The top California official in charge of riding herd on the petroleum industry has stepped down after a stormy stint that included legal challenges and complaints from residents over tainted ground water.
From the Chronicle's David R: Baker: "The head of the California Department of Conservation, Mark Nechodom, abruptly resigned Thursday following an outcry over oil companies injecting their wastewater into Central Valley aquifers that were supposed to be protected by law.
"Nechodom, who had led the department for three years, announced his resignation in a brief letter to John Laird, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. The Conservation Department is part of the resources agency..."
"Nechodom did not give a reason for his departure. But a division of the Conservation Department that regulates oil-field operations has come under intense criticism for letting oil companies inject wastewater into aquifers that could have been used for drinking or irrigation."
The LAT's Julie Cart noted that Nechodom was named last week in a federal lawsuit "filed on behalf of a group of Kern County farmers who allege that Brown, the oil and gas division and others conspired with oil companies to allow the illegal injections and to create a more lax regulatory environment for energy firms."
"The lawsuit was filed under federal racketeering statutes and claims the conspiracy deprived Kern County farmers of access to clean water."
To almost nobody's surprise, negotiations over establishing internet poker in California came to naught, with rival interests unable to come to agreement on a market potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Capitol Weekly's John Howard tells the tale: "Legalized internet poker – a fruitless effort in California that has spanned seven years, a dozen major bills and hundreds of hours of tense talks – was headed for defeat again in the Capitol, following opposition from a key Senate committee leader..."
"The inability to hammer out a compromise prompted Sen. Isadore Hall, D-Compton, the chair of the Senate Government Organization Committee, to not hold hearings on online gaming legislation. Hall’s panel has jurisdiction over gambling, alcohol and horse-racing, among other issues. To emerge from the Legislature, any online gaming bill would have to pass through his committee. He also was not likely to participate in an upcoming joint hearing on the issue with an Assembly committee."
“He said he will not be setting or hearing any internet poker bills this year,” said attorney and lobbyist David Quintana, who represents the California Tribal Business Alliance, which has been active in the internet poker negotiations."
There's a better than even chance that lane splitting -- that's where motorcyclists zip between cars on the freeways -- will soon become law, but motorists don't seem to be enchanted with the idea.
From the Gary Richards in the LA Daily News: "California would become the first state to pass a law making the practice legal. But drivers who flinch when motorcycles blow past them on the broken white lines, or seethe with envy when motorcycles hum smoothly through traffic jams, don’t seem ready to embrace the idea."
"Nearly two-thirds of drivers across the state frown on lane-splitting, according to a new survey by the state Office of Traffic Safety, which found public aversion to the practice is growing. The survey found opposition to lane-splitting was nearly 78 percent in Santa Clara County, 77 percent in San Francisco and 68 percent in Alameda County..."
"Tom Rice, the UC Berkeley researcher who oversaw the 33-page report released last week, acknowledged the general public “is not real pleased” with the notion of legalizing a different set of rules for motorcyclists"
The Marine Corps says a soldier who gave his life to protect his colleagues by smothering a grenade with his body should be awarded a Medal of Honor. But the Pentagon doesn't agree.
From the AP's Julie Watson: "The Navy will posthumously award a Navy Cross to a Marine killed in Iraq — after years of appeals by his family asking the Pentagon to approve the Marine Corps' nomination for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for military heroism."
"The family of Sgt. Rafael Peralta will accept the nation's second-highest award at a ceremony Monday at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego..."
"The Defense Department has ruled that Peralta was not conscious when he smothered the grenade with his body."
From the Merc's Heather Somerville: "The former venture capitalist who lost a high-stakes sex discrimination case against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has demanded $2.7 million from the powerful venture firm to drop her appeal and to cover her colossal costs and fees during the three-year legal battle."
"Ellen Pao's demand, revealed in court documents Kleiner Perkins filed Friday with San Francisco Superior Court, is nearly three times what Kleiner has requested in reimbursement from Pao for its own legal expenses."
"We have no intention of accepting this unreasonable demand," Christina Lee, spokeswoman for Kleiner, said in a written statement."
And finally, from our "A Drop in The Bucket" file, we hear that there may be a new source of water -- the desert.
"Two hundred miles east of Orange County, billions gallons of water percolate through 1,300 square miles of dirt to a pair of dry lake beds. Thousands of years pass between the time snow falls on the 7,000-foot-high mountains in the Mojave Desert and when the water rises to the sand’s surface about 600 feet above sea level."
"There, it evaporates into the dry air at a rate of 32,000 acre-feet a year."
"As California’s drought enters its fourth summer, government officials and enterprising citizens are looking further and further afield for new water supplies. Environmentalists question the wisdom of tapping new sources – such as drawing fresh water from the ocean – when so much is currently wasted."
Water, water everywhere ...
