This is my last news update. Thank you for reading so diligently.
Food and nutrition:
Fast-Food Curb Meets With Ambivalence in South Los Angeles -- In July the City Council passed a one-year moratorium, now signed into law and effective as of last week, on any new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10, and the city is offering prospective owners of new grocery stores and non-fast-food restaurants large financial incentives to set up shop in the area. It may be that what many of the roughly 550,000 people in the area covered by the moratorium desire is not less of what they have, but more of what they do not. NY Times 8/8/08
*Burger ban is weighed in San Jose -- Three San Jose City Council members Thursday proposed a one-year citywide moratorium on new fast-food restaurants, arguing that the prolific eateries are fattening people - especially kids - with unhealthy fare. The proposal is similar to a moratorium the Los Angeles City Council approved last month for south Los Angeles. The San Jose proposal also calls for an indefinite ban on new fast-food restaurants within 1,000 feet of schools. SJ Mercury 8/15/08
Agriculture:
*State: Valley is Medfly-free -- The California Department of Food and Agriculture has announced that it has successfully eradicated an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly in Santa Clara County, lifting a 75-square-mile quarantine zone that was put in place in fall 2007. The department also lifted quarantine zones in Solano and Los Angeles counties - which means that California has been proclaimed medfly-free. The eradication program involved the release of millions of sterile male medflies; the flies breed with wild females to control the population. Mercury 8/15/08
Sunnier Forecast for Corn and Soybean Harvest -- The Department of Agriculture is forecasting the second-highest corn yield on record with production of 12.3 billion bushels, about 600 million bushels more than it had expected earlier in the summer. NY Times 8/12/08
MORE SPACE FOR ANIMALS SOUGHT, BUT EGG PRICE JUMP PREDICTED -- ame-sex marriage, parental notification of abortion – California's November ballot is studded with weighty issues, but none is ruffling feathers like Proposition 2, which would effectively ban farms from raising hens in cages.The United Egg Producers predicts the measure would triple the cost of eggs, drive the industry out of the state and deprive consumers of fresh, safe California eggs. Sacramento Bee 8/15/08
Water and fish:
Parasite causing an itch for swimmers -- It's a condition caused by a tiny water parasite with a barbed tail that will bore into your skin and cause welts and itching if it mistakes you for a duck or goose paddling in a lake or bay. Swimmer's itch, rarely reported a decade ago in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, has become a rite of summer in several lakes in the East Bay Regional Park District in the last few years. Complaints about the itch have prompted the park district this summer to post warning signs at Crown Beach in Alameda, Lake Anza at Tilden Park in Berkeley, and Quarry Lakes in Fremont. SJ Mercury 8/14/08
*Pelosi won't limit vote to offshore drilling -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday firmly rejected the idea of a House vote solely on the issue of offshore oil drilling, calling it "a hoax on the American people" backed by oil companies. Instead, she said, she wants Congress to tackle a compromise comprehensive energy plan that would include alternative energy sources and curtailing tax breaks for oil companies. SF Chronicle 8/15/08
Scientists alarmed by ocean dead-zone growth -- Dead zones where fish and most marine life can no longer survive are spreading across the continental shelves of the world's oceans at an alarming rate as oxygen vanishes from coastal waters, scientists reported Thursday. The scientists place the problem on runoff of chemical fertilizers in rivers and fallout from burning fossil fuels, and they estimate there are now more than 400 dead zones along 95,000 square miles of the seas - an area more than half the size of California. SF Chronicle 8/15/08
Los Angeles doubles fines for residents who waste water -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed an ordinance Thursday that doubles fines for residents who repeatedly violate the city's "drought buster" rules, including a reworked ban on watering lawns between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The measure bars restaurants from serving water to customers unless it is specifically requested. LA Times 8/15/08
Labor and immigration:
*California unemployment rate surges to 7.3 percent -- California’s unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in July, up from a revised 7.0 percent in June, the state Employment Development Department (EDD) says in a report Friday. A year ago, in July 2007, California’s unemployment rate was 5.4 percent. Central Valley Business Times 8/15/08
*Schwarzenegger says U.S.-Mexico border unites -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday urged fellow governors on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to cooperate on issues from water management to building a green economy. The annual Border Governors Conference spotlights a region that stretches from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico that is rife with unyielding problems — pollution, gun-running and drug violence — and economic potential. SF Chronicle 8/15/08
Health:
Medi-Cal cuts would raise other health costs, study finds -- By denying Medi-Cal benefits to more than 1 million people, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget would cost Californians with health care insurance more than $290 per family per year in added premiums to cover the new uninsured, according to a new study.The report was prepared by consultant Peter Harbage, whose study on the "hidden tax" paid by the insured to make up for uncompensated care was widely cited last year by Schwarzenegger in his unsuccessful campaign for universal health care. Sacramento Bee 8/15/08
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