({This is Part 9 of my special report on the proposed extension of the 241 Toll Road to San Onofre State Beach (aka Trestles). If you’d like, you can find the other stories in the “Speeding Our Way to Trestles” series here. As the debate heats up over Trestles and the 241, I’d like to go in depth and examine all the issues involved… And I’d love for you to come along for the ride as we explore what can be done to relieve traffic in South Orange County AND Save Trestles Beach. Enjoy! : ) } – promoted by atdleft)

A national conservation group yesterday named San Mateo Creek as the nation’s second-most imperiled waterway on its annual list of the 10 most endangered rivers.

The report by American Rivers in Washington, D.C., heightens the status of a decade-long battle by fishing groups, surfers and environmentalists to stop plans to build a toll road along the creek and across San Onofre State Beach. […]

It picked San Mateo Creek for the No. 2 spot because of “the magnitude of the threat” posed by the planned toll road, plus state and federal agencies’ decisions expected in the next two years that “will decide the future of the creek,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers.

Wow. I nearly missed this article buried in The San Diego Union-Tribune last week. However, that doesn’t mean that this wasn’t important. If anything, this article is yet another reminder of the great peril that we all face if TCA is allowed to build a toll road to Trestles.

So what exactly is the threat to San Mateo Creek, the last wild waterway in Southern California? And just how great is this threat? Follow me after the flip for more on what is threatening our wild space.

So why is San Mateo Creek in such peril? And just how grave is the threat? The Union-Tribune has more:

The creek made headlines in 1999 when a college student accidentally discovered southern steelhead, an endangered species, in its waters. Until then, scientists believed the trout were extinct in San Diego and Orange counties.

Efforts to restore the creek and make it more hospitable to steelhead and other native species have been slow but steady, said George Sutherland, a San Clemente volunteer for Trout Unlimited.

Since 2002, the state Coastal Conservancy has allocated $300,000 to upgrade the San Mateo. The creek has been plagued by an invasion of non-native plants and aquatic animals, as well as the pumping of groundwater from an aquifer that supports the creek.

In the past three years, volunteers for Trout Unlimited have removed more than 33,000 non-native bullfrogs, crawfish, largemouth bass, green sunfish and bullheads, Sutherland said.

So what would we lose if TCA were allowed to extend the 241 Toll Road to Trestles? Oh, only several years of progress in restoring the native habitat of the Southern California Steelhead Trout. And if that weren’t bad enough, it gets worse. Seven other endangered species would also lose their home if TCA were allowed to build its toll road to nowhere.

So why build the 241 to Trestles? This boondoggle would do absolutely nothing to ease traffic. This project has already wasted so much of our tax dollars in court, and it would only continue to do so as it is totally illegal. This lame waste of money would ultimately cost us jobs as San Onofre State Park would absolutely have to close? So why waste any more time, any more tax dollars, and any more breath trying to save this worthless proposal?

Is it worth losing the “Yosemite of Surfing”? Is it worth killing off all the endangered species that call this place home? Is it worth annihilating one of California’s most precious treasures? Is it worth killing off THE LAST UNSPOILED WATERWAY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?

I don’t think so.

(You Bay Area folks might be interested in this. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Today at 6:00 PM, Assemblymember Mark Leno will be hosting his first Communities of Interest Policy Talks on Global Warming solutions — using streaming video and chat technologies for an Online Town Hall. The goal is to brainstorm about ways we can reverse global warming… starting right here in Marin, Sonoma and San Francisco. Together, we can harness our combined creativity to drive new solutions.

Once you calculate your carbon footprint, take action to reduce it. Here is a great list of things you can do to be part of the solution. Go check out the whole list, they not only offer great suggests by tell you the average CO2 reduction from each action and the average yearly cost savings achieved. Finally, here’s a great printable (PDF) flier on how to get kids involved in global warming solutions.

Thanks, in advance, for taking a moment to join in this movement. We hope you can join us for tonight’s online discussion at 6 PM — www.MarkLeno.com.

UPDATE: (H/T to Josh) CDP Chair Art Torres says:

  “California and the nation have lost a great friend and public servant. I have known Juanita for many years, having served with her in the California legislature in the early `90s. She was a champion for the consumer and fought injustice wherever she saw it. She always valued public service and served her state and nation with grace and honor.

  “Juanita’s Congressional record included several distinguishing firsts, including being the first African-American woman to give the national Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address and initiating the annual Memorial Day Tribute to Women in the Military. Her solid commitment and advocacy will be greatly missed.

  “Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.”

Our country is worse off today, but we are better off thanks to all Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald did for our country. The joyful occasion of thousands of us gathering in San Diego as proud Democrats will now have a somber tone as we mourn the passing of a great leader. We’ll miss her, she was a woman of firsts.

She was the first African American woman to serve on the Carson City Council; the first to hold the position of Chairwoman for two powerful California State Assembly committees (Insurance; and Revenue & Taxation) in her first term. She was the first African American woman to give the national Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address, and the first to be named Honorary Curator of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.

Additionally, Millender-McDonald was the first Democratic Chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues to lead the women on two groundbreaking meetings, the first with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to talk about the plight of women globally, and another with the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange to develop strategies for increasing women’s investments and net worth.

She also convened the first meeting between women members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the only women to serve on the High Court, to discuss issues of national importance to women. She also led a delegation of 27 women to meet with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, taking the Families First Agenda to 35 states across the nation, another first.

She also had landmark legislation:

  * the Projects of National and Regional Significance – a $1.8 billion program to address national transportation arteries congestion and mitigation.
  * the historic Alameda Corridor initiative in the 90’s;
  * the Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Transmission Act – legislation the President has established as his $15 billion African AIDS initiative;
  * legislation to increase diabetes research in minority and female populations;
  * the American-Asian Justice Act to allow foreign-born children of former and current American servicemen to be united with their American families;
  * the Freedmen’s Bureau Preservation Act of 2000, which directs the National Archives to preserve the records of former African American slaves for future generations to trace their family history;
  * the Prohibition Against Alcohol Trafficking Act (PAAT Act) to end the sale of alcohol to minors via the internet.
  * legislation that directs the Secretary of Education to study and report to Congress of the troubling dropout rate among Latino, Native American; American Samoan and African American high school students;
  * legislation to secure $2 million to reduce the backlog of Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, including sexual harassment allegations of female air traffic controllers;
  * the Anti-terrorism/Port Security Act of 2003;
  * the Terrorist Threat to Public Transportation Assessment Act of 2001;
  * the Child Safety Lock on Firearms Act; Date Rape and Violence Act; Sexual Trafficking.

She will be dearly missed.

(Oh yeah, and before I forget… Horray for Orange Juice! They’ve been so courageous during this whole time in standing fast against efforts by the Orange County Republican Party to censor them. I only wish I had the tenacity of Art Pedroza, Claudio Gallegos, and the entire O-J Team! : ) – promoted by atdleft)

A long time ago I was told that in this business you are judged by your enemies. If your enemies are mostly democrats then you must be doing something right. They’re willing to tear you down, especially people like Andrew Davey who posted on the Calitics page. He’s just a punk with a computer.

That was former campaign manager for Republican Alan Uke in the 50th Congressional District, campaign manager for Republican Lynn Daucher in SD 34, and all-around insider in the Orange County Republican Party, Bryan Lanza… Speaking about little ol’ me. So why is the OC GOP political elite suddenly wailing over me at Red County/OC Blog? Follow me after the flip to find out…

Remember when I called out the Orange County Republicans for blaming Orange Juice blogger Art Pedroza for their own problems with Latino voters? Well, Jubal/Matt Cunningham found out about it… And he’s not very happy with me right now for shining some light on the OC GOP’s ridiculous decision to hire someone who was part of Trung Nguyen’s virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino campaign to head a voter outreach and registration effort in Latino-heavy Central County. So what is he doing about it? Oh, he’s just resorting to bashing ALL OF US who have the nerve to call out the OC GOP on their great mistake.

Of course, there are the inevitable detractors. ex-Republican Art Pedroza thinks it is bad idea because Trung Nguyen posed in front of the border fence for one of his mailers. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Let’s not hire the guy with the proven track record of success because of a mail piece (which Art terms “anti-Latino,” which I suppose it is if you look at it through MeCHista-colored glasses). And Saulo committed the cardinal sin of being a staffer for Assemblyman Van Tran, a stain not even Saulo’s previous stint with Lynn Daucher, the previous object of Art’s political affections, could wipe away. Too bad anti-Van Tran prejudices obscure the ability to render a fair estimation of Saulo’s talent and experience. And here’s some fan mail for Art’s post and Claudio Gallegos hyperventilation-disguised-as-a post/All-Republicans-Look-Alike-To-Me rant from local lefty Andrew Davey. It should speak volumes when the attaboys for attacking Saulo are coming from the Left Wing.

Oh, joy! So now I REALLY KNOW what these GOP insiders think of not just me, but of bloggers in general. We are supposed to be their tools, their mouthpieces, their vehicles to spread their propaganda… Kinda like what Jubal/Matt Cunningham and his buddies do all the time at OC Blog. And when we’re not doing a good little job of spreading the Orange County Republican Party’s propaganda, we’re just worthless “punks with computers”. Never mind that most of us bloggers consider ourselves to be independently minded individuals who are not beholden to ANYONE. In fact, I thought that the real goal of political bloggers is to take on the establishment. I didn’t know that we were supposed to be PAID SPINNERS FOR IT.

I guess this just reveals the true dilemma with Republicans and blogging. The blogosphere is meant to be a force of nature, something that no one can control or should control. Bloggers have minds of their owns, and they shouldn’t be forced or bribed into promoting someone else’s agenda. However, Republicans don’t seem to understand that. They think they can control what we say and do in the blogosphere. And when they fail in trying to dominate us, they whine and scream about our petulant, “punkish” behavior. My goodness, no wonder why Art Pedroza left the Republican Party. I complain when Jubal/Matt tries to rough me up every so often, but what if I had to deal with this all the time, and from someone who’s supposed to be my comrade in arms? No wonder why Art could not take any more of their disgusting consultant-driven, insider-incestuous, corruption-fueled extreme right-wing noise machine.

To them, we’re just “punks with computers”… Who are threatening their entire power structure.