Serf City Times - Report from the Pajaro River - EPA bans weedkiller

Volume 5, Issue 7, August 9, 2024 View as Webpage

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Some discarded possessions from the Pajaro River Sweep last week.

Watsonville Tries to Clear Residents from Pajaro River Banks

BY MONIKE TONE

I am physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted; if it's not one thing, it's another. My name is Monike Tone and I’m your local Pájaro River resident and Homeless Union President.

When it comes to the Pajaro River, I call it home. I do my best to make sure that everyone is safe in my community. But lately, the city of Watsonville decided to sweep the river of my community not caring for our native culture. They came in cutting trees down. Yes, the river was starting to look bad, and let me tell you why.

Santa Cruz City and County closed down the San Lorenzo encampment and people from there decided to come to Watsonville to seek refuge. When the city of Watsonville saw what was going on, they closed down some of our local shelters like the Salvation Army that sent people with disabilities as well as the elderly and a few vets out into the streets.

Our elected officials started to push everyone and anyone who was homeless onto the Pájaro River. With the Santa Cruz encampment closed, opioid users came to the river as well.

When the county started to take action on fentanyl, they stopped a team called Harm Reduction from giving out safety kits that saved lives. In one year, people started dropping like flies. But this is just beginning of what is happening.

The first victims of the winter rains are the people living on the river. Some have been there all their lives. With all the flooding earlier in the year, Monterey County noticed that the river needed to be repaired and that the people who lived down there needed to be housed. Monterey County donated $8 million to house the people on the Pájaro River. But Watsonville city leaders wanted to put people in temporary shelters instead of permanent housing. But $8 million should be enough to permanently get everyone into some kind of housing and most of us were looking forward to having a place to call home.

Then all of a sudden, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that they can get rid of anyone who is homeless or you go to jail. Martial law just kicked in so now Watsonville has $8 million dollars that belongs to the Pájaro Natives and they say they don't have to give us anything. With everything we have taken away, we have no place to go. We are hiding in the little bushes that are left; this is really sad because we have no protection.

They first took our restrooms and never gave us a sanitary station like Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated they had to do. They city of Watsonville needs to be held accountable for not having a place for unhoused people. I just want to say that all the money the city just paid for sweeping us and our belongings from the river is money the city just have used to making a positive difference in someone's life. We don't have to have these negative sweeps. This is not a positive outcome and housing matters. Providing housing is how we act humanely; not taking from the ones who have less.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Pajaro River encampment before the sweeps.

Online Statewide Housing Crisis Town Hall, Sept. 7

BY HOUSING JUSTICE LEAGUE WARRIORS, ACCE AND RISE UP

Sept. 7, 10am-12pm

Governor Newsom committed to build 1 million new affordable homes by 2030, but he is not doing what is needed to deliver on this promise.

We are uniting with dozens of other organizations across California to demand that Governor Newsom and other state leaders fulfill the promise. Our meeting planned for the first Saturday in September, at 10am, will be a special town hall with elected officials, calling on them to take the action needed.

Join us for our first ever Housing Crisis Town Hall, where we have elected officials who can hear from us about what we're going through, hear the solutions we want, and respond.

We need everyone to encourage your friends and neighbors to join us for this town hall to participate and demand solutions to the housing crisis now.

When they register they'll be asked to answer who told them about the event. Make sure they put your name — those who recruit the most people to this event will get a prize.

First Time in 40 Years, Weed Killer Banned in U.S. to "Prevent Imminent Hazard"

BY SARAH RINGLER

Good news from Yanely Martinez and Mark Weller of Safe Ag Safe Schools: Dacthal, a highly toxic weedkiller, banned in 32 countries and which was used in Monterey County more than any other county in California, was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 6.

In 1995, the EPA classified Dacthal, chemically known as dimethyl, tetrachloroterephthalate and chlorthal-dimethyl (DCPA), a “possible carcinogen” because it caused thyroid tumors in animals. More research found this toxic weed killer, as currently used, lead to children with “low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ and impaired brain skills observed later in life.

In 2013, the EPA required the only manufacturer of Dacthal, AMVAC, to submit information on the chemical’s effects on fetal thyroid as well as other research results. The company didn’t submit the data that was requested. The EPA still allowed the company to produce and sell the product until Aug. 6.

For the first time in nearly 40 years, the EPA exercised its emergency authority to suspend the use of an agricultural chemical in order to “prevent imminent hazard.”

DCPA, Dacthal, since the 1950s has been used on vegetables like kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cilantro and green onions. The Environmental Working Group found DCPA on nearly 60% of its kale samples. It is more than pathetic that when try to eat healthy greens, we couldn’t count on our government to make sure they are in fact, healthy. Our only recourse is to spend the extra money and buy certified organic food.

Safe Ag Safe Schools advocates for only allowing organic farms near schools and communities. There are around 70 Monterey County schools and daycares within a quarter mile of farms where Dacthal was applied between July 2023-June 2024. Our students, as well as farm workers, should not be exposed to chemicals that put the health of their children at risk.

Safe Ag Safe Schools, or SASS, is a coalition of 50-plus organizations and individuals working together to reduce pesticide exposure threats to the Monterey Bay region’s residents. Their focus is to keep school children safe from hazardous pesticides that cause harms such as asthma and developmental delays. In Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, contact Yanely Martinez.

Current "State of Exception" in El Salvador

BY ALLAN FISHER

The people of El Salvador are currently living under a State of Exception in which constitutional rights have been suspended, including freedom of assembly and the right to defense. Since March 2022, over 80,000 people, predominantly from poor neighborhoods that have been militarized, have been rounded up. The detainees have no right to due process; estimates are that at least one-third of the detainees are innocent. Several hundred have already died in prison.

Meanwhile, President Bukele has given the green light for "abuse of force" to police and military and has pledged to deny prisoners access to basic rights, including food, in his proclaimed War on Gangs.

Since Bukele came into office, the size and scope of the military has expanded dramatically - a direct violation of the 1992 Peace Accords - including a military budget higher than any point during the 12-year civil war.

Since 2021, Salvadorans have been mobilizing mass protests to denounce the government’s attacks against the Peace Accords and on democracy itself, with youth and feminist organizations leading a courageous movement against militarization.

International solidarity is urgent, especially since the U.S. remains the largest foreign supporter of the Salvadoran military and police. That’s why solidarity, faith and human rights organizations and progressive Members of Congress are calling to withhold military and police aid and training to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, where human rights abuses at the hands of U.S. trained security forces continue in impunity.

Congress is currently putting together their budget proposal for the coming year. That’s why we need to flood them now with demands to stop providing military and security aid that fuels repression in Central America.

Send an email today. Contact CISPES.org for information about El Salvador, or call Allan Fisher at 415-954-2763.

Ed. note: Local Santa Cruzan, Allan Fisher, has been following and reporting on the situation in El Salvador for many decades.

CARTOON

ELIZABETH

WILLIAMS

San Francisco Mime Troupe's American Dreams

American Dreams is coming to Santa Cruz, Sept. 7, 3pm at London Nelson, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz. It features a four-person cast that includes veteran SF Mime Troupe collective members: Andre Amarotico* (Oliver, Harold) Michael Gene Sullivan (Gabriel Pearse, Chancellor Quisling); and features Lizzie Calogero*(Meliae Higgins, Emma); and Mikki Johnson (Paine Pearse). Don't miss it.

PHOTO BY ANN RUSSELL

A roadrunner perches on a fence in San Marcos, California.

Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report - Rt stays above 1 for 13 Weeks

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.

Click HERE to get current information on getting vaccines.

The three graphs below were updated on Aug. 7.

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. Last week it appeared the Rt was dropping below 1.0 but when this week's graph was released, the number stayed above 1.0.

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 TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street - Xilonen, an Aztec young women's coming of age ceremony, was held this year in July at Pinto Lake County Park in Watsonville. The White Hawk Indian Council for Children, Iztatutli, has been holding this event for 42 years. The history of the Xilonen ritual goes back thousands of years before the Spanish invasion.

Labor History Calendar - Aug. 9-15, 2024

a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget

Aug. 9, 1890: Knights of labor strike New York Central railroad, defeated by union scabbing.

Aug. 9, 1945: Nagasaki A-bombed by US.

Aug. 9, 2021: China says it will fire members of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, forcing the union to dissolve.

Aug. 10, 1914: Australian IWW run front page declaring “War! What for?....... War is hell? Send the capitalists to hell and wars are impossible.”

Aug. 19, 1933: Boss press laments women pickets’ effectiveness in 4th day of California beet, strike – many arrests.

Aug. 11, 1833: Robert Ingersoll, nicknamed the “Great Agnostic” born.

Aug. 11, 1894:Troops drive 1,200 in Kelley’s Army of unemployed from Washington DC; Jack London and Big Bill Haywood among the deported.

Aug. 12, 1898: Coal company thugs kill 7, wound 40 miners trying to stop scabs in Virden, Illinois.

Aug. 12, 2017: Labor activist Heather Heyer murdered while protesting fascist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Aug. 12, 2017: 17,000 textile workers strike over missing pay and COLA in Mahalla al-Kubra, Egypt.

Aug. 13, 1889: London Dock Workers’ Strike begins.

Aug. 13, 1966: Uprising in Watts, California.

Aug. 14, 1935: US Social Security Act signed.

Aug. 14, 2015: General Strike as Greek parliament votes for more austerity.

Aug. 15, 1867: London dockworkers strike for higher pay and shorter hours.

Aug. 15, 1963: 170 women sit-in to protest employment discrimination by bank in St. Louis, Illinois.

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

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed on Aug. 12, 2017, when a car was deliberately driven by James Alex Fields, Jr. into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; 28 were injured. Fields was convicted in state court of hit and run, first-degree murder of Heyer and 8 counts of malicious wounding resulting in a life sentence in prison.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Summer Dips to Thrive On

By SARAH RINGLER

About 12 years ago, I spent some time with my mother and family in north San Diego County. My mom had been telling me for months about this herb and yogurt mixture that her neighbor Luisa had been making for her. So when I came down, I asked her what would be the chances of having Luisa reveal her recipe. Luisa is from Rome but lived for a while in Iran where she learned how to make these dips.

My mom called Luisa and she agreed to come over and share the recipe. But, we had to wait for the day that the herbs and bread came in fresh to the local Middle Eastern market. Friday was that day and Luisa arrived with bags full of ingredients and the sangak bread.

Luisa chopped each of the herbs and walnuts separately allowing you to make your own combination with the yogurt, sour cream, and garlic. At home, I chopped everything together except for the walnuts. The smell was like the freshest air over a grassy field.

I don’t think the bread is available around here. It is shaped like a bath mat and is as large. It is dimpled with brown spots that come from the stone it is baked on and from which the name of the bread comes from. It is slightly chewy and wonderful, but the dips are so amazingly good, you can eat them with cardboard. They also go well with English or Persian cucumbers that have been peeled, seeded and chopped into half inch cubes.

Dip 1 - Mast-o-musir, yogurt and shallots

1 ½ cups Greek style yogurt

1/3 cup minced shallots

1 ½ tablespoons honey – optional

Mix the ingredients and cover and chill for about 2 hours. Keeps for five days. Serve.

Dip 2 - Mast-o-Khiar, yogurt and cucumber

English or Persian cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped into ½ inch cubes

3 cups of whole milk yogurt, drained or 1 cup Greek style yogurt or Labna

½ cup sour cream

¼ cup chopped green onion

1 tablespoon chopped mint – washed and dried

2 tablespoon chopped fresh dill – washed and dried

1 tablespoon chopped small, fresh basil leaves– washed and dried

2 garlic cloves minced

4 tablespoons walnuts finely chopped

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ cup raisins, optional

Put the whole milk yogurt into a strainer that is lined with cheesecloth. I used Pavel’s brand whole milk yogurt. It separates easily and a wonderful flavor. Other brands have a more homogenized texture and can take longer to separate. Cover and let it sit for 6 hours or so. Pour off the liquid or save for baking. When the yogurt has solidified, put into a small bowl.

Wash and dry all the herbs. Chop the green onion, dill, mint, basil and garlic together until finely minced then stir into the yogurt cheese. Add the sour cream, salt, pepper, walnuts and raisins. Chill and serve. Garnish with fresh mint or 2 tablespoons fresh rose petals cut into ribbons

Send your story, poetry or art: Please submit a story, poem or photo of your art that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if this is a political issue. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com

Send comments to coluyaki@gmail.com

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Thanks, Sarah Ringler