RINCON CHAIRMAN WINS AWARD
February 20, 2015 (Valley Center)– Bo Mazzetti, chairman of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, was presented with the Fifth Annual Anna Sandoval Leadership Award at the Western Indian Gaming Conference’s Tribal Leaders’ luncheon, February 11, 2015, at Harrah’s Resort Southern California, in Valley Center, Ca. Daniel Tucker, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) presented the award on behalf of the association. “Like Anna Sandoval, Chairman Mazzetti is a staunch supporter of tribal sovereignty and tribal government gaming. Rincon is always willing to back up their beliefs with action,” stated Tucker. An example is the bad faith lawsuit against former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a six-year court battle that changed the rules for tribal state compact agreements, and was victorious at the United States Supreme Court. “This is a serious honor and I am deeply moved,” said Mazzetti upon receipt of the award. Known for his friendly manner and easy humor, Mazzetti was recognized for the Rincon Band’s economic development under his leadership. Last year, the tribe completed a major $200 million dollar expansion of its gaming property and name change from Harrah’s Rincon to Harrah’s Resort Southern California. “We certainly deserve an award for courage and optimism, as we approved the funds for the Harrah’s expansion during the recession, when the local economy was in questionable condition,” noted Mazzetti, pointing out that the decision has proven to be good timing for today’s market. Along with adding numerous award-winning resort amenities and features, the resort currently boasts the second largest number of guest rooms in San Diego County and nationally recognized brands like Starbucks, Pinks Hot Dogs, and the Earle of Sandwich. The tribe’s investment portfolio includes a number of diverse product companies, not located on the reservation, and a Travel Plaza on the Rincon reservation, featuring the first 7-Eleven franchise with an American Indian tribe and a Subway restaurant. Mazzetti has been instrumental in shouldering the 46-year-old San Luis Rey River water battle to return a share of water to five north county tribes—river water that was diverted in the early 1900’s, devastating the tribes’ agriculture and commercial resources. The water was given away illegally by the Federal government–an action that the tribes and involved water districts have been working to correct with a compromise settlement. ”We are expecting approval of a bill in the Congress this year that will bring to an end years of costly litigation, complicated negotiations, and frustration,” he explained. While an advocate of Indians in high –level executive office in the governor’s cabinet, Mazzetti urged tribal leaders to invest more time and energy in meeting with each other “face to face.” “We need to meet as tribal leaders without lawyers, and lobbyists, and other staff” to discuss our issues and come to consensus. That’s the old way, the Indian way, and we need to get back to it, talking to each other as leaders, not through others.” True to his word, Mazzetti has been active in exporting the example of the Southern California Tribal Chairman’s Association (SCTCA) to the Northern and Central regions of California, to create an active advocate in local regions, as well as tribal leadership conduit for statewide issues and cooperation.
SOLAR GOLD RUSH IN SAN DIEGO: RULES FOR SOLAR CHANGING
Monumental changes in solar market set to spur largest demand in history East County News Service Hear our interview with Erica Johnson, Sullivan Solar Power, on why some solar incentives will soon be going away as well as advice for consumers and ratepayers: http://kiwi6.com/file/3v2a5ryrbc February 20, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)–The rules of solar are changing for California property owners, and property owners who wait for the future will not receive the favorable conditions of today. The first region to lose incentives may be San Diego, where a cap on net metering is close to being attained later this year. The billing arrangement that provides solar owners full retail credit for the energy they put on the grid, called net energy metering, is ending, leaders in the solar energy industry report. Industry experts suggest that homes and businesses that wait until the peak summer months to install a solar power system, will likely miss their chance. “The upcoming changes for solar producers will undoubtedly create an unprecedented demand,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of locally-based Sullivan Solar Power, whose clientele includes UC San Diego, the Port of San Diego and San Diego State University. “Property owners that wait until June to sign up to go solar may miss their chance to receive the full retail credit that current solar producers receive.” Net energy metering will end once a certain amount of solar is installed in each utility territory, and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) will be the first utility to reach its cap. Anyone that installs solar before the cap is hit will receive full retail credit for energy they produce, and will be grandfathered in for 20-years. Once net metering ends, new homes and businesses that install solar will receive less credit for the energy they produce. “The period for going solar under the current net metering rules could end for SDG&E customers by December or even earlier, depending on how many people install solar this year,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA). In order for property owners to get grandfathered in to current rules, the projects must be installed. A signed contract will not reserve a property’s space in the queue. Under normal market conditions, it takes an average of 120 days for a project to be delivered from the time paperwork is signed to installation completion. The solar industry is anticipating a bottleneck for installations, city permitting, and utility inspections. “We are informing all San Diego property owners that are interested in going solar that they need to sign up by May in order to receive the current favorable rules and grandfathering protections,” said Sullivan, who has been providing solar to the region for a decade, “September is when there’s the greatest demand for solar, but it is unlikely that people who wait until then will be installed before the rules change.” In addition to the local changes, solar policy is going to become less favorable on a national level as well. The tax credit, which covers 30 percent of a solar project, is currently the largest incentive available for property owners that invest in solar. The federal tax credit for solar is ending in 2016 for residential properties, and will be reduced to 10 percent for commercial property owners. “The solar industry has been the fastest growing industry in the United States in the past two years,” Erica Johnson with Sullivan Solar Power told ECM. She encouraged the public to contact their federal legislators to ask that the federal tax credit be extended. The vanishing incentives are due largely to utility industry lobbying, said Johnson, who indicates that utilities prefer highly profitable industrial-scale desert solar or wind projects to rooftop solar. “Given changes that will be coming next year and favorable conditions right now, there has never been a better time to go solar,” Del Chiaro concludes. For additional information on the changing rules of solar in the San Diego market, call Sullivan Solar Power at 1-800-SULLIVAN or visit www.sullivansolarpower.com.
SERIAL BURGLARY SUSPECTS BUSTED
East County News Service February 20, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Two men suspected of a series of 15 commercial burglaries in La Mesa from are under arrest. Both are also connected to burglaries in El Cajon and Oceanside, according to a statement issued by La Mesa Police. The crimes occurred between December 6th and February 2nd at businesses along the La Mesa Boulevard corridor from 2 to 5 a.m. by two men who reportedly fled in a silver or gray Dodge Caravan. La Mesa Police, working with the San Diego County Probation Department, arrested 31-year-old Carlos Olvera at a home in Lakeside on February 13th. A follow-up investigation led to arrest of 22-year-old Thomas Martin in San Diego. La Mesa detectives are working with detectives from El Cajon and Oceanside police departments on a continuing investigation. The suspects were booked at San Diego County Jail. Olvera is charged with commercial burglary, possession of methamphetamine for sale, and possession of burglary tools. Martin is charged with commercial burglary, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of methamphetamine, and resisting or obstructing a peace officer’s duties. Additional charges on both subjects may be filed pending the outcome of follow-up investigations.
READER’S EDITORIAL: H.R.493 – IS MORE THAN AMNESTY FOR THE INDUSTRY’S EAGLE SLAUGHTER
“When you can no longer hide and you have not obeyed the law, just ask your friends in Congress to bail you out. This is what this Bill represents.” By Jim Wiegand February 16, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) –For those that do not believe America has lost its way, all one has to do is look at the relationship between the wind industry and Washington D.C. Unbiased observers will see a shell game democracy funneling out untold billions for a highly destructive and inefficient “energy strategy”. One of the primary benefactors of this arrangement is a Washington based group of panhandlers know as the wind industry. But this industry’s windfall set up with Washington is threatened because word of this industry’s undisclosed impacts is reaching the public. Why wind industry profits are at risk In the last several years it has come to the attention of the American people that the wind industry is not what it appears to be. Industry research has been rigged and this industry has been killing millions of highly protected species, including thousands of eagles with their “green” eco-friendly turbines. The public has also been made aware of the fact that there have been approximately 31,000 eagles sent to the Eagle Repository in Denver since 1997. The source of these carcasses has not been disclosed, however finding an eagle carcass is a very rare event, so it is obvious that a large number of these eagle carcasses have come from around wind farms. After all the most likely place for a person to ever find an eagle carcass is at or in the vicinity of a wind farm. These areas are patrolled regularly and turbines are well known killers of eagles. Since 1997 orders filled by the Eagle Repository for eagle bodies and parts have increased by 366%, from 1213 in to 4438 in 2013. Since 1997 a much higher percentage of the eagle carcasses received by the Eagle Repository are mutilated and parted out than in the past, a condition typically caused by wind turbine blade strikes. Also keep in mind that the regions that now ship the most eagle carcasses to the repository are the regions that have installed the most wind energy in eagle habitat since 2006 This ugly secret of dead eagles had remained hidden for years behind rigged research and a culture of unaccountability created specifically by the Interior Department for the wind industry. Dead eagles are just of small part of the fraud being put over on the public by the wind industry. This industry’s deception includes the slaughter of endangered species, hiding over 90% of turbine mortality, false energy projections, and the illusion that these inefficient turbines can magically fix climate. But what makes all these eagles being killed by turbines so special is that their carcasses have left a clear trail to follow. An easy trail to follow if Congress and the Interior Department had not put up road blocks. This carcass trail is not the only one because other highly protected species, which include endangered species and raptors, are being collected by the FWS and not accounted for. It was not long ago, when far fewer wind turbines dotted the landscape, that wind turbines were listed by the FWS as one of the primary sources of eagle carcasses being sent to the National Eagle Repository, Denver. It was even proven in the 1990’s that wind turbines were the number one killer of eagles when placed in their habitat. Below is a statement made by the FWS before they were censored about how deadly wind turbines are to eagles. This slaughter did not deter this industry. In order to protect the wind industry’s heavily guarded secrets about eagle mortality, it armed themselves with layers of gag orders, and voluntary regulations were put in place so the deception could continue. FWS agents were even silenced with new regulations and the threat of 3 years in prison. As a result the public has been deliberately misled. Instead of hearing the truth about these turbines killing off species the public has been fed a steady diet of propaganda. The ignorant public has been deliberately misled with deflective non-scientific research about other forms of bird mortality like cats, windows, communication towers, buildings, oil spills, coal plants etc. Much of this bogus research was created by many of the same shills that had been rigging wind industry mortality studies for years. What all this deflective research left out was that all these factors contribute very little to eagle mortality and these factors have nothing to do with the wind industry’s eagle slaughter taking place on America’s ridgelines. With the help the Interior Department this dead eagle information and accountability for this slaughter has been very elusive. This industry was given voluntary regulations and this is the reason Federal Fish and Wildlife Permit Applications and eagle take (kill) reports state “information requested in this form is purely voluntary”. Even management activities associated with incidental take permits and habitat conservation plans (HCP) “to enhance, restore, or maintain habitat benefiting federally listed, proposed or candidate species” are voluntary. None of this protects wildlife from unethical profiteers. The sins of omission and silence Under this we won’t ask and you don’t tell arrangement the wind industry has succeeded to hide most of their horrendous turbine mortality impacts. Only a few short years ago the endangered whooping crane population was expanding at a steady rate and the FWS proudly gave out accurate population numbers. That all changed after 2007 when thousands of “green” and “clean energy” wind turbines invaded their extensive Central Flyway habitat. This population did not fall prey to cats, windows, communication towers, buildings, oil spills, coal plants etc. They fell prey to profits, and like many species they have been put on a fast track to extinction. This is especially true for the highly vulnerable endangered species living in Hawaii. These are some of the hideous truths about this industry and now
TARGET AGREES TO PAY $4 MILLION FOR OVERCHARGING CUSTOMERS
East County News Service February 18, 2015 (San Diego) – Target Corp. has agreed to pay $4 million to settle a complaint of overcharging consumers filed by the San Diego City Attorney, the Marin County District Attorney and other law enforcement agencies in additional counties. Target was accused of overcharging customers by charging higher prices at cash register scanners than the prices posted in store aisles. The company was also accused of misrepresenting weights on its packaged foods. Target operates 19 stores in San Diego County. Investigations by County Weights and Measures departments in six counties found hundreds of violations in pricing that led to overcharges. San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith calls the settlement “a big win for consumer protection.” Target admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, but will pay over $3.3 million in penalties and reimburse investigating agencies $388,618, as well as paying $200,000 in restitution to consumers. The retailer will also implement new procedures to assure price accuracy. Under the settlement, in which Target admitted no wrongdoing, the company will pay more than $3.3 million in penalties, reimburse the investigating agencies $388,618 in costs and pay $200,000 in restitution to consumers. Additionally, Target agreed to implement new compliance procedures to help ensure price accuracy. Under the terms of the latest settlement, Target agreed to implement additional price accuracy procedures in its California stores, including weekly price audits. Target will designate personnel to walk the entire store weekly to make sure that expired sales tags are removed from shelves.