October 2011 - Page 2 of 4

Senator Leno Angered Over Federal Medical Marijuana Raids

By uptownstudiosOctober 24, 201117 comments

by Dan Aiello –

Federal prosecutors made good on threats they would begin to crackdown on California’s medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state angering two state legislators who are calling on feds to meet with them in Sacramento.

The aggressiveness and scale of the federal law enforcement’s raids surprised many local authorities and frightened the state’s dispensary operators, growers, patients and advocates for medical marijuana use. The raids angered at least two state officials who saw the crackdown by the Department of Justice as an unwarranted infringement on the rights of the state and its citizens to govern the use and distribution of the drug.

Sunday Commentary: Lies, Damn Lies, and 14% Rate Hikes

By David GreenwaldOctober 23, 2011182 comments

There has been no bigger critic of the Davis Enterprise’s Bob Dunning than myself. However, I will say, when he’s right, he’s right. Today he comes out with one of his most scathing criticisms of city council that I have seen, calling the city, “not honest about water rate increase.”

He writes, “Much of the animosity could have been avoided had the Davis City Council and city staff simply been completely honest with us from the get-go.”

Why We Must Look At Wrongful Convictions

By David GreenwaldOctober 23, 20117 comments

On November 3, Yolo Judicial Watch will focus its attention, at its annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony Event, on the issue of preventing wrongful convictions.

This event will feature, among others, Linda Starr, the Legal Director of the Northern California Innocence Project, which has played a strong role in a number of recent exonerations.

Commentary: Occupy the Water Supply Project

By David GreenwaldOctober 22, 201153 comments

In the last few weeks we have finally seen the outcry from the left that has been muted far too long, based perhaps on their misplaced faith or misplaced admiration for Barack Obama.

I do not say much about Barack Obama on these pages, as it quickly devolves into uninteresting (to me) partisan debate. What I will say here, at the risk of people not really hearing what I have to say, is that contrary to the right’s depiction of President Obama as figure on the left, a socialist, a radical, his presidency has been very much an establishment one, relying on the mainstream forces, Wall Street and corporate America.

Wolk Packs the (Bounce) House in Announcement Party

By David GreenwaldOctober 22, 20116 comments

To put 250 people at an event, an announcement for a candidacy where the election is still eight months away, is an impressive feat. Then again, Dan Wolk probably had about a 20-year head start on the competition. Many, if not most, of the attendees at this event probably have attended Lois Wolk events in the past.

Still, there is something refreshing watching a candidate for public office, any office, chasing his young daughter around a bounce house set up on the periphery of the massive facility that once housed the Davis Branch of the Yolo County Library.

Commentary: We Need to Fix Rate Structures and Operational Concerns First Not Last

By David GreenwaldOctober 21, 201154 comments

In a bit of irony, Elaine Roberts Musser used her monthly Vanguard column to argue, among other things, “Every expert willing to speak publicly seems to agree we need the surface water project sooner rather than later. All the Davis and Woodland City Council members agree we do need the surface water project.”

By the same token, however, at the end of a long and arduous two-hour meeting with the Vanguard, city officials and project consultants, the City of Davis Interim Public Works Director made a rather candid acknowledgment that the water project is really a long-term plan.

Realignment Has the Chance to Change Business as Usual

By David GreenwaldOctober 21, 20119 comments

The real question, as we are now moving toward a month into realignment, is how California counties will decide to deal with realignment – do they change the way they handle a number of cases or do they simply try to add jail space?

Comments last week at UC Davis by CDCR Director Matthew Cate suggested that when we drill down numbers, we really need to re-think how we approach incarceration.

Real Rate Hikes Could Far Exceed 14% for Next Six Years

By David GreenwaldOctober 20, 201170 comments

As many who read the comment section yesterday figured out, the city’s advertised water rate hikes include an assumption that the residents will conserve an average of 20% of their water. Failing to do this by hook or by crook, the resident could see water rates increase far more than 14% annually.

Looking at the rates alone suggests a far greater increase than just 14%. First of all, the tier 1 rate by itself goes up from $1.50 to $1.90 per unit next year. That marks about a 26.6% increase.

Word To The Wise: Surface Water Project – Sooner Rather Than Later

By Elaine Roberts MusserOctober 20, 201122 comments

By E. Roberts Musser

Reasons to do this project sooner rather than later:

Every expert willing to speak publicly seems to agree we need the surface water project sooner rather than later. All the Davis and Woodland City Council members agree we do need the surface water project.

Concerns About Fifth Street Impacts Nearly Derail Project Before Getting Back on Course

By David GreenwaldOctober 19, 201125 comments

It was supposed to be a simple item that moved forward the Fifth Street Corridor Improvement project. Council simply recommended adoption of a negative declaration which would analyze the proposed project and determine that the potential impacts would be less than significant, with mitigation, while at the same time amending the Core Area Specific Plan for consistency with the Fifth Street Corridor Improvements Project. This would include an Implementation Measure to add bicycle lanes on Fifth Street/Russell Boulevard from A to L Streets.

Both parts A and B were scheduled to last a combined 45 minutes. Instead they went on nearly for three hours, with a discussion that threatened to deadlock the proceedings at 2-2, with Sue Greenwald perhaps unnecessarily locked out of the full discussion, when her conflict existed only on the very fringe of all possible neighborhood impacts.

Veolia Has a History of Environmental Mishaps and Other Operational Problems

By David GreenwaldOctober 19, 201183 comments

While we have, up until this point, focused on Veolia’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, perhaps the bigger problem that Veolia should face in gaining a contract with the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency should be their handling of water issues in this state.

The DBO process is supposed to lock in lower rates and better results from a competitive bid process. But one common thread in both United Water which we covered on Tuesday and now Veolia is that the process actually results in higher rates and poorer service, as private companies seek to increase their profits.

Serious Allegations Against United Water and a Long and Troubled Track Record

By David GreenwaldOctober 18, 201165 comments

Violations, High Cost, Poor Performance Leads Eight Other Municipalities in the Last Decade to Prematurely Terminate Contract with United Water

The questions about one of the contractors under consideration, United Water, associated with the CDM “team,” have been raised, both in public and by members of the Clean Water Agency.

United Water faces serious legal issues and an indictment, which claims two of its managers at a Gary, Indiana, plant “intentionally manipulated water quality monitoring results at the facility over a five-year period between 2003 and 2008.”

Dunning and Souza Clash on Water

By David GreenwaldOctober 18, 201115 comments

Councilmember Stephen Souza does not get it right now. In fact, he does not get it on a number of fronts, which could prove harmful to him if he indeed chooses to run for reelection. Picking a fight with Bob Dunning is probably one of the worst decisions any one in Davis public office can make.

As Mark Twain once remarked, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” I would point out that, in the modern age, it might be worse to pick a fight with someone who does not have to buy ink at all, but I digress.

Wolk and Yamada Continue to Oppose Water Bond

By uptownstudiosOctober 18, 20112 comments

By Dan Aiello

The Department of Fish and Game’s announcement this month of a remarkable turnaround in the populations of the Bay-Delta estuary’s endangered Smelt and Salmon species spelled more trouble for proponents of the state’s 2012 water bond measure.

Delta legislators and environmentalists were delighted by news of the recovering populations within the Delta but, assured an epic election battle where they expect to be heavily outspent by water interest groups, continue to promote science, conservation and regional sustainability over what they claim is a monolithic funding measure that’s bloated with unnecessarily expensive statewide solutions to what amount to regional water woes.

Commentary: Davis Needs An Ethics Policy For Dealing with Business Contracts

By David GreenwaldOctober 17, 201150 comments

As we presented two weeks ago, Davis has been thrust into an unenviable bind by the creation of the water project – the choice, perhaps, between doing business with evil large companies and higher water rates.

Driving this, in part, is the decision to go with private firms to build this project through a DBO process – Design – Build – Operate. As the name implies, the contract means that the same group of companies would be involved in designing, building, and then operating (at least initially) the water project.

Councilmember Wolk Officially Announces He Will Run For Election For First Time

By David GreenwaldOctober 17, 201110 comments

It has been just about nine months since Dan Wolk was appointed by the Davis City Council to replace Don Saylor. He has become a critical third vote on the budget, and the architect of a compromise that might have averted the current water referendum had his colleagues taken the lead.

In press release issued on Sunday, citing the unfinished work ahead and the need for a new generation of leadership, Dan Wolk has decided to run for Davis City Council.

Pattern of (Mis)Conduct By Davis Firefighters

By David GreenwaldOctober 16, 201156 comments

The latest revelations of the Davis firefighters taking out their anger at the Vanguard on a struggling local business, Westlake Market, is a reminder of a much larger issue – that of a pattern of abuse of union power and misconduct on the part of the Davis firefighters.

The Yolo Grand Jury Report from 2008 highlighted a string of incidents involving everything from abuse of authority, unfair hiring and promotional practices, hostile work environment, untoward union influence and, oh yes, being drunk and causing fights in the downtown and sleeping off drinking binges in the beds of the local fire station.

Sunday Commentary: Occupy This!

By David GreenwaldOctober 16, 2011136 comments

On Saturday during Farmer’s Market, a small group of mostly young people walked through the crowd – these were Occupy Davis protestors.

The Davis Enterprise reports this morning that on Saturday morning “protesters marched to the Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase Bank branch offices downtown and took up residence in Central Park.”

27th Annual Concilio Award 14 Students with Scholarships

By David GreenwaldOctober 16, 20111 comments

Saturday marked the 27^th annual Yolo County Concilio Recognition Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser. On this evening, 10 members of the community were awarded for their work and 14 Latino Students from seven high schools across Yolo County received a scholarship.

The proceeds from the event on Saturday night will go toward awarding scholarships to deserving Latino and other students in June. Two years ago they awarded eighty scholarships. They also fund 30 adult grants and non-profit program sponsorships in Yolo County.

Commentary: The Promise of Realignment Dwarfed by Fear and Politics

By David GreenwaldOctober 16, 201116 comments

After a morning of good discussions and reasoned discourse at last week’s realignment dialogue, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley became unhinged. Mr. Cooley had actually been an innovator, someone who pushed for change in the charging of third strikes to avoid sending the pizza thieves and cheese bandits to prison for the rest of their lives.

But something changed, in his ill-fated efforts to become the State Attorney General, where he was narrowly upset by Kamala Harris, after declaring victory the night of the election.

Month: October 2011