News Archive (6192)
According to a survey released Sunday the national average price for gasoline rose about 5 cents over the last two weeks, and Amador County citizens are feeling the pain at the pump as well. Nationally, the average price of regular gasoline on Friday was $2.80 a gallon. On Friday in Amador County that same gallon could be bought for $3.05 or more. The week before in Martell gas was about $2.95 a gallon. And the pain at the pump only gets worse as you head farther up country with gas last week at $3.20 and just yesterday at $3.25. The survey found that the highest was in San Francisco at $3.17, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide, but analyst obviously didn’t visit Amador County.
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Amador County - The Ione Band of Miwok Indians joined dozens of national Indian tribes in a legal limbo this week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that tribes recognized after 1934 cannot have land taken into federal trust. The 6-3 ruling was released Tuesday on a case heard by the high court in November. The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that “the court decided that land-trust status should have been granted only to tribes that were federally recognized before 1934.” The Ione Band of Miwok Indians is currently in the application stage of having land in and around Plymouth taken into trust, for the purpose of a 2,000-slot machine casino. Tribal spokesman Matthew Franklin did not return a call before air time to comment on how he thought the ruling might affect the Ione Miwok’s casino project. The tribe lists on its Website that it was federally recognized on March 22nd, 1994. In the Supreme Court case: Carcieri v. Salazar, the governor of Rhode Island sued the Narragansett tribe, which argued that 31 acres of land it owned in Charlestown, R.I., should be placed in federal trust. The Globe reported that: “State officials, concerned that the tribe would create a tax-free zone or build a casino, argued that federal law prevents the U.S. government from taking land into trust for tribes recognized after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. The Narragansett Tribe was federally recognized in 1983. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston rejected the state's claim in July 2007, but the Supreme Court reversed that decision (Tuesday)… Debate hinged on the phrase ‘now under federal jurisdiction,’ wording in the 1934 law. Rhode Island officials argued it meant the law would apply only to tribes that were recognized when the law was passed, while the tribe argued it was ambiguous.” The Globe quotes Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion, which stated that: "Because the record in this case establishes that the Narragansett Tribe was not under federal jurisdiction when the (Indian Reorganization Act) was enacted, the secretary does not have the authority to take the parcel at issue into trust." The Ione Band of Miwok Indians proposes 120,000-square feet of facilities for its casino and “world class hotel,” with 2,000 gaming machines and 40 table games in a 65,000-square foot of gaming area. The 700-member tribe also proposes facilities for entertainment, Bingo, conventions, meetings, childcare, offices and a lounge and bar area. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Amador County - Efforts to clean up tens of thousands of abandoned mine sites throughout the West should get a boost from the economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama last Tuesday. Amador County alone is home to at least 39 registered mines and countless other abandoned shafts dating back to the 19th century. The stimulus bill apportions more than $1.5 billion to the National Park Service, Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management for related projects. These agencies anticipate using a large portion of these funds to address abandoned mines on public lands. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a strong advocate for this funding, anticipates that priority funding will be based on which projects generate the most jobs. The amount allocated is considered a first step, as more than $25 million was spent on mine cleanup in the last budget year. The Environmental Protection Agency says it could cost as much as $50 billion to clean up mines throughout the west. There are over 161,000 abandoned mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota. Story by Alex Lane
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Amador County – CBS Nightly News wrapped up a second day of filming in Amador County yesterday, including a strolling chat with Frank Halvorson across the empty parking lot out in front of Prospect Motors. Correspondent Bill Whitaker and a crew from northern and southern California captured the story through interviews. They include former Chamber of Commerce President Paul Molinelli Jr., area Principal and avid Prospect customer Virginia Grabbe, and local Interfaith Food Bank director Kathleen Harmon, and Jackson City Manager Mike Daly. They spoke with the athletic directors at Argonaut and Amador High Schools, where Halvorson’s donations over the last three decades have helped field teams and trim fields, paint and light scoreboards, dress out teams, and inevitably fill stands and bleachers and gravel sidewalks. Just after 10 a.m. yesterday, Halvorson joined Whitaker and his technicians on the front sidewalk of Prospect Motors, his showroom empty behind him, his fleet of General Motors vehicles gone from view, taken back by GMAC. They walked the length of the empty parking lot as the cameraman back-pedaled, with Paul Facie of Los Angeles holding a large square light filter to block the high late morning sun for the camera. Earlier, Harmon stood on the sidewalk, talking to Facie about Halvorson and also the giving nature of Amador County. She told him about the turkey shortage the week before Thanksgiving, when 400 turkeys were gathered. Now, the biggest philanthropist in Amador County is telling his side of the story. The story is set to air on CBS Nightly News with Katie Couric, with the broadcast date as yet unknown. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Flu season is in full swing, and with packed emergency rooms across the country, the CDC has declared epidemic status in 49 out of 50 states. That's up from 44 states last week. Karen Woods, Emergency Department Director at Sutter Amador Hospital, is in a unique position to observe how the flu has affected the local population. “We usually have only so many beds and staff and we have to plan for surge capacity,” said Woods. “This (season) we’re receiving 20 percent above our normal volume.” Many experts blame the increase in patients on this season’s flu shot. The vaccine only covered two of the three major strains.
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State – Public health officials are working to confirm a possible case of swine flu at a school in Sacramento County.
The deadly airborne flu virus which originated in Mexico and has killed as many as 105 people in the Mexico City area has now being detected in at least seven people in California. The federal government issued a public health emergency Sunday to help with the distribution of drugs to treat and prevent spread of the virus to regions most affected. At least 50 people in the United States have been confirmed positive. California state and county public health officials were asking federal authorities Sunday to warn Americans against traveling to Mexico. St. Mel school in Fair Oaks has shut its doors through Wednesday after a seventh grader who recently returned from Cancun fell ill last Wednesday. A group of classmates are also being tested for infection by swine flu. “If we start seeing more cases, and more serious cases, that will require much more serious intervention. It will dictate how aggressive our actions are,” said Gil Chavez, deputy director of the center for infectious diseases at the California Department of Public Health. Even though the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert level in response to the flu in Mexico, the federal government has issued statements saying there is nothing to panic about. “We've been fortunate to have a very mild flu (in the United States), but we may only have seen a fraction of what's out there," said Chavez. Anticipating the flood of concern amongst local residents, Public Health Officials in Amador County have posted information on swine flu on their website, including symptoms and methods of prevention. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission board of directors last week approved 2 resolutions to commence studies on Highway 88 in Pine Grove and on Highway 49 in Plymouth. The expected widening project of Highway 88 has a total cost estimate of $2.27 Million Dollars, while the Plymouth Circulation Improvement Project was approved for $89,105 dollars. Both would conclude next May. Neil Peacock, planner and program manager for both projects, said the Plymouth project included a schedule, starting with forming an oversight committee and a developing public participation program in April and May. June through August will be for data collection and preliminary analysis, and then 3 community meetings in September through November will look at the project overview and general plan policy guidance; land use, traffic & the environment; and then funding strategies. In January 2010, Peacock scheduled a joint “city council and Planning commission meeting” and draft of a plan, with plan revision and a funding program handled next February and March. Next January to April will be used to develop and screen improvement recommendations and alternatives; then the selection of the final alternatives will occur in April and May 2010; with “adoption of the final preferred alternative” in May. Peacock has held outreach meetings with 2 Upcountry grassroots quasi-political groups, the Upcountry Community Council in Pioneer, and the Pine Grove Community Council in Pine Grove, describing the steps in the project. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Amador County - Criminal justice officials from the African country of Rwanda made a visit to Amador County on March 3rd and 4th to observe our system of law and how to best implement that in their home country. This unusual arrangement was made by Howard Mosley, Chief Deputy Inspector General for California and an adjunct professor a McGeorge School of Law. The Rwandan government contacted Mosley to help implement a witness protection program to safeguard witnesses called to testify against those people responsible for the genocide that killed between 800,000 and 1 million Tutsis in 1994. The Tutsi tribe population in that country was almost completely wiped out by opposing Hutus after the Hutu President was assassinated by Tutsi officers, sparking riots. Mosley developed a program for the Rwandan delegation designed to track a fictional case from its initial report to law enforcement to arraignment in Superior Court. “Mr. Mosley believed that the delegation would be more comfortable and learn more by observing the best practices implemented in a smaller agency with limited resources- since that is the reality of Rwanda,” said District Attorney Todd Riebe. The delegation was comprised of Martin Ngoga, Prosecturer General for Rwanda’s National Public Prosecution Authority, Anne Gahongayire, Secretary General of the Rwandan Supreme Court, Stephane Nyembo, Head of the Information Communication Technology Unit and Michael Rukata, First Counselor of the Rwandan Embassy in Washington, D.C. They visited the Sheriff’s office March 3rd for an overview of the Amador law enforcement agency before visiting the District Attorney the next day. Over the two day period, the delegates were informed on everything from preparation of trial exhibits, to the role of the D.A. and the victim witness office, to the utilization of technology systems. In a briefing before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Sheriff Martin Ryan said “it was great having them here and showing them the latest technology. We’ve also been invited to Rwanda.” Riebe summed up his impression of the visit, saying: “It was a humbling experience to get to know people who have endured hardships beyond the imagination and yet have persevered and put themselves in a position where they can make their country a better place to live. Staff Reports, Contributions by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Amador County – A 16-year-old girl was injured Thursday morning at Amador High School when a pickup truck driven by a parent ran into her. Amador High School Principal Al Van Velzen said it happened at about 8 a.m., before school started. Megan Gregorius, 16, of Pine Grove, a junior at Amador, was hit by a truck and was Transported to Sutter Amador Hospital by ambulance. Van Velzen said “it wasn’t’ an emergency situation.” He said “A parent was driving a car at just low speeds out of our drop-off area and hit her.” He said the pickup truck bumped her. “I don’t think she even fell down.” Van Velzen said she was recovering; and “From what we hear, she has a bruised shoulder and ribs.” He did not want to release the name of the parent and he was not aware of any charges filed. Officer T. Delrio of the Sutter Creek Police Department said “Charges are not going to be filed against the driver. Per witness accounts, he was going at a very, very low speed,” and the girl ran out of the bushes and ran out in front of the truck, which then hit her. Delrio said “she did suffer a couple of broken ribs.” Gregorius “claimed she was run over” by the truck but witnesses at the scene said otherwise. He said it looked like she was coming out of the bushes, running to class, then got hit. She got up to run on to class, Delrio said. The driver, Jason Zysman, 32, of Amador County, told her to stop and lay down because she was just hit by his truck. He told her he is a firefighter or some type of trained first responder, and she said, “help me,” then he helped her, Delrio reported. “She was in quite a bit of pain.” Story by Jim Reece.
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California's vast network of reservoirs - which destroyed more than 5,000 miles of salmon habitat when their dams were erected decades ago - could turn out to be a savior for a species on the brink of collapse, according to a newstudy. Those dams store cold water, which the study says will be vital to the salmon's survival as climate change is expected to warm California's rivers."Paradoxically, the very thing that is constraining fish now, we could use those to our advantage," said study author David Yates, a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The peer-reviewed paper will appear in a future issue of the Journal of Climatic Change. It comes at a time when the number of salmon returning to spawn in Central Valley rivers, which are crucial to the West Coast stocks, are at historic lows.
Earlier this month, federal fisheries regulators recommended that fishing along California's coast and most of Oregon be suspended for the year. It was the first time the Pacific Fishery Management Council had taken such a drastic step, one that is jeopardizing the $150 million West Coast salmon industry. Unfavorable ocean conditions, habitat destruction, dam operations, agricultural pollution and climate change are among the potential causes. Federal authorities declared the West Coast ocean salmon fishery a failure Thursday, a move that opens the way for Congress to appropriate economic disaster assistance for coastal communities in California, Oregon and Washington. Yates' research projects that an increase in air temperature of 3.6 degrees to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit could be lethal for the young winter-run and spring-run salmon in the Sacramento River. The increase in water temperatures would vary depending on the depth and flows of the river. Higher water temperatures can be offset if federal water managers preserved the cold water stored behind Shasta Dam, near the head of the Sacramento River, and released it when the salmon head upriver. Salmon that once headed far upstream to cooler, mountain streams are now forced to spawn in valley waters because the dam blocks their path.
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