Valley
farm laborers protest UFW union [Visalia Times Delta]
About
200 farm workers gathered Monday at the Visalia office of the California
Agricultural Labor Relations Board, 1642 W. Walnut Avenue, to protest the
United Farm Workers union. The group of protesters, which was comprised
primarily of workers employed by Gerawan Farming, said that they are being
forced to join the UFW against their will….According to the protesters, the UFW
is forcing Gerawan’s employees to join the union and pay dues — three percent
of their earnings — in exchange for collective bargaining rights, which workers
say they do not need….Gerawan’s workers, being represented legally by attorney
Joanna MacMillan, have filed a petition to have a formal vote amongst
themselves about their future with the union, which MacMillan said is a
provision provided in the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975.
Number
caught entering U.S. illegally rises again [Wall Street Journal]
The
number of people caught illegally entering the U.S. is up for a second straight
year, according to federal data, adding fuel to the debate in Washington over
whether the border should be better secured before any overhaul of immigration
laws….But after six years of declines, apprehensions have now risen for two
years in a row despite the construction of a partial fence along roughly a
third of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and a quintupling of border
agents to more than 21,000 in the past two decades. The rise in apprehensions
is likely to underscore calls to better secure the boundary with Mexico before
Congress allows those already here illegally to gain legal status or citizenship.
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…LaMalfa
briefs students about status of Farm Bill [Chico Enterprise-Record]
LaMalfa,
who voted for the House version of the bill, said it's time to separate
supplemental food programs from the farm bill. The two were combined in the
1970s, partly as an incentive for urban areas to see the value of farm
programs….The changes being proposed in Congress would restore the programs to
where they were several years ago, he said. It's time for the farm bill to be
renewed every five years, and food stamps every three years. "The
separation is happening," LaMalfa said….When asked how he thinks the farm
bill will shake out, LaMalfa said "the House version will have a hard time
in the Senate; The Senate version will have a hard time in the House."
Study:
Strawberry fumigant affects births weight [Salinas Californian]
Salinas
mothers exposed when pregnant to a banned strawberry fumigant still used in the
Salinas Valley gave birth to babies weighing slightly less than average, a new
study from the University of California show. In a second study, methyl iodide,
a fumigant selected to replace methyl bromide, was found to have been the
subject of a flawed approval process by regulators. The first study, by UC
Berkeley’s Center for Environmental Research & Children’s Health or CERCH,
has tracked Salinas Valley children and moms since 2000 as part of the broader
CHAMACOS research…The results are important because lower birth weights are
associated with later health problems in children, including developmental….The
state DPR, the regulator of methyl bromide, came under fire in an unrelated
study released Monday by the University of California, Los Angeles. The new
report issued by UCLA's Sustainable Technology and Policy Program, a joint
program of the Fielding School of Public Health and the School of Law, shows
that in at least one case, the system failed by approving a chemical called
methyl iodide for use on strawberries.
Logging
bill reaches governor, without Santa Cruz in it [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
A
logging bill that ran into a buzz saw of local controversy has landed on Gov.
Jerry Brown's desk, who -- after the Santa Cruz Mountains were carved out of
the bill -- he is expected to sign it. The bill, AB 904, allows all but large
landowners to pursue timber plans in perpetuity, as long as they comply with
stricter environmental standards than those required of routine harvests. But
the bill alarmed some local environmentalists, who worried about the removal of
barriers to unwanted logging….The Sierra Club and local environmentalists
opposed the bill, but some conservation groups, such as the Land Trust of Santa
Cruz County, supported it. So did Davenport-based Big Creek Lumber, with a
representative saying bill opponents took an anti-environmental position and
that their real aims are to end logging.
Rim
fire's effects likely to last for decades to come [Los Angeles Times]
…The
huge Rim fire, ignited Aug. 17 by a hunter's illegal campfire, is likely to
have transformed large swaths of the Stanislaus National Forest for decades to
come. Remote sensing satellite images indicate that virtually all of the
vegetation is dead on nearly 40% of the area of the 401-square-mile blaze,
which burned from the national forest into the western portion of Yosemite
National Park, where it continues to smolder…."We have … miles and miles
of mortality," said botanist Jennie Haas, who has worked in the Stanislaus
for more than three decades. She has seen some seeds floating through the
ghostly landscapes — what she called "little rays of hope." "But
if we don't intervene, it will convert to brush," she added. Intervening
means salvage logging, clearing out the charred trees that are of no value and
replanting. The process is opposed by many environmentalists who point out that
a thriving post-fire ecosystem emerges in burn areas, drawing bird and other
species found only in blackened forests.
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