Defeat of jobs bill in Senate costly to California

By Mike Zapler

mzapler@mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/25/2010 04:06:29 PM PDT

Updated: 06/25/2010 10:18:44 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — The demise of a sweeping jobs and tax bill in the U.S. Senate this week dealt a stiff blow to California as it struggles to recover from the recession.

Hundreds of thousands of jobless residents will see their unemployment checks cut off. The deficit-plagued state budget stands to lose billions of desperately needed dollars. And a tax credit for research and development, long prized by the tech industry, appears to be on life support.
The $110 billion catchall measure stalled in the Senate on Thursday night in the face of Republican resistance to another round of deficit spending amid a ballooning national debt. Democrats sought to allay those concerns by slicing the size of the package nearly in half — an earlier version sought by President Barack Obama called for $200 billion in additional spending to prime the economy. The reworked version also offset all but $35 billion of the total cost in order to extend emergency unemployment benefits.
But Republicans argued that the bill should be paid for in full. The measure fell three votes shy of the 60 needed to stop a threatened filibuster, leaving California and other states in limbo as Congress members departed for a weeklong break.
Among the most immediate effects of the bill's defeat is the extra pressure it puts on the state's already dire finances.
The bill would have provided about $1.8 billion in additional Medicaid payments to California,
money that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators have already factored into their budget proposals. The loss of that aid will force lawmakers to find other cuts or revenue to help plug the $19.1 billion deficit.H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor hasn't even begun to grapple with how to deal with the loss of that money. But with Republicans taking tax hikes off the table, it's a sure bet that even deeper spending cuts would be in store unless Congress agrees to pass the bill.
"It's honestly hard to see where you go to get $2 billion more to balance a budget that's in as dire straits as California's is," said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, which advocates for low- and middle-income residents.
California's unemployed will also feel the pinch. Cheryl Hunt, a tech support worker from Berkeley who lost her job last year, said she recently received a letter from the state unemployment office that her benefits are about to expire.
"I'm totally dependent on this extension," said Hunt, who is trying to refinance her mortgage. "I've exhausted my savings."
Some 200,000 jobless Californians have already lost their unemployment benefits, and that figure is expected to rise to 1.5 million by the end of the year without an extension from Congress. California's unemployment rate stands at 12.4 percent, among the highest in the nation.
The bill also included provisions that directly affect Silicon Valley. A research and development tax credit long employed by high-tech firms expired Dec. 31 but would have been extended an additional year. It now could be lost for good, said Ralph Hellmann, a senior vice president at the Washington, D.C.-based Industry Technology Industry Council.
Tech firms "rely on these incentives to keep and expand research and development here in the U.S.," Hellmann said.
On the other side of the ledger, the measure's defeat gave the venture capital industry a reprieve from a proposed tax increase on so-called "carried interest."
Both of California's senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, voted in favor of the jobs and tax bill.
Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, who is running to unseat Boxer in November, said through a spokeswoman that she would have sided with Republicans in blocking the measure.
"While there are some worthwhile programs that are funded under this legislation," the spokeswoman, Julie Soderlund, said in a statement, "it needs much more work to ensure that it does not further hinder job creation."
Soderlund said Fiorina favors extending unemployment benefits and making permanent the research and development credit, but she believes both items should be offset with spending cuts.

Contact Mike Zapler at 202-662-8921.

Jobs: A Silver Lining for Democrats?

Some of the major battleground districts in 2010 are places where jobs are bouncing back the fastest.

By Suzy Khimm | Fri Jun. 25, 2010 9:00 AM PDT

---

Democrats have been vowing to make the 2010 elections all about jobs, jobs, jobs. And yesterday, the GOP dealt the Democratic Party—as well as the nation's economic recovery—a big blow by voting down the Senate jobs bill [1]. By week’s end, some 1.3 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits, which had been extended by the federal government given the ongoing recession. By the end of the year, many states will begin a painful process of budget bloodletting that’s likely to axe hundreds of thousands of jobs in both the public and private sectors. The bill's failure will make it that much more difficult for Democrats to prevent voters from turning against them out of anger about the sluggish economic recovery.
But the New York Times points to a potential silver lining for jobs in key battleground states that could give Democrats a potential boost this fall. The story notes that the largest number of swing House races are happening in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio—places where jobs are actually bouncing back more quickly than in the rest of the country. And concrete improvements in these districts could end up having more of an effect on voters' mindsets than overall economic trendlines. Michael Luo explains [2]:

All three states, coincidentally, are considered to be on the leading edge of the nation's recovery. Since December, they have added jobs at a faster rate than the country as a whole and even led the country in the total number of jobs added in April. One reason is that manufacturing, a traditional backbone, has been on the rebound; another is that these states generally did not suffer as acutely as other regions from the housing boom and bust.
While much attention has been paid to the nation’s stubbornly high unemployment rate, political scientists have found little correlation between that measure and midterm elections results. Instead, they have found more broad-based indicators, particularly real personal disposable per capita income, which measures the amount of money a household has after taxes and inflation, to be better gauges.

The story notes, moreover, that "voters' memories tend to be short,” citing political science research showing that economic conditions between the second and third quarters of an election year (between April and September) matter the most.

Things don’t look as promising on the Senate side: Nevada and Florida, two of the biggest battleground states, are expected to be among the last states to witness steady employment growth. And of the 17 contested Senate seats, Luo writes [2], "only one state on the list, Connecticut, is projected to have experienced disposable income growth from 2009 to 2010."
The state budget cuts tied to the Medicaid shortfall aren’t expected to be enacted until December 31, when the federal stimulus money that has helped support the program expires. That may spare the Democrats from some of the midterm-election fallout that could result from the cuts in jobs and social services expected in many of these key battleground areas—including New York and Pennsylvania, which are both facing budget crises. But overall the Democrats are likey to suffer for the intransigence of the GOP.

Eco-News Roundup: Friday June 25

— By Jen Phillips

| Fri Jun. 25, 2010 8:00 AM PDT

Cough, Cough: Did the anti-vaccine activism help create a whooping cough outbreak?
Healthy Anniversary: On health reform's anniversary there's still lots of work to do.
View From Here: Healthcare has gotten a lot of media coverage, some of it confusing.
Coming Soon: A Democratic-led climate and energy bill is being debated.
Fast and Famine: In Niger, people are starving because they can't afford food.
Spill to Thrill?: Is Obama's new spill commission just a show?
One Man's Poison: BP's oily disaster may benefit "clean coal."
Raw Hides: An Iranian cleric calls dogs "un-Islamic" as Baghdad euthanizes strays.
Twilight Zone: Wingnuts ask if the Bermuda Triangle or the Jews caused the oil spill.
Worst Case: New info puts BP's worst case scenario at gushing 100,000 barrels a day.
Goon Squad: Local police are doing BP's dirty work for them, like harassing activists.
Drill, Baby, Drill: Louisiana Tea Partiers want more drilling and they made signs that say so.

A One World Seed Bank

By Jerilee Wei

"To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour." -- William Blake

These days it isn't just conspiracy theory alarmists busy watching and worrying about the banking industry, both at a community level and at a global level -- we all are. On the extreme end, part of that discussion is revolving around the possibility, that we might be in danger of putting all of our eggs in the proverbial “one bank” basket.
That's too much for me, I'm just more anxious about local banks closing left and right, under the guise of name change mergers that fool no one. Just like everyone else, I’m nervous about that -- but not as much as I am troubled about a different kind of bank -- I don’t want all of my “seeds” to just end up in a handful of one world seed banks.

They Who Own the Seeds Own The World

Right now that are about fourteen hundred (some sources say only one thousand) seed banks scattered around the world. Many of them are at high risk of being lost, especially those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in parts of Africa. Still others are at risk, because of the global financial crisis and funding issues.
Without seeds, we could fine ourselves in a situation without food, or with someone deciding who gets food first, or at all. It's just that simple.
Supposedly, without seed banks -- agriculture’s reliance on collections of crop species and their wild relatives would cause global agriculture to fail massively. I find that hard to imagine. Yet, just during the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda, many unique wild and native agricultural plant species were wiped out. Even worse, the seed banks in Rwanda were also destroyed. So, the concept of having central locations of world seed banks, in remote areas, seems logical in that context.

Let's take a look at a couple of the world's more famous seed banks --

Svalbard International Seed Vault on the Svalbard peninsula

One Seed Vault at Svalbard

"When we seed millions of acres of land with these plants, what happens to foraging birds, to insects, to microbes, to the other animals, when they come in contact and digest plants that are producing materials ranging from plastics to vaccines to me

Svalbard International Seed Vault

The newest more well-known seedbank is Svalbard International Seed Vault. In a joint massive project, Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Norwegian government want to be the world's seed protection heroes. The Svalbard International Seed Vault’s intent, is to be a safety-net for global crops should a major disaster strike any place on the plant, providing the means to re-establish native wild plants and agricultural crops. It’s located on the Svalbard peninsula, in a remote rock and permafrost area of Artic ice.
The mindset of the Norwegian agricultural minister, is that they have the answer for the rest of the world. It’s a noble concept in theory -- safeguarding future food supplies by housing seed samples from every country in the world in a place remote enough and cold enough to not be as endangered as other such endeavors. In the event of a worldwide cataclysm (such as nuclear war, natural disasters, etc), crop diversity could be protected there, eliminating the worry about plant extinctions.

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." -- William Blake 

Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP)

This ambitious seed bank project is near to having preserved ten percent of the world’s wild plant species. Their project places a focus on the rarest, most dying out, and most valuable species of plants and trees known world-wide. Ahead of their times, they began the foundation of the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP), located in Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, at Wakehurst Place, in Sussex.
With Noah’s Ark-like ambitions, they expect to have nearly twenty-five thousand seeds varieties and herbarium collections from plant species worldwide. They are pursuing a wide network of both partnerships and networks, with like-minded seed banks in order to achieve their large-scale goals. They've achieved some impressive results with their seed banks that are important to all of mankind. However, their current funding situation could severely hamper the race to save the world's seeds. A billion and a half seeds in storage, may seem like a lot, but in terms of saving the world from itself -- it's not enough in light of climate changes accelerating.
While they get most of their funding from Britain's national lottery, they depend heavily on governmental, corporate, and individual sponsors too. Right now they are in need of over fifteen million dollars a year for the next ten years to sustain what they do. If you think, it's current efforts doesn't apply to us in America, and elsewhere in the world -- think again. They are the scientists who are helping to restore native prairie grass in America's heartland, and a tropical forest in Madagascar.

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank

On the 15th October 2009, Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership based at Wakehurst Place, celebrated hitting its target of banking the seeds of 10% of the world's plant species. Here, the partners talk about the importance of this project and explain how you can help too.

Cultural Resistance to Seed Banks

Some countries are taking a dim view of seed banks outside their borders. They have a thanks, but no thanks attitude, and in some ways you can't blame them. Nobody wants someone from across the world, to tell them what they can or cannot do, nor do they want them in charge of something so vital as their native species.
Then, there's the politics of such decisions. Brazil for instance, is totally unwilling to send it's seeds out-of-the country. Compromise, for them, has come to two seed banks inside Brazil, while being monitored by Millennium Seede Bank experts, in terms of scientific controls.
Which brings me, to the whole TRIPS trade agreement controversy when it comes to seeds. Under this World Trade Organization agreement, seeds are somehow "intellectual property." in 1994. This opens up a whole can of worms in terms -, farmer's rights, and health and pharmaceuticals rights. The ownership of seeds is a huge issue, that flies under the radar of most of us.
In my mind the biggest part of the problem, in many ways, is a farmer’s right to be able to conserve, save, exchange, share, and market their seed and plant varieties -- which far eclipses the right for others to “own” their seeds and force farmers to “buy” them.

"Every seed is awakened, and all animal life." -- Sitting Bull

"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow." -- Aeschylus

The Future of Seeds

When I think about the future of the world's seeds, seed banks, and all the potential unknowns that could happen, I have some personal concerns. I guess for me, I keep remembering about a past visit to Biosphere 2, near Tucson, Arizona.
About twenty years ago, this two million dollar big idea, was built in part to delve into the use of biospheres for space exploration, and to study biosphere life systems on Earth, without harming earth. It had it all -- a rain forest, an ocean with a coral reef, mangroves, glass lands, desert, and a sophisticated agricultural system.
While not a seed bank, their failed experimentation ended up being sold last year to a residential home builder for $50 million dollars. Their biosphere itself, became just a tourist attraction, that doesn't really make the hit parade list in terms of attractions of interest for most people. Sure, there are lots of senior citizens like myself, that are curious enough to visit, and some locals who make the trek. It's one of those places you go once, and decide once was enough, even though it's pleasant.
For those in the community who care, there is fear that the famous glass terrarium, will eventually become the victim of a bulldozing. Last I heard, they have a reprieve on that possible reality for a few years, when the University of Arizona stepped up to take over the Biosphere 2, at least for a few years. . However, I’m certain the reality of today’s global financial crisis, this may have or may in the future, nix or severely hamper, the needed University monies need sustain glass houses.
One of the things that led to it's downfall, is that the structure through lack of adequate funding, fell into a minor amount of neglect and became no longer air tight. Another problem were the management of the various projects, in-house squabbles, etc.
From the beginning this gallant and innovative science based initiative was exciting. However, soon it began to fall apart. In the first year it had only eight very hungry scientists, as they could not get all crops to grow well in the structure. They lived on bananas, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. Things got so bad in future projects that some of the participants deliberately compromised the project by opening all doors and fisticuffs broke out. In the end, the whole scientific project was dissolved. In other words, human factors played a big role in it’s failure to achieve when the whole concept should have been a good thing and a success.
So, when I look behind the glossy picture of seed banks, it's the human factor that worries me. To me, it's similar to Biosphere 2, with all the potential of the human factor to dooming good intentions. Global financial crisis could cut governmental and corporate fundings of such projects, as is stressing the project under the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. This in turn, could mean the loss of even more plant species, in a time when we are running out-of-time, in terms of collecting seeds -- before disaster strikes, or human encroachment of wild plant species dooms them to extinction.
It isn't just about food, it's also about a greater potential loss to mankind in terms of potential undiscovered medicines and cures. Think about the rosy periwinkle (from Madagascar), and it's role in reducing childhood leukemia. Twenty years ago, no one knew that this one plant species would help with this dreaded disease. Losing wild plant species can
In a previous hub, I talked a little bit about a little known fact, that in the world of biodiversity, when it comes to saving plants and trees from extinction -- we have failed miserably. Just in terms of vegetables alone, as a broad category of plant species -- we have lost 97% of all vegetable diversity crops in the world, in the last eighty years. If that doesn't scare you -- it should.

Biosphere 2 - Our World

World Seed Facts

• It costs about $3,000 per plant species to save them
• Eighty percent of the world's plant species have not been screened for possible medical uses
• As the world's habitat is being destroyed daily, whole many plant species are becoming extinct

Danger Zone

Make no mistake, seed banks are absolutely a needed entity, a necessary savior or potential evil, if you like (only time will tell). Not only do they protect endangered wild plant species, but they also are vital to the development of new crop varieties, protection against disasters, development of medicines, and a whole host of other things.
Now, despite supporting the concept of seed banks, I will admit that I'm a bit of a control freak at times, but in this case -- I'm just not willing to put all of my seeds in the hands of others, and this includes seed banks.
There was a time here in this country when saving seeds was as natural as growing your own food. In my life-time, that is no longer the case. Seed banks are good and necessary, but I think we as individuals need to do more -- those of us who can, should save seed and grow from our saved seeds, rather than purchase genetically altered seed from stores. Of course, this is just my opinion -- and I have written about all of this, because simply I want more people to be aware and thinking about the ownership of seed, and it's implications.

Seed Banks and Suicide Farmers

The Right to Save Seed

Becoming A Seed Saver

In the 19th century, the United States had 7,100 varieties of apples alone. Today, we only have 300 types of apples left. For me, that fact alone makes me a seed saver.
Seeds are one of the planet’s most vital resources. The clock’s ticking away -- what are you willing to lose?

The Process of Saving Seeds in a Seed Bank

• Upon arrival seeds are unpacked and checked for condition.
• Seeds are then placed to dry in the drying room.
• Seeds are carefully cleaned and their identification and native location verified.
• Seeds are dried a second time.
• Seeds are placed in the seed bank in sub-zero temperatures

Remember that all seeds have an optimum viability time line. Much like a “use by” date on grocery shelf items, when the seeds reach that time, they are grown out to collect new seeds from the parent plant.

If You'd Like to Know More!

• DOI: BLM: National Home Page
  
• Heirloom Seeds: The Importance of Planting and Preserving Genetically True Seeds For The Future
  Trying heirloom food varieties will add exciting new elements to your garden and your meals; heirloom fruits and vegetables have unique colors, textures, and tastes that can't be found in factory-farmed industrial produce. AND you will know that you
• How to Save Seeds
  There are many great reasons to garden; you can provide food and flowers for your own table; you can grow herbs to flavour your food and make tea; you can spend time outdoors interacting with nature. ...
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin
  
• Native Seeds \ SEARCH | www.nativeseeds.org
  
• New England Wild Flower Society — New England Wild Flower Society
  
• North Carolina Botanical Garden - A Conservation Garden
  North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel HIll, NC (919 962 0522)
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Visitor Information for Wakehurst Place
  
• Self Sufficiency - Saving Vegetable Seeds
  Self Sufficiency - Saving Vegetable Seeds There are special seed producers that continue to offer heirloom seeds. These are vegetableseeds that have not been hybridized. A hybrid seed (plant) is one that has...
• The Berry Botanic Garden | Conservation | The Seed Bank
  The Berry Botanic Garden
• Welcome to the Chicago Botanic Garden\'s Seeds of Success Website!
  Chicago Botanic Garden Seeds of Success

Growing Heirloom Seeds and Seed Saving

A One Bank World in the News

• Banks must consolidate: MMStraits Times8 hours ago
  
  TWO local banks - not three - may be the right number for Singapore, so that they can expand both locally and overseas in a meaningful way, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last night. 'I would have preferred personally that there be only two banks, because I don't think Singapore is big enough for three banks,' he told 600 bankers gathered at the Shangri-La ballroom for the 37th annual ...
• Banks dividend payout ratio rises 19% in FY10Express India13 hours ago
  
  Banks are paying hefty dividends to their shareholders in recent times. In 2009-10, dividend payment of 32 banks increased 18.2%, with the dividend payout ratio rising in 2009-10 as against 2008-09.
• Banks Rise In Premarket As Regulation EyedFox News21 hours ago
  
  Banks Rise In Premarket As Regulation Eyed

Was disregard for industry standards on BP rig worse than we thought?

 Posted By Steve LeVine Friday, June 25, 2010 - 3:40 PM

BP's examination of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill still hasn't determined precisely what caused the blowout, the company says. But industry investigators crawling over the Deepwater Horizon rig and its data are finding that an accident of this magnitude required an almost perfect chain of events: One unlikely malfunction needed to be followed precisely by another, then another, and so on, according to a preliminary investigative report I've obtained.
The report was produced earlier this month by one of the teams now examining every aspect of the catastrophic spill; I received it on the condition that I would disguise its provenance. Reproduced below is what is probably the most interesting piece of it: A diagram created by the investigators to illustrate just how improbable this event was.
Until now, public investigations into the April 20 spill have asked what went wrong. But what one gleans from this report -- and in particular this diagram -- is that that may be the wrong question. Instead we should be asking, how did everything that had to go wrong do so, and at the same time? For the well operators, the implications are not good: Unless one violated standard industry practice every step along the way, such a blowout may have been all but impossible.

The Wall Street Journal has provided the best investigative reporting on what went wrong on the rig, most crucially the failure of seals and the decisions made on the type and testing of cement. The New York Times did a fantastic job of examining the failure of the rig's blowout preventer, the five-story-tall device that is the ostensible last line of defense against such accidents. But until you see the sequence arrayed before your eyes -- a full account of what actually had to go wrong -- the enormity of the coincidence of events is extremely difficult to grasp. That's what this diagram -- labeled "High Level Root Cause Tree" in the original document -- does (click here for a more legible PDF):

You start from the bottom of the diagram, and move your way up. The key is the linking phrases AND, or alternately, OR. The ANDs mean that, in order for the described malfunction absolutely to take place, the one immediately below it must occur as well. The ORs mean that the described malfunction could take place, but wouldn't necessarily do so, if linked to the one immediately below it on the schematic. But if they do take place, there can be trouble.
As you see, the chain of events starts with many moving parts, then cascades out of control -- the seals on the head of the well; the tubular casing that's inserted into well as it's drilled; the cement used to seal the well and keep the natural gas under control; the "mud," a thick, complex, chemical-laced concoction used to lubricate and keep underground pressure from bursting to the surface.
Then comes a row of ORs: Do you have a failure to follow correct procedures when doubt is cast on your control of the pressure from the reservoir?  If the wellhead seal fails, do fluids from below reach the actual rig 5,000 feet above the ocean floor?
Then come some ANDs. If the fluids do reach the rig, and there is a source of ignition to cause an explosion, you get the blowout and fire.

"Worst Week in Washington"

 Winner: Gen. David Petraeus

Yes, the easy pick for "Worst Week in Washington" this week was Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
After all, he was the guy who lost his job as head of the Afghanistan war effort after making a series of impolitic comments to -- and this is the most inexplicable part of the entire story -- Rolling Stone magazine.
But, here at the Fix we don't do what's easy. And so, it's Gen. David Petraeus, the man who President Barack Obama named as McChrystal's replacement this week, who takes home the "Worst Week in Washington" award.
Why?
You can read our full explanation in the Opinion section -- and in the Sunday Post's Outlook section! -- but here's the quick and dirty:
* Petraeus is already a bonafied war hero who now has to put his sterling reputation on the line in a war that many military strategists -- including members of McChrystal's inner circle -- view as unwinnable.
* Petraeus moves from Tampa, Florida -- home of U.S. Central Command -- to Kabul, Afghanistan. 'Nuff said.
* In some circles, Petraeus was regarded as Republicans' strongest potential 2012 candidate against Obama. His new post effectively ends that speculation.
Agree with our pick? Disagree? The comments section awaits.

By Chris Cillizza  |  June 25, 2010; 3:45 PM ET