Bush administration fights to stop private Mad Cow Testing

Tthe US now tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease, so some meat packers have tried to take up the slack. Big meat companies don't like the idea, fearing that competition from safe meat might hurt their business. Competition might be good for consumers, but, according to an Associated Press story today, it wouldn't please the big cattlemen. So the Bush administration opposes private efforts to ensure safety.

The Agriculture Department argues that if you do too much testing, you might get a false positive result, which would harm the meat industry. So far, three cows in the US have been found, after multiple tests, to have mad cow disease. The cows were from Washington, Texas and Alabama.

It's better for a sick cow to get into the food chain than to hurt the meat industry, according to the Bush administration.

Veggie burger, anyone?

From Sea to Shining Sea--Bush administration fights Mad Cow testing for all

Tthe US now tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease, so some meat packers have tried to take up the slack. Big meat companies don't like the idea, fearing that competition from safe meat might hurt their business. Competition might be good for consumers, but, according to an Associated Press story today, it wouldn't please the big cattlemen. So the Bush administration opposes private efforts to ensure safety.

The Agriculture Department argues that if you do too much testing, you might get a false positive result, which would harm the meat industry. So far, three cows in the US have been found, after multiple tests, to have mad cow disease. The cows were from Washington, Texas and Alabama.

It's better for a sick cow to get into the food chain than to hurt the meat industry, according to the Bush administration.

Veggie burger, anyone?

THE AWESOME GREG COX

I've seen up close how school board member turned Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox nurtures her friendships with developers (most recently in the Laurie Madigan case), but I'm just getting to know Cheryl's husband Greg Cox and his fellow San Diego County Supervisors.

Rob Davis writes in today's Voice of San Diego:

"When developers in San Marcos want to build homes atop coastal sage scrub -- a dwindling habitat that's home
to the rare California gnatcatcher -- they turn to San Diego County's government for help.

"Over the last decade and a half, developers have destroyed 183 acres of scrub in San Marcos, paying San Diego County $879,000 for the right to do so.

"Their ability to build on the habitat was supposed to be temporary. Under a compromise forged to help North County cities develop after the California gnatcatcher became threatened, the cities were granted the ability to destroy 5 percent of the habitat while they worked on a long-term conservation plan."

It looks to me like the supervisors are selling irreplaceable resources to keep their campaign coffers filled with developer contributions.

The agreement to sell was supposed to be temporary.

From Voice of San Diego:

The Issue:
In exchange for the right to oversee development in federally protected areas, a group of North County cities agreed to formulate long-term conservation plans. Nearly 15 years later, those plans remain unfinished.

What It Means:
Each government received the right to develop an allotted amount of sensitive land as conservation plans were being developed. The county has offered its allotment up for sale to developers, removing an incentive for cities to finish their plans.

The Bigger Picture:
San Diego’s habitat plans, once lauded as pioneering efforts, have been beset by delays, funding issues and other problems.

Cheryl and Greg Cox: "We have pretty much lived our lives as an open book."

“We have pretty much lived our lives as an open book,” Cheryl said to Tanya Mannes for a January 1, 2007 article for the San Diego Union Tribune.

Strange, I haven't noticed Cheryl's nose getting longer. Maybe that only happens in fairytales. Cheryl is nothing if not a good actress. She seems so sincere, doesn't she?

Yet this is the very same Cheryl Cox who was so opposed to having pictures taken at one of her private fundraisers, that her associates not only threw out a young man with a camera, but got District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to investigate him! Jason Moore is now under indictment for allegedly lying about whether he filled out his leave slip before or after he took the two hours off work for Chula Vista mayor Steve Padilla. (Good luck Bonnie and Cheryl, on getting 12 of Jason's peers to convict him. But in the meantime, maybe your doctors could prescribe some pills to make you less mean.)

Cheryl spent six years in control of one of the most secretive public entities in San Diego County, Chula Vista Elementary School District. There is a lawsuit in the works against her for her role in the destruction and alteration of documents, and the creation of phony documents, at CVESD when she was on the board.

Trailer comes loose on Chesapeake Bay Bridge; 3 killed

Last night traffic was snarled for hours at the peak of rush hour when a trailer came loose from an SUV.

Why did the trailer come loose?

The same thing happened to me when I was pulling a U-haul trailer with a U-haul hitch, installed by U-haul. The trailer started swinging from side to side as it hung on to the car by the chains. Fortunately, it was early afternoon on highway 94 in San Diego, and no one was near me.

I found that the bolt that was supposed to hold the trailer to the hitch had disappeared. I lifted the trailer and shoved it back into the hitch. I used a pen in place of a bolt and drove VERY SLOWLY. The pen broke and I lifted the trailer again, but this time I injured my back.

What's wrong here? I suspect that the plastic clip--that holds the bolt in place--broke, and allowed the bolt to slip out.

U-haul--how about a clip redesign?????

Only in California and Haiti do Casinos Regulate Themselves

Here's an interesting post by Cheryl A. Schmit, Founder and Director of Stand Up for California.

"...As of February 2006, the CGCC had only completed six audits of the state’s 55 tribal casinos. The reason given for such lax oversight: the compacts failed to clearly establish the state’s role as independent regulator.

"What’s the effect of this? There have been numerous instances of corruption and theft in tribal casinos. One estimate is that the state received only half of the tribal casino revenues it was due under the 1999 compact. Unlike Las Vegas and other states, California tribal casino patrons have little assurance from independent regulators that the state’s tribal casinos are fair..."

Jason Moore, meet Robin Donlan

Jason Moore, who took two hours off work and caused Cheryl Cox to go after him like a butcher's wife with a carving knife, should be introduced to Robin Donlan.

Robin Donlan is Cheryl Cox's protege. Cox spent hundreds of thousands of public dollars hiding Donlan's crimes against a fellow teacher (and against the people of California) committed from 2000 to 2004.

Cheryl Cox and the rest of the Chula Vista Elementary School District board made sure teachers and administrators at Chula Vista Elementary School District committed perjury regarding Donlan's crimes. The California Teachers Association provided Donlan with legal help and worked with Donlan and the Castle Park Five to create a media attack on Superintendent Lowell Billings, who had the nerve to transfer Donlan out of the school where she was continuing to cause trouble.

Without the support of Cox and Chula Vista Educators, Donlan might have lost the sense of entitlement and invulnerability that caused her to help her husband Vence Donlan fleece Wireless Facilities out of $7.7 million dollars.