Illegal
Mexican migration to US stabilizes [Associated Press]
The
number of migrants crossing illegally into the United States from Mexico
appears to have risen some in the first half of 2012, while the number of
migrants returning to Mexico decreased, a report by U.S. and Mexican
researchers said Tuesday. It was the first time the net outflow of migrants
from Mexico has increased since the 2007 economic slump caused a sharp drop in
both migration and the amount of money sent home by Mexicans working in the
U.S. as migrants found it harder to find work north of the border.The report by
Mexico's Colegio de la Frontera Norte and the University of Southern
California's Tomas Rivera Policy Institute said the number of Mexican-born
people in the United States seemed to have stabilized at around 11.7 million
and might grow slightly by year's end. The number included Mexicans who
migrated legally and those who crossed over illegally.…The report is based on
surveys done at Mexican border crossings, bus stations and airports and on U.S.
deportation, repatriation and demographics data. It says heightened U.S.
enforcement of immigration laws and state initiatives like one enacted in
Arizona didn't appear to have persuaded illegal migrants already in the United
States to leave.
U.S.-Panama
free trade agreement goes into effect Oct. 31 [Miami Herald]
A
long-awaited free trade agreement with Panama that will reduce or eliminate
tariffs on U.S. exports and provide access to the Central American country’s
lucrative services industry is scheduled to go into effect Oct. 31.…President
Barack Obama signed legislation to implement free trade agreements with
Colombia, South Korea and Panama at the same time last fall, but Panama needed
to amend its tariff schedule and overhaul intellectual property regulations
before the pact could take effect.…More than 86 percent of U.S. consumer and
industrial exports will enter Panama duty-free beginning Oct. 31 and nearly
half of U.S. agricultural products, including high-quality beef, bacon,
soybeans, wheat, barley and nearly all fruit and vegetables, will become
duty-free. Most remaining tariffs will be phased out over 15 years. Tariffs on
U.S. industrial exports currently average 7 percent and duties on agricultural
products average 15 percent with some tariffs climbing as high as 260 percent.
Calif.
lawmakers altered 5,000 votes [Associated Press]
…All
lawmakers in California's 80-member Assembly are allowed to change or add votes
after the fate of a bill has been decided an unlimited number of times, as long
as it does not change the outcome of whether a bill passes or fails. The state
Senate allows such changes only by the Democratic and Republican leaders in
that house….Some lawmakers say the vote changing is a sign of absentmindedness,
such as when they accidentally vote the wrong way, follow others in their party
without carefully examining legislation or misunderstand the intent of a bill.
Others note that they are sometimes unable to be on the floor when legislation
comes up for a vote and want to add their voice for or against it later.
"It's one of those things where your heart and your head are in
conflict," said Assemblyman Das Williams, explaining why he pushed the
"yes" button for a hotly debated farmworkers rights bill, then took
his name off the official vote count after the legislation fell short of
passage in August. The Santa Barbara Democrat said his heart was with the
laborers - he voted yes the first time the proposal came to the floor - but his
head was with the farmers in his district who had lobbied him to oppose AB1313,
which would have entitled agricultural laborers to overtime pay. In the midst
of that confusion, he said, his finger slipped and he accidentally hit the
"yes" button during the final vote.
Prop.
37 raises questions of food labeling in Calif. [KGO TV/San Francisco]
…In
a greenhouse at U.C. Davis, Dr. Kent Bradford, director of the Seed
Biotechnology Center, is working to develop a lettuce seed that will germinate
in hot weather. He says a colleague is trying to produce rice that's better
able to withstand draught and salt water, noting, "The difference it could
make is enormous when you look at the global situation." According to
Bradford, manipulating the genetic material in plants can help us cope with
global warming and rising sea levels, "We really need these tools to be
able to keep up." Bradford fears Prop. 37's requirement of a label on
genetically modified foods will scare consumers. He says it could also set back
corporations that fund university research, "Fifteen years over 90 percent
of our soybeans 88 percent of our corn canola oil we eat has all been produced
using genetic engineering and no one has ever gotten sick in any documented way
related to that."…But the way the Yes on 37 Campaign is telling people
about genetically modified foods, is to bring up past assurances that cigarette
smoking, DDT, and even Agent Orange were nothing to worry about, "To use a
health and safety issue or a food safety issue to try to promote this, I find
really disturbing from just the point of view of the science and the facts,"
Bradford said.
Open-space,
habitat protection comes under review [Woodland Daily Democrat]
The
Williamson Act, habitat restoration and other issues related to open space in
Yolo County were the focus of discussion for county supervisors this week. On
the Williamson Act, the board voted unanimously to continue its use for another
year under the extension known as AB 1265.…According to county deputy counsel
Phil Pogledich, two-thirds of all Yolo County property -- about 400,000 acres
-- is under contract through the Williamson Act.…Pogledich also led a separate
discussion on a two-year moratorium on certain habitat projects which expired
earlier this month. The moratorium was intended to halt habitat creation in
Yolo County as mitigation for development projects outside the county. Before
the moratorium, developers elsewhere -- "It's been consistently Sacramento
County," Pogledich said -- built projects there but set aside habitat in
Yolo County as mitigation for the projects. That led to limits on agricultural
use wherever the habitats were created. So a moratorium was passed to stop the
trend. However, "It's now expired, and we're now back to the point of
considering whether a mitigation ordinance or some other approach is
appropriate," Pogledich told supervisors.…Pogledich suggested that he
"return to the board on Dec. 4 with an ordinance that you can consider for
adoption."
Exciting
and trying times for bees and their honey [Sacramento Bee]
The
fall rains have arrived, and the weather's marching toward winter, meaning bees
will get a break from pollinating for the next few months. Still, there's
plenty of honey on the horizon. UC Davis' Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and
Food Sciences launches its Honey and Pollination Center on Saturday. Along with
academic discussions about the science of honey and other pollination- related
matters, the event includes honey tastings….The Madroña honeys are produced by
Gerard'Z Honeybees of Livermore, led by beekeeper Ed Zawada. But these are
trying times for those whose livelihoods depends on bees. "This is
probably the most precarious time in history for bees," said Zawada. "Depending
on where you're keeping hives, 20 to 40 percent of them are dying off every
year….Seed funding for the center comes from Whole Foods, the UC Davis College
of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and others. Leading the team are co-
directors Andrew Waterhouse, a UC Davis professor of viticulture and enology,
and Ed Lewis, professor and vice chair of UC Davis' department of entomology
and nematology.
Ag
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