Monthly Archives: August 2009

Happy trails

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 29, 2009 | Comments closed
I’ll be backpacking from Onion Valley to Mt. Whitney next week, and will be blissfully distant from any telephone, computer or Facebook application. The blog will pick up again on Sept. 8; until then, take care!
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Westlands water sale

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 27, 2009 | Comments closed
This article is getting a lot of attention this week as it’s circulated by environmentalists and anti-peripheral canal folks. The Hanford Sentinel reports that a Westlands Water District landowner plans to sell 14,000 acre-feet of water to the Mojave Water Agency in San Bernardino County for $5,500 per acre-foot. Quoting the story: “That’s $77 million of the wet stuff headed [...]
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Merry Christmas: You’re furloughed

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 25, 2009 | Comments closed
Delta College trustees tonight will debate whether to shut the campus down for three weeks over the winter break to save more than $1 million in personnel costs. So if you would normally work on those days — including the first full week of January – and you’ve already used your vacation, you’re outta luck. More on this in [...]
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Role reversal

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 24, 2009 | Comments closed
The Natural Resources Defense Council today filed legal papers supporting the feds’ new rules to protect salmon and steelhead. Those rules — written by the National Marine Fisheries Service – are already the target of at least two lawsuits, since they would decrease the amount of water that can be exported from the Delta, and would also restrict Stockton’s access to water [...]
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Stretching the facts

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 21, 2009 | Comments closed
FOX News is taking credit for last week’s visit to Sacramento by U.S. Deputy Secretary for the Interior David Hayes. You see, Sean Hannity on Tuesday night interviewed U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes and comedian/farm water activist Paul Rodriguez, who were taking part in a live, organized protest in a dried-up almond orchard near Huron. The next day, [...]
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Sound familiar?

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 20, 2009 | Comments closed
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Southern Nevada water officials endorsed continuing a massive water project to tap groundwater in eastern Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas. The Thursday vote by the Southern Nevada Water Authority board was unanimous. But it came after four hours of testimony in a crowded meeting room pitted proponents who call [...]
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The dangers of a candlelight dinner

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 20, 2009 | Comments closed
I’m all for environmental awareness and green living, but come on now….
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Delta tunnels

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 20, 2009 | Comments closed
There’s been a lot of talk lately of a possible alternative to a peripheral canal — a tunnel that would send Sacramento River water underneath, rather than around or through, the Delta. The state says this possibility – at an unknown cost – would ease the disruption caused by building a massive canal more than 40 miles long across fertile Delta [...]
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Scenes from Mountain House opening

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 19, 2009 | Comments closed
Here’s what the new Delta College campus looked like on Monday, the first day of school.  
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Post-rally report

By Alex Breitler | Published: August 17, 2009 | Comments closed
About 40 boats hit the water for Sunday’s so-called “Million Boat Float,” well short of the several hundred boats for which organizers had hoped. Nonetheless, they called the event — intended to protest a peripheral canal — a success due to extensive media coverage. The float had been hastily organized to precede Tuesday’s opening hearing on [...]
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