Agriculture Daily News 1/23

There are 3,000 species of mushrooms in California and scientists are still discovering more. Although cultivated mushrooms such as crimini, enoki and portobellos are grown year-round, his month marks the end to the fall season and the beginning of winter, which means porcinis, black trumpets, winter chanterelles and hedgehogs. CC Times 1/23/08

 

For the first time in its 25-year history, Central Coast Salmon Enhancement will not raise and release Chinook salmon into the ocean at Port San Luis this year. According to the Department of Fish and Game’s Mokelumne River Hatchery in San Joaquin County that so few fish migrated upstream from the ocean last year that no fish will be available for any pen-rearing programs. San Luis Obispo 1/23/08

 

The California Coastal Commission argued in federal court Tuesday that President Bush violated the U.S. Constitution by trying to overturn a court order that restricted the Navy's use of a type of sonar linked to the deaths of marine mammals.  The commission's attorneys said Bush's move to exempt the Navy sonar training exercises in Southern California waters from federal law violated the Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine. Bush provided only a "cursory basis" for his decision and did not provide an explanation from the Secretary of Commerce, as required for an exemption to the Coastal Zone Management Act, the state attorney general's office argued. LA Times 1/23/08

 

It will probably take as many as five years to establish a price tag and plan for restoring San Francisco Bay after the Cosco Busan oil spill, the coordinator of a multi-agency damage-assessment group said Tuesday. SF Chronicle 1/23/08

 

A new report warns that the universal health care plan being voted on in the Senate today could be billions of dollars in the red within years. In a best-case scenario, the plan's revenues would cover its costs in the first year, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill wrote in her review released Tuesday evening. However, by the fifth year, she estimates the program's annual costs would exceed revenues by $300 million. SJ Mercury 1/23/08

 

A law that requires electronic tracking for prescription drugs in California might be delayed from 2009 until 2011 to allow the drug industry more time to get the computer systems it needs to track individual bottles of drugs as they move through the supply chain. SF Chronicle 1/23/08

 

The state's fight against the light brown apple moth in Santa Cruz County will restart in late spring or early summer, state agriculture officials said Tuesday. SJ Mercury 1/23/08

 

On Tuesday, Solazyme Inc., a five-year-old biotechnology company, announced an agreement with Chevron Corp. to develop and test biodiesel building blocks made from algae. In October, the San Ramon, Calif.-based company, the second-largest U.S. oil producer, announced a deal with the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop jet fuel and other liquid transportation fuel using algae. CNN 1/23/08