Feature Archives

A march and rally was held in Kettleman City on July 18th, to protest a cluster of birth defects that participants say is probably connected to pesticide used on nearby farms or a toxic dump site located just outside of town. Five children out of twenty born in Kettleman City in the last 18 months had birth defects. Three of them died.

Legislators and hundreds of Delta advocates held a rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday, July 7th, to oppose the peripheral canal -- what they call a budget-busting and environmentally destructive project that would approximate the Panama Canal in width and length. "I'm not going to vote for a plan that builds a Panama Canal down the middle of the 15th Assembly District,” exclaimed Assemblymember Joan Buchanan to loud applause.

A massive campaign is underway to “turn on the pumps” and deliver additional water to farms in the western Central Valley. Agribusiness interests and their allies claim environmental and water activists care more about fish than people and are demanding more water, now! Central Valley Congress members are calling for an exclusion from the Endangered Species Act of the delta smelt, more dams, a peripheral canal, and a bond initiative in 2010 that will result in taxpayers subsidizing water for large corporate farming operations.

Michael Steinberg writes, "On Saturday the third annual Bicycle Music Festival in San Francisco was kicked out of two sites in Golden Gate Park, and then threatened with expulsion in Dolores Park, before finally partying on pedal power late into the night on the SF waterfront."

The demolition of the Bevatron, a.k.a. Building 51 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), is scheduled to begin in July. The demolition will include the removal of radioactive waste, trucked down University Avenue covered with tarps. According to the LBNL website, 1000-1200 truckloads of the 4700 "may contain hazardous or radioactive material." A press conference will take place on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30pm in front of Berkeley City Hall in order to draw attention to this blatant disregard for the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act.

For 30 years, Life Lab Science Program has been helping educators and students bring learning to life in the garden. Based in Santa Cruz, Life Lab has been a leader in the garden-based learning movement locally and across the nation. On May 30th, Life Lab celebrated its 30-year history with a birthday party in and around the Garden Classroom, located on the UC Santa Cruz Farm.

If approved by the state legislature, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan will close 220 of 279 State Parks and Beaches, including each and every State Park and Beach in Santa Cruz County. The only public hearing on this proposal took place in Sacramento on June 2nd before the Legislative Budget Conference Committee.