http://blogs.kusp.org/news KUSP Reports - News Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:59:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 KUSP Reports - News REPORTS no KUSP Reports - News http://blogs.kusp.org/news/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://blogs.kusp.org/news http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/07/17/in-oregon-the-gmo-wheat-mystery-deepens/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/07/17/in-oregon-the-gmo-wheat-mystery-deepens/#comments Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:59:18 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=1037 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/07/17/in-oregon-the-gmo-wheat-mystery-deepens/feed/ 0 gemetically modified foods,monsanto,wheat By Dan Charles | NPR's The Salt - The strange case of genetically engineered wheat on a farm in Oregon remains as mysterious as ever. If anything, it's grown more baffling. - As we reported almost two months ago, By Dan Charles | NPR's The Salt The strange case of genetically engineered wheat on a farm in Oregon remains as mysterious as ever. If anything, it's grown more baffling. As we reported almost two months ago, the presence of this wheat was revealed earlier this spring when a farmer in eastern Oregon sprayed a field with the weedkiller glyphosate, or Roundup. Most vegetation died, as the farmer intended, but clumps of green wheat stalks kept growing. They apparently had sprouted from grain that was leftover in the field from last year's crop. It was such a strange sight that the farmer wondered if this wheat might be genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate, just like the popular Roundup Ready versions of corn and soybeans. He called a weed scientist named Carol Mallory-Smith at Oregon State University to ask her opinion. "I said I didn't think so," recalls Mallory-Smith. The biotech company Monsanto had developed such wheat years earlier, and carried out field trials of it, but those trials ended at least eight years ago. Monsanto never asked for government approval to sell such wheat, and growing it without a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture actually would violate the law. "So I was pretty skeptical, but I said, 'If you send me some samples, I'll test it,' " Mallory-Smith says. To her surprise the tests came back positive. She passed the samples on to the USDA, which confirmed her results and launched an investigation. The USDA is trying to answer two big questions about this wheat. First, where else can it be found? Second, how did it get into this farmer's field? Hundreds of millions of dollars could hang on the answer to the first question. If rogue genes are present in America's wheat harvest, some customers — especially in Japan and Korea — say they won't take it. Fortunately for American wheat farmers, the search so far has come up empty. Korea has been testing shipments of U.S. wheat and the USDA has tested thousands of samples collected from farms and seed companies — including the business where that Oregon farmer bought his seed. They've found no GMOs, anywhere. Blake Rowe, CEO of the Oregon Wheat Commission, expects Japan, which has suspended its purchases of U.S. wheat, to resuming buying when it's sure the wheat is GMO-free. "We're confident they will come back to the market, but there's a lot of concern about how quickly that will happen," he says. Every test that comes up negative eases the worries of the wheat industry, but it also makes the source of this GMO wheat a bigger mystery. Investigators are finding no trail that leads from the Oregon farm back to Monsanto's research operation. Across the wheat-growing areas of the Pacific Northwest, farmers and wheat dealers now are trading speculative theories about how this might have happened. Monsanto's chief technology officer, Robert Fraley, laid out a particularly attention-grabbing scenario a few weeks ago during in a conference call with reporters. "The fact pattern indicates the strong possibility that someone intentionally introduced wheat seed containing the CP4 event into his field, sometime after that farmer initially planted it," Fraley said, referring to Monsanto's Roundup resistance gene As for a motive, "there are folks who don't like biotechnology and would use this as an opportunity to create problems," Fraley continued. He speculated that anti-biotech activists may have stolen wheat from one of Monsanto's field trials of GMO wheat. They could have stored this grain for a decade, then planted it in a field and waited for a farmer to discover it. Others find Monsanto's theory dubious, or "a stretch," as Bob Zemetra, a wheat breeder at Oregon State, puts it. Zemetra thinks an ordinary mistake is more likely: that somebody involved in Monsanto's GMO wheat trials just happened to misplace a bag of wheat at some point. REPORTS no 4:42 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/05/hopes-and-doubts-about-water-conservation-in-survey/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/05/hopes-and-doubts-about-water-conservation-in-survey/#comments Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:32:14 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=1005 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/05/hopes-and-doubts-about-water-conservation-in-survey/feed/ 0 Central Coast Public Radio KUSP,desalination,Kelly Servick,Santa Cruz County,water conservation By Kelly Servick | KUSP News - Since the late 1990s, Santa Cruz has been working to bring down its water consumption by focusing on indoor use: faucets, shower heads, toilets and washing machines. The city offered rebates for those willing to upgr... By Kelly Servick | KUSP News Since the late 1990s, Santa Cruz has been working to bring down its water consumption by focusing on indoor use: faucets, shower heads, toilets and washing machines. The city offered rebates for those willing to upgrade to more efficient models, and required certain upgrades when a property changed hands. Now, amid debate over a desalination plant to increase supply, the water department has some new information about how the city uses the water it already has. That information comes from a survey of local households and businesses, released this month. “It tells us really for the first time in Santa Cruz how people have used water,” says Toby Goddard, Conservation Manager for the city Water Department, “and what sort of market penetration some of the water conserving equipment has achieved in the last dozen years of implementing programs.” Across-the-board improvements Goddard presented the survey at the May 28th City Council Meeting. Inspectors visited 150 single-family households and 127 units in multi-family properties, plus over a hundred commercial buildings: restaurants, hospitals, hotels and schools. Goddard says the rates of water efficiency were surprisingly high. “We did not expect to see that upwards of 90% of homes having been retrofitted with low-consumption toilets,” Goddard says. The survey found similar rates for efficient faucets and showerheads, and commercial buildings were also judged to be overwhelmingly water-efficient. It does suggest places for improvement, like using drip irrigation instead of spraying yards and landscaping. But Goddard points out that even though there are more water savings to be had, we can’t expect to see the same dramatic savings as in last decade. “In the past, change a toilet, you might be able to save 10 gallons per person, per day by that one action,” he says. “The next upgrade might return one to two gallons per person per day. So it’s going to be a smaller return, a diminishing return, that’s the nature of efficiency.” Fodder for a desal debate But the message that we’re approaching maximum efficiency worries Scott McGilvray, a resident of Live Oak who offered a public comment at the meeting. “I’m aware that there are many water conservation opportunities that are ahead of this that weren’t picked up in the report,” he says. McGilvray is president of a consulting company that helps businesses lower their water use. As debate continues over the plan to build a desalination facility on the West side of the city, McGilvray worries this survey’s high figures might be used as evidence that Santa Cruz has nearly exhausted potential water savings. The survey’s judgment of what’s efficient and what’s not is based on national standards set in 1992. Goddard also acknowledges that newer technology goes beyond those standards. “Even what was ‘high efficiency’ five years ago has changed, and the manufacturers are finding ways to use less water, less energy,” he says. “So five years from now, we’re gonna be looking at whole new levels of efficiency.” He asserts that this is a snapshot of where we stand, not a report about how much more can be conserved. But the survey comes on the heels of a draft Environmental Impact Report on the desalination plant. “Well we’re told in the EIR that there are no other alternative supply sources in Santa Cruz,” says McGilvray, “and I’m finding that there are quite a few alternatives, and they add up to a lot of other water. The water department will use details of the survey in finishing a new master conservation plan late this year or early next year. It will include other strategies aimed at preventing and dealing with shortages in future droughts. REPORTS no 3:55 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/04/desal-eir-gathers-criticism-mostly-from-opponents/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/04/desal-eir-gathers-criticism-mostly-from-opponents/#comments Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:05:05 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=998 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/06/04/desal-eir-gathers-criticism-mostly-from-opponents/feed/ 0 Central Coast Public Radio KUSP,desalination,Santa Cruz County,Wes Sims By Wes Sims - The two agencies that want to build a desalination plant in the Santa Cruz area got an earfullMonday at a meeting to allow public comment on a draft en-vironmental impact report. - That EIR was commissioned by the City of Santa Cruz ... By Wes Sims The two agencies that want to build a desalination plant in the Santa Cruz area got an earfullMonday at a meeting to allow public comment on a draft en-vironmental impact report. That EIR was commissioned by the City of Santa Cruz Water Department and the Soquel Creek Water District. This is the first time the public has had a chance to comment on the desalination plant that’s proposed to ease water shortages in drought years for Santa Cruz, and reverse overdrafting of groundwater in the Soquel Creek District. ] Among those in favor of the desal project was Tom Manheim, who’s worried about the economic effects of a drought. “Restaurants and retailers would experience revenue losses approaching catastrophic levels,” Manheim said. “Some hotels and motels would close down permanently, the average revenue losses across all businesses would exceed thirty percent.” But most of today’s speakers opposed the desal plant … some, like longtime Santa Cruz property owner, Winifred Alexander, were quite forceful. “I think that you’re going to do what you want to do because it’s not your money,” Alexander said. “It’s the taxpayer’s money, and that you’re just going to go ahead with this expensive pink elephant anyway. But I want to let you know something. One of those sights you picked is my property. And you’re not going to get it.” The next public hearing for the draft EIR is scheduled for July 1 in Santa Cruz. REPORTS no 1:14 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/29/the-esselen-peoples-troubled-aspirations-for-fort-ord/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/29/the-esselen-peoples-troubled-aspirations-for-fort-ord/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 14:26:00 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=996 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/29/the-esselen-peoples-troubled-aspirations-for-fort-ord/feed/ 0 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/23/reports-obama-to-limit-drones-urge-action-on-guantanamo/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/23/reports-obama-to-limit-drones-urge-action-on-guantanamo/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 16:19:23 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=981 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/23/reports-obama-to-limit-drones-urge-action-on-guantanamo/feed/ 0 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/21/manzarek-keyboards-made-the-sound-of-the-doors/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/21/manzarek-keyboards-made-the-sound-of-the-doors/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 13:49:19 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=975 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/21/manzarek-keyboards-made-the-sound-of-the-doors/feed/ 0 Central Coast Public Radio KUSP,NPR,Ray Manzarek,The Doors The Doors built on the musical structure of the blues with Jim Morrison's psychedelic poetry and Ray Manzarek's electric organ, which sometimes drew on Bach. Manzarek died Monday after a long struggle with cancer. The Doors built on the musical structure of the blues with Jim Morrison's psychedelic poetry and Ray Manzarek's electric organ, which sometimes drew on Bach. Manzarek died Monday after a long struggle with cancer. NPR's Mandelit Del Barco has a remembrance. http://youtu.be/CvVCCMG-JoQ In this video you can see Manzarek's stacked keyboards. The bottom was a keyboard bass Manzarek played a bass line with - The Doors had no guitar bass. The top was an electric organ on which he improvised solos. REPORTS no 3:57 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/11000-feet-in-102-miles-one-stage-down-in-tour-of-california/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/11000-feet-in-102-miles-one-stage-down-in-tour-of-california/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 14:26:21 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=968 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/11000-feet-in-102-miles-one-stage-down-in-tour-of-california/feed/ 0 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/usually-misdiagnosed-valley-fever-spreading-rapidly-in-southwest/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/usually-misdiagnosed-valley-fever-spreading-rapidly-in-southwest/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 14:07:38 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=965 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/13/usually-misdiagnosed-valley-fever-spreading-rapidly-in-southwest/feed/ 0 Central Coast Public Radio KUSP,Central Valley,KVPR,NPR,Rebecca Plevin,Valley Fever It's killed more people than West Nile Virus, it's growing faster too, but not much money is going to research about it and doctors often miss the symptoms. Monday on NPR's Morning Edition, KVPR reporter Rebecca Plevin offers a look at how Valley Fever... It's killed more people than West Nile Virus, it's growing faster too, but not much money is going to research about it and doctors often miss the symptoms. Monday on NPR's Morning Edition, KVPR reporter Rebecca Plevin offers a look at how Valley Fever changes lives in California. Valley fever seems to be contracted by contact with spores that live in the soil in parts of the Southwest, especially California and Arizona. Most people who contract it may not get sick or may get a lung infection that feels like a flu. It can cause pneumonia. And for about 1 percent, the infection spreads beyond the lungs and can effect the bones and nervous system. The treatment seems to be anti-fungal medicines with unpleasant side-effects. There isn't a cure. Doctors don't understand why it effects Filipinos and African Americans more than people from other ethnicities. And they can't account for its growth. Valley fever cases grew about 900 percent  from 1998 to 2011. About 150,000 new cases appear annually. California is under orders to remove inmates at high risk of contracting the disease from two Central Valley prisons where it is rampant.  Read more. REPORTS no 8:17 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/11/genocide-conviction-in-guatemala-is-huge-breakthrough/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/11/genocide-conviction-in-guatemala-is-huge-breakthrough/#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 22:51:18 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=954 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/11/genocide-conviction-in-guatemala-is-huge-breakthrough/feed/ 0 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/10/students-take-climate-fight-to-schools-investment-portfolios/ http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/10/students-take-climate-fight-to-schools-investment-portfolios/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 14:20:12 +0000 admin http://blogs.kusp.org/news/?p=946 http://blogs.kusp.org/news/2013/05/10/students-take-climate-fight-to-schools-investment-portfolios/feed/ 0 Activism,Central Coast Public Radio KUSP,Coal,Environment,NPR,University Divestment The student movement pushing universities to sell off investments in coal is growing and may have more effect on the participants than the schools or the target companies, NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports.  - The student movement pushing universities to sell off investments in coal is growing and may have more effect on the participants than the schools or the target companies, NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports.  So far 4 schools have opted to divest from coal and oil companies. And fossil fuel companies don't seem to be worried. Still some 300 campuses have active campaigns. Bill McKibben of 350.org says these youths are the future leaders of the U.S. environmental movement. Shogren's report focuses on one Brown environmental studies student who hadn't been inspired to activism until she began to feel climate change amounted to an "emergency in slow motion." The push for divestment at Brown was inspired by an article by McKibben. Brown's investment supervisors seem to be considering divesting the relatively small portion of the school's endowment that is in coal and oil companies. REPORTS no 4:18