berkeley city
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">belated? 7/16</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">art student JC?</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><a href="https://www.berkeleyside.com/search/youth+spirit+artworks">https://www.berkeleyside.com/search/youth+spirit+artworks</a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So many volunteers appeared at the Oakland construction site where <a href="https://www.berkeleyside.com/search/youth+spirit+artworks" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; box-shadow: rgba(0, 142, 255, 0.8) 0px -3px 0px 0px inset; transition: background 0.2s ease 0s;">Youth Spirit Artworks</a> was building tiny houses for homeless youth Saturday, they ran out of work helmets before noon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><h3 class="article-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); height: 155px;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23072019/berkeley-natural-gas-ban-california-cities-incentive-all-electric-building-construction-future" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Following Berkeley's Natural Gas Ban, More Cities Look to All-Electric Future</font></a></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">icn 719</font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> =</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-pesticides-health-2539988928.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/california-pesticides-health-2539988928.html</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California Court Ruling Ends Decades of State Pesticide Spraying</font></h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="js-scroll-trigger" data-target="body" data-triggers="render-rebelbar" data-toggle-class="with-floating-shares" data-loaded="true" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></span></font></p><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2539988928" data-authors="Center for Biological Diversity" data-headline="California Court Ruling Ends Decades of State Pesticide Spraying" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A judge has ordered the California Department of Food and Agriculture to stop using chemical <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pesticides</a> in its statewide program until the agency complies with state environmental laws.
The <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/2018-2-22-California-Dept-of-Food-and-Ag-pesticides-ruling.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">injunction</a>, issued late last week, is a sweeping victory for 11 public-health, conservation, citizen and food-safety groups and the <b>city of Berkeley. </b>The coalition sued the state after unsuccessfully attempting for years to persuade the agency to shift to a sustainable approach to pest control that protects human health and the environment.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite thousands of comment letters urging the department to take a safer approach, officials in 2014 approved a program that gave them broad license to spray 79 pesticides, some known to cause <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cancer</a> and birth defects, anywhere in the state, including schools, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/organic" style="text-decoration-line: none;">organic</a> farms, public parks and residential yards.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spraying was allowed indefinitely and required no analysis of the health and environmental impacts of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals" style="text-decoration-line: none;">chemicals</a> at the specific application sites and no public notice or scrutiny of treatment decisions. Many of the pesticides are also highly toxic to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bees" style="text-decoration-line: none;">bees</a>, butterflies, fish and birds.
This injunction follows a Jan. 8 <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/2018-1-8-NCRA-v-CDFA-Consolidated-Ruling.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ruling</a> by Judge Timothy M. Frawley voiding approval of the agency's statewide program for numerous violations of state environmental laws, including relying on "unsupported assumptions and speculation" to conclude that pesticides would not contaminate <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water" style="text-decoration-line: none;">water</a> bodies. The ruling also cited the state's "woefully deficient" analysis of the cumulative danger of increasing the more than 150 million pounds of pesticides already being used in California each year.
The court process culminating revealed not only far-reaching flaws in the state's analysis of the environmental harm caused by the department's pesticide use but also the agency's decades-long history of evading disclosure of the human health and environmental impacts of its activities by granting itself repeated "emergency" exemptions from environmental laws.
"After more than 30 years of disregard for state environmental laws, the agency's chemical weapons have finally been taken off the table," said Nan Wishner of the California Environmental Health Initiative. "We hope the department will take this opportunity to shift course and apply sound <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">science</a>, partner with the public, and develop a more sustainable, transparent approach."
The court also held that the agency had to give public notice of its activities, which officials had insisted was not required.
"The court rejected the agency's blank check to spray people's yards, exposing children and pets to a range of pesticides that can cause serious long-term problems, including cancer, asthma and IQ loss," said Debbie Friedman, founder of <a href="https://www.momsadvocatingsustainability.org/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">MOMS Advocating Sustainability</a>. "If only the $4.5 million in taxpayer dollars used to develop this outdated program had been spent to develop a modern, sustainable approach that does not rely on toxic chemicals, just imagine what progress we could have made toward a healthier environment for everyone."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-515ac640-b957-6874-127a-b9031d87bd0c"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: 1.656;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" style="">Western States Petroleum Association challenge to City of Berkeley </span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" style="">Municipal Code</span></b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: 1.656;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" style="">proposed amendment (2014)—After a city council voted to put stickers on gas pumps to warn</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: 1.656;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" style="">consumers that burning fuel contributes to global warming an oil industry group threatened to</span></p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" style="">sue based on its<b> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>corporate free speech rights.</b></span></span></span></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div>