A researcher in Japan believes she can explain why there are no fortune cookies in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan. Her prime pieces of evidence are the generations-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto. She has also turned up many references to the cookies in Japanese literature and history before they ever appeared in America. A number of immigrant families in California, mostly Japanese, have laid claim to introducing or popularizing the fortune cookie. Among them are the descendants of Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who oversaw the Japanese Tea Garden built in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in the 1890s. Visitors to the garden were served fortune cookies made by a San Francisco bakery, Benkyodo. NY Times 1/16/08
Before the health care proposal put forward by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can become law, it must face a few more hurdles — among them a potentially hostile reception in the Senate Health Committee and some concerns from one of the plan’s major sponsors, the California Hospital Association. Capitol Weekly 1/17/08
Desalination has been less successful in the U.S. as it is more expensive than traditional sources, and critics say it harms the ocean. However, in November, Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp. won a key regulatory approval to build a $300 million water-desalination plant in Carlsbad, north of San Diego. The facility would be the largest in the Western Hemisphere, producing 50 million gallons of drinking water a day, enough to supply about 100,000 homes. Southern California water officials say conditions have changed. Improved technology has cut the cost of desalination in half in the past decade, making it more competitive. Wall Street Journal 1/17/08
Mayors and representatives from 10 Southern California cities discussed -- but failed to sign -- a letter Wednesday lobbying the state to float a bond measure that would fix Northern California's fragile "bay delta" and keep water flowing south. Water officials at the meeting said that means building a canal through or around the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. North County Times 1/17/08
The 48 state parks that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing were chosen for one main reason: They weren't making enough money for the state. SF Chronicle 1/17/08
Santa Barbara County supervisors this week began a crackdown on oil companies that repeatedly spill fuel, asking staff to draft legislation that would increase penalties, make companies pay for the emergency response and give the county the tools to shut down repeat offenders. The tough plans were prompted by the many complaints that supervisors heard Tuesday during a four-hour hearing on the Greka Energy Corp., a Santa Maria-based company with fields in northern Santa Barbara County. Emergency crews have responded to 400 spills at Greka facilities since the company began operations in 1999. LA Times 1/17/08
U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Fitzwater found that state laws allowing Texas retailers to ship wine directly to state residents but denying that right to out-of-state wine retailers are unconstitutional. The judge agreed with wine merchants in California and Florida who argued that a landmark 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling should apply not only to wineries but to retailers as well. The ruling could help local wine merchants by opening up more states to direct shipments of wine. Currently a retailer in California can only ship directly to about 14 states. The Press Democrat 1/16/08
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