The Roundup

As the drought worsens, the fight over water intensifies.

From the Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead: "House Republicans failed in their last-minute effort to insert a policy rider into the farm bill that would have diverted water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to parched farms in the Central Valley. The lawmakers may still seek out another legislative vehicle or attempt to move a stand-alone bill..."

"Reps. David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County), Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, and Devin Nunes of Tulare announced only last week that they were considering legislation, still not public, that would “turn on the pumps” in the delta and halt the restoration of the San Joaquin River this year and next “in order to stop wasting water.”"

Nunes called the shortage of water in the Central Valley “man-made.”

Speaking of the drought, there is a dispute over the dwindling water in the vast San Luis Reservoir, which had been aside by farmers for anb emergency.

From McClatchy's Michael Doyle anbd Mark Grossi: "The water currently in question includes about 340,000 acre-feet stored at San Luis Reservoir on behalf of west side farmers, as well as a significantly smaller amount stored behind Friant Dam on behalf of farmers on the valley’s east side. The water was provided through the federal Central Valley Project, a Redding-to-Bakersfield network of reservoirs, pumping plants and canals."

"Some irrigation districts last year were able to meet their aquatic demands without fully tapping their CVP contracts. What they didn’t use, they had the federal Bureau of Reclamation store and carry over until this year. Usually, that’s not a problem. But over the last week or so, as federal officials have confronted the enormity of California’s drought, they have declined to rule out the possibility of taking the carried-over water for other, legally compelling purposes."

And still more on the drought: California ranchers are having a tough time watering and feeding their cattle, and some are selling off their cows.

From the AP's Jason Dearen: "The state is the nation’s leader in dairy cows, and fourth overall in the U.S. for total number of cattle, trailing Texas, Nebraska and Kansas, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. With little free food available for cattle, some ranchers have already started controlling costs."

"Romaldo Martin, a cattle rancher who runs M&M Farms in Hollister, has sold more than 160 cows and calves at 101 Livestock Market over the past two weeks and plans to sell at least 100 more. He said it’s too expensive to buy hay to feed his herd, and the water on his land is drying up."

“If the weather doesn’t change, I might need to get rid of all of them,” said Martin, who is in his 70s and used to run about 600 heads of cattle. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life … It’s a disaster.”

Tucked away in a report prepared for a state Senate committee report on the Bay Bridge project is yet another tale of bolts, 250,000 of them, this time for the Carquinez Bridge retrofit.

From the Chronicle's Matier and Ross: "According to the report's footnote, Caltrans' engineering and testing division "established this protocol after a near-disaster at the Carquinez Bridge where ZPMC was paid to make 250,000 critical bolts."

"When the bolts arrived at the construction site, Caltrans found they had been made to the wrong size and they all had to be rejected and remade," says the report. "This story was never revealed to the public."

Caltrans spokesman Matt Rocco confirmed that the bolts had been tossed for reasons that included improper "thread sizes, alignment of the heads and the markings that identify the grade of the bolts."

Score one for the loves of beach bon fires: A measure that would preserve the beach fire rings -- and authored by Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen, s surfer -- emerged unanimously from the Assembly and is headed to the Senate.

From the LAT's Melanie Mason: "The measure, by Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton), would delay a new rule limiting the beach fire rings in Newport Beach, giving the city time relocate the rings farther apart to address air quality concerns."

"The bill, AB 1102, is "intended to protect not only historical California tradition, but millions in revenue for cities, counties and the state," Allen said on the Assembly floor."

"The bill passed by a 64-0 vote."

And from our "Tales of the Courts" file comes word that a woman who had been sentenced to couple of days in jail wound up spending five months -- because of a scatterbrained judge.

"A woman sentenced to two days in jail was locked up for 154 days after a judge forgot to sign the order for her release."

"Destiny Hoffman, 34, was given two days on August 22 by Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jerry Jacobi in Indiana for diluting her drug screen results, violating her court-appointed treatment program."

"The judge ordered Ms. Hoffman, from Jeffersonville, held without bond 'until further order of the court'. However it then slipped the judge's mind to issue that order for five months."

Time to get a cell ready for the judge ...