House passes short-term spending bill to keep government funded through Dec. 11 [Wall Street Journal]
The House Tuesday night passed a short-term spending bill keeping the government funded through Dec. 11, after Democrats reached a deal with the White House over farm aid and food assistance. … The agreement between Mrs. Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Mr. Mnuchin would add to the spending bill $21 billion sought by the White House for the Commodity Credit Corp., or CCC, a Depression-era program designed to stabilize farm incomes that permits borrowing as much as $30 billion from the Treasury to finance its activities. … President Trump has tapped the CCC program to finance both trade relief and coronavirus-related aid for farmers.
California’s wineries tossed into chaos with backlogged tests for smoke taint [San Francisco Chronicle]
… It seems certain that many vineyards’ fruit will be safe. … The problem is that almost no one can know for certain which camp their grapes fall into. Northern California’s leading analyst, ETS Laboratories, has had an unprecedented volume of submissions this year, meaning delays of over a month despite the fact that it more than doubled its testing capacity. … With the backlog, farmers and winemakers are forced to make decisions in the dark about whether to go ahead and harvest the grapes, taking a chance on major financial losses.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/California-s-wineries-tossed-into-chaos-with-15588780.php
Lodi growers and wineries asked to help researchers earn grant [Stockton Record]
The Lodi Winegrape Commission is helping researchers determine the impact of smoke and ash on wine grapes. Anita Oberholster, PhD, with University of California, Davis, viticulture and enology, is applying for a grant to conduct smoke exposure research for the California wine industry. … The commission has been asked to write a letter of support for the grant and is helping with the collection of wine grape and wine samples to send to Oberholster.
Nearly half of voters polled back Prop. 15, a property tax overhaul aimed at California businesses [Los Angeles Times]
Nearly half of California voters in a new statewide poll support Proposition 15, a November ballot measure that would loosen tax limits on commercial and industrial properties and spend the resulting revenues on local governments and schools. … The snapshot of the current political landscape offers more encouragement for liberal activists — who say the proposal is a sensible overhaul of 1978’s landmark Proposition 13 — than the measure’s business sector opponents, who predict it would strike a damaging blow to California’s struggling economy.
Friant-Kern Canal fix gets over major hump [Foothills Sun Gazette, Exeter]
The plan to fix subsidence in the Friant-Kern Canal and restore water deliveries to farmers in southern Tulare County and Kern County got over a major hump last week. On Sept. 18, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the Friant-Kern Canal, released final environmental documents for its plan to repair a 33-mile stretch of canal between Lindsay and McFarland. The final environmental impact report represents a significant milestone in beginning work to restore flows to the lower third of the 153-mile long canal running along the Valley’s east side.
https://thesungazette.com/article/news/2020/09/23/friant-kern-canal-fix-gets-over-major-hump/
Fresno County farm worker charged with felony insurance fraud after forklift injury [Fresno Bee]
… Eduardo Medina Ruelas, 46, faces multiple counts after allegedly collecting $38,000 in workers’ compensation insurance benefits and medical treatment following an injury at work in 2017, the California Department of Insurance announced Monday. According to news release, Ruelas was placed on temporary disability after being struck by a forklift while working at Pitman Family Farms in June 2017. … In surveillance conducted while Ruelas was off work collecting disability benefits, he was caught on video visiting a casino, shopping, watering his lawn and transferring a large piano keyboard from the trunk of his vehicle into another vehicle.
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article245917815.html
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