California rice farmer sworn in as U.S. Congressman

The great thing about LaMalfa is his opposition to the undamming of the Klamath River.

“The basic concept of dam removal I don’t believe is a sound one,” he said, indicating he believes efforts should focus on creating fish passage “instead of this head-long hurrying into questionable steps favored by environmentalists.”

CALIFORNIA’S BLUE UTOPIA

I picked up this article via Calwatchdog.org.  They are a great website to visit.  This article will just break your heart.  What delusional Leftists!!

The number 1 topic of conversation amongst the despised 1% in California today is when you are leaving California or whether you can leave. Property owners who cannot move their apartment building or office complexes can move their homes and change their residency. On a flight from Austin, Texas to Orange County last week, I sat next to the owner of a substantial manufacturing business whose plant is in the inland southern California community of Ontario. He lives in Austin, flies in on Monday and home on Thursday. He spends less than 180 days a year in California. His savings in state income taxes more than pays for his airfare, hotel and rental car expenses. His home and gas and energy all cost less in Texas. More significantly, he will not expand his plant in California and intends to move his plant and people to Texas over the next five years.

...

The Blues are excited to impose their vision of Utopia on California. I, for one, will not be here to see it. My home goes on the market next month. My company has already re-located to another state. My children have already moved away seeking a future more promising than anticipated here in California. It is ironic because that is why I left my parents in Cleveland, Ohio to come to California four decades ago. I will be sad to leave my home and friendships acquired over decades. But I realize our leaders will neither notice, and if they did, they would not care.

As the tax revenues continue to fall (as they always do when rates increase), the Blues will rail against the remaining 1%, claiming that if only “they” would pay their fair share, things would be perfect. They will raise rates, fees, costs, and penalties again on the business class, and will do so as long as they hold power.

CALIFORNIA CITIES AND COUNTIES OK MERCURY POLLUTION or PLASTIC BAG BAN ROUNDUP or PLACES TO NOT GO GROCERY SHOPPING

I was contacted by a PR firm that represents plastic recyclers to alert me of the slew of plastic bag bans that take effect this year in CA. I just can't believe how stupid CA'ians are.  Well, not all of them.  And I wouldn't doubt that the vast majority of people are really against the bag bans.  But that is just a guess.  It's my need to find some optimism.

Chico City:

The City Council voted 5-2 to draft an ordinance to control plastic bag pollution in Chico. Mayor Mary Goloff, Vice-Mayor Scott Gruendl, and Councilmembers Ann Schwab, Randall Stone, and Tami Ritter voted in favor, with Councilmembers Sean Morgan and Mark Sorensen opposed. The vote came after lively public comment in which several Chico residents spoke out in support of a plastic bag ban.

Alameda County:

As of January 1, 2013, single-use plastic bags will no longer be available at most stores that sell packaged food in Alameda and other communities throughout Alameda County. Stores will also be required to charge a minimum of 10¢ for each paper or reusable bag.

Stores will still be permitted to provide free plastic produce bags to protect and transport produce, bulk food or meat.

Restaurants and food establishments are exempt from the ordinance.

The Reusable Bag Ordinance was adopted by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority in January 2012.

 Laguna Beach:

Laguna Beach is the first city in Orange County to enact a plastic bag ban and joins a host of others such as Pasadena and Long Beach in prohibiting single-use plastic bags in store checkout lines. Los Angeles is in the process of phasing out plastic bags. As of Jan. 1, most retail stores in the beach city of about 22,000 are prohibited from providing customers with single-use plastic bags. Bags used for produce or meat are exempt, according to the city’s website.

Well, there are others.  But what's the point?

Oh, and the title about mercury pollution?  Damn straight!  Since the vast majority of reusable woven grocery bags are made in China, you are paying to pollute the USA with MERCURY.   How, you may ask?  The main source of power in China is coal power plants.  The emissions from the CHINESE COAL POWER PLANTS find their way....HERE!

At a time when U.S sources of mercury into the Great Lakes are dropping, the volume of the same pollutant coming from China is on the rise, experts say. China is second to the U.S. in terms of contributing mercury into the Great Lakes basin, according to scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Here's another article, albeit a little old.  All it does is show us that we've known for sometime that a LOT of China's mercury emissions were coming here.

Mass quantities of air pollutants from China, including mercury discharged from traditional coal-fired power plants, are travelling to places as far away as the US, according to the US environment agency.

“That is the most direct impact [of China’s pollution] on the United States,” Stephen Johnson, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, told the FT. Mr Johnson said the EPA had traced high levels of “mercury deposition” in the US to China and India. Mercury is a highly-toxic heavy metal that damages the human nervous system.

Of course, there are LOTS of things that are made in China that are sold here.  But so what?  Trying to find an alternative to, say a radio or TV or christmas tree ornaments made in the USA are difficult to come by.  But with plastic bags we have a real alternative choice.  We CAN discourage the buying of Chinese made reusable woven bags by offering PE bags here.  Why in the world do we want to contribute MORE to the pollution of our rivers and streams with mercury?  Personally, I find this hypocritical and appalling.  Way to go enviro-idiots!!

Fracking Found Safe In New York; Let Revolution Begin

I got this link from junkscience.com.  If you get a chance, check out their website.  According to Investments Business Daily, the State of New York has known for some time that fracking was safe but deep sixed the report.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly has been long aware of the February 2012 research compiled by state officials, who concluded that hydraulic fracturing could be performed safely in New York. Yet amid political pressure from the environmentalist lobby, he buried the findings. The report became public in recent days when a copy was leaked to a newspaper.

When Cuomo campaigned, he indicated he was open to approving the process, which has been shut down in New York since a 2008 moratorium. But he's apparently nervous about crossing those opposed to it.

We suggest Cuomo stiffen his spine. The benefits of fracking are phenomenal.

But I'm afraid they may be too late and will have to put off receiving any benefits from fracking.  A lot fo the drillers are losing their shirts having become victims of their success since natural gas is so very very cheap.  Drilling in NY will be slow in coming and will be spaced out.  So expect to hear complaining that they aren't benifiting like everyone promised.  But they will have only themselves to blame.

California's Newest Business Craze: Homemade Food

See what deregulation does for the economy?  It unleashes the creative juices of people to improve their lives!!  But I wish the guy in the photo would wear a hair net.

Granola makers, homemade vinegar producers, and other foodies in California have cause to rejoice today. As of Jan. 1, a new state law allows people who make food at home to sell it to restaurants and grocery stores.

Leave it to California to upend decades of public health consensus that food businesses need commercial licenses to ensure their food is safe and free of harmful contaminants. The California Homemade Food Act creates a new category of food production called a “cottage food operation.”

California court rules bumper cars risky, may cause injury

One of those rare breaths of sanity from CA:

“Riders on Rue le Dodge, in other words, are not passively carried or transported from one place to another. They actively engage in a game, trying to bump others or avoid being bumped themselves,” the court found. “The rationale for holding the operator of a roller coaster to the duties of a common carrier for reward—that riders, having delivered themselves into the control of the operator, are owed the highest degree of care for their safety—simply does not apply to bumper car riders’ safety from the risks inherent in bumping.”

The California Supreme Court opinion turned to a quote from Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, former Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, who more than 80 years ago said “the attractions of the amusement park ‘are not the pleasures of tranquillity.’”

Justice Joyce Kennard, who dissented with the majority questioned whether the “plaintiff voluntarily assumed the risk of the type of harm that ensued from her decision to ride the bumper car, ‘with knowledge and appreciation of that risk.’”

Well, she assumed some sort of risk since she let her 9 year-old son drive it!

Foreigners Visiting 'Birth Hotels' In California Draw Local Ire

What astonishes me is the non-judgmental tone of the piece.  But hey, this is why I quit listening to NPR decades ago.

CORNISH: So, Cindy, help us understand the scale of this. How big of a phenomenon, how many births are we talking about? Is it really a trend? CHANG: There aren't hard numbers for something like this, but if you look at the Chinese language Yellow Pages, if you start looking at these websites, there are lots of these places. And I think they've flown under the radar to some extent. But since this Chino Hills case flared up and got a lot of media attention, Los Angeles County officials have gotten, they say, at least two dozen complaints.

CORNISH: Now, activists who want the U.S. to crack down on birth tourism argue that it's not just about the child, but about parents using the child down the road as a way to expedite their own U.S. citizenship. Based on your reporting, what did you learn from parents who do this, about why they're doing it?