California Connected Newsroom

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week released their list of deficient levees across the nation. California topped that list with 37 separate stretches of its levees system deemed likely to fail - more than any other state.

The problematic levees are located in the Central Valley and were cited for “burrowing animals, tree growth and shifting flood wall foundations,” which diminish their efficacy, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Though the report is alarming, many of the levees are slated to be mended per Prop 1E, which was passed by California voters this past November, allotting $4.09 billion for restoration.

While the USDA’s recently unveiled farm bill proposal would cut federal subsidies to some high-earning farmers and “traditional” crops such as rice, wheat, and cotton, California’s farms stand to gain much needed aid from the bill’s provision to spend increased amounts on “specialty crops”, such as fruits and vegetables, which comprise the majority of California’s produce.

California agriculture has had a slew of recent setbacks. The E. Coli outbreak this past fall, traced to spinach produced by several California growers, has caused losses estimated around $100 million according to the Sacramento Bee. Additionally, two weeks of subzero temperatures throughout the Central Valley in January has, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation resulted in “$1.1 billion in crop losses” and thousands of lost jobs throughout the state, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency in 18 counties.

The proposed bill would benefit California growers who produce “$12 billion of the nation’s $30-billion domestic fruit and vegetable crop” according to the LA Times, by administering $5 billion in funds for fruit and vegetables, and $3.2 billion to buy fresh produce for school lunch programs. At present the state receives a meager 3% of federal funds allotted to farmers each year.

The bill must first be passed by the legislature, where critics representing “traditional” crop growers are expected to put up a fight to keep the subsidies in their states and away from the proposed “specialty crops”.

• Interactive: California Agriculture’s Recipe for Success: Agriculture is one of California’s biggest and most successful industries. We are the top state for dairy production; the sole producer of a dozen crops; and the national leader in agricultural exports. However, California agriculture faces challenges like population growth, changing climate and politics.
• Corporate Greens: As organics go mainstream there is a debate raging among organic farmers as to what it really means to be organic.

Executive Producer Bret Marcus rejoices at recent duPont-Columbia awards.

We at California Connected are very proud of winning our first duPont Columbia Award recently in New York. We won a “silver baton” for our half-hour special on veterans of the Iraq War with traumatic brain injuries, called “War Stories from Ward 7-D”.

If you’re not familiar with the duPonts, they’re often called the Pulitzer Prize for broadcasting. We were among only 14 winners – out of more than 500 submissions. And we were in very good company: NBC News won for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, as did a number of small TV stations in the hurricane area. There were three winners for stories related to Iraq: HBO’s “Baghdad ER”, NPR Radio, and us. And there was one unlikely pick: Director Martin Scorsese won for his documentary on Bob Dylan. It was all a very humbling experience.

So why is this duPont important?

First, we produced “War Stories from Ward 7-D” to educate the public about one of the terrible tragedies of the War in Iraq – Traumatic Brain Injuries. Not a lot is known about this injury – it’s misunderstood and often misdiagnosed. A national duPont award – and the ensuing publicity – focuses attention.

Secondly, the duPont – not just for us but for all the winners – validates serious reporting and serious journalism. In a world dominated by “American Idol” and tabloid journalism, this award recognizes the commitment to real journalism. At the ceremony in New York, presenters Scott Simon from NPR and Lisa Meyers from NBC News repeatedly praised the winning organizations for having the guts – and for spending the money – to do serious reporting.

Thirdly, as you probably know, “California Connected” is produced by four public TV stations and funded by four foundations. Quite frankly, we need foundation and corporate funding to go on – to stay on the air. This award makes a difference – both to our present funders and to possible new ones.

And finally, it was a great honor and thrill for those of us who worked on this program. It doesn’t get much better than this.

It also gave some of us an excuse to visit New York (my home until a year ago). We got a taste of real winter (not what “passes” for winter out here in Southern California) and a taste of some wonderful Northern Italian food at a place I heartily recommend “Cesca” on the upper west side of Manhattan. Note to self: next trip to New York, bring back the homemade olive oil from Cesca. Some of us also engaged in “retail therapy”, but that’s another story.

• War Stories from Ward 7-D: At the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto, we follow four soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury who are working to rehabilitate their bodies and their minds.
• Military Recruiting: California Connected visits Sonora and San Francisco to get a firsthand look at the challenges facing today’s Army recruiters.
• Military Marriage Counseling: Marriage counseling for returning soldiers provided en masse in auditoriums.
• Twentynine Palms: The city of Twentynine Palms hosts the largest live-fire military base in the world. While Marines from the base are in on the frontlines of the war in Iraq, the community is trying to keep its economy out of the red.

The San Jose Mercury News’ Mark Emmons files part three of a five-part series on traumatic brain injuries suffered by Iraq War soldiers and the long, painful road to recovery. Today’s piece focuses on Michelle Sandoval, the wife of veteran Frank Sandoval. “There are pivotal moments in the recovery of every severely wounded service member, moments when the future — for both the wounded and their families — seems to hang in the balance,” Emmons reports. “For Frank and Michelle, who had staked so much on this surgery, there was a sense that they had arrived at their own crossroads.” Sadly, Emmons tells us that about 60 percent of the patients treated at Palo Alto’s Acute Center Ward 7D have also lost their marriages.

• War Stories from Ward 7-D: At the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto, we follow four soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury who are working to rehabilitate their bodies and their minds.
• Military Recruiting: California Connected visits Sonora and San Francisco to get a firsthand look at the challenges facing today’s Army recruiters.
• Military Marriage Counseling: Marriage counseling for returning soldiers provided en masse in auditoriums.
• Twentynine Palms: The city of Twentynine Palms hosts the largest live-fire military base in the world. While Marines from the base are in on the frontlines of the war in Iraq, the community is trying to keep its economy out of the red.

The Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shown great initiative in tackling the state’s aging levee system. “Give the guy credit,” Skelton writes. “If it weren’t for him, the ambitious $175-million project wouldn’t have been attempted. Not by the state, of course. Not by the feds, certainly, although it was largely their duty. Nor by overwhelmed local governments.” Skelton gives the governor extra kudos for showing interest in the problem and acting to fix breaches well before Hurricane Katrina.

• Rising River, Rising Risk: The state’s growing population and demand for housing has spurred new home developments directly behind them. And massive levee breaks are what has many worried that a disaster on a similar scale to New Orleans could happen here. But that’s not the end of it, levees also protect salt water from intruding into the State Water Project, which provides water for millions Californians.
• Water Trip: California has the largest and most complex water transportation system in the world. We follow a drop of water from the slopes of Mt. Shasta to a car wash in San Diego County.
• Sideways: The Cost of Water: According to a recent study, that water bottle costs about 2000 times more than what comes out of the faucet and, often times, isn’t any better for you. John Ridley comments on Americans’ $9 billion dollars-a-year obsession with plastic encased H2O in this Sideways.

The Orange County Register reports that foreclosures are on the rise in Orange County. “Banks sent owners 665 notices of default in November, a 125 percent increase from a year ago and an 11 percent rise from October, DataQuick reported Wednesday,” the Register reports. “It’s the highest monthly total in more than seven years.” The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a national survey of homeowners falling at least 30 days behind on their mortgage payments jumped 0.23 percent since last year.

• Real Estate Blues: The real estate boom of recent years caused California home prices to soar to dizzying heights. Now that market has cooled, housing prices are leveling off or even dropping after years of growth.
• Koreatown Boom: A special blog series on development and demographic trends in Los Angeles’s Koreatown.
• Priced Out: The High Cost of Housing: In the coastal community of Santa Barbara, the median home cost - more than $1.2 million - has forced local police, fire fighters and nurses further and further inland for affordable middle class housing. What happens when first-responders live outside the community they are protecting?
• Baja Boom: In Mexican communities like Rosarito Beach, American baby boomers are fueling a massive real estate boom. The American-style developments draw in big money and big spenders, but they also come with a big burden. Can Baja communities keep up with the growing demands these developments place on their infrastructure and municipal services?

The San Jose Mercury News’ Mark Emmons files part of a five-part series today on traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Yesterday, Emmons focused on the story of survivor Frank Sandoval. Today, Emmons delves deeper into the medical science behind treating Sandoval’s injury.

“Military and VA doctors describe a perfect storm of contradictory factors that have contributed to a spike in the number of brain injuries compared to other recent conflicts,” Emmons reports. “Improvements in combat medicine and body armor, which protects vital organs, mean that fewer soldiers die on the battlefield….That blessing comes with a terrible catch. The survivors of these once-deadly wounds are returning home with devastating and disfiguring injuries that can require months of therapy and sometimes a lifetime of care.”

• War Stories from Ward 7-D: At the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto, we follow four soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury who are working to rehabilitate their bodies and their minds.
• Military Recruiting: California Connected visits Sonora and San Francisco to get a firsthand look at the challenges facing today’s Army recruiters.
• Military Marriage Counseling: Marriage counseling for returning soldiers provided en masse in auditoriums.
• Twentynine Palms: The city of Twentynine Palms hosts the largest live-fire military base in the world. While Marines from the base are in on the frontlines of the war in Iraq, the community is trying to keep its economy out of the red.

Wired News reports that Google is building “solar trees” on the parking lots and rooftops of its Mountain View headquarters, enough to power about 30 percent of the complex. “About a third of the 9,000 solar panels Google’s installing will take the form of overhanging parking shades at the million-square-foot campus in Mountain View,” Wired’s Marty Graham reports. “The others will be mounted on rooftops.”

“Parking lot installations are a visible demonstration of the company’s commitment to the environment,” says Bob Noble, an architect at San Diego-based Envision Solar. “You can talk about your energy savings, your recycling and green practices, but the sight of solar panels in the parking lot is an emblem of that commitment.”

The San Francisco Chronicle also reports that Nanosolar Inc., manufacturer of a new, cheaper and more flexible solar cell, will build a major factory in south San Jose.

“The company, based in Palo Alto, also will open a factory in Germany, the world’s largest market for solar technology,” the Chronicle reports. “The $102 million plant on San Jose’s Hellyer Avenue will make enough solar cells each year to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, roughly enough to light 300,000 homes.”

• You’ve Got Mail: Big companies like Google and Earthlink see gold in that plan and are partnering with the city of San Francisco to build a network to connect the city. A poor, rural southeastern Indian reservation in San Diego County is providing wireless Internet access to reservations across a 250 square mile network via transmitters mounted on mountaintops.

Mercury News video of Frank and Michelle Sandoval at Ward 7D.

The San Jose Mercury News ran part one of a five-part series today on an Iraq War veteran struggling to recover from a traumatic brain injury at Acute Care Ward 7D in Palo Alto. The subject, Frank Sandoval, was one of the patients featured in California Connected’s TV segment on the center.

The Mercury’s Mark Emmons recounts Sandoval’s story in detail, introducing the reader to his family and describing his fateful encounter with an improvised explosive device or IED. His young wife, Michelle Sandoval, also emerges as a true hero, always at Frank’s side and encouraging him daily.

“It wasn’t his physical impairments that upset her most, a tearful Michelle told Harriet Zeiner, a VA neuropsychologist,” Emmons reports. “It was that Frankie seemed not to remember who he really was. That, Zeiner believed, could be the cruelest part of a brain injury. Losing a sense of who you are.”

Supported by a team of specialists and the love of his family, Frank has slowly regained more and more pieces of his life. But as Emmons reporting shows, the road ahead is still long and hard. An in-depth multimedia page also features several videos, graphics and reporters’ commentary.

• War Stories from Ward 7-D: At the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto, we follow four soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury who are working to rehabilitate their bodies and their minds.
• Military Recruiting: California Connected visits Sonora and San Francisco to get a firsthand look at the challenges facing today’s Army recruiters.
• Military Marriage Counseling: Marriage counseling for returning soldiers provided en masse in auditoriums.
• Twentynine Palms: The city of Twentynine Palms hosts the largest live-fire military base in the world. While Marines from the base are in on the frontlines of the war in Iraq, the community is trying to keep its economy out of the red.

The Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News report that a federal judge has given California six more months to properly accommodate its bulging prison population. But if matters do not improve after that time, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton says he may be forced to impose a population cap.

“The prison system now houses more than 172,000 inmates, with many prisons packed at more than 200 percent capacity,” the Chronicle reports. “Inmates have been forced to sleep outside and on floors in some prisons.”

In fact, California’s current prison system was built to handle only about 100,000 inmates. Murder and suicide rates have also increased behind prison walls. Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office says these conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Critics also argue that overcrowding is in large part due to the state’s harsh “three-strikes” sentencing law, by which nonviolent offenders such as shoplifters and drug addicts can find themselves sentenced to 25 years in prison. Judge Karlton alluded to this on Monday, when he said overcrowding is a political problem that he partially attributes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s support of the state’s tough “three-strikes” system.

To make matters worse, many addicts arrested for nonviolent felonies are locked in prison because they fail drug tests while on probation. As highly addictive drugs like methamphetamine infect more and more communities, addicts in need of aggressive, sustatined rehabilitation only add to the prison burden.

• Treatment vs. Incarceration: Exploring the impact of Proposition 36, the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (SACPA), an initiative aimed at rehabilitating rather than incarcerating non-violent drug possession offenders.
• Juvies: A provocative and emotional documentary explores the lives of teen-agers sentenced as adults to life in prison.
• Foster Care and Homeless: What happens to kids in foster care when they turn 18? Many become homeless.
• Mentally Ill Inmates: Why are so many mentally ill Californians treated merely with incarceration?
• 24 Hours on Skid Row: Firefighters call it the “Big Screen”: the front door to Los Angeles Fire Station #9, through which firemen have watched a human tragedy unfold for years. Station #9 sits in the middle of the country’s gravest homeless problem—Los Anegles’s skid row.
• First Person: Angela Alioto: We spoke with Angela Alioto, who was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to write the 10-year plan to take 3,000 chronic homeless people off the street.
• A New Life: Ex-Con Reentry: An ex-con who rescues parolees from the mean streets.
• The Deadliest Drug: California leads the nation in the production of crystal methamphetamine, also known as “crank.” California Connected follows the story of how the brewing meth disaster impacts our children, the environment and law enforcement.
• Auto Theft Alley: Six of the top ten stolen car hotspots are in California. California Connected goes on the spot to investigate what’s behind these high theft rates. We look at the role that the hotrod culture, and also methamphetamine, plays in the crimes.