The title says it all. As if it isn’t enough that our planet is under attack by greedy, narrow-minded individuals, and corporations, drug-related activity in forests and park lands will degrade those environments, and create the excuse for state and federal authorities to sell those lands. On the flip side, fighting the war on drugs and getting a grip on illegal border crossings might be the best use of American troops returning from wars abroad. The article from the current issue of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility appears here.
All posts by Peter Terezakis
The Journey Home
7 Billion People On Earth
We have some serious issues as a species when economic growth in the United States is measured by new housing construction and sales. Extending that visualization to the absurd, questions come to mind. One resource indicates that Athens during the Golden Age of Greece possessed a population of 315,000. The population in Athens is now over 4 million.
Millions of Bees Die Overnight
Granite Construction Purchases Ethics Awards
Award Recognizes Exceptional Ethical Leadership Actively Upheld within Various Industries
Given Granite Construction Corporation’s actions in Temecula, their pay-the-fine-admit-no-fault (see below) policies and their often disingenuous re-interpretation of reality, it was with great interest that I discovered the following article – and the fact that Granite pays for their award either directly to Ehisphere (a for profit company) or one of its affiliates.
It’s All Good
Beware of corporate consulting firms offering awards for corporate ethics.
Sometime in the next week or so, something called the Ethisphere Institute is scheduled to announce this year’s list of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies.” If past years are any indication, the winners will have their press releases ready to go, and news outlets across the country will eat it up. There’s just one hitch: These ethics awards—let’s call them the Ethies—may have ethics issues of their own. (click to read full article)
Here are some of the fines Granite has paid – yet admitted no wrong-doing:
State of NEVADA – Air Resources (click)
09/22/1993 $3,500.00 #1040 HUMBOLDT
01/22/1998 $12,000.00 #1270 LYON
03/25/1998 $8,000.00 #1301,1302,1303 LYON
09/24/1998 $30,000.00 #1334& #1335 ELKO
12/16/1999 $9,670.00 #1386 MINERAL
04/20/2000 $6,785.00 #1424& 1425 CARSON CITY
08/22/2000 $15,300.00 #1441,1442,1443 CARSON CITY
01/22/1998 $12,000.00 #1270 LYON
03/25/1998 $8,000.00 #1301,1302,1303 LYON
09/24/1998 $30,000.00 #1334& #1335 ELKO
12/16/1999 $9,670.00 #1386 MINERAL
04/20/2000 $6,785.00 #1424& 1425 CARSON CITY
08/22/2000 $15,300.00 #1441,1442,1443 CARSON CITY
Air violations raise questions about Granite Construction Quarry Aggregate Research.com
Stimulus funds aiding companies accused of fraud, pollution – California Watch
Granite Construction maintains that the cited safety standard is “too vague and ambiguous…” $60.00 fine. Who paid for all the fees? The taxpayers? Another subsidy for Granite due to the old-boy network of ethics?
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to Pay Nearly $1 Million for Alleged Clean Water Act Violations: Granite Construction pays $250,000
OSHA – Fatal Bridge Fall – Granite Construction Corp. pays $240,000
Granite Pays (reimburses?) San Diego $400,000 for “possible” overcharging and billing
for work that was not done. Admits no wrong-doing.
Granite Construction to pay $1.1M of $4.6M settlement with government over minority contracts
Banned by the Valley News Network and recent posts elsewhere
North County Times and the Fallbrook Valley News like to delete my comments on articles related to Liberty Quarry. I wonder why?
I came across some interesting articles the past 24 hours and have posted some comments which I am reproducing here:
Since AB-742 was recently introduced, Granite has been crying for “local government” to decide the issue. Given LAFCO’s denial of the City of Temecula’s original annexation plans due to a request from Granite, I’d be tempted to say some of the $10 million dollars that Garry Johnson has invested spoke louder than local government.
This fight is far from over: Granite will not go away easily.
Support AB 742. Join both Native American and non-Native Americans to enact legislation which will save Native American sacred sites as well as the LAST wild river and LAST coastal wildlife corridor in Southern California: http://www.ab-742.com
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EVERYONE needs to stay committed to the political process. We MUST elect officials of integrity – and vote them OUT of office when they cease to represent us.
“The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.” – Brown Act, 1953 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Act
Peter Terezakis
5:53am on Thursday, September 15, 2011
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Tribe, Granite Fight Over Sacred Site
The construction company and the tribe argued about whether a site near a proposed quarry is sacred.
Granite cares about nothing except converting rock into cash. They will continue to use their time-tested scripts to achieve goals and ride over local communities using millions of well-placed dollars to grease the wheels of the corrupt to do so.
Support AB 742. Join both Native American and non-Native Americans to enact legislation which will save Native American sacred sites as well as the LAST wild river and LAST coastal wildlife corridor in Southern California: http://www.ab-742.com
Peter Terezakis
6:36am on Thursday, September 15, 2011
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• Quarry jobs: Most would be taken by unemployed union members from outside of the area.
• There is no way to put a lid over the entire quarry.
• Winds blowing over the quarry will create a partial vacuum pulling material into the atmosphere.
• superfine particulate matter will mix with moisture in the air and form an aerosol which will not fall to the ground.
• ” Editor’s note: This story is actually from a news service; it is not an article written by one of our writers.” – That is a pathetic excuse for how YOU have chosen to portray this issue to YOUR public.
• “….the news service is from Los Angeles who was there and they are in no way in Granite’s back pocket…” This is an equally pathetic statement proven wrong by the contents of the article.
The Editor and Staff ought to be embarrassed for printing Granite’s press release spin as fact. If FVN was at all concerned about advertising from the community which it ostensibly represents; this article would never have come to print. Since you chose to endorse this article the only question is how much money are you directly taking from Granite or its affiliates?
Support AB 742. Join both Native American and non-Native Americans to enact legislation which will save Native American sacred sites as well as the LAST wild river and LAST coastal wildlife corridor in Southern California: http://www.ab-742.com
Note: This following comment on the article published above was removed twice by the Village News Network editors and/or staff. After answering a challenge question on a return visit to prove I was not a SPAMBOT, I was allowed to post this same text a third time. When assembling this page I went to check to see if my comment was still up. As of today, my computer has been banned from their network.
Granite Construction Dictates Terms to County of Riverside
Last month, Garry Johnson of Granite Construction Corporation let it slip that to date they had spent nearly $10 million dollars on the Liberty Quarry project. We now know where at least a portion of this money has been spent.
Mr. Russell Kitahara who manages a 94 acre family farm in Thermal California has disclosed that Mr. Johnson paid $10 for his share of a breakfast meeting.
During this time Mr, Kitahara was chair of the Riverside Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) an extremely powerful regulatory, state-mandated legislative agency. He was also a member of the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD).
Jeff Horseman has written a very interesting article on this and the events as they relate to the Liberty Quarry project.
In June of 2009, LAFCO rejected the City of Temecula’s bid to annex approximately 5,000 contiguous acres adjacent to the Santa Margarita Reserve; which would have included the site of the intended gravel pit. According to Mr. Horseman’s article, “the Commissioners indicated the quarry was (is) a regional issue, not a matter for the city. “
This would mean that the Commissioners do not believe that the neighboring communities or residents who would be affected by Granite Construction Corporation’s mining, asphalt plants, trucks, etc., should have a voice in the matter.
If you are part of the potentially affected community, you (and your friends) might want to call them and voice your opinion.
The City of Temecula was able to annex a portion of the original acreage; apparently after LAFCO received instructions from Granite on what it should allow the city to annex.
Mr. Horesman’s article reads like a suspense novel. At the risk of spoiling this chapter you might find the following as interesting as I have:
• Roberts wrote that the sphere stipulation came at the 11th hour and only after Granite raised the issue.
• Kitahara countered that Comerchero offered to have the city remove the quarry site from its sphere to secure the annexation.
• City officials said they felt they had no choice.
• Granite spokeswoman Karie Reuther said in an e-mail Wednesday that company representatives briefed the commission about making Temecula aware they wanted the quarry property out of the city’s sphere.
If I was cynical, I might think that the commission’s actions were a direct response to Granite Construction Corporation getting some of what the remaining $9,999,990.00 might have paid for.
At the very least, the actions revealed in this article are those of a multi-billion dollar corporation ordering an arm of regional government to do its bidding as a means of legally subverting the will of an American community and their city.
This is another reason to support the efforts of both Native and non-Native Americans to protect this particular section of Sacred Land from Granite Construction Corporation: AB-742.com
The Great Blackout of 8/9/11
This should become THE classic example of why the old model of a highly centralized, monolithic power generation system should be DUMPED in favor of de-centralized local power generation.
The same parallels exist for the old model of the central IBM supercomputer versus the infinitely more robust and powerful distributed networking structure which forms the internet today: Centralized = catastrophic failure, maximum impact De-centralized = localized failures, minimal impact.
Power generation technology has changed: We are no longer dependent on capital intensive coal/gas-fired mega plants (at least in the southwest) to supply power.
Southern California property owners should all be generating power from every rooftop and available open space according to their ability and willingness.
Everyone can take advantage of existing wiring which brings power to homes and businesses to transmit power back through the network.
Those who want to generate their own power at night can install the necessary off-the-shelf hardware to do so.
Massive capital-intensive solar projects and “green” power transmission efforts string cable and towers across vast expanses of desert will perpetuate the exact same scenario as we have just experienced.
With 9/11 only days away it would be good to remember that the SunRise PowerLink, Blythe Solar Project and other efforts will continue to offer terrorists hundreds of miles of indefensible, easily accessible towers and power lines which could trigger an even larger blackout next time.
From what I can tell a “Public Utility” just means that it has a monopoly to to provide an essential service to a captive market.
Yesterday’s blackout possesses the potential to provide an opportunity for SDG&E/Sempra Energy and a host of other related companies to prove that even blood-sucking leeches ensconced in nineteenth century carpetbagger business practices can change for the better.
If anyone has read this much, there are a whole lot of us that would appreciate your support on this issue: http://www.ab-742.com.com Thank you.
Thank you Temecula Patch
As one of the individuals who is involved in opposing the construction of Liberty Quarry, I would like to thank Temecula Patch for helping to publicize our collective efforts at protecting all which is at risk.
Once we have stopped Liberty Quarry, it will be important for each friend of the project to continue their efforts to protect the river and the land and to make this protection permanent for future generations.
Electronic signing of the petition to support AB 742 goes to the attention of selected members of the California State Assembly and Senate, as well as to the Governor.
The City of Temecula has been opposing the quarry since at least 2005. On March 8, 2011 the City Council of the City of Temecula passed Resolution No. 11 formally opposing the Liberty Quarry project.
After having spent $784,000 to annex property and debunk the Granite-funded Environmental Impact Report, the City of Temecula was unable to dissuade Granite Construction Corporation from pursuing their objective.
It was on August 4, 2011 -after the failure of every conceivable course of action by the community and local government to stop Granite had been exhausted – that the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians came forward with the decades overdue AB 742.
It is important that elected representatives, Granite’s management, members of the media, and any interested individual, know and understand that both Native and non-Native Americans are intractably opposed to a gravel pit -by any name- on this land.
The quarry would destroy the LAST wild river and LAST coastal wildlife corridor in Southern California. The fact that it contains sites which are sacred to a people who have lived here for 10,000 years is something we can all understand.
Let your elected representatives know that you Support AB 742
http://sacredskysacredearth.com/ab-742/
Et Tu, KPBS? “Casino Money Goes To Protecting Indian Sacred Sites”
BY ALISON ST JOHN
September 2, 2011
The article on the KPBS website may be read in full here
I admit to being upset by the article referenced above.
So much so that I wrote the following – which KPBS has elected to leave visible.
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Great headline! Maybe the author could work in, “Granite Construction Corporation receives $29 Million Dollars of Federal stimulus money for work on roads within the Navajo Reservation and uses $10 million to destroy sites sacred to the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.
Or a fact or two about the project:
The quarry would be a mile and a half long and as deep as the Empire State Building is tall. It would be one of the largest gravel pits in the nation. Blasting would occur every day that the quarry is open (six days) and operation would be from 7 am until 10 pm. Deforested areas visible from the highway (due to loss of ground water) would be painted green.
A note about the involvement of local government:
The communities surrounding the site selected by Granite Construction Corporation have been fighting the proposed quarry since at least 2005. Documentation to this effect is available to the public via PDF of the Temecula City Council. Over 40,000 residents, 500 local businesses, and 140 area physicians have signed petitions protesting the proposed quarry.
On March 8, 2011 the City Council of the City of Temecula passed Resolution No. 11 opposing the Liberty Quarry project after spending $784,000 to annex properties and analyze/debunk Lilburn’s EIR paid for by Granite Construction Corporation. Lilburn’s motto of “Getting to Yes” gives insight into their methodology.
It was only after the failure of local communities and local government to stop Granite Construction’s plans that the Native American community became involved. Now both Native and non-Native Americans are doing their utmost to prevent the project.
On Wednesday August 31, 2011, the Riverside Planning Commission voted to deny the project as the benefits of the project did not outweigh the risks.
And a closing thought:
Why KPBS has chosen to malign the efforts of concerned communities surrounding the proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill and proposed Liberty Quarry with a borderline racist slant is beyond my comprehension.
The Liberty Quarry project would destroy the LAST wild river and LAST coastal wildlife corridor in Southern California. The fact that it contains sites which are sacred to people who have inhabited those lands for 10,000 years is axiomatic and I respect that. Native American beliefs and customs are different than those of my Christian heritage; but possibly not all that dissimilar from my forefathers belief system. Here is something else which I understand: All Creation is Divine.
Mr. John Petty (3rd District Planning Commissioner) raised an interesting topic at Wednesday’s meeting regarding Riverside County’s outdated permitting process. I trust that this is something which will be pursued. Regardless it is time to re-examine our treatment of “undeveloped land.” The negative effects of eighteenth century attitudes toward our vanishing natural world is impacting us all and not in a good way. It is time for a change based on facts: not the weight of a financial juggernaut.
http://sacredskysacredearth.com/ab-742/
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