California’s undocumented food workers face grim dilemma: health or wages [NBC News]
… For thousands of vulnerable, predominantly Latino undocumented workers across this sprawling agricultural region, there is immense fear and reluctance to self-report possible COVID-19 infection — even with some doctors promising confidentiality. … The pressure to work is forcing some laborers to potentially ignore their exposure to COVID-19. … Dr. Harjeet Brar, the president of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Bakersfield, told NBC News that his medical staff are not asking patients about their immigration status.
After first being spared, rural California now being ravaged by the coronavirus [Los Angeles Times]
It was once said that California’s coronavirus pandemic was hitting dense urban areas the hardest. Now, it’s rural, agricultural areas that are among the most severely affected. … The Central Valley is among the areas of the nation that federal officials are particularly worried about. … While California’s second surge of coronavirus this summer is showing signs of stabilization, the levels of circulating virus in places like the Central Valley are a source of deep worry among physicians because of how much higher they are now.
California’s 800,000 farmworkers are under siege from the coronavirus. Lawmakers urge relief [Sacramento Bee]
… Assemblymen Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, are urging the state Legislature to move forward on four bills they say would provide some relief to those who help keep food on California tables. … The package of bills, introduced in April, now includes a $25 million expansion of the California Farmworker Housing Assistance Tax Credit. The “marquee” bill, AB 2043, would fund an outreach campaign to inform farmworkers on best practices to prevent COVID-19 infection, as well as information on paid sick leave, workers’ compensation and other coronavirus-related services.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article244769262.html
Trump administration studies raising the height of Shasta Dam [Redding Record Searchlight]
The decades-long battle over an effort to raise the height of Shasta Dam took another turn Thursday when the Trump Administration released a new environmental report on the plan, just five years after completing a similar study. The most recent environmental study and feasibility report takes another look at how raising the height of Shasta Dam 18½ would affect the environment around Lake Shasta and downstream of the structure. The report says there is new information to consider surrounding the effects of raising the dam, particularly on wetlands and the McCloud River, a protected stream that flows into Lake Shasta.
California’s wolf pack is thriving with eight new pups [San Francisco Chronicle]
Eight new wolf puppies are now roaming the wilds of Lassen and Plumas counties, an indication that California’s only known wolf pack is thriving and likely to stay, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. … California wolves are now protected under the state and federal endangered species acts, but some ranchers and hunting groups are not happy. State wildlife officials have documented several instances of livestock being attacked and killed by wolves and are working with agricultural officials on nonlethal ways to halt that behavior.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/California-s-wolf-pack-is-thriving-with-eight-15465655.php
Opinion: UC Davis prof: American beef gets a bad rap as climate-change factor [San Francisco Chronicle]
… A closer look at the data shows that while cattle account for a large share of emissions in other countries, they emit far less carbon here in the United States, thanks to American ranchers’ environmentally sustainable practices and world-leading efficiency. Simply put, U.S. cattle aren’t the major driver of climate change. … We owe that level of success to our farmers and ranchers, the most efficient and advanced in the world. We produce 18% of the world’s beef with just 8% of the world’s cattle — while accounting for less than half a percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
