Milestone reached in 2001 (Klamath) water lawsuits. Cases could be decided before 2016, H&N, 3/27/15

Refuges seeking contracts with farmers by April 3rd. Agreements are crop share and growers are responsible for all growing costs, H&N 3/26/15

Public Comments Right Away - AB 386 as Amended, a bill to change TID’s Board Director qualifications and voting eligibility/process of TID elections. Vote would be by acreage, not one vote per landowner, and directors must own or represent owned land, but not necessarily live within district they would represent. Introduced by Assemblyman Dahle. TID would like input on the new plan. Send comments to Tulelake Irrigation District, PO Box, Tulelake, CA 96134 -- 3/24/15

Tribes in 13 States Receive $4.2 Million From Service for Conservation Work, FWS 3/27/15. California and Southern Oregon Tribes Awarded Grants. "Tribal lands encompass millions of acres of important habitat for hundreds of wildlife species across the nation...Since its inception in 2003, the competitive Tribal Wildlife Grants program has awarded more than $68 million to Native American tribes, providing support for more than 400 conservation projects...Yurok Tribe ($176,771)...This project will support specific goals of the California Condor Recovery Plan. The Klamath Tribes ($200,000) The Re-introducing Extinct Populations of Endangered Suckers in the Upper Klamath Basin grant will assess and restore spawning habitat for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake Oregon."

Jobless rates in N. California counties remain high. Statewide, Modoc had the 47th highest unemployment rate, H&N, 3/25/15 KBC NOTE regarding federal management of our counties: KBRA permanently would downsize agriculture, OWRD is tying surface water to groundwater and has shut off water even to private Oregon irrigation wells, timber harvest is still curtailed, decimating schools, communities and economies in the region, further decimated by severe wildfires burning forests, communities and wildlife.

Interview with Klamath County Commissioner Tom Mallams on the Bill Meyer Show 3/25/15, 7:12 a.m., 1440 KMED AM Medford Oregon. Mallams explains three Oregon Senate Bills presented in Salem regarding the controversial Klamath Basin dam removal "agreements". He said 2/3s of those at the hearing and in the Klamath Basin oppose these agreements that downsize agriculture, remove three Klamath River hydroelectric dams, and control well water use.

Ocean salmon look plentiful off the Southern Oregon coast this year, but next year's a different story, Medford Mail Tribune, 3/27/15. "Preseason estimates of chinook and fin-clipped coho salmon in the ocean are high enough that salmon anglers are on the cusp of seeing a summer saltwater salmon season nearly identical to 2014, when Brookings regained its spot as the top chinook port after a one-year hiatus...'The season, of course, depends upon how the ocean sets up," says Richard Heap, a Brookings angler who represents Oregon anglers in federal salmon-season discussions...' "

California Farm Bureau Federation Friday Legislative and Governmental Update, CFBF 3/27/15

1st Thessalonians 5:5-10 - "You are all sons of light and sons of day.  We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." sent by Frank Tallerico 

Water settlement comes into question. Tribes remain hopeful that Congress will approve legislation, H&N, 3/5/15. "Three Basin tribes have begun a mediation process that could end in termination of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA)...Family Farm Alliance, a non-profit..., has thrown its support behind Senate Bill 133..."

(Klamath Project) Water bids are out, set fees are in, East Side payments still undecided, H&N, 3/5/15

California Farm Bureau Federation Friday Legislative Review, 3/6/15: Bills - groundwater, climate change, land use and taxation, labor, employment, immigration, paid sick leave mandate, transportation and education, new clean energy standards, misc.