Obama Chief of Staff pledges action on immigration [Associated Press]
President
Barack Obama will act on his own by year's end to remake the nation's fractured
immigration system, and he will go as far as he can under the law, the White
House chief of staff told frustrated Latino lawmakers Thursday. Chief of staff
Denis McDonough made the commitments in a closed-door meeting at the Capitol
with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Like other Latinos and
immigrants rights' activists the lawmakers were fuming over Obama's decision
Saturday, made under pressure from endangered Senate Democrats, to put off
promised executive action on immigration until after November's midterm
elections. In Thursday's meeting, according to lawmakers who attended,
McDonough heard out their concerns and renewed the president's commitment to
act — pledging under lawmakers' questions that it would happen even if
Democrats lose the Senate, the political environment turns worse and Obama once
again faces calls to put off his decision.
Pesticide
levels in waterways have dropped, reducing the risks to humans [New York Times]
The
development of safer pesticides and legal restrictions on their use have
sharply reduced the risk to humans from pesticide-tainted rivers and streams,
while the potential risk to aquatic life in urban waters has risen, according
to a two-decade survey published on Thursday. The study, conducted by the
United States Geological Survey and published in the journal Environmental
Science & Technology, monitored scores of pesticides from 1992 to 2011 at
more than 200 SAMPLING points on rivers and streams. In both of the last two
decades, researchers reported, they found insecticides and herbicides in
virtually all of the waterways. The results nevertheless documented a striking
decline in dangers to humans from pesticide pollution. From 1992 to 2001, 17 percent
of agricultural streams and 5 percent of other streams contained at least one
pesticide whose average annual concentration was above the maximum contaminant
level for drinking water. But in the second decade, from 2002 to 2011, the
survey found dangerous pesticide concentrations in only one stream nationwide.
Sempervirens,
conservation groups back water vote [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
Thursday,
Los Altos-based Sempervirens Fund decided to rally its organizational forces
behind Proposition 1, California's $7.5 billion water bond. A significant
player in local and regional conservation efforts, Sempervirens' decision can
be seen as a signal to environmentally minded Central Coast voters to support
the bond….But environmental groups have fractured over Prop. 1, with
conservation groups backing the measure and several water-related watchdog
groups forming the opposition. The Sierra Club decided this week to stay out of
the fight, with the fault line appearing to be $2.7 billion the bond sets aside
for water STORAGE and something the state hasn't seen in a generation: dams….But
The Nature Conservancy is one of three signatories supporting the measure,
along with Brown and the head of California Farm Bureau Federation, and
American Rivers and Audubon California are backing it.
Opinion: Saving farmland:
Drought isn't the only problem in Santa Clara County [San Jose Mercury News]
…Our
state has had to fallow more than 400,000 acres of cropland, resulting in
profound economic losses for communities -- an expected $2.2 billion this year.
The drought also has created a cascading series of other impacts affecting
agriculture….The most troubling thing is that the challenges of climate change
may become the new normal for California's food producers….However, we cannot
focus only on the climate impacts to food supply when the land itself is being
lost at an alarming rate. We need to step up our efforts to protect the state's
best farmland; the land with the most fertile soils, the most reliable water,
and the most resilient microclimates. And considering the impacts of a warming
climate, every practical acre of fertile land in the state should be carefully
considered for preservation.
Despite
drought, California pistachio crop expected to swell [Fresno Bee]
California's
drought may SLOW the growth of the rapidly expanding pistachio industry, but
even with less water, farmers are expected to produce a whopping 1
billion-pound crop by 2019, a Rabobank analyst said Thursday. Vernon Crowder,
senior vice president and agriculture economist for Rabobank, said the
pistachio industry has experienced unprecedented growth over the last decade.
Crowder spotlighted the pistachio industry in a report released Thursday,
titled: U.S. Pistachios -- A Billion Reasons to Believe….Pistachio trees
planted in mid-to-late 2000s are continuing to come into production….Crowder
said it is also possible that starting this fall, almond growers may pull out
some aging trees and replace them with pistachios. Unlike almond trees,
pistachios are more tolerant of salty well water.
Mountain
lion reports raise concern in Northern San Joaquin Valley [Modesto Bee]
A
mountain lion appears to have killed a horse near Hilmar. Other sightings of
the big cats have been reported in Modesto and other locales well out of the
animal’s natural range. Concern has risen in the Northern San Joaquin Valley
about the predators, which favor the hills to the east and west but have been
known to stride through the flatlands at times….Jessie Wright, who manages a
horse ranch on Golf Links Road in the Hilmar area, said the signs are clear
that a lion killed one of the ranch’s animals Aug. 23. The horse, about 6
months old and weighing 600 pounds, was found in a pasture with fatal wounds to
its neck….Despite the low odds, attacks do happen to people and livestock. The
horse death near Hilmar was noted in a weekly email on rural crime from the
Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, complete with graphic photos.
Ag
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