The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is moving to chop down 22,000 trees in Berkeley’s historic Strawberry and Claremont Canyons and over 60,000 more in Oakland. This destructive plan is rapidly moving forward with little publicity, and FEMA cleverly scheduled its three public meetings for mid and late May while UC Berkeley students were in finals or gone for the summer.

UC Berkeley has applied for the grant to destroy the bucolic Strawberry and Claremont Canyon areas, claiming that the trees pose a fire hazard. The school has no plans to replant, and instead will cover 20% of the area in wood chips two feet deep. And it will pour between 700 and 1400 gallons of herbicide to prevent re-sprouting, including the highly toxic herbicide, Roundup. People are mobilizing against this outrageous proposal, which UC Berkeley has done its best to keep secret.

Read the rest.

The massive deforesting operation in one of the East Bay’s most scenic areas is part of a FEMA project officially entitled “East Bay Hills Hazardous Fire Risk Reduction.”

Targets of the chainsaws will be non-native trees, especially eucalyptus.

Details from the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement [posted here]:

UCB submitted two grant applications under the PDM [Pre-Disaster Mitigation — esnl] program: one for a 56.3-acre area designated Strawberry Canyon-PDM in this EIS and one for a 42.8-acre area designated Claremont-PDM. To reduce the potential for these areas to support and spread wildfires, UCB proposes to eliminate eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and other non-native trees that promote the spread of wildfire. Oak and bay trees and other native vegetation present under the larger non-native trees would be preserved and encouraged to expand.

The environmental review did consider alternatives, including a required “no action” version in which existing management practices would continue. Here’s the relevant portion for the UC Berkeley land:

UCB would continue annual removal of grass and light, flashy fuels (such as twigs, needles, and grasses that ignite and burn rapidly) from UCB roadsides, UCB turnouts, and within 100 feet of UCB structures and adjacent private residences. UCB would also work to maintain the strategic areas where fuel reduction projects have been completed during the past 10 years to ensure eradication of target species of vegetation that have already been removed. UCB would continue to pursue fuel reduction within 30 feet of private and public structures to create defensible space in accordance with its 2020 Hill Area Fire Fuel Management Program.

And some more details from the environmental statement focusing on the Berkeley part of the project:

The UCB grant application includes two project areas in which approximately 22,000 non-native trees would be cut down, including all eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and acacia trees. The goal is to reduce the amount of fuel in the project areas by allowing the forest to convert from a eucalyptus-dominated, non-native forest to a native forest of California bay laurel, oak, big-leaf maple, California buckeye, California hazelnut, and other native tree and shrub species currently present beneath the eucalyptus and other non-native trees. The native species would provide less fuel to potential wildfires than the non-native species currently provide.

Felled trees up to approximately 24 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH) would be cut up into chips 1 to 4 inches long and the chips would be spread on up to 20% of each site to a maximum depth of 24 inches. UCB expects the chips to largely decompose within 5 years.

Branches from trees greater than 24 inches DBH would be cut up and scattered on the site (lopped and scattered). The trunks of these trees would typically be cut into 20- to 30-foot lengths. Some tree trunks would be placed to help control sediment and erosion or support wildlife habitat. Some tree trunks may be moved to an adjacent portion of the hillside or shipped for use as fuel, a source of paper pulp, or horse bedding.

Three temporary access roads are anticipated to be required for the proposed Claremont-PDM project. The three roads would be 12 feet wide and total approximately 2,600 feet long.

Completion of the initial vegetation reduction work is expected to require up to 40 weeks spread over 2 to 3 years. Maintenance would continue for up to 10 years after initial tree cutting.

The last chance for spoken public comments will come tomorrow [Saturday] morning in Oakland, with a hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon at the Claremont Middle School, 5750 College Avenue.

Written comments will be received until 17 June at the following places:

• At the project website.
• By email at EBH-EIS-FEMA-RIX@fema.dhs.gov
• By snail mail sent to P.O. Box 72379, Oakland, CA 94612-8579
• And by fax at 510-627-7147

Project opponents have created their own website here.

And here, from the environmental statement, is the site of the proposed action in Strawberry Canyon:

Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class

Kodak employed 140,000 people. Instagram, 13. A digital visionary says the Web kills jobs, wealth — even democracy

From Haaretz:

Israel has highest poverty rate in the developed world, OECD report shows

Israel is the most impoverished of the 34 member countries, with a poverty rate of 20.9%, according to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

From the BBC:

Pope Francis hits out at global ‘cult of money’

Gee, maybe there’s something to this one from the London Telegraph:

Pope Francis elected after supernatural ‘signs’ in the Conclave, says Cardinal

The surprise election of Pope Francis came about because of a series of supernatural “signs”, one of the leading Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church has claimed

From McClatchy Newspapers:

In Mexico, fears for democracy as threatened journalists curtail coverage

From The Independent:

François Hollande calls for ‘European political union’ within two years

First, a report of the latest shutdown, this time on the East Coast. John Murawski of the Raleigh News & Observer reports:

Duke Energy Progress shut down the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County on Wednesday after the company discovered that the reactor vessel – which holds the plant’s nuclear fuel and contains the nuclear reaction – showed early indications of corrosion and cracking.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Thursday morning that plant officials made the discovery earlier this week during a review of ultrasonic data that had been recorded in spring 2012.

The year-old data showed a one-quarter-inch flaw in the reactor vessel head, the term for the lid that is bolted on top of the vessel to maintain superheated water under high pressure.

Read the rest.

More from NBC News outlet WITN:

Duke Energy owns the Shearon Harris plant, which began operations in 1987.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the quarter inch crack was not all the way through the reactor wall and there’s no indication any radioactive material escaped.

The NRC says the plant was shut down so crews could repair the crack. It says there is no impact “to the health and safety of employees or the public.”

Read the rest.

And the problems aren’t confined to the coasts, either.

Problems in Michigan, cracks once again

From Henry Erb of NBC affiliate WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Authorities say they’ve found the crack that led to “slightly radioactive water” spilling from the Palisades nuclear power plant into Lake Michigan.

The Covert Township plant was shut down May 5 after about 79 gallons of slightly radioactive spilled into a pond that flows into Lake Michigan. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said the water did not pose a public health risk. The leak was in a 300,000-gallon tank used to hold water that floods and cools the nuclear reactor during refueling and in the event of a problem.

The problem was a half-inch crack in the welding around one of nine nozzles in the tank, authorities said Monday. Three of those have been replaced and every weld and every nozzle is now being checked. The entire bottom of the tank is also being checked.

Read the rest.

And here’s a report from WOOD featuring an interview with Congressional Rep. Fred Upton [R-St. Joseph]:

Perhaps we’re getting a signal. . .

What follows is from our  profile of Louis for the 25 October 1982 Christian Science Monitor. The words as timelier than ever:

“We are using the resources of this planet far too rapidly. No one is thinking about the future. Our country has become too much a country of ‘now.’ We forget that no one ever truly ‘owns’ the land. We possess it in trust, to pass on to those who follow. And we should leave our trust better than we found it. That’s why I’ve always planted trees wherever I’ve lived.”

>snip<

“I remember a Jicarilla Apache I met in Colorado. He was looking for arrowheads. Whenever he found one, he would open a buckskin pouch he carried and sprinkle some of its contents on the ground where he had picked up the artifact. The pouch contained earth. He was giving back to the land something to replace what he had taken.

“That’s a highly symbolic gesture that should speak to us today. The earth is not something to be looted. It is to be cherished. Instead of looting the earth, we should rebuild, and leave it a better place for the next generation.”

There’s no doubt that the San Diego Gas & Electric complex is in troubled, as we’ve noted before. But the latest developments have added a new dimension of uncertainty for the plant, which has been plagued with leaking cooling pipes and a long history of other problems.

The first development, reported Monday by Reuters, raised the possibility of a public hearing before the utility could restart the plant:

An independent nuclear regulatory panel on Monday called for a full public hearing on the proposed restart of one of the two damaged San Onofre nuclear reactors, a move that will delay Southern California Edison’s plan to run the plant this summer.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruling favored petitioner Friends of the Earth, an anti-nuclear group that sought more public input of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) review of steam generator problems at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

Read the rest.

More from the Associated Press:

The plant between San Diego and Los Angeles hasn’t produced electricity since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water.

Friends of the Earth, an advocacy group, argued that the federal process set up to consider a restart of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor was in fact a change to the plant’s operating license that would require a courtlike hearing. The three-member board concluded that the restart would allow operator Southern California Edison “to operate beyond the scope of its existing license.”

Read the rest.

And a critical detail from the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Morgan Lee:

Murray Jennex, a former systems engineer at San Onofre for nearly 20 years who now teaches at San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration, said the order likely pushes back a final decision on restarting the Unit 2 reactor until after summer.

“I won’t say this is a death blow to Unit 2, but it does make restart less likely,” Jennex said. “If approved, the additional downtime makes the Unit 2 restart more complex and costly due to corrosion issues from sitting.”

Any delays put additional financial pressure on Edison. CEO Ted Craver recently indicated that without a green light to restart by year’s end, the company might decide to permanently shut down one or both reactors, adding closure costs and a void in the region’s power grid.

Read the rest.

But there’s a catch. . .

As the Associated Press reports:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not decided whether it will hold a public hearing on a plan to restart the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, the nation’s top nuclear regulator said Tuesday.

NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane told reporters in Washington, D.C., that she is aware of strong public interest in California and among some members of Congress for a public hearing, but added that a ruling this week by an NRC licensing panel does not require such a hearing be held.

“There are potential opportunities for public hearings,” Macfarlane told reporters after a speech to the nuclear industry. She called the situation at San Onofre complex with “multiple moving parts right now.”

Read the rest.

Dave Rice of the San Diego Reader offers some critical context:

Comments from Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Alison Macfarlane on the future of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station have generated media confusion and potentially put her at odds with environmental groups, Senator Barbara Boxer, and the NRC’s own Atomic Safety Licensing Board.

After speaking before a group representing nuclear industry business interests on Tuesday, Macfarlane said that a public hearing wasn’t necessarily required before changes to San Onofre’s license could be approved that would allow the plant to re-start. She did acknowledge public interest in such a procedure, however, saying the situation concerning the power plant’s shutdown had “multiple moving parts,” and that there existed “potential opportunities for public hearings.”

Read the rest.

Steve Chu, who served as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Energy through 22 April, is a physicist and an exuberant backer of nuclear power, as evidenced in his tenure as head of of UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Chu’s interim successor, Acting Secretary Daniel Poneman, is a lawyer and political scientist, and unlikely to make any controversial decisions.

Meanwhile,m a ticking time bomb sits on standby on the Southern California coast, separated from the mighty Pacific by a short seawall and located immediately adjacent to a fault capable of uncorking an earthquake vastly morfe powervful than the plant is designed to withstand.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Eurozone trapped in austerity-led recession

From Keep Talking Greece:

Recession here: Greece economy shrank by 5.3% in 1Q of 2013

From Svenska Dagbladet via Presseurop:

‘Inequality growing fastest in Sweden’

From The Guardian, reporting on something we’ve covered extensively:

Diplomatic cables reveal aggressive GM lobbying by US officials

Review of more than 900 cables reveals campaign to break down resistance to GM products in Europe and other countries

And, from Mother Jones, something else from Big Agra to worry about:

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms

From a Pew  Research Hispanic Center report, “Hispanic High School Graduates Pass Whites in Rate of College Enrollment,” which notes:

As recently as the class of 2000, only 49% of Hispanic high school graduates immediately enrolled in college the following fall. Since then general college-going has increased among all of the nation’s high school graduates, but it has risen the most—by 20 percentage points—among Hispanic high school graduates.

In the class of 2012 Hispanic high school graduates (69%) were more likely to be enrolled in college in October 2012 than either whites (67%) or blacks (63%). In 2012 Asian recent high school completers were the most likely of the major racial and ethnic groups to be enrolled in college in October (84%).

Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.

Long after Watergate, not only has the presidency changed. We have changed. We have become accustomed to elements of a security state such as massive surveillance and executive authority without judicial oversight. We have finally answered a question left by Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when a Mrs. Powel confronted him after the Constitutional Convention and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His chilling response: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We appear to have grown weary of the republic and traded it for promises of security from a shining political personality. Somewhere, Nixon must be wondering how it could have been this easy.

BP and Shell price-fixing inquiry: Oil giants raided over allegations of collusion

From Australia’s News.com:

Charity calls to ban cancer-causing chemicals used by women

• Breast Cancer UK calls for total ban on BPA chemical

• BPA is “contributing to rapid increase in breast cancer”

• Chemical commonly used in food and beverage packaging

From a BBC story on the sex slavery comments of Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto, who also calls for a “restoration” of dictatorship:

Japan WWII ‘comfort women’ were ‘necessary’ — Hashimoto

From a BBC story about those “freedom fighters” the Obama administration supports in Syria:

Outrage at Syrian rebel shown ‘eating soldier’s heart’

Finally, from Mother Jones, a story about the folks who are smiling whilst the blood flows:

Contractors Raked in $385 Billion on Overseas Bases in 12 Years

Every year, US taxpayers send billions of dollars abroad to build and maintain our military presence.

A transcript is posted here.

She’s pregnant, you see, which was the primary requirement that also scored her a whole bundle of loot just for showing up.

She also scored some camera time, becoming the first audience member picked for a Q&A session with DeGeneres and pal Bethenney Frankel. The whole episode is a classic example of what every dad loves to hear a daughter discuss on nationwide television. . .

There’s a certain irony in all this, in that Jackie started college as an acting major before switching to anthropology as an NYU undergrad. But it’s only been in the last four weeks she got her breakthrough into national media, first on NBC News live from Boston talking about her experiences of the Marathon Day bombings followed by her appearance with Ellen.

From vlogger Em Raguso:

Judith Scherr reports for the Oakland Tribune:

Chanting “Whose farm? Our farm!” some 150 people marched from Albany City Hall to a weed-strewn plot of University of California-owned land where they yanked out 3-foot-tall weeds and planted squash and tomato seedlings.

>snip<

Protesters want the Gill Tract to become an urban farm, while the university said it uses the land for agricultural research. A development is planned for an area adjacent to the land which has not been agriculturally zoned in decades, university officials have said.

As protesters entered the area Saturday, bringing with them two chickens, three goats and a rabbit, police informed them via bullhorn that they were trespassing and subject to arrest. As of late Saturday afternoon, no arrests had been made.

Read the rest.

And from the Occupy the Farm website, a report on today’s action:

Three days after UC Berkeley’s new development proposal on the Gill Tract was voted down at the City of Albany’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on May 8th, the organizing group Occupy the Farm has again taken a stand for public education and urban agriculture, setting down roots on the hotly contested land.

“People have been fighting to preserve this land for farming for decades, because they recognize that because this is UC land, all residents of the East Bay have a stake and a say in what happens to this public resource,” said Lesley Haddock, a third year student in UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. “After fifteen years of trying to work through UC’s undemocratic process, public protest is our last option.”

Since 1997, coalitions of local residents, non-profits, and UC students and faculty have brought forth proposals to the UC administration for the creation of a sustainable urban agriculture curriculum on the entire Gill Tract. Administrators consistently rejected these proposals, and have been accused of not giving the proposals due consideration.

“Today we’re planting on the site of the proposed commercial development because we want to remind people what they will lose if a chain store and parking lot get built here,” stated Ashoka Finley, urban farmer and UC alum. “The UC, Albany even, could be on the cutting edge of participatory, community-based urban ag research, and they’re just throwing that opportunity away.”

Building on Occupy the Farm’s action in April-May 2012, today’s protest was focused on community education around food production . Farmers and activists were seen planting vegetables together, watering crops and passing out free plant starts to passers-by. There was a range of educational activities, including a seed-ball making workshop organized by a seven year-old. The young girl stated, “I just wanted to do it at a time when I knew a lot of kids would show up.”

As one of the last large plots of fertile agricultural soil left in the East Bay, the Gill Tract holds great potential for shifting our communities towards self-sufficiency through large-scale urban agriculture education. Occupy the Farm will be working all weekend to turn the south plot of the Gill Tract from an empty lot into an urban farm and community asset.

For more visuals and interviews, see this brief clip from ABC News 7 in San Francisco.

And here’s a report from the Daily Californian on the 14 May 2012 police raid ending the last occupation:

Click on the image to enlarge.

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought to Keep Your Taxes Complicated

From Common Dreams:

Disaster Capitalism Strikes as Hedge Funds Circle Near-Bankrupt Municipalities Like Vultures

A troubling pattern emerges as private funds seek to profit from beleaguered cities

From ANSAmed:

Greece: youth unemployment reaches a grim record of 64.2%

From World Socialist Web Site:

IMF demands further austerity in Greece

From Raw Story:

Mao Zedong’s grand-daughter worth more than $815 million according to China’s ‘New Fortune’ magazine