When I was working for The Bakersfield Californian, I wrote about the woes of a tiny water company whose last well ran dry. Residents of the cluster of mobile homes the company served told me about bathing with baby wipes and being unable to flush the toilet without using up precious reserves. I remember being surprised that even in California, people lived without reliable access to water…
News
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In 1989, a fetus developed with a neural tube defect and a terminal malformation of the brain. In 1992, a child born with his esophagus connected to his trachea instead of his stomach and a host of other birth defects is slow to reach developmental milestones and is eventually diagnosed with two brain malformations at age 15….
California is banning a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children, a major victory for public health advocates who have long fought to outlaw the toxic chemical in the agricultural industry.
The state ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts, and other crops, follows years of research finding the chemical causes serious health effects in children, including impaired brain and neurological development. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had moved to ban the chemical under Barack Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effort, rejecting the scientific conclusions of its own government experts…
In 1989, a fetus developed with a neural tube defect and a terminal malformation of the brain.
In 1992, a child born with his esophagus connected to his trachea instead of his stomach and a host of other birth defects is slow to reach developmental milestones and is eventually diagnosed with two brain malformations at age 15.
In 1993, a third child is born without complications or developmental delays, only to be diagnosed with an inoperable brain malformation at age 19…
It was a tedious evening at the Porterville City Council meeting Tuesday night, as the Council had a full agenda and much to discuss, including the final reading of three separate cannabis ordinances and the resignation of Council member Brian Ward. To kick the meeting off, Council member Daniel Penaloza led the Pledge of Allegiance, which was followed by a moment of silence. Oral communications was opened, and Darin Garret was the first to step to the podium. Garret informed the Council that he will be holding a food drive for the homeless on Saturday with assistance from Helping Hands….
California’s Central Valley continues to grow in population even though it suffers some of the highest unemployment in the state. The state’s new Democratic governor is pushing economic development in the agriculturally dominated region, but a newly issued report from a think tank isn’t very encouraging.
California will ban a brain-damaging pesticide that the Trump administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed banning at the national level, the state announced Wednesday. Chlorpyrifos, which is used on almonds, citrus, grapes, cotton, walnuts and other crops, has been shown to harm children’s health and neurological development. “Countless people have suffered as a result of this chemical,” California EPA (Cal-EPA) Secretary Jared Blumenfeld told The Guardian. “A lot of people live and work and go to school right next to fields that are being sprayed with chlorpyrifos … It’s an issue of environmental health and justice….”
The Trump administration moved forward Thursday with its plan to open up hundreds of thousands of acres on California’s Central Coast to oil and gas drilling. The effort comes despite opposition from Democratic officials in the Golden State, who have starkly criticized the plan. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its final proposal as part of the administration’s “energy independence” push on Thursday. It would open up 725,500 acres of land across 11 counties in California to oil and gas lease sales. The counties affected include Monterey, Fresno and Santa Cruz….
The Department of Pesticide Regulation and the California Environmental Protection Agency are taking action to ban chlorpyrifos after more recent studies found that the pesticide causes serious harm to brain development in babies at lower levels of exposure than were previously understood. “It’s a big change, it’s a, it’s a positive change, and it’s leading to a good direction,” Byanka Santoyo, a community organizer for the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment said Wednesday, just hours after the California EPA announced the decision to cancel chlorpyrifos….
In a major victory for California families,state officials announced this week they will prohibit the use of chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic pesticide linked to permanent brain damage in young children.Gov. Newsom also announced funding to help farmers transition to safer alternatives. The process is expected to take from six months to two years. With this decision, California becomes the third state to ban chlorpyrifos, following Hawaii and New York. This is also the first time the Golden State canceled the registration of a currently-used pesticide….