California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today reaffirmed their strong mutual resolve to moving forward with the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and reinforced their joint commitment to effective action to achieve the dual goals of a healthy San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem and a reliable water supply for California.

As part of today’s statement, Governor Brown and Secretary Salazar announced several actions that will ensure a fair, open and transparent process and a full opportunity for input by all interested parties in the development of a plan to address the future of California’s San Francisco Bay Delta – most significantly, revisions to the draft BDCP Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that are responsive to the comments received by a wide range of water stakeholders in recent weeks.

“It is clear that our Delta ecosystem needs repair and restoration. We shouldn’t wait for a natural disaster to force our hand,” said Governor Brown. “This agreement takes us in the right direction to protect California’s water supply.”

“Successfully developing a science-based Bay Delta Conservation Plan holds the promise of breaking from the unsustainable status quo and being a game-changer for California,” said Secretary Salazar. “That is why the Obama administration is joining with Governor Brown and recommitting funding and technical assistance to support what could become the largest restoration project in history.”

Today’s actions come in response to public comments on the draft MOA. They reconfirm that all members of the public who have a stake in the future of the San Francisco Bay Delta will have an opportunity to participate in development of the BDCP, that the agencies’ commitment to an aggressive BDCP schedule will not trump their commitment to scientific integrity, and that the process will be transparent, with all draft documents available to all members of the public.

In response to concerns raised about a prior draft of the MOA, Secretary Salazar said: “I have personally reviewed the concerns raised about the previous draft of the MOA, and we have heard the public loud and clear. Today we are responding to these concerns by proposing changes that underscore our commitment that no special advantages have been or will be granted to any party in developing this plan for the future of the Bay Delta. I am proud to endorse this process, and I know that it will continue to benefit from the great work of my Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor, as well as the rest of our team working with the state and interested stakeholders on the front lines of this challenging effort.”

The comments received during the public comment period, which ended on Nov. 16, identified several opportunities to improve the MOA – chief among them a renewed agreement of all stakeholders to the dual goals of the BDCP: a healthy Bay Delta ecosystem and a reliable water supply for California. To that end, Secretary Salazar and Governor Brown released today a comprehensive response to public comments that included a revised MOA, a commitment to post all draft documents on the internet, and a commitment to work with stakeholders to develop additional agreements or a statement of principles that will guide the agencies’ work on the BDCP. These documents, including a redlined version of the MOA, are available at www.BayDeltaConservationPlan.com.

The responses reflect the commitment shared by all parties to an open, transparent, and inclusive process; the imperative that any schedule not take precedence over the application of sound science in the development of a successful BDCP; and the willingness of state and federal agencies to engage directly with all interested entities to ensure their full and complete participation in BDCP development activities.

It is important to note that the Delta Reform Act of 2009 requires the beneficiaries of the project to pay for the planning process. This follows a long-standing principle of Delta water policy – for the entities that will benefit from an improvement to pay for that improvement. California law would have to change to have Delta communities or some third party pay for this process.

The actions announced today include:

Commitment to Transparency – As announced on Nov. 29, 2011, key BDCP-related documents will be posted on the BDCP website and made available to all interested parties concurrently – enhancing transparency in developing the BDCP and providing all parties prompt access to key documents. These documents are considered preliminary drafts and are being made available prior to the release of the formal public review drafts of the BDCP and the Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS).

A list of key BDCP-related draft documents to be released and expected release dates have been posted on the BDCP website at www.BayDeltaConservationPlan.com. The formal public review and comment process for the drafts of the BDCP and EIR/EIS is expected to commence in the spring of 2012.

Commitments to Other Stakeholders – To confirm and elevate their commitment to provide full access to all stakeholders, the state and federal agencies will extend the opportunity to develop and enter into appropriate agreements or statements of principles regarding development of the BDCP with other interested stakeholders – such as local governments, special districts, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Specific Modifications to the MOA – State and federal agencies have proposed to the other parties to the MOA several modifications to the MOA in response to key concerns raised during the comment period. Proposed edits are shown on the redline/strikeout version of the MOA posted on the BDCP website.

Prioritizing Sound Science – State and federal agencies will conduct a monthly review of the BDCP schedule to evaluate any changed circumstances that may affect the schedule. The agencies will then publicly disclose any adjustments to the schedule that are made on an ongoing basis and the reasons for such adjustments. The aggressive schedules in the MOA will not trump the obligation to develop and evaluate the BDCP using the sound and credible scientific information.

Policy-level Engagement – Policy-level representatives from state and federal agencies will further build on their engagement in direct dialogue with a number of stakeholder groups to allow the policy-level representatives to gain a better understanding of the key issues to be addressed further during development of the BDCP.

Sara Trail with one of the dresses she designed and made.

Talent of Quilting Passed Down In Her Family for Four Generations

Sara Trail’s Great-Great Grandmother, Margaret Smart, was brought to America in the mid 1700’s as a 12- year-old, captured, Ethiopian slave. Margaret, the first known quilter in her family, passed the artof quilting on to Sara’s great-grandmother who passed quilting on to her grandmother, who lives in Alabama, and she on to her mother.

“I was introduced to sewing as a four year old.” Sara said. “I vividly recall sitting on my mother’s lap and helping her guide quilt fabric under the sewing machine.”

Bernie Cabrara of Antioch’s Queen B’s Quilt Shop allowed Sara, at nine-years-old, to take her first of many adult Quilting classes. Bernie sometimes had to call Sara’s mother, Kay Trail, and ask her to pick Sara up early due to her incessant chatter and ‘over-zealous’ assistance offered to her adult classmates.

All of the Antioch quilting ladies have helped Sara learn more about sewing and have been extraordinary in their love and technical training, she shared.

Sara’s most influential quilting mentor is long time Antioch resident (like a grandmother to her), Mrs. Eleanor O’Donnell. Because of her patient and skilled quilt training, combined with lots of homemade treats, for many, many hours a week, over the course of several years, Sara was offered her first book deal at 12 years of age.

Professor Laverne Edwards – a retired design school and architecture professor and member of the same church as Sara – has been personally responsible for teaching Sara everything she now knows about couture level clothing construction and pattern design.

After many hours and years of Edwards’ expert instruction, Sara was offered an opportunity to design for Simplicity Patterns.

“God has blessed me with access to my two sewing mentors at an early age,” Sara stated. “I am humbled by their gracious and willing spirit to train me as a young girl, free of charge since I was eight years old and continuing to whenever I need help.”

Sara has authored three books, ‘Sew With Sara,’ ‘Simplicity Home,’ and ‘Simplicity Crafts.’ She has also been featured in a three-project DVD entitled, ‘Cool Stuff To Sew With Sara.’ The books and the DVD can be purchased at major book stores and on Amazon.com.

Last year, Sara was licensed to design fabric by Fabri-Quilt located in Kansas City, Missouri. Her designer fabric collection of eight fabrics is called, ‘Biology 101, By Sara Trail.’

The fabrics will be sold in major fabric stores across the U.S. and in Europe next spring.

She also designs clothing, home decor and accessories for Simplicity Patterns, Inc. Of New York City and her Simplicity patterns, ‘Designed With Love by Sara’ can be purchased at Wal-mart and Joann’s Fabrics stores across the U.S. and throughout the world.

Sara has a goal of establishing a ‘free of charge’ sewing studio for those children without the means to pay for private sewing classes in Antioch. The studio would be open to any child who has a desire to empower themselves through the art of sewing.

A high school senior at Contra Costa Christian School in Walnut Creek, Sara plans to attend college next fall in Northern California. She is a member of the Grace Temple Church of God in Christ where she works as an assistant children’s church teacher.

She is the only child of, whom she describes as her “fantastic parents,” Eddie and Katrinka (Kay) Trail and lives with them and her two dogs, Maddie and Cheetah, in Antioch.

Sara’s experience of only sixteen years has taught her well that it truly takes a village to raise a child and says “I am so blessed to be a part of the Antioch village!”

Recently Sara spoke to the Antioch Rotary Club, sharing her experiences in a rapid-fire speech, as well as some of her products, to the delight of the lunchtime audience.

Dr. Jim Green said her talk was one of the most enjoyable and memorable in his 40 years as a Rotarian.

For more information, visit Sara’s website at www.sewsarasew.com.

Navigating Bay Area Traffic Just Got Easier

The award-winning 511 traveler information system is offering new functionality to the Bay Area traveling public through a significant update and overhaul of the 511 Traffic page.

The new 511 Traffic page, now being launched in beta at trafficbeta.511.org, provides information to help commuters avoid traffic jams and incidents, and suggests alternate routes to keep travelers moving and reduce congestion in the Bay Area.

Visitors to the 511 Traffic page at traffic.511.org will see a banner at the top of the page inviting them to go to the beta version. The new page features real-time and predicted traffic information and driving times, an enhanced map with improved navigation and easier access to information, and personalization, such as saved recent trips and map preferences.

511 Traffic excels at providing highly accurate, real-time and predicted traffic information for the Bay Area.

“We made major enhancements to our traffic map and information tools based on input from 511 users,” says Shauna Callow, 511 Website Coordinator and Project Manager. “We’re excited to offer a beta version of the new 511 Traffic page now so users can help us confirm the page is working as designed.” The full launch of the new 511 Traffic page is expected spring 2012.

The enhanced traffic map shows travelers real-time traffic congestion, incidents, and construction projects on freeways and highways, at a glance.

Users can also use map tools to view predicted traffic congestion (based on historical averages) when planning a future trip – especially one that requires arriving on-time, like a trip to the airport. 511 operators update incident and construction information 24/7 so that 511 users can access information specific to their trip, whenever they need it.

“The 511 Traffic page is the only resource of its kind built and continually customized for the Bay Area,” says Callow. “So much of the work that we do is related to collecting and verifying traffic data, so it’s exciting to release these website improvements that enable travelers to quickly access this powerful data via a fresh, streamlined design.”

The 511 Driving TimesSM feature delivers personalized point-to-point driving times, including speeds and incidents along a route, and is now better integrated into the traffic map. Travelers can find out how long a trip will take to the minute, given current traffic conditions.

Users can check a typical driving time compared to the current time to know whether conditions are better or worse than usual. When available, alternate routes are provided to allow travelers to choose a different path and avoid congested areas.

511 users can also calculate driving times for a specific future day and time. For example, when making weekend getaway plans, users can enter their trip and select “Fridays” as the day type to view predicted driving times for Friday travel.

With cookies enabled, 511 Traffic will personalize the user experience so that each time users return, their maps preferences and trips are immediately available to them. The Recent Trips feature will save up to three of a user’s most recent trips for quick access to current driving times, incidents, and speeds along the route.

As always, the 511 Traffic page consistently provides the most accurate, latest-breaking traffic news and emergency information affecting drivers. When urgent news breaks or emergencies occur, 511 Traffic displays a ticker at the top of the page to make sure motorists stay informed about major traffic impacts in the region and their commute alternatives.

511 is a one-stop phone and web source for up-to-the-minute Bay Area traffic, transit, rideshare and bicycling information. It’s free of charge and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere in the nine-county Bay Area.

Call 511 or visit 511.org. 511 is managed by a partnership of public agencies led by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the California Highway Patrol, and the California Department of Transportation.

Ten Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals, including the one in Antioch, have been named 2011 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, an honor that rewards medical centers for outstanding success in such areas as using electronic health records to reduce medication and other errors, lowering infection rates, maintaining appropriate physician and nursing staffing, and other measures of safety and efficiency.

“It is an honor to see our Antioch and Walnut Creek hospitals receive this designation,” said Ginger Campbell, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente’s Diablo Area. “This reinforces our commitment to quality and reflects the personalized and consistent level of dedicated care we provide to our patients.”

Over the past three years, 13 Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California have been named Top Leapfrog Hospitals.

“Kaiser Permanente is consistently recognized by several independent third-party organizations for providing high-quality health care, and this latest honor from Leapfrog is further testament that our physicians, nurses and staff members are consistently delivering personalized, coordinated and technologically advanced care that is improving the health and well-being of our patients and the communities we serve,” said Gregory A. Adams, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals, Inc. in Northern California.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Top Hospitals in 2011 are Antioch, Oakland, Richmond, Roseville, San Francisco, San Jose, South Sacramento, South San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Vacaville.

Eight Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California also received the honor, which means that 18 of this year’s 65 Top Hospitals in the U.S. are Kaiser Permanente facilities in California. They were chosen from a field of nearly 1,200 hospitals around the country surveyed this year.

The 18 honored Kaiser Permanente hospitals were all in the “urban” category, and comprised more than a third of the 52 top urban hospitals listed nationally. The other categories surveyed were children’s hospitals (10 honored nationally) and rural hospitals (three nationally).

“The physicians, nurses and staff of Kaiser Permanente consistently deliver outstanding quality care and service that is personalized, technologically advanced and closely coordinated across all disciplines—primary care, specialty care, outpatient care and inpatient care,” said Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group.

“Our excellent ratings from Leapfrog and other third-party organizations reflect the excellence and superiority of our integrated model for medical care, which enables our medical group, hospitals and health plan to work together on behalf of our patients to achieve the highest quality outcomes.”

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded a decade ago to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. Initially organized by the Business Roundtable, it is now an independent advocacy group working with a broad range of partners, including hospitals and insurers. The annual survey is the only voluntary effort of its kind.

The 2011 list includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospitals’ performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality. The questions Leapfrog asks on its survey are consistent with measures used by The Joint Commission, National Quality Forum and Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The results of the survey are posted on a website open to the patients and families, the public and employers and other purchasers of health care. It is the most complete picture available of a hospital’s quality and safety. The website is www.leapfroggroup.org.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information go to www.kp.org/newscenter.

To the editor:

As a neighborly follow-up to your posting wisely alerting people to be wary of opening a door to strangers, we have had kids going through our neighborhood asking to rake leaves. Having mowed lawns and shoveled snow as a youngster, I am never one to impede youthful enterprise.

Leave it to Beaver, though, is no longer the norm in these less than innocent times. Alarmingly, older kids are sometimes not far behind the avowed rakers. Somehow that makes you wonder.

Just like there is no such thing as a stupid question, there is no such thing as a stupid call to the police. Ask our men and women in blue to be vigilant and maybe drive by. This, after all, is a repeat of the common practice of kids ringing your bell collecting for a basketball league or some such extra-curricular activity. Truth be told, I not only habitually get puzzled at the private club they represent as it seems I have never heard of it.

Worse yet, given the burglary climate, I have bigger fears than contributing to a possible sham. It could be legit; it could be a set-up. It’s easy to feel guilty because we don’t want to doubt people asking for help, but preying on guilt can be a practiced art. Consider the studies that show that as much as 70% and upwards of beggars use their panhandled money for drugs.

You owe it to your family. Better safe than sorry.

I must confess that as a former New Yorker I have had to adjust to casual California where the doors rarely have peepholes and police locks (now called door jammers or braces) are uncommon. Those devices are poles, like long car clubs, that stick in the floor propped into the door. It would take a battering ram to force the door open.

New Yorkers take this stuff seriously and, obviously, jammers are far better than the useless door chain. Those decorative bracelets might stop a seven year old but they, and sorry to say, that $30 lock you are so proud of, are laughable to even a mere 130-pound crack addict with two good legs looking for their next fix.

Advice: If you are a woman and answer the door you might wish to yell upstairs, “honey, it’s some kids” -even if no male is home it sends a message you’re not to be messed with.

Incidentally, I met a fellow at the Golden Gate Bell Ringer and Boys Chorus concert last night who said that nine homes on his block had recently been burglarized. Five of them had previously shrugged off joining the local Neighborhood Watch group. Any wonder why they now sing a different tune?

Walter Ruehlig

By Harry Stoll

I parked in the lot by Antioch Lumber under a silverblue sky. On the glass river an outboard yellow boat was anchored facing upstream. Three still silhouettes held three poles, one facing aft one forward one facing the windblades spinning white across the river.

The eternal dog was let out of the eternal station wagon, his tongue hanging out looking forward to whatever was to be.

The waterhouse inlet was spiritual in its commonness under the slanting sun. The bridge rose in a shallow slight wiry arc across the eastern horizon.

I drove “downtown.” Outside Nature’s Bounty a Conestoga sat on the sidewalk. An animal cage lashed to it and totes and paper bags and blankets and clothes hanging haphazardly but with some definite grand plan. The undercarriage may have once been corporate.

I went in, the young counter woman said she couldn’t make me a sandwich they were soon to close. Only soup remained. Lentil curry. OK said I.

The wagonmistress of the Conestoga was there. I remembered her. Young, maybe once pretty but with a face scarred scared and red. I didn’t know the whereabouts of the soup spoons and she brought and offered them to me. I thanked her and tried for eye contact. Nothing. I believe I wrote about her several years ago in one of my river pilgrimages.

I drank the soup seated in my Caddie then headed a poetic west. The Antioch Radiator Company abandoned was still sinking one corner into the primordial muck. I passed the citadel PD, turned right toward the giant vise grips in the sky. Smacked down to the ground now. Storage units to go there.

“Conforms to the zoning for the area, the General Plan, the highest best use of the land, the Dead Hand, approval recommended with the findings of.”

I headed toward the civilized Hazel’s. To the south the sensuous folds of Diablo were dark when low and light when high.

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