Farmworker Communities Disrupt Public Hearing, Protesting Regulation of Cancer-causing Pesticide as Racist

BY YANELY MARTINEZ AND MARK WELLER

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

"Die-in” action with chants of “DPR, you can’t hide; we can see your racist side” at DPR hearing in Salinas.

On Jan. 16, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) public hearing at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas on its draft regulation of cancer-causing 1,3-dichloropropene (aka 1,3-D, brand name Telone) was interrupted by more than a dozen protesters surrounding the podium in a mock “die-in”, while teenagers unfurled large bilingual banners saying “DPR is racist!” and the crowd of over 100 chanted “DPR, you can’t hide; we can see your racist side!” 

The chaotic scene followed 40 speakers who criticized DPR’s draft rule that addresses only “occupational bystanders” and relies on completely different assumptions of lifetime cancer risk exposure than the law regulating the same pesticide towards children and residents near agricultural fields. Speaker after speaker expressed anger and frustration that DPR has not justified the use of cancer risk targets that allow children and residents to be exposed to 14 times more 1,3-D than adult workers in neighboring fields. 

DPR’s draft is grounded in assumptions that “occupational bystanders” -- farmworkers in fields near but not in the application site – can be exposed to air with 1,3-D concentrations of an average of 0.21 parts per billion (ppb), while at work for 8 hours a day and 5 days a week for 40 years. This cancer risk exposure level also assumes the farmworkers will not be exposed to 1,3-D outside of work, which DPR maintains will keep the occupational bystander exposure level below an average of 0.04 ppb per 24-hour day.

The 0.04 ppb per day 1,3-D exposure threshold is what most of the speakers said should be the one standard for all California residents, as that is the legal lifetime cancer risk level determined by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA, see below). But DPR currently sets – and has announced no plans to change – the daily exposure target for children and residents at a fourteen times higher level of 0.56 ppb.

“It’s good that DPR is finally using the OEHHA findings for some. But why not all? It is not scientific to say that children — and we’re talking about mostly Latino children here — have a different lifetime cancer risk tolerance than adults. It is outrageous to say that children can be exposed to fourteen times more cancer causing 1,3-D than adults,” said Jacob Sandoval, State Director of California League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "Everybody should get the same health protective regulation that keeps 1,3-D levels below the 0.04 parts per billion per day standard set by OEHHA."

Lifetime cancer risk exposure levels: “Separate and unequal”

In June of 2022, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a lifetime cancer warning threshold or “no significant risk level” (NSRL) for the cancer-causing pesticide 1,3-dichloropropene (aka 1,3-D, brand name Telone) of 3.7 micrograms per day.

Breathing air contaminated with 0.04 parts per billion (ppb) of 1,3-D exposes one to 3.7 micrograms per day.

Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of 1,3-D, argued with OEHHA that the NSRL for 1,3-D should be 50 micrograms per day, the equivalent of breathing air concentrated with 0.56 ppb of 1,3-D.

On Jan. 1, 2024, DPR implemented its new regulation for 1,3-D use regarding residential bystanders, setting the target exposure level at 0.56 ppb – allowing for 14 times more 1,3-D in the air than the State’s official lifetime cancer risk threshold, and aligning perfectly with Dow Chemical’s stated desires.

In this current draft regulation, DPR has adopted OEHHA’s lifetime cancer risk level as the target exposure limit for occupational bystanders, given assumptions that these workers are exposed to 1,3-D only during work hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The new draft 0.21 ppb target for partial days and 40-year work-life is based upon the assumption that work-limited exposure would be equivalent to full day exposure for 70 years at 0.04 ppb.

“Where is this farmworker who only works 8am to 4pm and is never exposed to 1,3-D before or after work, including childhood and retirement, because that’s the only person who will be protected by this regulation?" said Dr. Ann Lopez, Executive Director of the Center for Farmworker Families. "In all my years, I have never met such a farmworker. This regulation will protect no one.”

The six pesticide air monitors the State has employed have all registered average air concentrations of 1,3-D above OEHHA’s lifetime cancer risk threshold of 0.04 parts per billion, including at Ohlone Elementary School in Pajaro, Bonita Elementary School in Santa Maria, and Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard.  

"Working in Ventura County over the years as a substitute teacher, you hear of so many students and staff at schools near the fields who have cancer,” said Ventura area education worker Kari Aist. “Most of those kids are people of color. Rio Mesa High, for instance, surrounded by fields, is 94% people of color. Those are the kids who will continue to be exposed to 1,3-D. DPR’s regulation is a policy of environmental racism.”

According to recent US and California government data, an average person in the eleven California counties with a majority Latino population as compared to the twenty-five counties with the smallest Latino proportions (less than 24% — those who live in the 11 most Latino counties are 3 times as likely to be Latino) lives where there is ten times more carcinogenic 1,3-dichloropropene applied per person. The two groups of counties are similar in population size and combined total area.

Yanely Martinez, Safe Ag Safe Schools and Central Coast organizer for Californians for Pesticide Reform commented: “The impact of DPR’s ‘separate and unequal’ regulation is more money for Dow and more cancer for our farmworker communities. It’s a racist policy.”

What is 1,3-dichloropropene?

The pesticide 1,3-dichloropropene or 1,3-D was first registered in the US in 1954 (California, 1970) as a soil fumigant used to control nematodes. It has been manufactured by Dow Chemical under the brand Telone II.1,3-D is a colorless to straw-colored liquid with a sharp, sweet, irritating odor. It is a drift-prone fumigant pesticide used to kill organisms in the soil prior to planting, applied mostly on strawberry and grape fields in the Central Coast and almonds and walnuts in the San Joaquin Valley.

The fumigant is injected into the ground or applied by drip lines. While most applications on the coast are covered with tarps, most inland applications are not. 1,3-D drifts initially from wind and later from volatilization for many miles at health-harming concentrations. The pesticide may also get into our water supply, as did a previous version of Telone discontinued in the late 1980s, which contained the carcinogen 1,2,3-TCP that persists in some California water systems to this day.

What are the health risks associated with 1,3-D?

Acute harms include immediate exposure symptoms from high air levels due to drift: irritation of skin and nose, as well as possible slow weight gain in infants. Very high exposure to 1,3-D, such as a spill, can cause nausea, vomiting, headache, depression and damage to liver, intestines, and bladder, and difficulty breathing.

The long-term health threats from chronic exposure to even tiny amounts of 1,3-D over time can cause cancer, damage to the lining of the nose, and may pollute groundwater. 1,3-D is listed as a Prop 65 carcinogen and a Toxic Air Contaminant by the State of California.

1,3-D is banned in 40 countries, but not in the US. The pesticide was prohibited in California between 1990 and 1995 after high air concentration levels were recorded in the Central Valley.

Angel Garcia, Co-Director of Californians for Pesticide Reform said, “Our regulations should be driven by health-protective science. If DPR can get away with manipulating their regulations so they avoid the conclusions of our State’s own toxicologists at OEHHA, well, they’ll do it again and again. This is Trump’s approach to regulation – profits before people. We must resist that and insist that science drives policy in California and right now on 1,3-D.”

Written public comments regarding DPR’s draft regulation of 1,3-D can be emailed to DPR no later than Jan. 24. 

BDS: Moral Outrage and Nonviolent Catalyst for Change

BY SHEILA CARRILLO

Challenged with an inability to remember dates and facts, history was my most dreaded subject. So it’s ironic that I often write about politics from a historical perspective to shed light on inconsistencies and political conniving. Currently involved in a local boycott of Israeli goods and services, a nonviolent strategy to bring a halt to what is ever-more-widely viewed as a genocide, I’m aware that the U.S. relationship to BDS (boycott, divest and sanctions has historically been rife with contradictions. 

According to Wikipedia, “a boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest….usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons….to inflict economic loss…indicate a moral outrage, usually to try to compel the target to alter objectionable behavior.” 

Boycotts played a significant role in the founding of our country. During the American Revolution (1765-1783), the thirteen British colonies, struggling to gain independence from British rule, dumped British tea imports into the sea — shamefully disguised as native Americans — to protest unfair taxation. The following year, the 1774 First Continental Congress urged colonists to avoid using British goods. 

Pretty much every school child learns about the legendary 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to sit in the back of the bus as required by Jim Crow laws. The massive 13 month boycott by African Americans of the City’s buses concluded with a landmark Supreme Court decision that segregation on buses is unconstitutional. (Yet it was more than a decade before segregation itself was outlawed.)

In the early 70’s, inspired by years of United Farm Worker (UFW) strikes and boycotts calling attention to the abusive living/working conditions of Central Valley farmworkers, I remember taking part in what was my first engagement with a boycott — at Safeway in Felton. New to Santa Cruz and living in Ben Lomond, I joined a picket line to support the United Farmworker boycott of Safeway stores, the largest grocery chain at the time. Safeway stores in Northern California were undermining the UFW’s historic, recently-formed union by buying and selling produce from union-boycotted growers and funding anti-union forces. Boycotts of lettuce, grapes, and Gallo wine products raised public awareness ending with improved working conditions, better wages, and union contracts. 

I witnessed the successful South African anti-apartheid movement, which overlapped with UFW boycotts. Thirty years of world-wide activism and education resulted in isolation and downfall of the brutal South African government. The power of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) of South African musicians, artists, sport teams, and products, in concert with corporate, business, and university divestment and church activism, brought down the regime in 1994.

Significant to my narrative is the fact that the Truman Administration (1945-53) chose not to join the protest of South Africa’s apartheid system established in 1949, prioritizing retaining South Africa as an ally for economic benefit and its anti-Communist stance against the Soviet Union. Truman’s unconscionable support of apartheid South Africa set the stage for successive administrations to covertly continue U.S. support. Eventually, a congressional override of President Reagan's veto resulted in the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, the U.S. finally taking a stance four decades into the regime.

Fast forward to 2005 when, inspired by South African BDS success, an international Palestinian-led BDS movement formed to pressure Israel to end illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. A brouhaha in my Santa Cruz Jewish community over a scheduled BDS study/conference prompted my investigative travel to Palestine in 2016. 

Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was that Israelis and Palestinians had different color license plates, facilitating travel on segregated roads. In a refugee camp, I was astonished to learn that a Palestinian/Jewish couple had to marry in Jordan, couldn’t live together in Israel, and had to secure rare permission to visit family there. 

As an American Jew, who married a Latino man against my Jewish parents’ wishes, I can relate to author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who told the New York Times on return from his recent trip to Israel, that going to Palestine was “a huge shock,” that he felt “a responsibility to yell” about what he describes as apartheid likened to segregated Jim Crow South. 

Among many voices condemning Israel’s unconscionable response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, South Africa’s allegation of "acts and omissions" by Israel that "are genocidal in character” (BBC, May ’24) ring loudest in my ears. “Our opposition to the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza has driven us…to approach the ICJ (International Court of Justice)” as “a people who once tasted the bitter fruits of dispossession, discrimination, racism, and state-sponsored violence….” (TIME Feb.14, 2024)

Recently, I was surprised and delighted to receive an email from Analyst News that reported some of the many impressive and little reported successes of the Israel BDS movement. 

• American cities are divesting/taking action: In September, Portland, Maine became the fourth U.S. city voting to cut investments from companies doing business with Israel. Nationwide, activists are pushing local and state governments to divest from Israeli bonds. Palm Beach County Florida residents sued their county government for holding $700 million in Israeli bonds. 
• Scotiabank:  Protests led this major Canadian bank to cut shares in Elbit Systems— an Israeli arms manufacturer— by half.
• Elbit-owned company in Massachusetts shut its doors: KMC Systems, an engineering company owned by top Israeli weapon-maker Elbit Systems, quietly closed shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts after months of weekly pro-Palestinian protests
• North American trade union divested from Israel: the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades divested the group’s international pension fund from companies supporting the destruction in Gaza. 
• Canadian, Irish and American universities negotiate/divest from Israel: Trinity College Dublin became one of the first universities cutting ties with Israeli companies following a five-night encampment; San Francisco State University divested from Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Leonardo, over ties to Israel; Ontario Tech University was first major Canadian school signing an agreement with protestors to disclose and review its investments and fund scholarships for displaced Palestinians. Montreal’s Concordia University’s student union transferred $10 million investments out of Scotiabank over ties with Elbit.

And the U.S. reaction to this BDS movement?

In our great wisdom, 2019 saw both passage of U.S. Senate S.1, containing the Combatting BDS Act and a House resolution condemning boycotts of Israel. In 2023, Congress passed S.1637 which allows a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities using BDS to influence Israel's policies. By 2024, 37 states passed bills and executive orders, many with bipartisan support, designed to discourage boycotts of Israel. 

In 2020, Biden’s campaign said it “firmly rejects” the Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in the US and elsewhere. And recently, with 46,000 mostly women and children dead, Biden announced, as a parting gesture, $8 million more of our tax dollars for Israel to bomb hospitals and schools!

Locally, Palestine Solidarity Central Coast (PSCC) is boycotting Chevron for fueling genocide and provides local not-to-buy guide: Internationall BDS Movement. Click HERE to join the boycott of Israel to end this genocide.

It's Cold Outside

BY BRENT ADAMS



Warming Center Program's robust Hypothermia Protection Project is going strong, but we need your help to sustain it through this winter season. Our programs are 100% community supported and this work receives no sustaining funds from city, county, state or federal government. We are a community of caring individuals who take responsibility for each other and ensure that not one person must suffer extreme cold outside.

Warming Wednesday is 12-3pm at 150 Felker St. At the river side gate, anyone who sleeps outside can obtain a tent, blankets, jackets, shoes, clothing, hygiene items, first aid supplies, etc. Many items are purchased new including: tents, blankets, men's pants, underwear, beanies and gloves, umbrellas, rain ponchos, handwarmers and hygiene stuff. You might imagine how expensive this project can be, given that most people will need to revisit this program multiple times this season.

Donated items can go to the Donation Barrel at REI Sports, Commercial Way and 150 Felker St. where there is a Donation Portal through the fence.

Donate funding support: At warmingcenterprogram.com or write a check and send to: Warming Center Program

PO Box 462 Santa Cruz, CA 95061

Contact:

Emergency Homeless Hotline: (831) 246-1234. Office: (831) 588-9892

warmingcenterprogram@gmail.com IG: @warmingcenterprogram

SC County has Joined the Anti-genocide Class Action Lawsuit — Wanna Sign On?

BY UNHAE LANGIS

A class action lawsuit, Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG) in Gaza, started in 10 counties in Northern California, but has now expanded to 19 counties. That covers the entire jurisdiction of the US Federal Court District of Northern California which and includes the greater Bay Area extending down to Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Sign on HERE.

In order to include Rep. Jimmy Panetta in the lawsuit, four of his constituents have joined as plaintiffs: UCSC professor Christine Hong, Peter Klotz-Chamberlin, Meg Sandow, and I. For more on Panetta's appalling record and his restrictions of free speech, see info below.* He does not represent a considerable constituency in our District 19 that denounces our tax dollars being used to kill women and children. If you also feel this way, add your name to this lawsuit.

We now have over 800 class members in NorCal counties and this will only keep growing in the weeks and months to come. Let's surpass 1000 members. There are no financial obligations to signing. For all intents and purposes, your name will remain unknown; it may be publicly accessible only if the court asks us to produce the list.

We are also having a webinar on Jan. 25, 10am to go into more depth about the class action, especially for people across the US, hundreds of whom have been emailing us with interest in replicating the action in their communities. The registration link is HERE.

Panetta's Record

Panetta’s voting record since 2017 reveals a rightwing agenda with consistent support of Israeli occupation and war. He has voted to cut all U.S. funding for the principal United Nations agency providing humanitarian relief for Palestinian refugees while opposing any conditions on military aid to Netanyahu. 

Panetta condemned both South Africa’s case of genocide made against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court’s request of arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders. In the second action, he even voted with House Republicans to sanction the International Criminal Court, in a resolution that dismissed the court’s charges as “illegitimate and baseless.” He sided with House Republicans again to prohibit the State Department from citing casualty statistics from the Gaza Health Ministry. 

When Biden suspended one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, Panetta joined 25 hawkish Democrats in protest. 

In the 2023-2024 campaign fundraising cycle, Panetta received $273,700 from pro-Israel funders and over $275,000 from the arms industry. 

Panetta has proudly assisted thousands of his constituents in navigating bureaucracy “to make the federal government work for you.” Yet he has not helped one of his constituents, Palestinian American teacher Rolla Alaydi —whose story was featured in The New York Times — to get the 21 members of her family out of Gaza. He contradicts his self-description on his website: “As a former prosecutor, I delivered justice for victims and their families and worked to reduce violent crime.” 

Panetta has equally forsaken his Filipino constituents, who fear mounting possibilities of an Asia Pacific war with China (which will intensify in Trump 2.0), using the already poverty-stricken Philippines as a U.S.’s military base. Panetta is part of a bipartisan delegation further forging these military ties in violation of the Philippine Human Rights Act, increasing the threat of war. He was in the Philippines last summer.

He brazenly met with Netanyahu just before the November election, in defiance of the hundreds of taxpayers who have protested his pro-Israel actions without any meaningful response.

Thermal Runaway in Lithium Batteries Not So Clean Energy in Moss Landing BY SARAH RINGLER

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Moss Landing Power Plant shown 6 days after the thermal runaway. The batteries were was still smoldering.

Tarmo and I started out to Moss Landing last Thursday to meet with some friends for a seafood dinner at the Sea Harvest. One of the couples, with their 7 year-old son, were coming from Australia to visit family; they had moved from here about eight years ago.

We met at 3pm. As we arrived, we heard a faint alarm sound in the distance. Having gone through so many fire drills as a public-school teacher, I barely heard it. Tarmo, a journalist, registered and remembered it, but we proceeded on to the restaurant. It was wonderful to get together, see each other and squeeze in what we could in such a short time. Cynthia had been Norma and my Zumba teacher at the Cayuga Vault and we both had a lot of respect for her. 

After late lunch, we headed to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas for the third out of four public hearings sponsored by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation regarding the continued use of 1,3-D, that is toxic, carcinogenic and has been banned in 40 countries. The testimonies were powerful with160 out of 163 speakers asking for a ban claiming the draft regulation for continued use is unscientific and racist since the application of the fungicide is mostly used in areas — and done by — Latine farmworkers. Read the top story above.

We headed back home to Watsonville around 7:30. We could not get home via Hwy 1; it had been closed for safety. That faint siren we had heard earlier was caused by a thermal runaway at the 300-MegaWatt Phase 1 energy storage facility at the Moss Landing Power Plant site. Curious, we drove around Castroville and from the outskirts of town could see the flames and smoke blowing out of the plant. Traffic was backed up, and gawkers like us had windows down watching the phenomenon. Eventually we drove home by San Miquel Canyon Rd. See the Monterey County slide show about the event HERE.

I wasn’t completely ignorant about the power plant. In September 2022, the adjoining 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack had a thermal runaway that caused Hwy. 1 to be closed for 12 hours. I wrote about it in the Sept. 29, 2023 issue of Serf City Times. 

It was the third thermal runaway at the site and out of confusion by first responders, Senator John Laird got passed SB 38, a bill that demanded emergency response and action plans for plants like these. Lithium battery fires are left to burn out by themselves. Water makes things worse. It is unclear at this point if those plans had been completely filed before this event. 

Flames and smoke weren’t the only evidence that something had gone wrong. At a town hall meeting held at the Prunedale Grange on Monday, the hastlly formed Moss Landing Community Response Group, vented about what happened and what they wanted to know and what they wanted done. Over 200 showed up.

It was easy to see that the plume moved east on Thursday and people around Prunedale were detecting acrid smells and tastes which one woman from Echo Valley described as being in a room that has held old swimming pool chlorine. She washed her face but neglected to adequately scrub her forehead. It turned red and started breaking out in little bumps. A fisherman at the boat harbor in Moss Landing reported yellow dust coating his boat that he ended up sweeping off the boat into the harbor, not knowing what else to do. He wasn't the only one. Others reported metallic taste, oily substances and burning eyes and lungs. Another woman said the tastes and smells reminded her of when she was going through chemotherapy when she was treated for cancer. Later the plume drifted north east. At night no one could visually tell where it went. Air quality sites like https://www.airnow.gov/ don't test for Hydrogen Fluoride gas, one of the toxic chemicals released when lithium burns. It was difficult to get accurate information. I called Santa Cruz Public Health on the next morning after the event and they recommended I put on a covid mask. Channel 8 KSBW News was one of the most reliable and accessible sources of information.

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose district covers Moss Landing, Pajaro, Elkhorn and Prunedale, spoke at the Moss Landing Community Response Group meeting. He noted that there is no way to easily control for lithium battery fires. He was part of a group that called the meeting. He wanted to gather public input before he spoke at the Monterey County Supervisors' meeting the next day. He said that last May, the Gateway Energy storage facility in Otay Mesa burned for 28 days after the batteries caught fire. He also described how San Jose firefighters deal with Tesla fires; first they let it burn out, then put it on a truck, take it to the landfill where it is put in a hole in the ground and left for 30 days.

According to Jan. 18, an Autoblog story, "Burning Teslas in LA add toxic barriers to wildfire cleanup" writer Elijah Nicholson-Messmer who was quoting a Bloomberg story, said that clean up from the fires in Los Angeles have been hindered by the many electric vehicles and home-battery storage systems in the area. This has delayed cleanup and residents ability to return to their property. 

Church made it clear that safety has to come first and that he will work to make sure that this plant needs to be shut down. He added that closing down these operations is going to be very difficult. Powerful interests, like Tesla’s Elon Musk, have a lot to gain — like the richest man in the world needs more money. AI needs computers that can process a lot of data and use a lot of electricity. Morro Bay Supervisor Dawn Addis is from an area the voted down the construction of a lithium Battery Storage plant there. Church said the state is trying to pass legislation where it could override those local laws. Locally, according to Lookout Santa Cruz, New Leaf Energy out of Massachusetts is hoping to build battery energy storage systems in an 14 acre apple orchard on Minto Lane near Watsonville.

We need energy solutions that are certifiably safe before they are rolled out into our communities. Is that too much to ask?

Governor Newsom's comments that the "state is still adjusting to newer technologies" demonstrates a belief that the public are guinea pigs to big ideas and big money whether it's the petrochemical companies or people promising clean energy. Unfortunately, again, we have to find out the hard way. And for anyone who heartlessly points out that no one died in this incident, no one died in Three Mile Island either. But a peer researched paper by Dr. Steven Wing found significan increases in cancer rates between 1979-1985 for people who lived 10 miles from the nuclear plant.

Petition to Halt Battery Storage in Monterey and Santa Cruz County

Here is a contact list:

Governor Gavin Newsom    phone 916-445-2841

California Energy Commission 

Public Utilities Commission 

California Independent Systems Operator phone 916-608-7320

Vistra Corporation phone 214-812-5777  

Monterey County Clerk of the Board 

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors    

De-escalation Training for Responders - Jan. 29 at 6:30-8:30pm at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. RSVP HERE

Burning Times

BY KATHLEEN KILPATRICK



Whose library, what book, 

the edges of the page aflame, 

alighted on that patch 

of dry grass, the wooden lattice, 

sparks crawling toward 

that building, lined 

with the belongings 

of strangers to the story, 

their products manufactured

from primeval plants, 

the bones of dinosaurs, 

trapped many million years ago 

by greater cataclysms? 

Have you seen the eucalyptus, 

invaders from afar, 

burst like Roman candles? 

The remnants of an ancient 

redwood forest, still standing 

as all beneath it burns? 

Oaks and willows, withered,

browned into eternal autumn? 

Our golden hills turned black? 

Who spreads blame, 

who will share it? 

Who will align to help, 

who will give all? 

The ones with wealth 

have other houses, 

the stars will rise again. 

Who grieves for those 

newly or already homeless, 

for those who cooked,

and cleaned and pruned,

for those who roamed 

the hills now charred, 

for peacocks and wild animals 

displaced from habitats 

that were their refuge? 

Who fiddles

with their thumbs,

heedless as Rome burns?

Some day, we will be

the fossils we have consumed

to fuel our rise…

CARTOON BY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

California Oak Savannah

BY WOODY REHANEK  

California oak savannah:

chocolate, cinnamon, burnt orange

housing prices out of range

tarnished silver dollar dreams

Somewhere beyond the hills & valleys

lies the golden land

peace of mind, a gentle Jordan

inhabiting quiet & calm

Tough winds tussle black branch

structures/states of mind

tropical daydreams circle the palms

inventing ourselves a thousand times

There will always be footprints of words

scrawling smeared tracks in the sand

& the same old struggles emerge.

We can do more than we imagine.

One spark changes everything.

PHOTO TARMO HANNULA

A Townsend's warbler picks its way through an apple tree in Watsonville.

Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report - Covid Cases Rising

By SARAH RINGLER

The California Department of Public Health and Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly release data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county as well as information on influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and Mpox. Since cases of Covid are still appearing, and there are still vulnerable people, I will continue reporting the graphs below.

The three graphs below were updated on Jan. 22.

The first graph is the Effective Reproductive Number. When the line rises above one, it shows that the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing. 

The second graph below shows data that the Health Department collects for Covid from wastewater at the City Influent, for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county.



The third graph below shows hospitalizations.

PHOTO BY TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street - A man walks his dog during a light rain across the Salz Tannery grounds in Santa Cruz.

Labor History Calendar - Jan. 24-30, 2025

a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget

Jan. 24, 1911: Labor journalist Shusui Denjjiro Kotoku and 11 other anarchisht hanged in Japan. 

Jan. 25, 1851: Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women’s rights convention.

Jan. 25, 1926: 16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, New Jersey. 

Jan. 26, 1990: South African railroad workers win 12-week strike – 30 killed. 

Jan. 27, 1920: Kansas miners strike against compulsory arbitration.

Jan. 27, 1986: 500 Hormel workers locked out for honoring picket line in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Jan. 27, 1994: Spanish general strike against labor “reforms.”

Jan. 28, 1861: American Miners’ Association formed.

Jan. 28, 1942: Australian troops armed with machine guns, rifles and bayonets attack 500 striking Chinese sailors killing one. Many were arrested in Fremantle.

Jan. 29, 1737: Birth of Thomas Paine.

Jan. 29, 1936: Sit-down strike helps establish United Rubber Workers as national union in Akron, Ohio.

Jan. 29, 2017: Airports occupied in solidarity with victims of US travel ban.

Jan. 29, 2024: The workers of City Lights Bookstore and Publishers in San Francisco have been recognized voluntarily by the CEO of City Lights Books, Elaine Katzenberger and are thrilled to announce they have a union, part of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Jan. 30, 2015: Turkish government bans strike by 15,000 metalworkers. 

Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.

“The nation faces forward. It is made and remade every day. If we believe that the nation resides in the orderly recitations of history given to us by our leaders, then our story is over.”

— Timothy Snyder

PHOTO BY SARAH RINGLER

Out of This World - People enjoy dining in one of the many plazas in Zacatecas, Mexico during the annual International Folkloric Dance Festival held the first week of August.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Sparrow Grass is Asparagus

By SARAH RINGLER

It’s the very thin angel hair pasta that carries the cream and asparagus tips into a simple, yet classy, spring meal. Emalee Chapman, who compiled the cookbook “Fifteen Minute Meals,” noted that she had this for lunch in Venice on the terrace of her hotel. It is one of my favorite pasta dishes for this time of year. 

Asparagus are a spring time vegetable with a long history. Wild, native varieties grow across a large swath that flows across Europe, east to the Middle East and on to northern Asia where - I’m sure – it was happily added to their menu.  Before the asparagus flowered, locals would snap off the stalks above their woody base, then cook and eat them. With a unique, and slightly metallic and sulfuric taste, they are popular around the world. 

United States, Germany and Canada are the world’s largest importers. China is, by far, the largest commercial producer. Many places around the world celebrate it with Oceana County in Michigan and Schwetzingen, Germany considering themselves the “asparagus capitals of the world.” In our state, Stockton has a yearly festival.

Different parts of the world called the vegetable different names. In 11th century England, it was called sparagus, and later evolved into some parts of England being called “sparrow grass.” 

You will just use the tops of the asparagus cut into thin, flexible diagonal strips that combine well with the pasta and cream. Parmesan cheese adds more flavor. The rest of the stalk that is not woody makes a nice soup or green vegetable. As it boils, cream thickens but make sure to use a large enough frying pan as the cream will rise up when boiling. Gradually it will reduce and thicken to form a rich sauce that takes on the subtle flavor of the asparagus.  

Angel Hair Pasta with Asparagus

3 quarts water

12-20 asparagus stalks, depending on thickness of the stalks 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups heavy cream

8-12 ounces dried angel hair pasta or capellini

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

Cut off 3-inch pieces from the tops of the asparagus. (Save the rest for making soup.) Then cut tips on the diagonal into thin biased slices.

Heat butter in a medium size sauté pan or skillet over medium heat. Add slices of asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Add cream and boil rapidly for 3 minutes until it reduces and thickens. 

Add pasta to boiling water and boil for about 3-4 minutes. Drain pasta and put it into a warm bowl. Add hot asparagus and cream, and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt pepper. Top with grated cheese and serve. Serves two to three people. 

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