This year has been a wild ride for state Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto.

It was only a little more than eight months ago when he was ousted as Senate GOP leader by colleagues as punishment for signing off on a budget deal that included tax hikes. But he's finishing the year on an upswing. Cogdill is the author of the $11 billion water bond that lawmakers approved this week and voters will consider in November.

Continue reading "Cogdill, Caballero water deal winners" »

As Assembly leaders wrestled for votes to pass an $11 billion water bond early Wednesday morning, Tom Berryhill was resting in his Modesto home.

The Republican assemblyman was bed-ridden, with what he thinks might have been the swine flu. Still, Berryhill, who has a heart transplant, says he was ready to make the more than hour drive to the Capitol, should leaders have needed his vote.

"I was a phone call away from getting up and coming up there," said Berryhill, whose district includes parts of Madera County.

Turns out they didn't need his vote, as the bond squeaked through with the bare minimum votes just before the sun rose after a marathon session.

Berryhill says he's feeling better now.

Republican gubernatorial candidates have been quick to pounce on the Valley's farm water shortage as they stump for votes in the region.

But when the Legislature finally passed an $11 billion water bond this week as part of a larger deal, two of the GOP contenders didn't exactly embrace the deal with open arms --despite strong support for the bond from Valley ag groups.

Continue reading "GOP guv candidates cautious on water deal" »

First Belana closes, now the Borders Express store in Sierra Vista Mall is scheduled to close.

The closures come on the heels of this story about all the new shops and restaurants opening up in Fresno. It's a reminder that we're not quite out of this mess yet.

Belana may have faced the same problems attracting customers as other restaurants, despite famed local businessman Krikor "Kirk" Vartanian's involvement.

As for Borders Express, the company is closing mall-based stores in an effort to stay profitable. The Hanford Mall location will stay open.

Two readers have complained recently that The Bee's coverage of the killing of Alex Mercado has been too graphic. A 14-year-old neighbor has been accused of molesting and murdering the Mendota boy.

Both argued that the details of the crime should have been withheld from readers because they were painful -- especially for relatives of the victim.

Continue reading "Has The Bee been too graphic in the Mercado case?" »

One big criticism of the new water reform law is the "back-room process" to arrive at a compromise proposal that could be passed. The criticism is not without merit.

"Too few powerful interests had too much power to determine the content," wrote Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based think tank. Gleick, a water policy expert, has an interesting analysis.

The law, passed Wednesday by state legislators, sets up a council to watch over the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It also starts the process to clean up the state's water quality and conserve water in cities, along with a mountain of other goals.

Voters will need to approve an $11 billion bond next year to make this happen.

So what happens when there are too few people in the negotiating room? Organizations not at the table tend to be pressured to fall in line with philosophies and past loyalties, instead of details.

Now there is a swarm of Northern California opponents, such as the Sierra Club and Friends of the River, who have to be brought along.

Democratic congressional candidate Les Marsden needs every dollar he can find in his long-shot challenge to Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. Nonetheless, Marsden has now reported giving back $3,000 contributed to his campaign by the group Families Protecting the Valley.

For Marsden, this is a big deal. The $3,000 represents a big chunk of the grand total of $13,733 he's reported raising this year. The alternatives, though, weren't very palatable. The Madera-based Families Protecting the Valley bills itself as an organization designed to restore water to the region. Its members include some adamant critics of Radanovich.

Radanovich's staff, in turn, were preparing to file a complaint about the group's contribution to Marsden, on the grounds that Families Protecting the Valley was an ineligible contributor. Rather than fight it out, or face embarrassment, Marsden returned the dough.

This just in: An extension of the home-buyer tax credit passes House and heads to Obama's desk for signature.

http://www.house.gov/smbiz/democrats/PressReleases/2009/pr-11-5-09-homebuyers-credit.html

Fresno Historical Society home tour
Nov. 13-14
Tickets for Friday: $50.
Saturday tickets: $30 in advance; $35 day of
Information, tickets: 559-441-0862; www.ValleyHistory.org

Fresno's architectural heritage will be showcased Nov. 13 and 14th when five homes along historic Huntington Boulevard open for tours.

It is Fresno Historical Society's annual fund-raising home tour. Participants can gather on the front lawn of the A.G Wishon home, 3555 Huntington Boulevard (which is not open to visitors) from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Nov. 13 for a wine and harvest dinner. A candlelight tour will follow.

At 11 a.m. the next day, participants can gather in the Roosevelt High School library for an illustrated lecture by Karana Hattersley-Drayton, the city's historic preservation officer and a panel discussion on how to green up a historic home. A home tour will follow from noon to 4 p.m..

Huntington Boulevard is the heart of one of Fresno's most architecturally distinct neighborhoods. A variety of styles - from modest to grand - face a wide boulevard bisected by a grassy median. The boulevard was a streetcar route from 1907 to 1939.

This year's tour includes the following:

Continue reading "Huntington Blvd. home tour set" »

The leading edge of the San Joaquin River is 2.8 miles from the Chowchilla Bypass structure, federal officials reported this morning.

That's not far from Mendota, but it still has not reached the Mendota Pool. This is an initial, experimental flow of water that began Oct. 1 as the start of the river restoration.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to slow down the release of water from Friant Dam on Wednesday morning.

Right now, it's going 700 cubic feet per second. It will slow to 350 cfs Wednesday through Nov. 20. Then the extra flow will be shut off until Feb. 1.

If you are facing foreclosure and about to lose your house, would you consider renting it back from the lender to stay there?

Now you might be able to. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have started programs that allow homeowners to stay in the house. Fannie's program, announced this week, allows qualifying homeowners to lease back the house for up to a year, with the possibility of month-to-month leases after that.

Freddie's program, unveiled in January, enables some families to rent the house on a month-to-month basis.

The objective is to ease the trauma of foreclosure and not force families to move. In many cases, the lease or rental agreement transfers to the new owner if the house is sold - although Fannie Mae says it won't list the house for sale during the one-year lease period.

Fannie's program is available to borrowers who don't qualify or haven't been able to sustain a loan modification.

Fannie didn't say how many people will qualify for the program, but roughly two-thirds of homeowners offered rental contracts under Freddie Mac have taken them, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the afterglow of a historic water reform law passing the Legislature this week, it's good to remember a few things:

1. Voters next year still need to approve the $11 billion in bonds. It is not a slam dunk.

2. There is an oversight council now to monitor every twitch of every species in the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But there is no money yet to pay for it. Look for that in January.

3. The state is going to hire 25 new inspectors to catch folks who are illegally diverting water from streams. But right now, there's no real penalty, just a laborious process that could result years later in a fine. And the fine is just about what the thief would have paid for the water to begin with.

Will this new law make any more difference than the Calfed Bay-Delta Program, which flopped over the last dozen years or so?

The Manchester Center flu-shot clinic tomorrow (Nov. 4) is expected to be the biggest swine-flu shot clinic so far in Fresno County.

Health officials estimate thousands - that's by the phone calls they've been taking from people wanting to know where and when they can get the H1N1 vaccine - will show up for shots.

It's the first chance many in Fresno will have to line up for a shot. Vaccine supplies aren't exactly bulging. The Fresno County Department of Public Health got 11,500 doses last week for a county of almost 1 million.

Another clinic will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 5) at the retired teachers building on East Saginaw Way. To learn more about the H1N1 vaccine, check out the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.

To find a flu-shot clinic in Fresno County, go to the health department's Web site.

It will be interesting to see the numbers after the 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. clinic closes at the Manchester Center. I keep hearing from people who say they aren't going to get an H1N1 shot. Many of them aren't in high-risk categories - pregnant women, children and young adults, caregivers of infants younger than 6 months or people with chronic health conditions. But some in those targeted groups say they won't get vaccinated.

But I hear that office workers in doctors' offices are getting screamed at daily by people who want to know why they can't get an H1N1 flu shot. Doctors are waiting like health departments for the vaccine to arrive.

So I'm curious: Who's going to get a flu shot (or wants to get one when more vaccine is available)? Who isn't getting a shot? Why?

My cell phone has many capabilities, most of which I can't figure out.

But people who aren't as technologically inept are now able to use cell phones to search for real estate as the industry starts to dial-up more sophisticated services.

Fresno-based Guarantee Real Estate, for example, contracted with Smarter Agent, an application that allows people to get details and photos of houses for sale.

Once the application is loaded onto a cell phone, it can be used to get information on homes for sale in any area of the country where Smarter Agent has access to listing data.

Now, if I can only figure out how to stop butt dialing my daughter at school.

Congratulations to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and his wife Elizabeth. At 12:35 a.m. Tuesday, Elizabeth gave birth to Julia Lauren Nunes. Julia weighed in at six pounds, 11 ounces, and both mom and baby are said to be doing well and resting comfortably.

It's getting to the point where banks may be getting a little jumpy when Fridays roll around.

That's because Friday is the day of the week when banking regulators are moving in and closing financially weak institutions across the country. The recession claimed nine more banks last Friday afternoon, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

That brings to 115 the number of banks that have failed so far in 2009.

(Above right: a banking official posts a closure notice on the door of a County Bank branch in February -- Bee file photo)

FDIC insures bank depositors against the loss of their money in the event of a bank's collapse and serves as a clearinghouse to arrange for another bank to take over the failed institution's assets.

A story in Sunday's Bee reported on how the wave of failures is depleting the FDIC's insurance reserve, and the FDIC's plan to collect three years worth of insurance premiums, or assessments, from banks to build up a sufficient cushion to deal with even more failures expected this year and next.

It's the banks, not taxpayers or the government, that pay insurance premiums or assessments to make sure their deposits are insured. But banks are failing faster than the FDIC can collect the assessments.

Continue reading "Bank failures continue to pile up" »

Retailers are snapping up empty storefronts despite the recession. For a rundown of new stores in town, read this story.

Kwirkworld was scheduled to open today. Has anyone checked it out yet? (Are the bacon vs. tofu action figures as cool as they sound?)

I also find it absolutely fascinating that MAC Cosmetics is opening two doors down from Sephora in Fashion Fair mall. For those who don't know, MAC is an extremely popular cosmetics brand. The brand has a kiosk inside the mall and a counter in Macy's already, both of which will stay once the new store opens.

Retail consultant Jeff Green, however, says there's enough customers for all three them. He envisions that corner of the mall as a "beauty hub" in which shoppers hit up both Sephora and MAC.

I'd love to be in a Sephora worker's shoes and see how this effects customer habits at Sephora -- if it all.

The first wood-burning ban of the fireplace season is today for Fresno, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Kern counties.

You can't burn wood in fireplaces, wood stoves, fireplace inserts and pellet-burning devices until midnight today.

Kings County had the San Joaquin Valley's first wood-burning ban on Sunday.

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District makes the wood-burning forecasts on a county-by-county basis. You can call 1 (800) 766-4463 to find out if you're allowed to burn.

Wood burning pumps tiny specks, called particulate matter, into the air, and the pollution can cause a number of health problems.