The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s attempt to end DACA. Now what? [Los Angeles Times]
A long-awaited Supreme Court ruling Thursday rejecting President Trump’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program brought relief to thousands of DACA recipients — but also new questions about the administration’s immediate next steps and the still-uncertain future of “Dreamers” in the United States….León Rodriguez, former director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers the program and other immigration benefits, said the court’s ruling “requires them to take new applications” but doesn’t prevent Trump administration officials from “taking another shot” at DACA. “I’m really worried that they will say, ‘Fine, we will protect you all from deportation, but no work authorization for any of you, there’s no legal basis for it,’” Rodriguez said. “These are folks who have driver’s licenses, they go to school, they work — to suddenly cross that out, even if all those folks still remain in the U.S., on many levels, individual, families, the economy, communities — it would make a huge mess.”
CEMEX wants to blast 600-foot open pit mine on San Joaquin River north of Fresno. Here’s why [Fresno Bee]
CEMEX has applied for permits to continue mining north of Fresno for another 100 years — with a proposal to expand operations by blasting and drilling a 600-feet deep pit into hard rock near the San Joaquin River….“CEMEX’s current mining operations have been in existence as a neighbor with the San Joaquin River Parkway since the Parkway’s inception and have not prevented or interfered with operations on adjacent Parkway properties, which are reclaimed former mining sites providing wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities,” Walker said….Mining requires water. The surrounding water basin is in overdraft, according to the state of California, meaning water users are required to develop a plan to stop using water from the basin faster than it can recharge.
https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article243494491.html
Filling Trump void, California steps in to protect birds, wetlands [CalMatters]
…It’s not the only federal rollback that has had repercussions on California’s environment: Parts of the powerful Clean Water Act were narrowed in April, when the Environmental Protection Agency stripped protections from many wetlands, a move that would allow development in ecologically sensitive areas….California officials have parried federal moves with actions of their own — a state law enshrining protection for migratory birds and a new state regulation setting definitions that expand protection to smaller wetlands and seasonal waterways. California’s responses are yet another maneuver in the feud between Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/06/california-regulations-wetlands-birds/
Opinion: Appeals court justices prepare to decide Abatti v. IID on water rights [Imperial Valley Press]
Do Imperial Valley agricultural landowners have a special water priority over all other users? Do they have a right to be delivered all the water that they can reasonably use to irrigate their crops as they have customarily done in the past? These were the main questions before a panel of three appellate court justices in San Diego last Friday as they heard from IID’s attorney Jennifer Meeker arguing that the answer to these two questions is no and from Michael Abatti’s attorney Cheryl Orr arguing yes….The golden nugget from that case, from Abatti’s point of view, was that the court noted that “the farmers’ right to water is appurtenant to the land.”
Longtime worker at Central Valley raisin plant dies of coronavirus [Fresno Bee]
A longtime employee of Sun-Maid who was among the first at the Kingsburg raisin plant to become sick with coronavirus has died….“This person worked at our Kingsburg facility and was last at a Sun-Maid facility on April 4. Their family and loved ones are in our thoughts,” said Matt Babiarz, human resource manager for Sun-Maid. “We are taking time to support Kingsburg colleagues during this difficult situation.”
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/coronavirus/article243607227.html
Here’s how proposed COVID-19 legislation could impact the Coachella Valley [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
With the revised state budget approved, California legislators now must turn their attention to coronavirus-related bills before the legislative session comes to a halt at the end of August….“We are in a shortened legislative session, so we are trying to focus our response to the pandemic crisis,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Palm Desert. “We were told we needed to narrow down the legislative agenda… and had to shift our direction and focus. … But there are still other issues that were before us prior to COVID-19 and will be there post-COVID, too.”…“If we protect workers, we protect the food supply chain,” he said. “It is a modest ask to have appropriate agencies working with agriculture communities to make sure safeguards and protections are in place for the people who do this work, to make sure we can see a health workforce contributing to the overall economic well-being of our state.”
