Bill granting farmworkers more overtime pay fails [Associated Press]
The state Assembly has killed a bill that would have given overtime pay to farm laborers who work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. AB1313 would have given farmworkers the same overtime rights as other employees who are not managers. Currently, farmworkers earn overtime only after working 10 hours in day or 60 hours in a week. The bill by Democratic Assemblyman Mike Allen of Santa Rosa passed the Senate but fell eight votes short in the Assembly on Friday, the last day of the legislative session.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/01/4777830/bill-granting-farmworkers-more.html#storylink=misearch
Lumber tax survives, tax deal for scholarships dies as California legislators head home [Sacramento Bee]
A tax on lumber to pay for timber-industry regulation squeaked through the California Legislature early Saturday as a broader tax deal to pay for scholarships for college students collapsed….The proposal, Assembly Bill 1492, also has a provision to reduce wildfire liability for major landowners. That change drew criticism from the Sacramento-based U.S. attorney's office, which has aggressively used state laws to win record amounts of money from those who spark fires….California timber firms supported the tax because it relieves them of regulatory fees they must currently pay – and additional fees that Democrats have long wanted to impose on them to fund state forestry oversight. Shifting the tax to consumers means that wood from outside California would also face the new 1 percent charge.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/02/4779515/lumber-tax-survives-tax-deal-for.html
Water talks have city on edge [Stockton Record]
Upstream water users may privately negotiate how much water flows down the San Joaquin River in the future - to the concern of downstream Delta interests, who would be excluded from that process. The state will have the final say on flows. But any agreement reached by the water users as well as other government agencies and some environmental groups could influence that decision….The settlement talks involve stakeholders on the San Joaquin tributaries of the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers, with the goal of striking a deal and avoiding years of litigation. Similar deals have been reached on the Klamath and Yuba rivers, said facilitator Art Baggett, a former member of the State Water Resources Control Board. The talks would be limited to the upstream water users because that is the section of stream currently being studied by the state, he said.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120901/A_NEWS/209010318&cid=sitesearch
Stanford scientists cast doubt on advantages of organic meat and produce [New York Times]
Does an organic strawberry contain more vitamin C than a conventional one? Maybe — or maybe not. Stanford University scientists have weighed in on the “maybe not” side of the debate after an extensive examination of four decades of research comparing organic and conventional foods. They concluded that fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, which tend to be far less expensive. Nor were they any less likely to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria like E. coli. The researchers also found no obvious health advantages to organic meats.
Farm use of antibiotics defies scrutiny [New York Times]
…Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States goes to chicken, pigs, cows and other animals that people eat, yet producers of meat and poultry are not required to report how they use the drugs — which ones, on what types of animal, and in what quantities. This dearth of information makes it difficult to document the precise relationship between routine antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic-resistant infections in people, scientists say. Advocates contend that there is already overwhelming epidemiological evidence linking the two, something that even the Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged, and that further study, while useful for science, is not essential for decision making….But scientists say the blank spots in data collection are a serious handicap in taking on powerful producers of poultry and meat who claim the link does not exist.
Feds: No evidence sick cows entered food supply [Fresno Bee]
A local congressman and officials from a Hanford slaughterhouse expressed satisfaction Friday after a U.S. Department of Agricultural report said there was no evidence that sick animals entered the food supply. A spokesman for the USDA said that a team of investigators at Central Valley Meat Co. found that no food safety violations occurred, though an investigation into inhumane handling of animals continues. "The USDA team conducting the Central Valley Meat investigation has concluded there is no evidence to support the allegation that a downer cow was slaughtered and entered the food supply, and that no food safety violation occurred as a result," said Al Almanza, administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service.
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