🚀 go-pugleaf

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Faultline News November 4, 2001 Volume 1, Number 9

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NOW PLAYING AT WWW.FAULTLINE.ORG -
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     =>  Guest Editorial: What's up, Wally?
     =>  Clock Ticking on Cadiz Project
     =>  Groups Sue EPA over San Joaquin Air
     =>  LA Latinos Subject to Worse Air
     =>  CA Pesticide Use Falls for Second Year
     =>  Public Input Sought on SF Bay Ferry System
     =>  Gale Norton's Broken Treaties
     =>  Tiny Plant Creeps Toward Protection

See "New On The Site", below editor's note

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"Prices start in the low $1 millions! - Originally
$1,599,363. Now priced for quick close at $1,399,363."

- ad for housing in Dublin, in 11/4/2001 Contra Costa Times.

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
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GET AMERICA ROLLING AGAIN: BRIBE YOUR LOCAL POLITICIAN

It's been an interesting couple of weeks here at Faultline
World HQ in Richmond.

For those of you in places where electoral news from the
"City of Pride and Purpose" hasn't been on the front page,
we're going through one of the nastiest elections in recent
history. The hit pieces are coming through Richmond
residents' mail slots like SUVs through the Bay Bridge toll
gates at 8 a.m., and the worst of them are aimed at the
unfortunately-named Tom Butt, the environmentalist candidate
for mayor.

Butt, for those of you who don't know his record, is the
author of the toughest municipal invasive exotic species
ordinance on the books anywhere in the country. He's also
worked for infill housing, he's supported mass transit and
inner-city parks spending and well you know, the whole
laundry list of green issues. Probably why the Bay Chapter
of the Sierra Club endorsed him over the two other leading
mayoral candidates.

The hit pieces have come because Butt - and Irma Anderson,
the other acceptable mayoral candidate, who's gotten her
share of hit pieces as well - have dared to challenge the
power base of Darrell Reese, long-time political fixer and
convicted felon.

The leader of the corrupt Richmond Firefighters' union,
Reese apparently wrote and paid for the hit pieces, then had
them sent by a local non-profit called BMW. BMW allegedly
stands for "Black Men and Women", even though it's
controlled by Reese, an out of town white guy. Uniformed
firefighters have been appearing in these hit piece
mailings, in violation of local and state laws, and the
Richmond City Manager's office has done little to enforce
those laws. Maybe that's because it's very hard to get
elected in Richmond without the hundreds of thousands of
dollars in campaign funds Reese doles out.

All in all, it's a fine example of the kind of machine
politics that someplace like Chicago might be embarrased to
engage in so openly.

And yet which East Bay city has its politics plastered all
over the front pages of national newspapers?

Berkeley, for doing something principled.

Too bad Berkeley's politicos aren't engaged in the normal
American pastime of lining their own pockets: maybe the Wall
Street Journal would approve.

Faultline's friends at Counterpunch were kind enough to
print my fulmination on Berkeley's notoriety; you can read
it at: http://www.counterpunch.org/clarke1.html if you're so
inclined.

- Chris Clarke

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NEW ON THE SITE
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WHAT'S UP, WALLY? 
by Felice Pace 
Upstate Representative Wally Herger spikes ag reform
legislation, while claiming he's a friend of the farmer.
What gives? An open letter and Faultline guest editorial.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/11/pacehergerletter.html

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CLOCK TICKING ON CADIZ PROJECT
Billions of Gallons of Groundwater May Leave Mojave for LA
Activist group Public Citizen is calling on federal
officials to give the public a greater opportunity to
evaluate a massive water project in California��s Mojave
Desert that could dry out natural springs, create dust bowls
and put threatened animals and plants - including the
bighorn sheep, golden eagle and desert tortoise - at greater
risk of extinction. The project has been criticized on
numerous grounds, including the close relationship between
California Gov. Gray Davis and the CEO of the corporation
that stands to earn a half billion dollars from the project.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/11/cadiz1.html

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GROUPS SUE EPA OVER SAN JOAQUIN AIR
Citing a long history of neglect for the San Joaquin
Valley's air pollution problems, a coalition of medical,
community, and environmental groups filed suit November 1 in
San Francisco against the federal Environmental Protection
Agency. The coalition charges that EPA has failed to control
both particulate matter and ozone pollution over the past
decade, exacerbating the Valley's air pollution and
endangering the health of residents.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/11/SJairsuit.html
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LA LATINOS SUBJECT TO WORSE AIR
UCLA researchers say Southland polluters more likely to
inhabit Latino neighborhoods
Neighborhoods with large Latino populations are more likely
to be home to major sources of toxic air contaminants than
similar neighborhoods in other parts of Los Angeles County,
according to researchers from the UCLA Institute of the
Environment.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/10/latinorespiration.html

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CA PESTICIDE USE FALLS FOR SECOND YEAR
Pesticide reform advocates reacted with cautious optimism to
new pesticide use reporting data for 2000 released by the
California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), showing
a substantial decrease in many categories of reported
pesticide use.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/10/pesticideusedrops.html

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PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT ON SF BAY FERRY SYSTEM
Activists see opportunity to clean up fleet The Bay Area
Water Transit Authority (WTA) is holding public scoping
sessions to identify environmental issues that should be
examined before expanding ferry service on San Francisco
Bay. WTA is considering several alternatives that could
expand the current 22 commuter and excursion vessels to 70
or more fast ferries. The Bluewater Network estimates that
conventional diesel-powered fast ferries may well be more
polluting per passenger mile than diesel buses or
single-occupant cars.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/10/ferries.html

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GALE NORTON'S BROKEN TREATIES
Interior Secretary Breaks Promise to Tribes, OKs Imperial
County Mine
The Glamis Imperial Mine would be a massive open-pit cyanide
heap-leach gold mine located in the heart of an area now
withdrawn from future mining claims. This area is adjacent
to designated wilderness, critical habitat for the desert
tortoise and an area of critical environmental concern for
Native American cultural values. The proposed mine has drawn
substantial opposition from Native American tribes, labor
groups, and environmental organizations.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/10/quechanmining.html

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TINY PLANT CREEPS TOWARD PROTECTION
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to designate
critical habitat for the Kneeland Prairie penny-cress
(Thlaspi californicum), an endangered plant, on about 74
acres of serpentine outcrops in the grasslands of Kneeland
Prairie, Humboldt County, California. Botanists know of only
one location where this plant still exists; on clay soil
outcrops in coastal prairie near Kneeland Airport, 11 miles
east of Eureka.

READ IT AT:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2001/10/pennycress.html

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VOLUNTEER WITH FAULTLINE
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Got an article you've been wanting to write about life,
politics and the environment in California? Have a couple
extra hours a month you'd like to spend copyediting? Want to
put your web surfing to constructive use? Own a series of
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Let us know. Email editors@faultline.org and we'll put your
talents to use.

We're especially interested in writing, artwork and research
on topics such as public health, regional and local issues,
environmental justice, watershed restoration, travel,
recreation, and the arts. But don't limit yourself. Pitch us!

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COMING SOON . . .
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MINERAL KING: Tom Turner describes how the Sierra Club and
its lawyers kept a disappointed Disney from Disneyfying the
southern Sierra Nevada.

WHERE THE ANTELOPE DON'T PLAY: Nature Editor Joe Eaton
ruminates on the pronghorn, a former California native
ungulate that's fallen on hard times.

BAY AREA GRIZZLIES: Grizzlies in Mission Dolores? Golden
Bears marauding on the UC Berkeley campus? The Bay Area was
once chock-full of big bears John McManus tells all.
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Tell a friend about Faultline: feel free to pass this
newsletter on to people you think may be interested.

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Copyright 2001 Faultline Magazine
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-- 
Chris Clarke             | Editor, Faultline
http://www.faultline.org | California's Environmental Magazine