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Category: Ethics

  • Burrowing Owl Habitat Restoration Event on May 24

    (From press release) Please join the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for a Burrowing Owl Habitat Restoration Event at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area on Saturday morning, May 24.

    Burrowingowlevent

    What: Volunteers are needed for a few hours of burrowing owl habitat restoration work. We’ll be restoring/resetting artificial burrows for our beloved feathered friends and removing surrounding vegetation for their security.

    When: May 24, 8 am – 11 am (only 2 hrs maximum work time is requested).

    Where: Yolo County, Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yolo+bypass+wildlife+area&atb=v315-1&iaxm=maps&source=places).

    Bring: Plan to bring Gloves, Hat, Sturdy Shoes, and Water. Note that there is no toilet at the site.

    Contact: Please email Catherine Portman (DuskBuster07@gmail.com) for site location details and directions.

  • Hundreds Expected for May Day Protests in Davis, Woodland and West Sacramento

    Indivisible-mayday

    By Kari Peterson

    On May 1, local grassroots and labor organizations from across Yolo County will be marching in Davis and rallying in both West Sacramento and Woodland to join the MayDay Strong National Day of Action .

     Who, when and where:

    • Davis, 5:00 – 6:30PM: March begins in Central Park at 5 PM. Marchers will gather near the wall and then march through downtown Davis before returning to Central Park. In addition to Indivisible Yolo, Sister District Yolo, and the Davis Faculty Association, participating groups include Democratic Socialists of America (Yolo), Davis College Democrats, American Federation of Teachers – UC Davis, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement,Sacramento.
    • Woodland , 5:00 – 7:00PM: Rally is at the Courthouse on Main Street at 6th Street.
    • West Sacramento , 4:30: Rally at the corner of Park Boulevard and Jefferson.

    Why we’re mobilizing on May 1

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  • Check The Box, Yolo Capay’s Hungry Hollow Farms are in a Water Crises

    Check the box

    By Scott Steward

    We have a Groundwater Sustainability Agency called the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency (YSGA).  Evidently, the word "Sustainability" is optional when considering well permits in Yolo County, as Annie Main found out after a 2-year struggle to point out the obvious to the Yolo County Supervisors who voted 3 to 2 on April 8th last week to add another high capacity 350 gallons per minute corporate well to further drain Hungry Hollow's already well documented declining water table.  The Boundary Bend well could mean the end of her Good Humus third-generation farm.  What's worse, there are four more deep well applications on the way to Hungry Hollow.

    You can't see our groundwater, but according to our Groundwater Sustainability Agency there are 346,000 acre feet that can be drawn from our 540,000 acres of ag land. That's 2.6 billion bathtubs worth of water.  That's our budget; use more and our invisible mega bathtub might not re-fill as high – ever.  Consider Annie Main, the most recent canary in a long line of canaries in the water coal mine, Yolo County the aquifer of choice for corporate tree crops (olives and nuts) and our County Supervisors, for now, the court of last resort.  

    Hungry Hollow family farmers like Annie Main of Good Humus are under threat of disappearing. Her area of land is in a designated "Focus Area." Focus Areas are so named because of the historical steady Hungry Hollow drop in the water table and because it's taking forever to get decent monitoring wells into place to "understand" what locals have been saying for the last two decades (no more additional well capacity!).  

    State and local water policy that was not enforced on April 8th.

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  • Errant Water Permit Puts Good Humus Farm at Risk

    Good humus at risk

    By Scott Steward

    Boundary Bend was cited by the County in August 2023 for its non-permitted well drilling in the Hungary Hollow region of Capay Valley. So how, after two years of evidence showing that the well is out of compliance, is County staff recommending upholding Boundary Bends agricultural well permit # 23-022W?  The County and Boundary Bend know that the new well is too big and too close to Good Humus farm. 

    Good Humus and other family farms have already had to modify their wells to sustain their table crop farms. Nearly three generations of care have gone into the land craft of organic farming in Hungary Hollow. Without much help, these farms have entered our region's food markets and succeeded in producing some of the healthiest food on earth. Capay has inspired farm-to-fork land care nationally.  

    Boundary Bend (application #23-022W) took advantage of one-time replacement well criteria that the county was obliged to put in place for farms and residents short on water following the seven-year drought. Replacement well designation was allowed for existing agricultural operations and drinking water. Boundary Bend did not meet the criteria for a replacement well. Instead of reapplying as a new well, Boundary hired lawyers at Kronick to lean on the county.

    Here are some of the facts that show that Boundary Bend application #23-022W did not and does not qualify for the approved "replacement well" status. The application:

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  • HandsOff Rally at Capitol, Saturday April 5

    Joint Announcement by Sacramento Region Grassroots Organizations

    Copy of Sacramento 50501 Movement_20250317_085853_0000_20250318045316158496

    (From press release)

    WHAT: Mass Mobilization to Stop the Trump/Musk Corruption and Power Grab
    WHEN:  April 5, 2025 11 a.m.
    WHERE: State Capitol West Steps, Sacramento [and in multiple outlying areas*]

    On April 5, local grassroots organizations from around the Sacramento region are calling on all people concerned about the direction of our country to join the 50501 Picnic Protest in tandem with the national Hands Off! mass rally to protest the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and our communities.

    Events across the country, in major cities and small towns in every state, will show that the people—the majority—are taking action to stop the corruption and power grab.

    Why we’re mobilizing on April 5th

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  • Go See “October 8th” @ Davis Varsity playing through Thursday

    by Alan C. Miller

    The showtimes for Monday March 31st – Thursday April 3rd are:  6:10pm & 8:40pm

    The official summary is:

    "OCTOBER 8th" offers a look at the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, social media and in the streets of America beginning the day after the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas. Through meticulous investigation, the film also uncovers how over decades, Hamas created sophisticated networks in America to permeate U.S. institutions and examines the tsunami of online antisemitism, propaganda, and disinformation unleashed by Iran, China and Russia – with the sole purpose of dividing American society.

    I am sure some will dismiss this movie as "Isreael propaganda".  I've seen two single-showing pro-Palestine movies at The Varsity that could  be considered Palestinian propaganda.  Not that I didn't learn anything or that it is all BS, but of course the most effective propaganda contains mostly truths and leaves out truths not flattering to the propaganda side.  I did not consider "No Other Land" to be propaganda; it was about a particular situation from the effects of the settlements in the West Bank.  I have yet find anything convincing to morally justify the settlements.

    I haven't seen "October 8th" yet, but will be seeing it this week.  From the clips I've seen, there is a parallel to what I felt on October 8th and the days following.  I had lived as we all have, knowing there were, as in the 40's, and through much of history, people out there who wanted to kill us for who we are, for some to kill all of us —- with one or dozens killed in individual terrorist attacks over the last few decades.  I had only come into contact with real antisemitic hatred a few times, but it's really ugly when it happens directly, and astounding.  And it has been ramping up, and most white people don't get it.  I said that on purpose to get a rise; most non-Jews don't get it.

    And then it happened.  1200 Jews killed, and hundreds dragged over the border.  I never thought I'd see an event of the mass slaughter of Jews reflecting of the Holocaust in my lifetime.  While not as massive, the genocidal intent and the hate was clear.

    The next day, on October 8th, I had no expectation of the media and public reaction, but I was shocked by what occurred.  Why would I not hear mass mourning and understanding by so so many?  I heard calls for Israel to 'stop the genocide', still weeks before Gaza was invaded, with no recognition of the genocidal attack that had just occurred.  Multiple independent news sources that I trusted and hosts I admired suddenly turned with narratives that bordered on or were outright antisemitic.  1200 Jews had just been killed, and the term 'Zionist' was now being openly used with the same tone as 'Nazi' by large swaths of the public and even some media outlets — Israelis were even being called Nazis.

    I was watching Israeli media directly as much as possible.  The day after the "40 beheaded babies" story broke, the story was debunked in Israel.  Yet days later our President (Biden) repeated it (why??? @#$%&!).  Then for months this group, suddenly empowered in the media, the 'anti-Zionists', including anti-Zionist Jews, began repeating the 40 beheaded babies story as a lie told by Israel, even though it had been debunked the next day in Israeli media.

    And the most heinous lie of all – summed up by many as "Listen to all Women, Unless they are Jewish".  The anti-Zionists spreading information that there were no rapes.  One of the darkest things I ever witnessed was — just a few days after October 7th — two hours of interviews with a team of women who had prepared the bodies of the women slaughtered at the Nova Festival for respectable and fast Jewish burial.  This wasn't propaganda — there wasn't even time to have orchestrated such a thing — these were women who had traveled to help out due to the massiveness of the task.  They described the burns, the semen stains, the broken bones and pelvises, the severed limbs.

    And then — journalists I respected said it was all a lie — there were no rapes.  Some say it to this day.  I believe the NY Tines didn't get it all right, but that doesn't mean there were no rapes.  And this just a handful of years after 'Me Too'.  And all this macro-hate directed at Jews when just a few years earlier we were told of the evil of 'micro-agressions'.

    I've made it a point to listen to both sides, to all sides, and seek to watch every pro-Palestine movie that comes through, to fully understand, if not to agree.  And yes, criticism of Israel is more than valid, it's a right and necessary.  I am not a fan of Netanyahu nor the West Bank settlements and Israel deserves much criticism.  But the outright double-standard used against Jews, and the hate, that has to be recognized by more Americans for what it is, as it isn't going away.

    So this may be propaganda in some people's eyes, and maybe it is.  As I said, I haven't seen it yet.  But I make it a point to see what is put out by all sides on this issue.  I hope you will too.

  • Again? Freeway-to-Sac’s Closure Postponed – now Indefinitely

    By Alan Hirsch

    Below is the core of Caltrans press release issued Wednesday 3/12 at 3:28pm announcing postponement of the Eastbound 50 Freeway in West Sac closure for this weekend. They say indefinitely—but it could be forever as they may figure out how to do the pavement rehab work while keeping some of regular 3 lanes up.

    But if they reschedule total closure another weekend later in March, drivers will have to contend traffic from with opening of the A’s and River cat baseball season to Sutter Health Park.

    This will may push out the work… and could conflict with the schedule to begin work to widened i-80 with toll lane- which is set to begin just next month. The Toll Lane construction work – Phase I of it– will continue into 2028.

    For previous articles on evolving (potential) freeway closure, click here , here2.and here3. 

    Note the bike lane will also be continue thru Monday 3/17 next week- but could go longer as Caltrans notes unhelpfully “weather permitting”.

    Editorial: This indefinite postponement could be due to pushbacks to Caltrans from local city council members and state representatives- after receiving calls from constituents. We will likely never know.  It is strange the freeway closure was not announced or discussed during YoloTD board meetings even though Caltrans was present – only in public comment. One wonders, for example, if there will be a total west bound closure too.

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  • Reform the DDBA to Avoid a Costly Lawsuit

    Commentary by Heather Caswell with Jonathan Greenberg

    Our decision to threaten the City of Davis with a class action lawsuit on behalf of members of the Downtown Davis Business Association (DDBA) was not made easily, or quickly. For years, an organization that was created to support the interests of hundreds of dues-paying businesses has instead been co-opted to support controversial political positions promoted by the Davis City Council, as detailed below.

    As stated in the California Supreme Court’s landmark 1976 Stanson v. Mott decision, a “fundamental precept of this nation’s democratic electoral process is that the government may not ‘take sides’ in election contests or bestow an unfair advantage on one of several competing factions.”

    This means that it would be illegal if the Davis City Council, even indirectly, allowed a special tax dedicated to promoting the interest of downtown businesses be used to promote political speech benefiting city council positions on public initiatives.

     

    We believe that this is what the DDBA has done,  through an unaccountable board of directors, which holds its power through irregular and potentially illegal elections

    The DDBA has done this through an un-accountable board of directors, which holds its power through irregular and potentially illegal elections. Fewer than 10% of the organization's members voted in the January 23 election that I ran in. Three quarters of the dozens of DDBA businesses that I spoke to never received email notifications of the election. Not a single one was notified by the organization that they could run for its board. And at a time when all DDBA Board meetings are held over zoom, members, for no good reason, were required to vote in person within a one hour period, instead of online, at their convenience.

    When Ezra Beeman and I ran to help create a more responsive board, the existing board members and the DDBA Executive Director colluded to change the election rules at the last minute, while they selectively recruited other former board members to show up to run or vote against us. Without any mention during the board meetings prior to the election, they added four seats to the seven member board two days before the election (the DDBA website today still states that they are a seven member board). They then delayed the printing of ballots for three days to print them just hours before the election, so that the names of their friendly candidates could be included.

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  • CITY OF DAVIS MISLEADS PUBLIC ON $24 MILLION WRONGFUL DEATH VERDICT

    Attorney Roger Dreyer Calls Out the City’s Failure to Take Responsibility Until the Last Minute

    For Immediate Release: Kellie DeMarco

    Woodland, CA — After a Yolo County jury unanimously found the City of Davis fully responsible for the tragic death of Jennifer Comey, a wife and mother killed by a falling tree limb in a city park sandbox next to her toddler, the City immediately pushed out a carefully crafted press release in an effort to control the narrative. But here’s what they aren’t telling the public.

    For four years, the City of Davis denied responsibility, instead blaming private contractor DRG Inc. for the tragedy. It wasn’t until one week before trial ended—a clear PR stunt—that the City finally admitted fault while continuing to point fingers at DRG. However, the jury saw through the City’s tactics and ruled unanimously (12–0) that DRG was not responsible in any way. Instead, the jury held Davis 100% accountable for failing to inspect and maintain its own trees.

    “What was most impressive about this case is that the jury was not distracted by the misleading tactics of the attorneys for the City,” said Roger Dreyer, attorney for the Pitts family. “They focused on the devastating loss this family has endured. This jury’s decision was a remarkable demonstration of how citizens do their job for the public.”

    THE FACTS THE CITY WON’T SHARE

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  • 100% closure I-50 to Sacto next weekend

    Expect cut thru traffic in Davis, Woodland, West Sac

    By Alan “Lorax” Hirsch & Caltrans

    Image006 103

    Official Caltrans map routing Freeway Traffic onto local streets in West Sac

    The essence of Thursdays Caltrans press release is simple, but its repercussions to hundreds of thousands of people are wider ranging: “I-50 east bound to Sacto in West Sacramento will be 100% closed (after the split) for 3 1/2 days, from Fri. 3/7 9pm to Tues. 3/11 5am.

    Its impacts will be felt by hundreds of thousands of travelers- including Sac airport users from Yolo/Solano now facing congestion on I-5 causeway, workers on Monday, and of course Tahoe vacationers on Friday & Saturday. Those dependent on the bus will also be affected:

    80,000 cars cross the Yolo causeway– each direction — every day.

    There will also be an impact on local travel inside Davis, West Sacramento, and Woodland.  Local residents can expect cut thru traffic delays as, traffic is likely to backup over the causeway deep into Davis and traffic will cut up Pole Line and 113 and backup the I-5 Causeway to the airport as has happen on other occasions. And of course south Mace in Davis will likely be effected.  West Sac travel on West Capitol and Industrial & Jefferson will be “affected” as they parallel the closed freeway section- as will Yolo buses that use this segment.

     

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