News Archive (6192)
More teenagers in California are buckling up
according to a recent study.
Figures from the study indicate
90.8 percent of the state’s high school students use their seat belts when
driving or riding in a vehicle. In the study conducted for the federal
government by California State University, Fresno, 100 California High Schools
were randomly sampled. In addition to
the 2.5 percent statewide increase in seat belt use from the previous year, the
study found that females are more likely to buckle up than their male
counterparts. The high rate for 2006 was
99.8 percent for Alameda County. “There’s still a challenge ahead of us,” said CHP Commissioner
Mike Brown. “Despite the statewide increase of seat belt usage
among teenagers, more work needs to be done to increase use among all
Californians.”
Yesterday a man trying to
get a “fix-it ticket” signed off got much more when CHP Amador Unit Community
Outreach Officer John C. Hardey was outside the CHP Offices and observed the man drive into the CHP
parking lot, park, and then make a bee line for the front door. As the
man approached the front door Officer Hardey noticed he was walking with a
staggered gate. Sgt. Roderick Sloan met the met the man at the front counter, who had business in the form of
a sign off of a ticket he had received previously.
Sgt. Sloan noticed that the man smelled of alcohol as well as displaying other objective symptoms of intoxication. Beat Officer Brendan Hallam was called to the Offices and conducted a series of pre-demonstrated field sobriety tests, which William Main of Ione, failed. Main was subsequently determined to be at twice the legal limit for alcohol according to the CHP. Officer Hallam arrested Main and transported him to the Amador County Jail. “The moral of the story is, don’t come to the Highway Patrol when you’re deuced,” said Officer Hardey.
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signed an Executive Order for Low Carbon Fuel Standards
Written by
Yesterday Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed an
Executive Order now mandating a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for the state
of California. The order seeks to reduce the carbon component of fuels
for passenger vehicles by at least 10 percent by the year 2020. The reduction
carbon emissions is an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the
state’s dependency on fossil type fuels. "Reducing
the carbon content of transportation fuels sold in California by just 10
percent means we will replace 20 percent of our gasoline consumption with lower-carbon
fuels, more than triple the size of the state's renewable fuels market, and add
seven million alternative fuel vehicles to our roads," Schwarzenegger
said in a press release.
Eldorado National Forest To Begin Evaluation of Recreational Facilities
Written by
Many of the Eldorado National Forest’s developed
recreation sites were built 30-50 years ago. Since then, visitor preferences
and demographics have changed and some sites no
longer serve their projected recreation demands. Some facilities are in poor
shape and are not meeting visitors’ expectations. Now, in an effort to respond to these conditions, as well
as considering the national direction, the forest is implementing the
Recreation Site Facility Master Planning (RSFMP) process for developed
recreation sites. The process
will take approximately one year and will involve public input. The RSFMP is an analysis tool that was
developed for use nationally to help forests align their developed recreation
sites with the unique characteristics of the particular forest, projected
recreational demands, visitor expectations, and anticipated revenue.
Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, and California State Association of
Counties Thursday announced a bold set of 152 actions designed to reduce
serious injuries and fatalities 10 percent on California’s roadways by
2010. Actions were created with goals geared toward reducing head-on collisions
and run-off-the-road crashes, improving safety at intersections and
interchanges, and enhancing safety for pedestrians and bicycles. Local Caltrans representatives and
California Highway Patrol members were among 300 safety stakeholders from 80
different organizations attending yesterday’s SHSP safety summit in
Anaheim. In addition to the four lead agencies, stakeholders from cities,
counties, state agencies, private sector businesses, and grass-roots
organizations attended. Another summit
will be held in Sacramento on May 7, 2008.
San Joaquin Valley air regulators approved a
plan Wednesday to clean up the
region's soot-laden air so that it meets federal pollution standards set more
than a decade ago. California's farm belt has some of the highest levels of
airborne dust, smoke and soot in the country. In all, 26 of California's 52 counties
with air-quality monitoring stations received failing grades for either high
ozone or particle pollution days, according to an American Lung Association
Report. Amador, Calaveras and
Sacramento Counties were tops on the list. San Joaquin valley air is blamed for
contributing to our local air problems, one Amador Air Control official
said. The San Joaquin district's governing board voted 8-3 in favor of a plan
that could keep families from using their fireplaces for up to 35 days each
winter and require local employers to have a portion of their workers carpool.
Environmentalists said the proposal didn't go far enough, and unfurled white
prayer flags outside the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's
meeting in Fresno to illustrate the premature deaths associated with the
valley's polluted air. Community members wore paper dust masks as they
testified about the effects of particulate matter pollution, which has been
linked to respiratory problems, heart attacks and lung cancer. The plan is meant to comply
with standards set in 1997 under the federal Clean Air Act that measure the
highest levels of one kind of particulate pollution allowed over one year.
More rigorous standards were adopted in 2006, an issue that air regulators will have to address after meeting 1997 levels. Farmers speaking at Wednesday's meeting warned that a stricter plan would have risked job losses in the valley, the nation's most productive region for fruits and vegetables. Air quality advocates said the approved plan could have done more to regulate dairies, wineries and diesel pumps on farms, some of the many sources that contribute to the tiny specks of pollution. If the California Air Resources Board sanctions the plan, it will head to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for final approval.
Experts are warning Northern California residents to look out for the bite of the sometimes deadly brown recluse spider. There has been some debate as to just how prevalent the recluse is in northern California. Some experts argue that the spider’s population is limited to the southeast, southern California, and Baja California. Nevertheless, the same skeptics have acknowledged the expanding web of the spider’s realm in the foothills. A number of Brown Recluse bites have been reported in Amador County. The spider’s presence beyond its natural habitat is blamed on modern transportation, in which spiders have been known to travel long distances on trucks, trains, and planes.
Recluse spiders seem to favor cardboard when dwelling in human residences, possibly because it mimics the rotting tree bark which they naturally inhabit. They also go in shoes, inside dressers, in bed sheets of infrequently used beds, behind pictures and near furnaces. The common source of human-recluse contact is during the cleaning of these spaces, when their isolated spaces suddenly are disturbed and the spider feels threatened. It is important to seek medical treatment if a brown recluse bite is suspected. Cases of brown recluse venom traveling along a limb through a vein or artery are rare, but the resulting mortification of the tissue can affect an area as large as several inches. While it is possible, and even likely, that many cases of "brown recluse bites" are indeed misidentifications of other infections, the brown recluse has justly earned its reputation.
San Francisco
49ers former head coach Bill Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with
leukemia, according to a Stanford
University spokeswoman.
Walsh announced in November 2006 he was fighting the blood cancer, which he had
been diagnosed with in 2004.Walsh became a coaching icon in the 1980s, leading
what had been the league's doormat 49ers to three Super Bowl championships in
1982, 1985 and 1989 and six NFC division titles. He compiled a 102-63-1 record in
his 10 years at the helm. The 49ers recruited Walsh from Stanford
University, where he returned to coach
after hisyears - including serving as general manager - with San Francisco. He also spent three years as
an NFL television analyst.
A new petition for signatures to put a new
ballot measure on February’s Primary election ballot may be coming to a store
front near you. The subject of
the proposed initiative- Eminent Domain. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced on
Friday that the proponents of the new initiative may begin collecting petition
signatures for their measure. The Attorney General has prepared the
legal title and summary which is required to appear on initiative petitions.
Millions of motorcycle, dune buggy, four-wheel-drive and other off-road
riders here in the Golden State could see California's vehicle recreation parks
shut down next year unless agreement can be reached on
overhauling the state program. State law authorizes the program only until Dec
31st of this year and although no group is pushing for the
eliminations of the program, conflict has developed between two groups. One group asking for more
trails and parks, and the other, an environmentally concerned group that is
asking for more environmental protections and policing, including provisions
that the parks serve fisherman, hikers and campers.
