08
Hillary Clinton rouses union workers in S.F. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a rousing call to thousands of union workers in San Francisco on Thursday to put Sen. Barack Obama in the White House come fall - but it was a bittersweet moment for some of her most loyal supporters, particularly women, who said they are still deeply pained she's not the Democratic candidate. SF Chronicle 8/1/08
Water:
*51% of Californians back offshore drilling -- A majority of Californians favor more oil drilling off the coast, according to a statewide survey released Wednesday, for the first time since oil prices spiked nearly three decades ago. The support by 51 percent of residents polled this month by the Public Policy Institute of California represents a shift caused by renewed Republican advocacy for drilling as well as motorists' reaction to soaring pump prices, according to the pollster. SF Chronicle 7/31/08
Dan Walters: Maybe offshore drilling isn't so bad after all -- It's been nearly 40 years since an offshore oil well malfunctioned, polluting beaches in and around Santa Barbara. But, facing historically high gasoline prices, they are warming up to importing less oil from the Middle East and capturing more from domestic sources, including deposits that can be reached only by wells off California's 1,100-mile-long coastline. it's a little hypocritical for California to continue consuming more than a billion gallons of gasoline a month while placing potentially large pools of oil off-limits to exploration, thereby exporting those negative impacts to some other locale. Sacramento Bee 8/1/08
*EBMUD Leaking Millions Of Gallons Of Water -- Annual leakage within the East Bay Municipal Utility District system itself would provide all the water needed to supply the water system’s biggest government customer – UC Berkeley – for 133 years, a KTVU Channel 2 Investigation has found. KTVU 8/1/08
*Delta pump owners request more time for fish-protection plan -- The state and federal owners of massive water export pumps in the Delta have asked a judge to grant them additional time to prepare a new operating plan to protect threatened fish. The state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation face a Sept. 15 court deadline to deliver a new biological opinion on their operations to protect the Delta smelt. The document, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sets operating limits for the pumps to minimize harm to fish. The agencies lost a federal lawsuit over their operations last year, and federal district Judge Oliver Wanger in December ordered them to prepare a new biological opinion. Sacramento Bee 8/1/08
Water law comes under fire -- Napa County farmers poured cold water on proposed state plans to regulate the use of streams, speaking out at an Upvalley meeting Wednesday. The rules would limit farmers’ ability to pump water from local streams in an effort to protect coho salmon, chinook salmon and steelhead trout in Napa, Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Sacramento Bee 8/1/08
Food and wine:
Demand grows at Sacramento food banks -- Operators of area food banks say the weakening economy and higher food costs are changing the patterns of demand for free groceries. Not only are there noticeably more first-time clients, the timing of demand also has changed. Through June, nationwide food costs were up 5.3 percent over a year ago, according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. Sacramento Bee 8/1/08
S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash -- Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. SF Chronicle 8/1/08
'Bottle Shock': Uncorking reality on a new wine film -- Opening Wednesday is the movie "Bottle Shock." Shot in Napa and Sonoma counties, the indie production loosely follows the story of wine merchant Steven Spurrier's famous Paris wine tasting, which also was written about in George Taber's book "The Judgment of Paris." SF Chronicle 8/1/08
Agriculture:
*California moves ahead with plan to sue EPA -- Fed up with the federal government's refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft and farm equipment, California announced Thursday it was preparing to lead five states and New York City in a landmark lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency. Press Telegram 8/1/08
California To Sue EPA For Failing To Regulate Agriculture Industry Emissions -- California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced California’s plan to sue the U.S. EPA for continuing to “wantonly ignore its duty” to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from agricultural equipment. “Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and cause massive greenhouse gas pollution yet President Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another,” Attorney General Brown said. “Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action.” Imperial Valley News 7/31/08
*Produce industry already enhancing traceability on its own -- The produce industry is already well on its way to enhancing its ability to trace back product more effectively and efficiently, Produce Marketing Association (PMA) President Bryan Silbermann told members of Congress on July 30. Silbermann testified before the House Agriculture Committee’s Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Subcommittee, as part of a hearing that was called to study produce traceability because of claims that problems have slowed the still-lingering Salmonella saintpaul foodborne illness investigation linked to fresh produce. Western Farm Press 8/1/08
*2008 wine grape prices highest in seven years -- On the eve of this year’s California grape crush, the state’s largest wine grape grower cooperative still has grapes to sell. This is not unusual for the Fresno, Calif.-based 600-member Allied Grape Growers that expects to sell 300,000 tons of grapes this season valued at more than $70 million. It has for a decade or longer had grapes without homes at harvest time because there were no buyers. Western Farm Press 8/1/08
Olive crop numbers droop -- Olive growers and processors met in July to estimate the size of the 2008 California table olive crop. Members of the California Olive Committee concluded that processors could expect 65,000 tons this season. Adin Hester, president of the California Olive Committee, said that estimate may be right on for fruit on the tree, but what is actually picked will likely be less. He blames terrible weather conditions during bloom. Capital Press sa8/1/08
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