As Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers debate ways to lower the ranks of the uninsured, San Joaquin Valley health leaders say the effort will fall short unless the state fixes one of the region's biggest health care problems -- a doctor shortage that is reaching a crisis. Nothing in the plan guarantees access to doctors. Rather, the administration is counting on increased Medi-Cal rates to entice more physicians to see low-income patients. Currently the program pays doctors just 59% of the rate they are paid to care for Medicare patients, ranking the state below the national average, according to the California HealthCare Foundation. As a result, doctors say they lose money and are reluctant to take Medi-Cal patients. Fresno Bee 10/27/07
New strict border rules in response to 9/11 and concerns over illegal immigration have moved marijuana growers into California. The plant is now by far California's most valuable agricultural crop, worth even more than the state's famous wine industry. Police estimate that four-fifths of outdoor marijuana plantations are run by Mexican criminal gangs and indoor factories, by contrast, are largely run by East Asians from Canada. To supply outdoor plantations, rivers are dammed and water piped as far as two miles, and in suburbs large houses are purchased and converted into hydroponic growing centers. The rate of marijuana use in California has barely risen in the past few years, whereas production has hugely increased. Some 11% of the state's population use marijuana, just slightly more than the national average. The Economist 10/18/07
A law designed to preserve wide open spaces and ranches is clashing with the lifestyle of many of those buying former ranches - often retirees, or business owners or salaried professionals who intend to farm, if at all, only as a sideline or hobby. The Williamson Act was passed in 1965 to give a tax incentive to farmers who preserve their farms and ranches as working open space and make $2000 annual agricultural-related production. Almost 17 million of the state's 29 million acres of agricultural land are under Williamson Act contracts. Today, however, individuals building on farmland are at risk of being hit with huge fines for building a home in an agricultural preserve. The offices that run the Williamson Act program for the California Department of Conservation, predicted they'd see many more cases as California's former cattle ranches are carved up. Area County Supervisors are deciding whether or not to remove tax break status granted to plots that were previous farm lands. Recordnet 10/29/07
Logging projects, like one near Oakhurst in the Sierras, will benefit thousands of acres of national forest lands, as well as a nearby grove of giant sequoias by preventing small blazes from becoming a massive firestorm similar to those that devastated Southern California last week. The projects are aimed at removing "ladder fuels," the thick undergrowth of immature or fallen trees, thickly piled needles and other combustibles that have built up for decades throughout forest lands. The last massive fire in the area was in 1961 and it blacked 42,000 acres in just 2 1/2 days and killing two people. Fresno Bee 10/29/07
A bio of the founder of Kendal-Jackson wines in the LA Times shows how Jess Jackson followed the same game plan successfully employed by other mass-market food and beverage companies such as McDonald's and Starbucks to get rich. Kendall-Jackson is one of the largest wine producers in California now makes 3.8 million cases of wine annually. 10/29/07
Faced with a barrage of negative publicity with this week's wildfires, California tourism officials have temporarily pulled a $21.5 million national advertisement campaign to promote the state as a travel destination. Instead, as the wildfires recede, state and regional tourism leaders are spearheading a more than $300,000 “bridge” campaign to douse lingering doubts in the tourism services trade and among wary business and leisure travelers. So far, the wildfires' effect on most hotels and restaurants has been negligible, but tourism authorities want to take steps to ensure constant coverage of the fires in the national media does not dissuade people from visiting in the same numbers. San Diego Union Tribune 10/27/07
Traditionally, the remains of a corn field harvest are chopped and tilled into the dirt as fertilizer, but in response to rising hay and alfalfa prices a new technique of bailing it to feed to cattle is catching on in Yolo County and some parts of Solano County. The husks, stalks, leaves and cobs can be combined in a bale to feed cattle or the remains can be collected and burned as alternative fuels. The Vacaville Reporter 10/29/07
Two new films will dramatize a famous wine tasting held May 24, 1976. The world of wine was turned on its head when a 34-year-old Englishman organized a blind wine tasting that pitted some of the best French vintages against some unknown Californian wines. The unthinkable happened and all nine judges awarded top marks to a Californian Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, French winemakers suffered a devastating blow and the era of respectable New World wines was born. Macleans 10/29/07
California processing tomato growers and others associated with the industry got a first-hand look recently at a Chinese production system as participants in a World Processing Tomato Council (WPTC) study tour to China. Current shortcomings in yield are due primarily to irrigation, disease, and production practices, according to participants. However, none of those factors appear to be long-term, insurmountable problems. Western Farm Press 10/29/07
A group of historic tree buffs will collect genetic samples Tuesday from the tops of several old-growth redwood trees in California—the first step in cloning the trees and regrowing lost forests. In several years, when the cloned trees are two to three feet tall (less than a meter tall), the group will plant them at various sites along the California coast. To assure genetic diversity, the new forests would be made of 20 percent clones and 80 percent seedlings. National Geographic 10/29/07
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