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Supporters of a proposed $11 billion water bond say the money is urgently needed to fix California's water supply problems, yet billions of dollars in previous bond money still hasn't been spent, according to the California treasurer. About half of the $20 billion in water and levee improvement bonds passed since 2000 was unspent as of July, according to the State Treasurer's Office most recent report on debt affordability. It is unclear how much of that money is actually available for new efforts, since lawmakers have appropriated billions for specific projects, according to Jason Dickerson, debt service analyst for the...

Preface: Lake Placidena is a fictional place where women run the entire city sub rosa (clandestinely) through the non-profit PEF and Historical and Cultural Preservation Commission, men play all year at staging a national parade, all the children in public schools are designated in poverty, but all the schools must be above average. The permanent state of drought in Placidena is a local joke because groundwater comes from underneath "Laughing Waters (Ha-ha-monga) Park," The actual Lake Placidena was fittingly created by impounding waters behind Devil's Gate Dam and is known for its strange green color due to perchlorate contamination which...

Most foreign investors have been focused on Central Asia’s vast hydrocarbon resources and the extractive industries of energy and Minerals. But water is an issue of rising concern throughout the region as after years of soviet mismanagement geopolitical tensions are running high. These regional problems present outside companies willing to think outside the box with an incredible opportunity and a guaranteed red carpet welcome. Simply put, the region’s scarce water resources were misused to satisfy the autarchic needs of the entire USSR, whose breakup in 1991 completely disrupted inter-republic trade patterns, leaving the Stans with the remnants of a centrally...

On Oct. 9, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite slammed into the moon's south polar region at 5,600 miles per hour. NASA had primed the public for what it promised would be a cosmic spectacular. Observers were eagerly expecting the "money shot"—a gigantic plume of debris emerging over the moon when the LCROSS probe and booster rocket crashed into the lunar surface. As the countdown began, people all over the world were glued to their TVs. Amateurs dusted off their telescopes, hoping to catch a glimpse of the once-in-a-lifetime event. Then the cameras picked up nothing. No explosion, no...

Moon moister than thoughtDiscovery of water inside crater paints "a surprising new picture" By JOHN JOHNSON JR., Los Angeles Times First published in print: Saturday, November 14, 2009 Declaring "This is not your father's moon," National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said Friday that last month's mission to punch a hole in the lunar surface found significant amounts of water in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon's south pole. "The moon is alive," declared Anthony Colaprete, the chief scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission during a briefing at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif....

WASHINGTON — A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, the US space agency NASA said Friday, boosting hopes of eventually setting up a permanent lunar base. Preliminary data from a moon probe "indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA said. "The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," it added in a statement.

"There could be as much ice on the moon as in all of Lake Erie," When NASA's Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission crashed into Cabeus Crater on the moon's south pole, October 9th, the team did find water in the form of, "Ice as we know it," according to multiple sources within the agency. "It will change the way we think about the moon. It is something we want to share with the world."

BAGHDAD — A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ commander visited the Sadr City R3 Water Treatment Plant and its workers recently to check up on how the plant is operating. The USACE’s Gulf Region District (GRD) collaborates with Multi-National Corps – Iraq to provide engineering and construction management expertise to assist the government here with its infrastructure. "The Sadr City Water Treatment Plant is a vital community asset that supplies quality drinking water to over 500,000 citizens," said Col. Dan Anninos, GRD commander. "The plant takes existing raw water from the Tigris and properly treats it in order to eliminate...

It would be fair to say that the crashy culmination of NASA's LCROSS mission on October 9th was a technical success but a public-relations fizzle. LCROSS on final approach LCROSS and its Centaur rocket prepare to crash into the Moon. NASA On the plus side, the engineering team for LCROSS (short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) delivered as promised, deftly driving a spent 2½-ton Centaur rocket into a target zone near the Moon's south pole only 2 miles (3½ km) across. Four minutes later, after flying through the debris cloud raised by the rocket's crash, an instrument-packed 600-kg...

Blaming America - Planting Discord in Los Angeles by Ari Bussel Downtown Los Angeles is composed of many districts – jewelry, fashion, toys, flowers, produce and others. A concentration of skyscrapers, uncommon to the Southern California landscape, differentiates it from the vastness of the Greater Los Angeles area. It was during the last decade of constant increase in real estate prices that old buildings, often from utilities or institutions, were converted into affordable lots. Once dangerous and unwelcoming, Downtown went through a process of revitalization, its face today unrecognizable to past visitors. Back in 1984 I elected to go to...

Col. Larry Phelps, the 15th Sustainment Brigade commander, gives a coin to pump foreman Abdullah Ahmed from the Qayyarah pump house during a luncheon in the pump house workers' honor in the dining facility of COL Q-West, Nov. 3. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Cooley, 15th Sustainment Brigade. COL Q-WEST — A group of Iraqis working at the Qayyarah water pump house were thanked while attending a luncheon in their honor at the dining facility here, Nov. 2. Col. Larry Phelps, the 15th Sustainment Brigade commander and Greenville, Ala., native, presented a plaque to the workers and said that it was...

In a case that could have a major impact on water use in Massachusetts, the attorney general’s office argued before the state’s highest court yesterday that the Department of Environmental Protection can impose limits on the amount of water municipalities draw from aquifers, rivers, and lakes.... The case, which the Supreme Judicial Court did not immediately rule on, stems from a state policy adopted in 2007 that allows the department to limit residential water use to 65 gallons a day per person for basins at risk of drought and 80 gallons a day per person for those with less risk....

Residents of the Venezuelan capital face cuts in water service for as much as 48 hours per week, after the government imposed rationing to stem a 25 percent shortfall in the city's supply, officials said Monday.

A Sacramento jury set an eye-popping standard Thursday on the cost of radio station contests that kill and the resulting loss of a mother's love and a wife's companionship. The tab for Entercom Sacramento LLC came to $16,577,118 in the water-intoxication death of Jennifer Lea Strange in a contest put on by radio station KDND "The End" (107.9 FM). Such was the award rendered by a Sacramento Superior Court jury of seven men and five women in the trial to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Strange's survivors. The 28-year-old woman died Jan. 12, 2007, after she...

<p>A Sacramento County jury has awarded $16.5 million to the family of a 28-year-old woman who died after participating in a radio station's water-drinking contest.</p> <p>Jennifer Strange, a mother of three, died of acute water intoxication in January 2007 after the challenge to see which contestant could drink the most water without using the restroom. A Nintendo Wii video game was the prize for winning the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest.</p>

BAGHDAD, Oct. 26, 2009 – Baghdad’s Sadr City district, home to more than 2 million Iraqis, was built by Saddam Hussein as a massive urban community to house the thousands of rural Iraqis migrating to the capital in search of jobs. But after decades of neglect, Sadr City’s residents lacked even the most basic needs, such as adequate potable water. A $65 million water treatment plant is designed to treat and purify water from the nearby Tigris River and provide more than 500,000 residents of Baghdad’s Sadr City district with potable water. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

The rhetorical "water witch" of the Pasadena Star News, staff writer Rebecca Kimitch, has an op-ed disguised as a news story on water rates rising in San Gabriel Valley - read here http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/rds_search/ci_13612524 Since Kimitch likes to cast personal attacks and bad omens on Republicans and conservatives in many of her so-called "news" stories, perhaps the rhetorical term "water witch" is fitting (a "water witch" is a person who claims to be able to find underground water with a divining rod; aka a sorceress). Kimitch's news story merely regurgitates what several local water agency public relations types, or rhetorical "witch...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, Oct. 20, 2009 – Southern Iraq’s Muthanna province is a vast area, sparsely populated and dominated by wide expanses of desert. Life here remains much the same as it has for centuries. Bedouin tribes herd camels while subsistence farmers scratch out a living in the harsh landscape. A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flies over a farm in southern Iraq’s Muthanna province, Oct. 11, 2009. U.S. soldiers deployed from Fort Bliss, Texas, are advising and assisting Iraqi security forces in the province and collaborating with provincial reconstruction teams to provide essential services. U.S. Army photo by...

Sgt. Christopher Nekvapil, with Company D, 120th Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, provides security in the Murtada neighborhood near Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, Oct. 15. Nekvapil, of Portland, Ore., and other Company D Soldiers accompanied the Iraqi Army to provide humanitarian assistance to poor families in the area. Photo by Mary Phillips, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.BAGHDAD — A poor neighborhood near Mahmudiyah, south of the Iraqi capital, was surprised with much needed water and food brought by U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers, Oct. 15. Soldiers with the 120th Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team and...

California, the nation's largest producer of fruits, nuts, vegetables, livestock and dairy products, ranks fifth in the world as a supplier of food and agricultural commodities. Cash receipts totaled more than $36.6 billion in 2007. By comparison, Coca Cola's 2008 revenue was $32 billion. The state provides more than half of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables using more than 25% of California's landmass for agricultural production. The Central Valley accounts for more than half of that area. A paragon of conservation and modern irrigation technology, California agriculture - comprised of many small and family-owned and operated farms - is...

Environmentalists concerned about the threat to its unique eco-system. Water levels in the lowest and saltiest body of water on the planet are falling by more than four feet a year, giving rise to quips that the Dead Sea is dying. The government in Amman has said it is planning to extract more than 10 billion cubic feet a year from the Red Sea 110 miles to the south, feed most of it into a desalination plant to create drinking water, and send the salty waste-water left over to the Dead Sea by tunnel. Similar plans are already the subject...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Legislative leaders in California have just hours to reach a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to convince the Republican not to veto many of the 704 bills awaiting his action, including proposals opposed by legal reformers. The Republican governor has threatened to veto most of the bills on his desk unless he and Senate and Assembly leaders agree on a multibillion plan to upgrade the state's complex water system.

Finally acknowledging that there is a significant government-created crisis in the San Joaquin Valley, the Interior Department convened a public hearing Sept. 30, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein has announced she has asked her staff to begin assembling a major piece of legislation to address the water crisis facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has issued a "memorandum of understanding" that will keep representatives from six federal agencies talking to various interest groups in California. The problem is that it will take months to make such decisions and years for results to be apparent. The crisis is...

The California Latino Water Coalition, often described as a grassroots group representing the Latino community, was born in a closed-door meeting of Gov. Schwarzenegger and local officials at Selma City Hall on March 21, 2007—and was “suggested” by the governor himself, according to a coalition brochure. Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez said the Coalition was his own idea. He acknowledged that city funds were used to help people travel to the Coalition launch event at the state Capitol on April 23, 2007. “When we went to Sacramento, we went as citizens of the community,” Lopez said. “The city of Orange...

PITTSTON TWP. – A group of inventors from China has found a way to take water, the nation’s top-selling bottled drink, and infuse it with omega-3 fatty acids, the second-best-selling supplement. And Nature’s Way Pure Water Systems Inc., the Pittston-area bottler, will be the only source in the U.S. of the revolutionary product for years to come. The product is going into limited-batch testing in December, followed by full production in January. “Omega-3, next to multivitamins, that’s the No. 2 item that’s sold in health stores throughout the country … but it’s never been in water because (the industry) never...

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's top executive, H. David Nahai, has resigned from the agency effective immediately, the mayor's office announced this morning. In a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Nahai said he was leaving to take a position as an advisor to former President Clinton's climate initiative. Nahai had served two years as a DWP commissioner before Villaraigosa elevated him to the post of chief executive and general manager in 2007. Ever since, he had been under fire from an array of forces. He drew strong criticism from the head of the powerful International Brotherhood of...

AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. — In a rural corner of Nevada reeling from the recession, a bit of salvation seemed to arrive last year. A German developer, Solar Millennium, announced plans to build two large solar farms here that would harness the sun to generate electricity, creating hundreds of jobs. But then things got messy. The company revealed that its preferred method of cooling the power plants would consume 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, about 20 percent of this desert valley’s available water. Now Solar Millennium finds itself in the midst of a new-age version of a Western water...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor." "No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested.

In 1991, facing obvious limits to growth from meager water resources, Las Vegas power brokers decided to bring the drama of high stakes gambling from the casinos to the board room of the Southern Nevada Water Authority headed by the Bernie Madoff of Western water, Pat Mulroy. The strategy was even proudly Ballyhooed in public. Las Vegas would just keep building beyond the capacity of its Colorado River allocation and dare other states or the federal government to stop them. At the time, a spokesman for Nevada's Colorado River Commission even announced, "The federal government will never let Nevada go...

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the...

Yes, the moon is a "wetter" place than the Apollo astronauts ever could have imagined, but don't break out the beach gear just yet. Although three independent groups today announced the detection of water on the lunar surface, their find is at most a part per 1000 water in the outermost millimeter or two of still very dry lunar rock. The discovery has potential, though. Future astronauts might conceivably wring enough water from not-completely-desiccated lunar "soil" to drink or even to fuel their rockets. Equally enticing, the water seems to be on its way to the poles, where it could...

Last week, FNC’s Sean Hannity traveled to the San Joaquin Valley to report on the man-made drought that’s wreaking havoc on farmers in the name of saving the Delta smelt: {video}...Earlier tonight, GOP South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint tried to turn the water back on. The Senate voted down his amendment, 61-36. Here’s the roll call vote.

Reliable sources report that there will be a press conference at NASA HQ at 2:00 pm this Thursday featuring lunar scientist Carle Pieters from Brown University. The topic of the press briefing will be a paper that will appear in this week's issue of Science magazine wherein results from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1 will be revealed. The take home message: there is a lot of water on the Moon. Stay tuned.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And ladies and gentlemen, you are looking live at the thousands of people who have shown up here in the Central Valley of California. They want their farms back, they want their jobs back, and they want the water turned back on. Now, tonight, you are going to hear from some of the politicians who are fighting on behalf of the citizens in this region. We will also talk to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we will even hear from an environmentalist who is actually defending the government's decision that are responsible for drying up this once...

San Joaquin Water Crisis Resource Information:Websites Aquafornia.com http://aquafornia.com/ By Water Education Foundation. “…Aquafornia is dedicated to providing comprehensive news and information about California water issues, as well as issues affecting the southwest. Aquafornia posts links from the news media, press releases, trade magazines, and blogs…The site is updated usually by 8am daily, 7 days a week, and breaking news is posted whenever it occurs…” Links to footage from the Sean Hannity Show. Farmers For Water www.Farmersforwater.com “…Providing Links & Information on the Central Valley Water Crisis…” Good collection of articles, maps and photos, links and other information. Families Protecting the...

Turning the water off is not just bad politics, it’s an act of domestic terror. Former Fresno, California Mayor Alan Autry Forgive me if I am less than diplomatic here. I am not a fan at all of the radical environmental movement. I’m even less of a fan of radical, Big Government. Let’s cut to the chase here. The rabid environmentalists have destroyed the economy in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Not only have they destroyed the economy, they have destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of farmers, as well. According to the California Farm Water Coalition unemployment...

“Turning the water off is not just bad politics, it’s an act of domestic terror.” - Former Fresno, California Mayor Alan Autry Forgive me if I am less than diplomatic here. I am not a fan at all of the radical environmental movement. I’m even less of a fan of radical, Big Government. Let’s cut to the chase here. The rabid environmentalists have destroyed the economy in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Not only have they destroyed the economy, they have destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of farmers, as well. According to the California Farm Water Coalition...

Here we go again. I was watching Sean Hannity tonight (9/17/2009), and have been following loosely the situation in the San Joaquin Valley of California with their water crisis over the small Delta Smelt minnow and its endangered species listing. The Farmers have water rights to that water. There is no legal water rights for that water for a minnow over the farmers. There is only a manufactured judicial legal decision by liberal judges based on junk science and the whims of administrators and bureaucrats that create these incidents based on the Endangered Species Act and a rabid environmental...

The EPA is looking to change the landscape of America, quite literally with its "water conservation program," reports Wendy Bounds, The Wall Street Journal. {video at link after a brief ad}

As FNC's Sean Hannity devoted his show Hannity on Thursday evening to the plight of California farmers who are suffering unemployment because the federal government is withholding water from their crops in favor of saving endangered fish, Hannity began the show, specially titled "The Valley That Hope Forgot," by interviewing comedian and former Democrat Paul Rodriguez, chairman of the California Latino Water Coalition. Rodriguez, who last year supported Barack Obama but famously turned GOP after Democrats refused to help him and other farmers obtain water for their crops, made a plea for help to President Obama on Hannity's show: Mr....

Here's a clip of the water shutdown to California farmers. Alan Autry calls it domestic terrorism.

A farmer in Missouri used a mule to plow his garden every spring. This spring the mule just stopped plowing and stood there defiantly. The farmer begged the mule, asked the mule even pleaded and finally demanded the mule get back to work. In frustration, the farmer called his father and asked for his help. Twenty minutes later his father drives up. When he got out of his pickup truck he retrieved a 3 foot 2x4 from the truck box and walked over to the mule. First he whispered something into the mules ear but the mule didn’t budge. All...

If you plan to attend the protest with Sean Hannity tomorrow and don't know what to wear, print this reversed on a t-shirt iron-on.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Under pressure to show quick results from the economic stimulus, the White House is taking credit for starting to build hundreds of rural water systems nationwide. But don't look for construction crews anytime soon. At most job sites, it could be awhile. Sometimes, a long while. It all depends on what the definition of "starting" is. ___ THE SPIN: Vice President Joe Biden said two weeks ago, "We set a goal of starting to build 200 water sanitary systems and wastewater treatment facilities in rural America. We've met that goal." The White House Web site says "We...

Sep 14, 2009 ... Sean Hannity on Thursday will broadcast his national FOX TV show life from the west side of Fresno for a program on California's water that ...

U.S. Soldiers with the 606th Forward Support Company, 1-377th Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Fires Brigade, conduct civil reconnaissance of the Hartha Water Treatment Plant in Basrah, Aug. 19. Photo courtesy of 17th Fires Brigade. BASRAH — Some citizens of Basrah lived without clean, running water for cooking and hygiene. Following a recent inspection of the Hartha Water Treatment Plant here, the 17th Fires Brigade aimed to change that. The plant, located 12 miles north of Basrah, was working at 30 percent capacity and considered almost non-operational by the time the U.S. contracted the Farden Group to renovate the plant for...

Spc. Rachael Potts and an Iraqi engineer prepare to run dirty water through a solar-powered water filtration system at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Sept. 5. Photo by Pvt. Jared N. Gehmann, 82nd Airborne Division. BAGHDAD — In an effort to provide a better quality of life for the citizens of Iraq's Ma'dain region, U.S. paratroopers here put their time and energy into learning how to set up and operate a solar-powered water filtration system, Sept. 5. Paratroopers assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Multi-National Division- Baghdad implemented a self-powered, energy efficient water filtration system to provide the...

U.S. Soldiers have set over 1,000 feet of pipe connecting two pump houses and increasing the water pressure flow to Q-West. Photo by Spc. Lisa A. Cope, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). Q-WEST — In the hot summer months, seasonal trends here make water a commodity and conservation a necessity to prevent depletion of the area's water reserves. In an effort to assist in this important task, service members are limited to roughly 15 gallons of water per day.Local Iraqis share water lines with Contingency Operating Location (COL) Q-West to irrigate their crops during the planting and growing seasons, and have...

Welcome to Mendota, Calif. Its population is 10,000. Most of its families work in farming; the town used to be called the "cantaloupe capital of the world." Today, unemployment hovers around 41 percent. The town is now known as "the food-line capital," says Mendota's mayor, Robert Silva. This is the Dust Bowl, circa 2009. Mendota is located in Fresno County, where July unemployment stood at 15 percent. And even that staggering number is artificially low because of all the temporary employees hired to pick the seasonal vegetables like squash, carrots, tomatoes and peppers. Why are the communities of Fresno County...

California has a new endangered species on its hands in the San Joaquin Valley—farmers. Thanks to environmental regulations designed to protect the likes of the three-inch long delta smelt, one of America's premier agricultural regions is suffering in a drought made worse by federal regulations.