danbacher Occupy Woodland and Occupy Woodland College – with a little help from Occupy Sacramento – will target the infamous war profiteer Halliburton Monday as part of a “Books Not Bombs” rally and protest.
Occupiers will gather about 11:30 a.m. MONDAY at Woodland Community College (2300 E. Gibson, Woodland, CA). A march to Halliburton’s nearby offices begins about 12:30 – 1 p.m.
“Our concern is the huge Cost of war vs. Cost of Education. We’re challenging the US budget that spends 57 percent on military and only 4 percent on education,” said Steven Payan of Occupy Woodland.
For more information, contact Steven Payan, (818) 741-8234, or go to: http://www.facebook.com/events/322631867776953/
danbacher “Since the beginning of time, the Sinkyone Council’s member Tribes have gathered, harvested and fished for traditional cultural marine resources in this area, and they continue to carry out these subsistence ways of life, and their ceremonial activities along this Tribal ancestral coastline,” said Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman and co-founder of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. “Our traditional cultural lifeways, and our relatives such as the whales and many other species, will be negatively and permanently impacted by the Navy’s activities.”
Photo: Southern Resident orcas by Kelly Balcomb-Bartok.
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Groups sue over Navy sonar impacts on marine mammals
by Dan Bacher
San Francisco – A broad coalition of conservation groups and American Indian Tribes on January 26 sued the Obama administration for failing to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
Earthjustice, representing the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the San Juans, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and People For Puget Sound, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service’s approval of the Navy’s training activities in its Northwest Training Range Complex.
The lawsuit calls on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to mitigate anticipated harm to marine mammals and biologically critical areas within the training range that stretches from Northern California to the Canadian border, according to a statement from Earthjustice.
“These training exercises will harm dozens of protected species of marine mammals—Southern Resident killer whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises—through the use of high-intensity mid-frequency sonar,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing the groups. “The Fisheries Service fell down on the job and failed to require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to protect them.”
The groups said the Navy uses a vast area of the West Coast for training activities, including anti-submarine warfare exercises involving tracking aircraft and sonar; surface-to-air gunnery and missile exercises; air-to-surface bombing exercises; sink exercises; and extensive testing for several new weapons systems.
Tribes say exercises will hurt traditional cultural lifeways, whales
“Since the beginning of time, the Sinkyone Council’s member Tribes have gathered, harvested and fished for traditional cultural marine resources in this area, and they continue to carry out these subsistence ways of life, and their ceremonial activities along this Tribal ancestral coastline,” said Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman and co-founder of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. “Our traditional cultural lifeways, and our relatives such as the whales and many other species, will be negatively and permanently impacted by the Navy’s activities.”
“Both NMFS and the Navy have failed in their obligations to conduct government-to-government consultation with the Sinkyone Council and its member Tribes regarding project impacts,” Hunter emphasized.
Founded in 1986, the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, is a California Indian peoples’ environmental consortium working to re-establish local Indian stewardship within the Sinkyone region of Northern California through land conservation, habitat restoration, and traditional resource management.
The member tribes of the Council are: the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians; Redwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians; Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians; Hopland Band of Pomo Indians; Potter Valley Band of Pomo Indians; Pinoleville Band of Pomo Indians; Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians; Robinson Rancheria; the Cahto Tribe and the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
In late 2010, NMFS gave the Navy a permit for five years of expanded naval activity that the groups said will harm or “take” marine mammals and other sealife. The permit allows the Navy to conduct increased training exercises that can harm marine mammals and disrupt their migration, nursing, breeding, or feeding, primarily as a result of harassment through exposure to the use of sonar.
High intensity sonar results in marine mammal strandings
Navy’s mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in mass strandings of marine mammals in, among other places, the Bahamas, Greece, the Canary Islands, and Spain, according to the conservation groups and Tribes.
In 2004, during war games near Hawai’i, the Navy’s sonar was implicated in a mass beaching of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay.
In 2003, the USS Shoup, operating in Washington’s Haro Strait, exposed a group of endangered Southern Resident killer whales to mid-frequency sonar, causing the animals to stop feeding and attempt to flee the sound.
“In 2003, NMFS learned firsthand the harmful impacts of Navy sonar in Washington waters when active sonar blasts distressed members of J pod, one of our resident pods of endangered orcas,” said Kyle Loring, Staff Attorney for Friends of the San Juans. “Given this history, it is particularly distressing that NMFS approved the Navy’s use of deafening noises in areas where whales and dolphins use their acute hearing to feed, navigate, and raise their young, even in designated sanctuaries and marine reserves.”
“Whales and other marine mammals don’t stand a chance against the Navy,” summed up Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Navy’s mitigation plan for sonar use relies primarily on visual detection of whales or other marine mammals by so-called “ watch-standers” with binoculars on the decks of ships. If mammals are seen in the vicinity of an exercise, the Navy is to cease sonar use.
“Visual detection can miss anywhere from 25–95% of the marine mammals in an area,” said Heather Trim, Director of Policy for People For Puget Sound. “It’s particularly unreliable in rough seas or in bad weather. We learn more every day about where whales and other mammals are most likely to be found—we want NMFS to put that knowledge to use to ensure that the Navy’s training avoids those areas when marine mammals are most likely there.”
The litigation is not intended to halt the Navy’s exercises, but asks the Court to require NMFS to reassess the permits using the latest science and to order the Navy to stay out of biologically critical areas at least at certain times of the year.
A US Navy spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit, while a National Marine Fisheries Service spokesperson said the agency has not yet received any information on the suit.
Killer whales threatened by both Navy training and water exports
Marcie Keever of Friends of the Earth pointed out the dramatic impact that the Navy exercises could have upon endangered southern resident killer whales (orcas).
“It has become increasingly clear from recent research that the endangered Southern Resident killer whale community uses coastal waters within the Navy’s training range to find salmon during the fall and winter months,” said Keever. “NMFS has failed in its duty to assure that the Navy is not pushing the whales closer to extinction.”
The killer whales face a double threat now: Navy sonar testing and increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. A NOAA Fisheries biological opinion released on June 4, 2009 found that water pumping operations in the Central Valley by the federal Bureau of Reclamation jeopardize the continued existence of imperiled Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, which rely on chinook salmon runs for food.
For the press release, the full complaint and a fact sheet, go to: http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2012/navy-training-blasts-marine-mammals-with-harmful-sonar.
MLPA Initiative fails to protect ocean from military exercises
In my opinion, one of reasons why this and similar lawsuits are so necessary is because California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative creates so-called “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from military testing, as well as pollution, corporate aquaculture, wave and wind energy projects and all other human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The initiative is a privately funded process, overseen by a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, coastal real estate executive, agribusiness hack and other corporate operatives with many conflicts of interest, that is supported by the Western States Petroleum Association, Safeway Stores and the Walton Family Foundation. The MLPA process parallels the equally corrupt and corporate-controlled Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral canal to export northern California water to southern California.
In an egregious conflict of interest, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the “august body” that designed the so-called “marine protected areas,” falsely touted as “underwater parks” and “Yosemites of the Sea” by MLPA Initiative advocates, that went into effect on the Southern California Coast on January 1.
Reheis-Boyd, a big oil industry lobbyist who relentlessly pushes for new offshore drilling off the California coast, the Keystone XL pipeline and the gutting of environmental laws, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as “serving” on the North Central Coast and North Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces.
danbacher Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, took issue with Governor Jerry Brown’s repetition of the canard about how the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) project “will ensure water for 25 million Californians and for millions of acres of farmland as well as a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife.”
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by Dan Bacher
In his State of the State address on January 18, Governor Jerry Brown confirmed what everybody knew anyway: the construction of conveyance (a peripheral canal or tunnel) to export more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California is a huge priority for him.
“Last week, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar – met here in Sacramento with those in my administration who are working to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan,” proclaimed Brown. “Together we agreed that by this summer we should have the basic elements of the project we need to build.”
“This is something my father worked on and then I worked on—decades ago. We know more now and are committed to the dual goals of restoring the Delta ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply,” he said. (http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17386)
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, took issue with his repetition of the canard about how the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) project “will ensure water for 25 million Californians and for millions of acres of farmland as well as a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife.”
“Ensure water for 25 million Californians to do what?” she asked. “Flush their toilets? Water their lawns? Grow more permanent crops or housing developments in the desert? We don’t want anyone to go thirsty. But the issue here is not thirst. It is the preservation of water-wasting lifestyles that California can’t sustain.”
Barrigan-Parrilla also criticized Brown for greenwashing the destruction of the Delta when he touted the so-called “habitat restoration” planned for the Delta under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
“And by the way, Governor, how many thousands of acres of Delta farmland are you prepared to take out of production to create new habitat for which there won’t be enough water for anyway? After all a new pipe will not make more water for the system,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
Ironically, the BDCP aims to take out of production some of the most fertile agricultural land on the planet – in order to deliver more water to subsidized corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that are farming selenium-laced, drainage-impaired land, soil that should have never been irrigated!
In the same “Delta flows” newsletter, Barrigan-Parrilla made a great comparison between a pattern revealed by independent journalist Naomi Klein in her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and state-federal plans to build the canal.
“Journalist Naomi Klein traces a pattern in which economic ’shock therapy’ is used to gain control for large-scale corporate enterprises when the public is disoriented by wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “Klein’s book reads like a catalog of situations in which corporate interests have waited in the wings and set the stage to take advantage of some kind of disaster.”
“For the past five years, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has been setting the stage that way for southern Central Valley agribusiness to profit from a predicted disaster in the Delta. Nothing would serve their purposes as well as a flood or seismic event that gave them a clean slate in the Delta. And if they can’t have the disaster itself, threatening the public with disaster can work almost as well,” she stated.
Barrigan-Parrilla noted that the PPIC” is at it again, “cherry-picking data and misrepresenting facts” to support a major transformation of the Delta benefitting people who want water somewhere else.
“As usual, their latest report, ‘Transitions for the Delta Economy,’ is presented as an academic project, funded by The Watershed Science Center at UC Davis. But there’s some laundering going on here,” she revealed. “Page 62 of the report explains that the study was paid for by the Delta Solutions program funders, which once again includes the Stephen Bechtel Foundation, Resources Legacy Fund, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.”
“So it seems this time rather than checks going directly to PPIC from these pro-peripheral canal foundations, checks floated through the University and then to PPIC. Restore the Delta believes this is a worsening scenario because the average person will simply believe that the study was financed by an unbiased educational institution without a hidden agenda. And if there is nothing to hide, then why aren’t the funders on the cover?” Barrigan-Parrilla concluded.
For an analysis of the “sloppy economics” behind the PPIC report, go to: http://restorethedelta.org/1512. For an analysis of the “sloppy science,” go to:http://restorethedelta.org/1510
The shock doctrine on the ocean
It is no coincidence that the Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, two of the three funders of the PPIC report promoting the construction of the peripheral canal, are also funding the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The initiative is a corrupt process, overseen by a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, coastal real estate executive, agribusiness hack and other corporate operatives with many conflicts of interest, that directly parallels the equally corrupt and corporate-controlled Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
The MLPA Initiative creates so-called “marine protected areas,” supported by Safeway Stores, Walmart and the Western States Petroleum Association, that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wave and wind energy projects and all other human impacts on the ocean than fishing and gathering.
In one of the most overt conflicts of interest in California history, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the “august body” that designed the “marine protected areas” that went into effect on the Southern California Coast on January 1. Reheis-Boyd, a big oil industry lobbyist advocating for new offshore drilling off the California coast, the Keystone XL pipeline and the gutting of environmental laws, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as “serving” on the North Central Coast and North Coast Task Forces.
The Packard Foundation and four other “non-profits” donated a total of $20 million to fund the MLPA Initiative. The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation received the funds from these foundations to implement the unpopular MLPA process.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation contributed $8.2 million to fund the MLPA process. Julie E. Packard, the executive director and founder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the foundation.
The Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation, founded by Getty Oil heiress Anne Getty Earhart, gave $3 million over several years. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation donated $7.4 million, the Keith Campbell Foundation contributed $1.2 million and the Annenberg Foundation donated $200,000.
All of this money was dumped into the Resources Legacy Foundation to kick recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and seaweed gatherers, the most vocal advocates of fishery restoration and true environmental protection and the most fervent opponents of the peripheral canal, off the water in a disgusting case of corporate greenwashing. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/02/18/the-corporate-money-behind-the-mlpa-initiative)
In both the BDCP and MLPA Initiative fiascos, corporate interests have waited in the wings and set the stage to take advantage of some kind of disaster, either real or imagined, as Naomi Klein so eloquently pointed out in her book. In the BDCP, the alleged impending “disaster” is an earthquake or a catastrophic drought.
In the MLPA Initiative, the looming “disaster” is alleged “overfishing” by sustainable hook-and-line recreational and commercial fishermen, even though a peer reviewed study by Science magazine published on July 31, 2009 (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/01/18613625.php) concluded that the California Current ecosystem, the most heavily regulated fishery on the entire planet, had the least exploited and healthiest fishery and marine ecosystem of any region in the world studied.
Meanwhile, the “marine protected areas” fail to protect California marine waters from the most pressing problems they face – increased pollution, ocean industrialization and massive water exports out of the Bay-Delta Estuary, an estuary that dozens and dozens of anadromous and marine fish depend on for their survival.
If you like the “Shock Doctrine,” you’ll definitely like the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative corporate greenwashing processes!
danbacher 
The LA Police Department, known for its brutality and corruption over the years, and the U.S. military conducted joint “tactical exercises” in downtown LA this week.
One Black Hawk, a helicopter that has served in combat in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan and other areas in the Middle East, and four OH-6 choppers – “Little Birds” – flew over the city during the exercise.
At one point they flew just above the US Bank building downtown and later flew over the Staples Center as the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Los Angeles Clippers inside (http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/lapd-and-special-forces-conduct-military-maneuvers-in-the-skies-above-downtown-la/).
According to a Department news release on January 23 (http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/news_view/50045), “Multi-agency tactical exercises are to be conducted during evening hours around the downtown area January 22-26, 2012.”
“The Los Angeles Police Department will be providing support for a joint military training exercise in and around the great Los Angeles area,” the release stated. “This will be routine training conducted by military personnel, designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements.”
“This training has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites. The training sites have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routines,” the Department claimed.
“Lastly, safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and the military personnel involved. As such, this training is not open to the public,” the Department concluded.
Members of the Occupy movement were outraged by the joint exercises by the LA police and military, in light of the unprecedented campaign by the US government and local police agencies against the First Amendment, Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
“Open to the public?” the Occupy LA Morning Report blog responded (http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/5391) “You mean the deployment of military assets in an urban area is supposed to be inconspicuous? The video of these ‘exercises’ would be something to behold, probably much like what we saw in Iron-Curtain Eastern Europe and Tiananmen Square. But since the NDAA 2012 was passed nothing seems surprising any more.”
“It appears America is preparing for war against its own citizens. I don’t know how else to put it. If someone can make a suggestion for another way of interpreting this, please do,” the blog stated.
Joint military exercises have also been conducted over Boston, Massachusetts and Little Rock, Arkansas over the past six months.
These joint military training exercises become very ominous in the wake of the repression of the Occupy movement by police departments throughout the nation.The crackdown on the First Amendment by the cities of Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland San Francisco and others across the country is apparently part of a nationally coordinated campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies in collaboration with local police departments, as exposed by author Naomi Wolf in her November 25 article in the UK Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy).
“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence,” wrote Wolf. “It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent.”
The exercises become even more ominous when you consider that President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on New Year’s Eve, allowing indefinite detention to be codified into law.
Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use it and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a statement.
“The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield,” the ACLU said.
President Barack Obama brought us “Change,” all right, “Change” for the worse!
danbacher by Dan Bacher
“Silent” protestors with their mouths taped shut – including those from Occupy Sacramento – will target Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and corporate education proponent Michelle Rhee as they hold a roundtable discussion about education issues at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I St, in Sacramento on Wednesday, January 25.
Demonstrators will begin to gather at 5:15 p.m. and hold a news briefing. The demonstration occurs as Wall Street corporations and foundations are funding not only the privatization of education, but the privatization of the oceans through the Obama administration’s “catch shares” program and California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and the privatization of the state’s water resources through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal.
The protestors are expected to set up a ‘gauntlet” of protestors with their mouths taped shut –
something Rhee admitted to doing to her noisy students when she was a teacher. She later said some of the students were hurt when they removed the tape.
“Rhee, disgraced former-chancellor of the Washington D.C. public schools and wife of Johnson, is the standard-bearer of corporate privateers, raising millions of dollars through her organization, StudentsFirst, from the likes of the Koch Bros and Rupert Murdoch to advance an agenda of union-busting, school vouchers and public school give-aways to private interests,” according to Kate Lenox, an organizer for the protest.
“The national headquarters of StudentsFirst happens to be located right here in Sacramento and will soon formally open its offices downtown on K Street above the Rite Aid store,” Lenox explained.
The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education, Occupy and Sacramento teachers will participate in the protest. If you oppose the corporate privatization of education, please show up at this protest.
For more information, contact Kate Lenox, 916-201-0225, or Cres Vellucci, 916-996-9170.
Pro-Occupy candidates will run in Sacramento Supervisor election
On the same day, OccupySacramento attorney Jeff Kravitz and high school government teacher Gary Blenner will officially announce that they are running for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors –
as the first “pro-Occupy/99%” candidates in the area. The news conference will be held on January 25 at 9:30 a.m. at County Administration Building (700 H Street, outside entrance on H St. side).
Kravitz, a volunteer attorney for Occupy activists arrested at Cesar Chavez Park, is a civil rights lawyer and former constitutional law professor. He is running in District 3.
Blenner is a government teacher at Rio Americano High School, and a former school board member in the Center Unified School District. He is running in District 4.
“Both will announce they will be running for the 99%, not corporations, promising to hold a series of ‘99% community forums’ over the next few months to find out what the 99% want them to do if they are elected,” according to a statement from Occupy Sacramento. More details will be released at the news briefing.
For more information, contact: Cres Vellucci, 916-996 9170, press@kravitzforsupervisor.com.
Occupy lawyer urges prosecution of UC Davis police
In other Occupy news, Kravitz announced on January 20 that he was “not surprised” UC Davis students arrested in the infamous “pepper spraying incident” in November were not charged by the Yolo County District Attorney – and they emphasized that it’s time the police officers at UC Davis are prosecuted. Kravitz said the announcement by the DA follows a pattern of county DAs refusing to prosecute after arrests by police at Occupy events, including those in Sacramento.
“I am not surprised at all,” said Kravitz. “These are peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators. In Sacramento, we have veterans, workers and students defending the First Amendment and being arrested. None of them should be prosecuted.”
“Now is the time to prosecute the real lawbreakers – the police officers at UC Davis who violated the students’ rights,” said Kravitz.
A video of the UD Davis police pepper spraying and arrests of the students became viral and spread throughout the world, becoming an international symbol of police abuse and brutality against the Occupy movement. The video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded#!, has been viewed 2,451,074 times to date.
There have been 110 arrests at Occupy Sacramento since October at Cesar Chavez Park, according to Cres Vellucci of Occupy Sacramento. The Sacramento District Attorney refused to file charges in any of them, since there was no legal basis for the arrests.
The City of Sacramento filed some charges, but has not successfully prosecuted any of them. Twenty-two cases remain of the 110 arrests.
Mayor Kevin Johnson, the Sacramento City Council and the Sacramento Police Department , along with the governments of cities across the nation, are continuing their war against the First Amendment and the Constitution.
The crackdown on the First Amendment by the cities of Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others across the country is apparently part of a nationally coordinated campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies in collaboration with local police departments, as exposed by author Naomi Wolf in her November 25 article in the UK Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy).
“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence,” wrote Wolf. “It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.”
danbacher DFG Director Chuck Bonham should call for an investigation into the record “salvage” of 11 million fish, including 9 million imperiled Sacramento splittail, during 2011, a export record pumping year, and direct staff to find a way to stop or at least reduce the carnage at the predatory state and federal export pumping facilities in the South Delta.
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by Dan Bacher
In a January 18 press release, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) proudly announced a new marine and coastal map viewer, called MarineBIOS.
Located at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/gis/viewer.asp, the DFG touts the website an “in-depth source of information” about California’s MPAs (marine protected areas), “as well as some of the more common spatial planning data that was used to create those MPA regulations.”
“This map viewer marks a significant milestone in our effort to manage and make available planning data for marine and coastal constituents,” DFG Director Chuck Bonham gushed. “It’s also cost-effective as it was done in-house, using existing department technology and expertise.”
Of course, the release failed to mention that the majority of these so-called “marine protected areas” were created under the “visionary leadership” of a big oil lobbyist, real estate executive, marina developer and other corporate operatives under Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a corrupt and unjust corporate greenwashing process privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation.
I just wonder how much this DFG staff time and dollars this “MarineBIOS” program cost. While I love the idea of new technology at the DFG, what the DFG really needs now is firm leadership to defend and restore our fish populations.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
My opinion is that if Director Bonham really cares about California fish, water and the environment, he should show some courage and take the following crucial actions:
1. He should call for an investigation into the record “salvage” of 11 million fish, including 9 million imperiled Sacramento splittail, during 2011, a export record pumping year, and direct staff to find a way to stop or at least reduce the carnage at the predatory state and federal export pumping facilities in the South Delta. Scientists estimate that the actual amount of fish lost in the pumps is 5 to 10 times the “salvage” numbers.
2. Bonham should support the call by anglers, grassroots environmentalists and advocates of openness and transparency in government to suspend the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, including the so-called “marine protected areas” created under the leadership of South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force Chair Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association. The initiative creates so-called “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The DFG wardens would be very happy to hear that they don’t have to enforce new “marine protected areas” when they don’t have enough staff or boats to patrol the existing ones. That’s why the California Fish and Game Wardens Association has repeatedly called on the Fish and Game Commission not to approve any new marine protected areas until the Department has enough staff and money to enforce the existing MPAs.
3. He should urge the Brown and Obama administrations to halt the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal, a project that will lead to the deaths of more Central Valley chinook salmon, steelhead, striped bass, American shad, Sacramento splittail, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, largemouth bass, white and green sturgeon and other species than all of the poachers in the state combined could possibly kill.
Not only would this canal lead to the destruction of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, but it would cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion to build, according to economist Stephen Kasower, at a time when California is in its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
As Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, said, “The peripheral canal is such a tremendous destroyer of water systems. There is no one making more water, and there is very little protection to prevent water pollution and little resources targeting cleaning up water, just more greedy building plans to get the little water that is trickling down the Sacramento Valley. It time for Gov. Brown to get rid of those little thinkers and design off the grid projects.”
It is no surprise that the Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, two of the largest funders of studies by UC Davis and the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to promote the construction of the peripheral canal, are also the biggest funders of the MLPA Initiative fiasco. Neither the MLPA Initiative nor the plan to build the canal aim to “restore” the ecosystem – their goals are to greenwash the privatization of public trust resources and conservation in order to benefit powerful corporate interests.
I’ll conclude with another quote from Martin Luther King Jr: “The time is always right to do the right thing.”
danbacher It seems that Governor Jerry Brown is intent on making the peripheral canal a reality. ”It won’t surprise you that Salmon Water Now, and many other groups concerned about the fiscal and environmental health of California, think building a canal or tunnel isn’t such a great idea,” said Bruce Tokars of Salmon Water Now. “We think it is important that people understand what is going on, who it benefits, and what it means if it gets built. So to help focus debate on the subject we offer a three-minute video, Kill the Canal. The information about the video is below.”
As is always the case, sharing and embedding is encouraged. Please, join us in making some noise about this important subject.
Watch Kill the Canal here:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDs7tZyPbo8&hd=1
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/32264180Photo: In his State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown went out of his way to promote the construction of the peripheral canal to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California. Brown is continuing the abysmal environmental policies of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the peripheral canal and the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create so-called “marine protected areas.” Photo by the Governor’s Office.
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The march to build a system to move massive amounts of water around the Delta continues. The goal is to build a “peripheral canal” (also referred to as a tunnel or conveyance) so that fresh water will be available to meet the seemingly never-ending needs of big agriculture and Southern California real estate interests.
Governor Jerry Brown, in his recent State of the State address, seemed to go out of his way to justify building a peripheral canal. He emphasized his commitment to fast-tracking its construction.
The Governor even personalized the pitch by saying that “this is something my father worked on and then I worked on—decades ago. We know more now and are committed to the dual goals of restoring the Delta ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply.”
Dan Bacher, who has been reporting on water, fish, and ecosystem issues for years, pointed out in a recent story that “ironically, the theme of (Brown’s) speech was “California on the Mend.” Delta advocates oppose the construction of the peripheral canal because it will, among other things, lead to the extinction of Central Valley fish species including Sacramento River Chinook salmon and many others.
Salmon Water Now agrees with Bacher that the canal won’t “mend” imperiled Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. It is very hard to see how it would not exacerbate the ecosystem collapse caused by record water exports from the Delta in recent years.
But those pushing for ever more amounts of water want what they want.
Kill the Canal, a new video from Salmon Water Now, is a three-minute look at the canal and what we believe are very good reasons to stop it from being built.
The canal would be a massively expensive construction project at a time when California is suffering from huge budget problems. It does not seem that the current plans will help the Delta or help the people and communities who depend on having healthy runs of wild salmon. But it will help the Westlands Water District, billionaire “farmer” Stewart Resnick, and plenty of real estate developers. If they get their way, they’ll be very happy.
A little sarcasm never hurts.
Salmon Water Now is one of many voices that would like to put the brakes on the march to build a peripheral canal. We’d like to see a spirited discussion about this issue and there is plenty to talk about. We encourage the sharing of our Kill the Canal video as a way to stimulate a lively debate.
Watch Kill the Canal here:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDs7tZyPbo8&hd=1
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/32264180
Bruce Tokars
http://www.salmonwaternow.org
danbacher “Now is the time to prosecute the real lawbreakers – the police officers at UC Davis who violated the students’ rights,” said Jeff Kravitz, Occupy Sacramento lawyer, said late Friday.
by Dan Bacher
Occupy Sacramento lawyers announced Friday afternoon they were “not surprised” UC Davis students arrested in the infamous “pepper spraying incident” in November were not charged by the Yolo County District Attorney – and they emphasized that it’s time the police officers at UC Davis are prosecuted.
District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced today that there was “insufficient information” contained within the police reports submitted by the UC Davis Police Department to justify the filing of criminal charges against those individuals arrested during the November 18, 2011, confrontation with UC Davis Police during the “Occupy UC Davis” protest.
“Based on this determination the District Attorney will not be filing charges against the protesters,” according to Reisig. “The District Attorney’s examination into the pepper spraying of the protesters is ongoing.”
Jeff Kravitz, one of the many pro bono/volunteer lawyers working with Occupy Sacramento, said today’s announcement by the Yolo County District Attorney follows a pattern of county DAs refusing to prosecute after arrests by police at Occupy events, including those in Sacramento.
“I am not surprised at all,” said Kravitz. “These are peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators. In Sacramento, we have veterans, workers and students defending the First Amendment and being arrested. None of them should be prosecuted.”
“Now is the time to prosecute the real lawbreakers – the police officers at UC Davis who violated the students’ rights,” said Kravitz.
There have been 110 arrests at Occupy Sacramento since October at Cesar Chavez Park, according to Cres Vellucci of Occupy Sacramento. The Sacramento District Attorney refused to file charges in any of them. The City of Sacramento filed some charges, but has not successfully prosecuted any of them. Twenty-two cases remain of the 110 arrests.
A video of the police pepper spraying and arrests of the students became viral and spread throughout the world, becoming an international symbol of police abuse and brutality against the Occupy movement. The video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded#!, has been viewed 2,451,074 times to date.
The still photo of Lt. John Pike pepper spraying students has now become an iconic image of the Occupy Wall Street movement. During the protest at UC Davis, Pike was filmed walking in front of seated student protesters, blasting pepper spray into their faces. The students had interlocked arms to prevent officers from taking them away.
For more information, contact Cres Vellucci, 916-996-9170, news0058 [at] comcast.net
danbacher “It’s shameful that nine members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee chose to keep consumers in the dark as to whether salmon sold in California is genetically engineered or not, should GE Salmon be approved by the FDA,” said Marie Logan of Food and Water Watch.
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by Dan Bacher
You would think that a simple bill requiring the labeling of Frankenfish would pass easily through the California Legislature.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, since Assemblymembers apparently beholden to the bioegineering and biotechnology industry on January 19 voted against a bill, AB 88, that would have required that all genetically engineered (GE) fish sold in California contain clear and prominent labeling.
The legislation, authored by Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-6), failed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee by a vote of 9-7. Assemblymembers Harkey, Calderon, Hall, Nielson, Norby, Solorio, Wagner, Campos and Donnelly voted no on the bill, while Fuentes, Bradford, Chesbro, Gatto, Hill, Ammiano and Mitchell voted yes.
Assemblymember Blumenfield, who voted for the bill last May, was out of the room during the vote.
“It’s shameful that nine members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee chose to keep consumers in the dark as to whether salmon sold in California is genetically engineered or not, should GE Salmon be approved by the FDA,” said Marie Logan of Food and Water Watch. “We will continue to fight for labeling of all genetically engineered foods and continue to urge the FDA to not approve GE salmon, so that this potentially risky product never reaches grocery store shelves. Food & Water Watch will continue working to support national legislation that would stop the approval of GE salmon by the FDA.”
The legislation, AB 88, was stalled in Appropriations last year, and was held-over for reintroduction this session by Assemblymember Huffman. This bill is modeled after similar legislation passed in the state of Alaska in 2005 that requires labeling of all genetically modified seafood.
“While we are disappointed that AB 88 failed today, we are encouraged by the level of support the bill received in a tough Committee,” according to a statement from the Center for Food Safety (CFS). “The bill’s failure in Committee came despite clear consumer demand for labeling of GE fish.”
As Huffman told TakePart, “If we had put this bill before the people of California, it would have passed overwhelmingly.”
“It is shocking and such a big mistake for California to allow 9 people to decide NOT to label GE Fish!” said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Assemblyman Huffman is right that if the people had a vote, those Frankenfish would not exist at all! This vote was important to what is happening in the U.S. Senate on the other bills about the FRANKENFISH, the Salmon Killer.”
She emphasized that “ALL GM foods are having negative hormonal growth effects on humans, especially babies, toddlers, children, teens and young adults.”
Consumer, environmental and fishing groups and Indian Tribes oppose the approval of genetically engineered salmon and other fish by the federal Food and Drug Administration because of its potential human health impacts and the danger presented to struggling West Coast salmon populations if the GE fish escape from aquaculture facilities. They supported the legislation as a way of safeguarding human health in California if efforts to stop the approval of Frankenfish at the federal level fail.
BIOCOM, an organization representing the biotechnology and life sciences industry, opposed the Legislation by claiming that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “closely regulates” the use of bioengineering and biotechnology in foods and is currently reviewing the approval of consumption of genetically engineered salmon. BIOCOM argued that it should be left to the FDA to determine whether or not labeling should be required on these products.
The Frankenfish issue is not going to go away as long as AquaBounty’s salmon is on the table for FDA consideration and while other biotech corporations push for the approval of GE animals. The Obama administration, the same administration that is pushing for the privatization of ocean public trust resources through “catch shares” program and the construction of a peripheral canal that will destroy Central Valley salmon and California Delta fish populations, has also put the GE salmon approval process on the fast-track.
On December 19, a coalition of 11 food safety, environmental, consumer and fisheries organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) calling for a halt to its approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon after learning that the company’s – AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. – research site was contaminated with a new strain of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), the deadly fish flu that is devastating fish stocks around the world.
“This new information calls into question the reliability of AquaBounty’s data and the validity of its claims that their fish are safe for the environment” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. “The FDA must respond appropriately and conduct their own environmental impact statement that looks at a broad range of environmental risks from these genetically engineered salmon, including the risk of spreading diseases such as ISA and antibiotic use for other diseases.”
The coalition included the Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch, Center for Environmental Health, Alliance for Natural Health USA, Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, PCC Natural Markets, Organic Consumers Association, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Mangrove Action Project.
Legislation advocating a ban on GE salmon, S. 230, and mandatory labeling, S. 229, is making its through the U.S. Senate.
Legislation advocating a ban on GE salmon, H.R. 521, and mandatory labeling, H.R. 520, is also proceeding through the U.S. House of Representatives.
For more information on GE fish, visit CFS’s campaign website, http://www.ge-fish.org, or Food and Water Watch’s website,http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/stop-frankenfish.
Meanwhile, the Label GMOs campaign is working hard around the state to get the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act on the CA ballot in November. The group has about 2 months to get 850,000 signatures statewide and they need everyone who cares about this issue to pitch in.
If you’re interested in helping out – even if it’s just volunteering once or twice during those two months, or just getting signatures from friends – please come to one of their upcoming trainings. See http://www.labelgmos.org/events to find out about the event closest to you.
danbacher “Salmon are the life line, the magic in the waters, the measure of how healthy the waters are,” stated Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “When they can no longer swim in the rivers, streams, and Oceans, there will be no drinkable water for humans either. The Winnemem Wintu will continue to do all that we can to speak up for salmon as they follow the stars home.”
Photo of spring run chinook salmon from Butte Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River. Photo courtesy of Friends of Butte Creek.
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by Dan Bacher
A broad coalition of commercial and recreational salmon fishing groups, conservation organizations and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe today filed an appeal with the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to fully reinstate a federal water management plan intended to protect threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead throughout the Central Valley.
The “biological opinion,” issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service, functions as a water management plan governing huge water diversions in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary as well as dams on most major Central Valley rivers, according to a news release from the groups and Tribe.
“Although a district court upheld most of the biological opinion as scientifically justified, it found that parts of the plan contained some technical problems and sent it back for further review and analysis. The court left the biological opinion in force while federal water managers and wildlife agencies make the necessary fixes,” the groups stated.
Large San Joaquin Valley agricultural interests and southern California water users, who compete for water flowing through the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers that is needed by endangered salmon, steelhead and other species, filed lawsuits challenging the opinion’s call for reductions in water exports from the Delta during critical times for young migrating salmon, primarily January through June. The fishing groups, conservationists and Tribe joined together to help defend the biological opinion from these legal challenges.
The biological opinion protects not only highly imperiled and federally protected winter and spring run Chinook salmon, but also commercially valuable fall run salmon that are the backbone of California’s commercial and recreational fisheries. All salmon runs went into a tailspin over the past decade due to record exports of water from the Delta, primarily for use by corporate growers irrigating drainage-impaired land laced with selenium and other toxic minerals and salts on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.
The groups said management rules were strengthened in 2009 and the fisheries have been slowly rebuilding. However, this progress will likely be lost if water users once again weaken water withdrawal rules to their advantage.
“The protective measures under attack by San Joaquin Valley and southern California water interests are the bare minimum we need to keep our salmon fisheries alive,” said Earthjustice attorney Erin Tobin. “This appeal is intended to restore science-based, rational protections needed for California’s native salmon to survive and hopefully one day recover to healthy populations, while at the same time balancing other needs for Delta water.”
The public interest law firm Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed today’s appeal on behalf of NRDC, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, Sacramento River Preservation Trust, Friends of the River, California Trout, San Francisco Baykeeper, The Bay Institute and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
Representatives of the Tribe and conservation groups spoke about the urgent need to protect salmon, steelhead and other fish populations from massive water exports.
“Ask yourself which is worth fighting for—live teeming waterways with healthy fish populations, or dead and dying waterways ruined for profit?” said Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Our rivers belong to all of us and we won’t allow anyone to destroy them just to make a buck.”
“Salmon are the life line, the magic in the waters, the measure of how healthy the waters are,” stated Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “When they can no longer swim in the rivers, streams, and Oceans, there will be no drinkable water for humans either. The Winnemem Wintu will continue to do all that we can to speak up for salmon as they follow the stars home.”
The Tribe is currently engaged in an ambitious effort to reintroduce winter run chinook salmon now thriving on the Rakaira River in New Zealand to the their native waters on the McCloud River above Shasta Lake.
“If we expect to save the salmon and the thousands of salmon industry jobs that depend on them, we need a fair balance of water, which is what we’re asking the appeals court to support,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
“Certain vested agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley are attacking biological science with political science,” said John Merz, president, Sacramento River Preservation Trust. “The federal resource agency responsible for protecting salmon and other at-risk species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has done its job. We look forward to a better day in the Delta soon.”
Curtis Knight, conservation director ofCalTrout said, “The bold and progressive actions of NMFS calling for fish passage and adequate flows under attack now in the appeals court are precisely what is needed to stave off the extinction path of salmon in Central Valley.”
“Experts agree that without the minimal protections from excessive water diversions afforded by the ESA biological opinion, California’s treasured Central Valley Chinook salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon are at grave risk of extinction,” concluded Dr. Jon Rosenfield of The Bay Institute.
2009 biological opinion aims to protect salmon and orcas
On June 4, 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service released a biological opinion including protective measures for Sacramento and San Joaquin River Chinook salmon and steelhead runs. This opinion replaced one issued in 2004 by the Bush administration over the objections of federal fisheries scientists that sent salmon runs into steep decline.
Fishermen, environmentalists, and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, represented by Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, successfully challenged the Bush era plan in court.
Salmon declines that occurred under the all-time high water diversions allowed by the earlier plan forced fishery managers to close North Coast salmon fishing for the first time in the history of the state in 2008 and 2009, an extremely limited season was permitted in 2010. The economic and social impacts of these unprecedented closures to coastal fishing communities have been devastating.
The 2009 biological opinion clearly shows that excessive water diversions in the Delta jeopardize endangered salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, and even southern resident killer whales (orcas), which feed on salmon at sea.
The biological opinion set detailed prescriptions for operating the projects for the next 20 years in a manner that will avoid pushing the fish to extinction or further destroying their habitat, while still providing for other uses of Delta water. Within days after it was released, industrial agriculture and commercial water users filed lawsuits to overturn the plan.
For more information, contact:
Erin Tobin, Earthjustice (415) 217-2000
Kate Poole, NRDC (415) 875-6100
Zeke Grader, PCFFA (415) 561-5080 x224
Gary Bobker, The Bay Institute, (415) 272-6616
Gary Mulcahy, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, (916) 991-8493
John Merz, Sacramento River Preservation Trust, (530) 345-1865
Curtis Knight, California Trout, (530) 859-1872
A critical time for West Coast fisheries
The filing of the lawsuit comes at a critical time for West Coast and California fisheries. The Brown and Obama administrations authorized the export of a record amount of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in the 2011 water year. The water export total, including water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,633,000 acre-feet in 2011 – 163,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, according to DWR data.
The record pumping from the Delta in 2011 – used to fill billionaire Stewart Resnick’s Kern Water Bank and southern California reservoirs – resulted in a huge, unprecedented fish kill at the Delta pumps. Agency staff “salvaged” a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011 alone. Scientists estimate that the actual amount of fish lost in the pumps is 5 to 10 times the “salvage” numbers.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to DFG data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
The fish “salvaged” at the “death pumps” of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. DFG data reveals that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were “salvaged” between January 1 and September 7 of 2011.
Agency staff also “salvaged” 35,560 Sacramento River spring run and fall run chinooks, 1,642 Central Valley steelhead and 14 green sturgeon in the project facilities during the same period.
Meanwhile, the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal to deliver increased water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California. Delta advocates oppose the peripheral canal because it will likely result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other imperiled species.
