Clarity Blog

What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

Is too!  Is not!

The headline pretty much recaps two major PR pushes we saw this week.  AlterNet, a progressive/enviro news service, published a lengthy (9 clicks!) piece, “California Can’t Have it All,” which argued there’s not enough water for both fish and farmers. And  MWD put a PowerPoint online detailing its Delta Vision Strategic Plan which, more rationally, said there’s enough water for both (in most years, anyway).  Both are thoughtful pieces, but we sure thought one was more thoughtful.

Read AlterNet’s “California Can’t Have It All” here

Check out MWD’s Delta Vision Strategic Plan here

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What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

The Junk-science-man Cometh

The pseudo scientists at the Environmental Working Group have been at it again, drumming up public hysteria (and funds, presumably) by publishing yet another sloppy “scientific” analysis of nasty stuff in our water.  This time it’s Chromium 6, and hundreds of newspapers picked up the story, most not bothering to note that there’s no data whatsoever linking cancer to Chromium 6 in water supplies.  Or that cancer levels in the famous Chromium 6 town of Hinkley CA are below normal.  Still, EPA announced that based on EWG’s study, it would look into Chromium 6 in water. Sigh.

Read EWG’s analysis here

Read a typical rebuttal here

Read about Hinkley’s cancer rate here

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There was a day when they made movies about heroic newspaper journalists and got heart-throb actors like Robert Redford to star in them.  Heck, there was even a day when a certain Krypton-wary superhero chose the journalistic profession as his preferred alter-ego.  Superman could have been anything as an alter-ego – who would have stopped him? – but he chose a fedora, a notebook and Perry White for a boss.

How the mighty have fallen.  A recent Wall Street Journal and CareerCast survey just ranked the 200 best and worst jobs based on based on income, working environment, stress, physical demands and job outlook.  Guess where newspaper journalists came in?  The top 50? No. The top 100? No. The top 150? No.

The bottom 12? Yes.  They came in 188th, between sheet metal workers and seamen, and within spitting distance of the worst job of  ‘em all, roustabout.

As a former journalist myself (albeit, one who was smart enough to flee the gig after a year), I can attest to the low pay of the job, and certainly the stress.  It’s not just the deadlines; it’s also having so many people becoming uncomfortable in your presence.  Stress does rank high in CareerCast’s assessment, but the negative job outlook for journalists has played a huge part in doing in the profession.

I for one am not happy about the fall of newspapers because, let’s not kid ourselves, newspapers always have been the best news source around, even if they tend to be sensationalistic, error-prone and bias-riddled.  Where are you going to go for news without ‘em?  Blogs? They don’t report; they get their news from newspapers. TV? Perish the thought! The Internet? Vast but iffy.

The sad reality is that newspapers failed more grandly in responding to the internet than Motor City failed in responding to Toyota, and for that, they’ve earned their current tenuous position.  I hope they figure it out and come back, but I’ve been hoping that for years.  The list didn’t include on-line journalist, unfortunately.  It would have been very interesting to compare the two.

How did public relations and public affairs fare in the survey, you ask? They don’t; they’re not included.  But let’s just note for the record that the extremely closely related job of philosopher came in 16th.

What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

Ho, Ho, HO, H2O – That was some rain!

Wow!  Earlier this week, we thought Noah might be knocking on our door any minute!  Our friend who sends us the Costa Mesa rain gauge read-outs is on vacation in Mammoth (which reports it now has more snow than any ski resort IN THE WORLD!), but before he left, he provided the rainfall data through Wednesday at 8 p.m.:  For the rain year (July-June) OC was already at 117% of average. December’s rain was 528% of average, and year-to-date rain was 376% of average!  We expect the Department of Water Resources to be announcing higher allocations soon.

News of DWR’s Dec. 20^th increased allocation here

Amazing photos from Mammoth here

Here’s the rainfall chart from Tuesday at 8 p.m.

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What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

Back to the Drawing Board

This week, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service teetered in the latest Sacramento Delta teeter-totter, as did its friends among the more radical environmental groups.  Judge Oliver Wanger threw out the Service’s current Delta smelt biological opinion – basically the fed’s fishy protection plan – calling portions of it arbitrary, capricious, biased and, overall, a failure in justifying the pumping cutbacks that have hurt farmers and city-dwellers alike.  Cheers and howls followed – but we know what’s next:  just more studies and more strife.  We have to ask, though: Just how much more lousy federal science can we tolerate?

Breeze through the 225-page decision here

Read the best news coverage of the decision here

And for the “fish not folks” side, read this

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What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

Shootout in the BDCP Corral

There’s that crusty ol’ gunfighter, Westlands Water District, whipping out his six-shooter and taking a shot at that BDCP hombre.  At least that’s the image we saw when we read the letter Westlands’ president Jean Sagouspe sent to the Department of Interior’s main Bay Delta Conservation Plan negotiator, David Hayes.  “We’re walkin’ away and takin’ our money with us” was the message, and when Westlands rode out of the Ol’ BDCP Corral, it kicked up quite a bit of dust, as you can see:

Read Sagouspe’s letter to Hayes

Read Hayes’ salvo back at Sagouspe

Read the State Water Contractor’s statement

Read Jeff Kightlinger’s statement from MWD

Read the big dog eco-group NRDC’s statement

Read editorials from Riverside and Sacramento

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What were the three biggest late-breaking California water stories?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here, or you can follow LPALand on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Big 3 via email here.  This edition:

CARB Sets a Standard It Can’t Meet

The California Air Resources Board apparently didn’t read the First Amendment before it decided to propose a regulation prohibiting false statements made to its board or staff.  Now we don’t condone lying, but if enacted, the new policy would have CARB deciding what’s true and what’s not.  Scofflaws could face various “penalties” to be named later…by CARB.  And as we’ve seen with CARB’s recent use of phony data and resumes to push its agenda, any dissenting opinion may be fair game for this new carbon-clouded truth Gestapo.

CARB’s public notice on the proposed regulation

Read Laer’s Cal Watchdog op-ed on the policy

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Laer was awarded the Gwen Rosebeary Award by the Building Industry Association, Orange County Chapter (BIA/OC) at its 44^th annual Installation Dinner on November 6^th.  The annual award is given to an individual who has demonstrated a long-term commitment and outstanding dedication to BIA/OC.

Following more than 25 years of service to the local chapter, including a decade on its Executive Committee, Laer was named a lifetime member of its board of directors last year.  He also currently serves as the Vice President/Public Affairs for BIA Southern California and has helped both organizations weather several crises, deal effectively with regulatory challenges, and communicate their messages to BIA members and the public.

The LP&A family helped to keep the award a closely guarded secret from Laer until the time his name was announced at the dinner.  They worked together to collect old (and embarrassing) photos of Laer and humorous antidotes for outgoing BIA/OC President Dave Bartlett of Taylor Woodrow to share with the audience.

The national homebuilding magazine Builder News has again picked up Laer as a columnist for 2011, following the successful debut of his business column in 2010. His columns will appear in the February, April, June, August, October and December issues and cover regulation, communications and public affairs topics that affect the building and development industries.

Laer’s more than 25 years of experience helping home builders navigate the entitlement process in California has made him an expert on how to get projects approved in California.  His column aims to help home builders across the nation better understand the regulatory environment.

“California is the master of over-regulating industry, and there is no industry they like to regulate more than the building industry.  The news we share with Builder News about what happens here is a warning sign to the rest of the nation, so they can prepare.”

Laer’s Builder News articles from 2010 are linked below.  We will share the new articles with you as they are published, or you can subscribe to receive Builder News personally.  Click on the images below for full-size views.

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What were the three biggest California water stories of the past seven days?  Well, the news-heads and policy wonks here at Laer Pearce & Associates have compiled them for you here.  You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. You can also sign up to receive the Weekly 3 via email here.  This week:

Your Wake-Up Call, Ms. Brockovich!

The town of Hinkley, made famous when Julia Roberts played crusading almost-a-lawyer Erin Brockvich, was sadly back in the news this week when the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board reported the notorious PG&E chromium 6 plume was back. It’s bad stuff, for sure, but let’s at least try to report the facts and not get into cancer-causing hysterics.  PG&E responded wisely, offering to purchase homes in affected areas – a pretty cheap solution, given Hinkley home prices.

Read the Regional Board’s “talking point” document

Read a typical “cancer causing” media over-statement

From EPA, the health effects facts – see page 5

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