California Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter to retire [San Jose Mercury News]
California
Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter, a staunch conservative influence on the
law for more than two decades, will retire at the end of the year, giving Gov.
Jerry Brown an opportunity to dramatically reshape the state's high court. The
74-year-old Baxter announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election to a
12-year term on the November ballot, making him the second justice to depart
the Supreme Court this year. Baxter, an appointee of former Republican Gov.
George Deukmejian, has spent 24 years as a justice and is arguably the most
conservative justice remaining on the seven-member court….Baxter's retirement paves
the way for perhaps the most profound shift in the state's high court since it
turned conservative in the late 1980s. Justice Joyce Kennard retired in April,
and Brown has been vetting candidates for that seat. Coupled with the previous
appointment of Justice Goodwin Liu, Brown would have three of his picks on the
court once he replaces Baxter if, as expected, the governor is re-elected in
November.
Fruit fly deals blow
to some Sacramento area olive-oil producers [Sacramento Bee]
Some
artisanal olive-oil producers in the Sacramento region and beyond report that
the tiny olive fruit fly is sabotaging their fruit yields….Flynn and his
associates fielded an increase volume of calls last year from distressed owners
of small olive groves in Napa, Sonoma and Yolo counties. “I heard one or two
cases where the grower felt they had essentially a total loss, where it wasn’t
worth them sending out a crew to sort out which were damaged and which
weren’t,” he said. “Some were wondering whether they even ought to be taking
out their groves as a result.”
Better grape acreage
data needed [Wines & Vines]
Grapevines
are being planted in California vineyards based on faulty information,
according to Nat DiBuduo, president/CEO of Allied Grape Growers (AGG), which
represents nearly 600 grower-members throughout California. He has expressed
concern for several years that wineries and grapegrowers rely too much on the
annual California Grape Acreage Report issued by the USDA National Agricultural
Statistics Service (NASS), which in turn relies on voluntary reporting of
bearing and nonbearing acreage, broken down by zones and grape varieties.
DiBuduo said, “NASS does a great job, but the acreage is underreported.” This,
he said, gives growers a skewed idea of what varieties are in shortage, and it
can have serious effects on the industry in future seasons. To mitigate this,
for the past five years, AGG has conducted its own survey using voluntary
information gathered from different sources: grapevine nurseries.
Editorial: Ballooning state water bond [San Francisco Chronicle]
As
California's drought intensifies, a $10.5 billion water bond is waddling toward
the November ballot. In the frenzied negotiations to produce a bill that likely
would garner the necessary two-thirds vote in both houses, legislators have
fashioned a bond bulked up with $3 billion for dams and groundwater storage
that agricultural interests like. But there is virtually no funding for our
cheapest and fastest source of new water - conservation and water-efficiency
projects that polls show voters favor and the drought demands. Further, the
bill comes with a price tag voters certainly will reject - and is only $1
billion less than the measure already on the ballot the Legislature seeks to
replace.
Commentary: Brown's tunnel plan looms over effort to pass water bonds
[Los Angeles Times]
As
lawmakers struggle to craft a water bond proposal for voters, there's a huge
reservoir of wonderful, non-controversial project ideas. But practically
everyone is suffering from tunnel vision. Literally. Not just the politicians,
but — especially — the warring water interests. The overriding question for
most is what effect any bond would have on Gov. Jerry Brown's highly
controversial, very costly plan to bore two gigantic water tunnels under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Opinion: If farms are to thrive, immigrant labor must have good
health care [Fresno Bee]
I've
spent my life in the Valley, and I know firsthand how the fruits and vegetables
we grow and the grain we harvest fuels our state and nation. I grew up in
Vacaville and have farmed in the Fresno area for decades, growing citrus
outside Sanger and representing farmers as president of the Nisei Farmers
League. I know that agriculture workers are an invaluable asset to our economy,
not just for California but also for the entire United States….But the industry
— agriculture — that I'm proud to be a part of would simply crumble without
immigrant labor. Immigrants are the backbone of our industry; without healthy
farmworkers, our farms would be nothing.
Ag
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