Hot off the Press: Hay fields and sore asses edition

The Orange County Fair Board may take up the Governator's proposal to sell the state owned OC Fairgrounds. The purpose of the site as a fair and event center, must not change: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oc-fair-sale16-2009jul16,0,4653089.story. I think the county would be the most suitable stewards of the site, but OC officials say they could only afford to pay $10-20 million.

Furloughs to me and all other UC staff: "Here we come!": http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc16-2009jul16,0,2645355.story.

California leads the nation in rooftop solar power: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/science/earth/16solar.html?ref=us.

Plans for a number of downtown Iowa City high-rises have been put on hold due to the recession: http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090715/NEWS/707159906/1006/NEWS. If you ask me, I hope they stay on hold indefinitely. I have the feeling developers want to attract more affluent residents downtown, out-pricing students and us real people.

Interesting column from the DMR's Mark Hansen about the stigmata of "Chicago people" in Iowa: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090716/NEWS03/907160354/1001/NEWS. Some Iowans are quick to blame newcomers from the Windy City, who are mostly black, for bringing big city problems to small towns in the Hawkeye State. Others say there's no connection. This is something serious that I think Iowans need to address openly because tensions are on the rise. Having grown up in a neighborhood that experienced an influx of former Chicagoans and an increase in crime and gang activity, I think people need to confront the problems as a united community and not polarize residents along lines of race and residential longevity.

Wal-Mart is planning a program to give all their products "eco-rating," which will give shoppers an idea of how environmentally friendly each product and its company is: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/shopping_blog/2009/07/walmart-unveils-ambitious-ecofriendly-program.html. Not shopping at Wal-Mart is the most environmentally conscious, and humanitarian, move.

Interesting BBC piece about the "chao" inside a court hearing in Guantanamo Bay for suspected 9/11 plotters: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8153842.stm.

State tax revenues are at their lowest point in the 46 years the Rockefeller Institute of Government has been collecting quarterly data: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/us/18states.html?_r=1&ref=us.

One-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in the veteran health system have been diagnosed with mental illnesses, mostly PTSD: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=21206913&postID=294217360562812170.

The butter sculpture of Michael Jackson planned to appear at the Iowa State Fair was voted down by an Iowa-only vote, 65 percent to 35 percent: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090717/ENT/90717012.

The jobless rate in Iowa has risen to 6.2 percent, the highest since 1986: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090717/BUSINESS/90717011.

Britain has been accused of shipping and dumping its toxic waste in Ghana and Brazil: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6718689.ece.

Letters between FedEx and a conservative non-profit lobbying group show how Washington really works: support goes to the highest bidder: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-delivery19-2009jul19,0,3106776.story.

After the death of a tourist, San Diego is looking to regulate the growing fleet of pedicabs: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pedicabs19-2009jul19,0,6907717.story. This situation is like a microcosm of the country's current economic crisis. I like this quote:

"Any time you have something that is profitable and unregulated, you're going to run into problems," said pedicab owner-operator Paul Reeves, 34, a UC San Diego graduate in political science and an aspiring documentary filmmaker. "It's gotten out of hand."

Well written NYT op-ed guest piece about the decline of the space program by Tom Wolfe: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/opinion/19wolfe.html?_r=1.

"Going Back in Time to Old England, Sip by Sip": http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19pubs.html?em.

This is an interesting piece. More bodies at the Los Angeles County Coroner are going unclaimed because the next of kin can't afford the funeral costs: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unclaimed21-2009jul21,0,2534079.story. The pic is the insane thing: all those boxes of cremated remains.

On Monday, an amateur astronomer in Australia discovered a fresh impact scar on Jupiter: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/amateur-astronomer-finds-new-earth-size-impact-mark-on-jupiter/?hp. This is really cool news, especially since whatever it was hit Jupiter, the solar system's vacuum, and not us.

This is really sad. Harvard professor and all round cool guy Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested after a neighbor called police to report "two black men trying to force open the front door" of Gates' apartment. Gates and a friend had returned from a trip, and the door was jammed: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/21/us/AP-US-Harvard-Scholar-Disorderly.html?_r=1&ref=us.