Manny Pacquiao and The Grove, tension over mis-information

So Manny Pacquiao’s opposition over same-sex marriages took on a new life of its own. 

A few media outlets took the quotes from Leviticus 20:13  that said, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” Manny said he didn’t say that, and the reporter confirmed that.

But some blogs took that verse to say Pacquiao was anti-gay. The Grove in Los Angeles saw the headlines that suggested Pacquiao wanted gays killed and it issued a release to say Pacquiao is not welcomed to The Grove  “now or in the future” on Tuesday night. But Wednesday, Pacquiao had an interview scheduled with Extra. After Pacquiao clarified his stance, the ban was lifted.

Pacquiao is still opposed to gay marriage and stood by his remarks.

I have two takes on this.

1. Why is a reporter putting in a scripture that Pacquiao never referenced during their interview? It’s very unfortunate because of the harm it did to Pacquiao’s reputation.

2. Why did The Grove ban Pacquiao in the first place? I understand if they didn’t want him around on Wednesday because of the reaction he might get from the story.  But their statement was Pacquiao was not welcome at the mall  “now or in the future.” It just seemed like an over reaction.

Leftovers from a U.S. Open qualifier

I covered the U.S. Open local qualifying tournament at Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert Tuesday, and here are a few things that I ran into just hanging around the place:

–Berry Henson, a former Palm Desert High School star and winner of two events on the Asian Tour last year, was caddying for the man who used to be his coach here in the desert, John Sheldon. Sheldon shot 75 and didn’t advance, but Henson is already through to the sectional play for the Open because of his victories last year. Henson said he will play a sectional in Ohio, where he will face plenty of PGA Tour pros but also have more spots to play for than in some other sectionals around the country. Most players advancing in California will likely play their 36-hole sectional at Lake Merced in San Francisco.

–Alfred Castro, who played for the College of the Desert state championship team that won that title on Monday in a 36-hole event Monday in Santa Barbara, was in the Ironwood field. Castro said that he didn’t get home from the state championship until about 1:30 a.m., then had to get up and ready for his 9:18 a.m tee time in the local qualifier. Castro shot 77 Tuesday and did not advance, not that anyone blames him given the wild nature of his previous 36 hours.

—Slow play, the flavor of the month in golf complaints, certainly was evident Tuesday. More than one player noted to SCGA officials that it took them just a shade over three hours to play nine holes. One player withdrew with an injury, but I certainly had the feeling he wasn’t so much injured as just sick and tired of standing in the fairway waiting to his shots.

–An SCGA official noted to be that a blog I wrote a few weeks ago about how it was good to see three local qualifiers in the desert and how a fourth qualifier would be a good idea might actually reflect the future. With the desert easily and quickly selling out three qualifiers this year at Indian Ridge, Bermuda Dunes and Ironwood, a fourth qualifier could be added as soon as next year. It might just be a matter of finding a course that wants to host the event in the first two weeks of May.

Mitigation meditation — the solar trade-offs

I have been meditating recently on the word “mitigation.” It is a word often used in environmental impact reports for large-scale solar projects, such as the 150-megawatt Desert Harvest project being planned for 1,000-1,200 acres of open desert five miles north of Desert Center.

Basically, what the environmental impact report is is 2,000-plus pages documenting the impacts of putting a massive solar farm in the desert, followed by plans to mitigate said impacts.

The dictionary definition of mitigate, from Merriam-Webster is (1) to cause to less harsh or hostile, mollify; (2) to make less severe or painful, alleviate or extenuate. Extenuate is, of course, an interesting word in and of itself. It means to lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of by making partial excuses.

So, when it comes to lessening the impacts of solar, it seems there are two basic classes of mitigations — direct, onsite actions andindirect, offsite actions.

In the direct, onsite mitigations, we have what companies do to lessen dust and other air pollution caused by construction. So the EIR for Desert Harvest shows that construction will cause a range of air pollution — carbon monoxide, particulate matter and nitrous oxide – above standards set by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The project developer, enXco, will be required to implement a range of mitigations, frompaving roads leading to the project site; ensuring construction equipment is turned off when not in use, rather than sitting around idling; keeping soil loads 18 inches below the rim of trucks and limiting speeds on unpaved roads to 15 miles per hour.

Not perfect, but definitely lessened — an appropriate use of the word mitigation.

When we get to habitat, plants and animals, things start falling more into the extenuating side 0f the definition, because the main form of mitigation for habitat destruction is buying other land to offset the loss.

Thus, for the destruction of desert plants and soils on site, the BLM lists six mitigations, ranging from having an onsite biologist to monitor construction, educating workers about the site’s flora and fauna, the relevant regulations and their responsibilities for complying with  them and a vegetation management plan.

But, the reports says, “Note that all disturbances to soils and vegetation are analyzed here as long-term and permanent impacts and off-site compensation is required.”

Which gets us to the sixth mitigation, which is how much land the company will have to buy to compensate for the loss of the 1,000-1,200 acres the project may destroy. For plants, the compensation ratio runs for 1 to 1, for creosote bush scrub lands to 3 to 1 for desert dry wash woodland, which is classified as a special-status plant community because of its role in the desert’s natural water system.

This is a bit of a shell game, moving plants and animals to other sites or just protecting other, similar sites. It’s a trade-off, and different people have different views on whether or not it’s one they find appropriate and worthwhile. 

Translocation is tricky. For example, the report notes that while efforts could be made to take out and replant any Emory crucifixion thorns, a sensitive plant found on the Desert Harvest site, there are no documented instances of this being done successfully. Another possibility would be planting greenhouse-raised plants on the compensation lands.

In fact, it would probably be better to use the word compensate – to counterbalance, or to make an appropriate, counterbalancing payment –in such cases. There is no true mitigation for destroying habitat that can take hundreds or thousands of years to regenerate.

Which brings me — in a not quite clean segue — to the meeting in Desert Center April 14 on the Desert Harvest draft EIR and Holly Roberts, a project manager for the Bureau of Land Management’s Palm Springs office.

Roberts is one of the unsung heroines of the local renewable energy community. She is enormously respected but tends to keep behind the scenes.

At the meeting, she started off the BLM’s presentation with a brief talk on the kinds of feedback the agency is looking for, which is, she said, substantive. 

“Question the BLM about the accuracy of its information or the adequacy of its process,” she said.

What doesn’t work are vague questions or complaining that a project is going to ruin the view from your patio, she said.

Roberts really believes that the process laid out for public comment periods  in the National Environmental Protection Act is an example of grassroots democracy at its best. She wants people to get right up in the BLM’s face and challenge the agency on its facts and methodology.

She pointed out that the Desert Sunlight project now under construction north of the proposed Desert Harvest site was first planned for 20,000 acres.

“Because of public comments, 16,000 acres were taken off the project,” she said.

Of course, there are limitations to this approach, as seen in the case of the archeological artifacts found at NextEra’s Genesis project, which my colleague Keith Matheny wrote about in today’s paper.

Tribal concerns and ways of protecting prehistoric desert sites containing archeological artifacts do not fit well with the kind of linear, factual quantifications required by federal and state laws. To them, the sites are sacred and anything in the ground should be left there, completely undisturbed.

The Desert Harvest site has two prehistoric sites that are listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, according to the draft EIR. Alfredo Figueroa, the one tribal representative at the Desert Center meeting, said he has not been on the site so could not comment on whatever might be out there.

All that said, we will now see what kind of comments the Desert Harvest draft EIR generates. All 2,000-plus pages of it are online on the BLM Palm Springs Field Office website. Hopefully, people will dig in, look at the analysis of impacts, mitigations and compensations and give the agency some comments to think about.

Make Holly Roberts happy. You have till July 18.

Primary Documents: Artifacts mitigation plan for Genesis solar project

As we’re reporting today, the $1 billion Genesis solar project east of the Coachella Valley has been slowed by the discovery of hundreds of prehistoric Native American artifacts.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that manages the land upon which the solar project is being built has instigated a mitigation plan for assessing the artifacts and their importance to cultural heritage and the area’s history, and directing solar project owner NextEra Energy Resources LLC with how to proceed.

Read BLM’s plans here:

Notice to proceed in implementing Genesis mitigation plan

GSEP Genesis Mitigation Plan 5-11-12_redacted

Manny Pacquiao opposes same-sex marriages

If anyone saw the Faceoff on HBO this weekend, Manny Pacquiao didn’t say anything controversial while seated across Timothy Bradley.

Pacquiao, a congressman in the Philippines who might someday run for president, saved that for Friday when he spoke to Granville Ampong of the Conservative Examiner. The topic of conversation is same-sex marriages.

“God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other,” Pacquiao said to  Ampong . “It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”

According to Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach, the WBO welterweight champion had abandonded his vices, which included gambling, cockfight and chasing women. In Pacquiao’s last fight, he was also dealing with marital problems, which Roach contributed to his struggles in winning a close decision over long-time rival Juan Manuel Marquez in November. Since that fight, Pacquiao has embraced religion and goes to bible study frequently.

In the USA Today blog by Tom Weir about same-sex marriage, he also pointed out that Pacquiao, a congressman in the Philippines, said last year he would oppose legislation to make condoms and family planning more readily available.
“It’s sinful to use condoms and commit abortion,” Pacquiao said last May.

For those who want to read the entire article, http://www.examiner.com/article/pacquiao-rejects-counsels-obama-god-s-words-first

And this is the USA Today blog

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/05/manny-pacquiao-challenges-obama-on-same-sex-marriage/1?fb_ref=.T7GUlAos9qk.like&fb_source=home_multiline

Desert teams set for baseball, softball playoffs

The CIF baseball playoffs begin Tuesday with Indio and Desert Hot Springs playing wildcard games at home. Palm Springs is on the road.

The first round games are Thursday and Friday for local teams; Palm Desert, La Quinta and Desert Christian Academy.

Desert Valley League champ Palm Desert, the top-ranked team in Div. 4, is at home Thursday and will host the winner of Tuesday’s game between Patriot/Chaffey. La Quinta also earned a home game Thursday and will host North Torrance, the Pioneer League runnerup.

Also on Thursday, Victory League champ Desert Christian Academy hosts Southlands Christian, the runnerup out of the San Joaquin League.

DeAnza League champion Shadow Hills opens the playoffs Friday in Div. 5. The Knights host Apple Valley, the third place team out of the Mojave River League. Marywood Palm Valley is on the road in Div. 5.

On Tuesday, the Rajahs will host Covina in a wildcard game at home. Palm Springs is on the road at Anaheim, both in Div. 4. DHS hosts Beaumont in Div. 5 wildcard.

All games are set for 3:15 P.M. unless both teams agree to a change.

Here’s the baseball lineup

Tuesday

Covina at Indio

Palm Springs at Anaheim (Glover Stadium)

Beaumont at DHS

Thursday

Patriot/Chaffey at Palm Desert

N. Torrance at La Quinta

Southlands Christian at Desert Christian Academy

Friday

Apple Valley at Shadow Hills

MPV at Firebaugh

SOFTBALL

 In softball, La Quinta, Indio, Palm Desert and Coachella Valley are in the CIF playoffs in Div. 4 softball.

In Div. 6, Shadow Hills is in, while in Div. 7 it’s Marywood-Palm Valley.

Three wildcard round games will be played Tuesday with first-round matches set for Thursday. All games begin at 3:15 p.m. unless both school agree to another start time.

Both Shadow Hills and MPV get home games for the wild card, but the Arabs need to travel to Pasadena to face Maranatha.

The Desert Valley League didn’t catch a break.

While six-time DVL champ La Quinta drew a home game on Thursday, the Blackhawks await the winner of a wildcard match between Hawthorne and Hacienda Heights Wilson.

Despite stellar records from both Indio and Palm Desert, the Aztecs and Rajahs are on the road for the first round.

Indio travels to Fullerton to face Sunny Hills, the runnerup out of the Freeway League. Palm Desert heads to Hesperia to battle Mojave River champ Oak Hills.

And as for CV, if the Arabs are to get by on the road, they get NO. 1 Dos Pueblos on the road in Goleta, near Santa Barbara.

Shadow Hills gets to host a wildcard game Tuesday and the Knights are taking on Santa Clara, the third place team out of the Frontier League. If Shadow Hills earns the victory, it will play on the road in the high desert at Kern Valley.

The third place team from the Majestic League is in the postseason for the first time. The MPV Firebirds host California School for the Deaf/Riverside on Tuesday. The winner of that match plays Thurday at Santa Cruz champ Bell-Jeff.

Look for more details in Tuesday’s Desert Sun and online at mydesert.com

Here’s the lineup

Tuesday

CV at Maranatha

Santa Clara at Shadow Hills

CSDeaf at MPV

Thursday

Hawthorne/Wilson winner at La Quinta

Indio at Sunny Hills

Palm Desert at Oak Hills

Ready for CIF softball playoffs?

La Quinta, Indio, Palm Desert and Coachella Valley are in the CIF playoffs in Div. 4 softball.

In Div. 6, Shadow Hills is in, while in Div. 7 it’s Marywood-Palm Valley.

Three wildcard round games will be played Tuesday with first-round matches set for Thursday. All games begin at 3:15 p.m. unless both school agree to another start time.

Both Shadow Hills and MPV get home games for the wild card, but the Arabs need to travel to Pasadena to face Maranatha.

The Desert Valley League didn’t catch a break.

While six-time DVL champ La Quinta drew a home game on Thursday, the Blackhawks await the winner of a wildcard match between Hawthorne and Hacienda Heights Wilson.

Despite stellar records from both Indio and Palm Desert, the Aztecs and Rajahs are on the road for the first round.

Indio travels to Fullerton to face Sunny Hills, the runnerup out of the Freeway League. Palm Desert heads to Hesperia to battle Mojave River champ Oak Hills.

And as for CV, if the Arabs are to get by on the road, they get NO. 1 Dos Pueblos on the road in Goleta, near Santa Barbara.

Shadow Hills gets to host a wildcard game Tuesday and the Knights are taking on Santa Clara, the third place team out of the Frontier League. If Shadow Hills earns the victory, it will play on the road in the high desert at Kern Valley.

The third place team from the Majestic League is in the postseason for the first time. The MPV Firebirds host California School for the Deaf/Riverside on Tuesday. The winner of that match plays Thurday at Santa Cruz champ Bell-Jeff.

Look for more details in Tuesday’s Desert Sun and online at mydesert.com

Here’s the lineup

Tuesday

CV at Maranatha

Santa Clara at Shadow Hills

CSDeaf at MPV

Thursday

Hawthorne/Wilson winner at La Quinta

Indio at Sunny Hills

Palm Desert at Oak Hills

Disneyland hits refresh button on Matterhorn

Matterhorn Bobsleds, one of Disneyland’s oldest and most popular rides, is nearing the end of a much needed renovation.

Closed since January, the ride is scheduled to reopen June 15  — 

More snow has been added to the Matterhorn mountainside. Photo by James Meier

its 53rd anniversary and the same date that Disney is unveiling its new Cars Land at California Adventure.

When I was at Disneyland in February, the mountain was hidden behind scaffolding.

The scaffolding was removed a few weeks ago and one of our senior editors texted me a photo of the mountain in its freshly painted state that includes more snow.

Then Disney released a 2.5-minute video in which one of the Imagineers explains the renovation process, that began with a study of the real Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland.

They came back and repainted it according to how actual snow patterns would occur  —  more snow on the northern side than the southern.  They also added some glass beads to enhance the reflection, making the snow glisten in the sunlight.

Passengers will be seated in new, slightly wider “bobsleds.” Two bobsleds will still be linked together, allowing for a total of six riders.

In keeping with tradition, Disneyland promises the climbers who have traditionally scaled the mountain will return when it reopens next month.

I’m told the the legendary abominable snowman is still there, ready to scare up a few screams from any unsuspecting riders, but sporting a new fur coat. Hey, even an abominable snowman needs a wardrobe makeover every now and then.

When it first opened on June 15, 1959, the Matterhorn Bobsleds was the first tubular steel roller coaster in the world.

Walt created the ride after falling in love with the real  Matterhorn in Switzerland while filming the 1959

Disneyland's Matterhorn Bobsleds ride is scheduled to reopen June 15 following a major makeover that includes new "bobsleds." Photo by James Meier

live-action film, “Third Man on the Mountain.”

I remember when my grandmother would take us to Disneyland, always looking for the snow-capped 147-foot-tall  Matterhorn, which could be seen from Interstate 5  — a sure indication we were just minutes away from The Happiest Place on Earth.

I love this ride. It holds a lot of memories of Disneyland visits with my family, and I can’t wait for it to reopen.

Superintendent’s salary gets big boost

Desert Sands Unified School District Superintendent Sharon McGehee, who has the highest salary in Riverside County, also got the largest raise over the past three years of Coachella Valley school leaders.

According to state reports, McGehee received a $254,000 salary in 2010-11 – a 21.3 percent increase since 2008-09.

However, that state reported salary does not reflect what McGehee actually took home, the district reported.

Her annual $9,000 travel stipend was only included in the 2010-11 report, though she received it each year, skewing the percent change, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Cindy McDaniel said. 

McGehee also took home about $3,500 less than the state reported because management took a pay cut along with staff. Rather than having that amount taken out of her salary, McGehee wrote a personal check to the district, McDaniel said.

When the travel stipend is added to previous years and the pay cut is factored in, McGehee’s salary increase is about 14.7 percent from 2008-09 to 2010-11.

During that time, the average teacher salary in Desert Sands Unified dropped by 0.7 percent to about $71,700.

McGehee does not receive any health benefits from the district, McDaniel said.

Coachella Valley Unified’s superintendent salary has not changed from $185,000 since 2008-09, according to state reports.

However, the district reported last year that then-Superintendent Ricardo Medina’s salary was actually 5 percent lower – $175,750 – because management took a pay cut along with the other employee groups.

The actual salaries weren’t changed, but management contributed that 5 percent to health benefits instead, Interim Executive Director of Business and Finance John Ramont said. So while the superintendent’s take home pay was effectively 5 percent less, the reported salary remained the same.

The district’s current superintendent, Darryl Adams, was given a $195,000 salary for 2011-12.

Both Palm Springs Unified School District’s superintendent’s and teachers’ salaries have grown at about the same rate since 2008-09.

Then-Superintendent Lorri McCune’s salary increased by 3.1 percent from 2008-09 to 2010-11.

The average teacher pay increased by about 3.5 percent in that time period to $69,500.

Current Superintendent Christine Anderson was given a $200,000 salary for 2011-12, a 0.4 percent decrease.

Average teacher salaries have been impacted by retirement incentives that have led many teachers typically with higher salaries to leave the district and by layoffs that have led to the loss of typically lower-paid teachers with less seniority.  

 The most recent teacher salary data available is from 2010-11.

Joe Walser helped change the desert

How many people can you say have really, truly shaped the Coachella Valley? Not just had an impact or been a presence, but truly shaped the desert?
Joe Walser was one of the people who shaped the desert.
Along with his partner Ernie Vossler, Walser turned the 1980s into a time of explosive golf course development in the desert. As the main movers and shakers of Landmark Land, Walser and Vossler put together deals that developed courses at La Quinta Resort and Mission Hills Country Club as well as the courses at Westin Mission Hills Resort and, perhaps most importantly, PGA West.
Walser died last Thursday in Dallas, four days short of his 80th birthday, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Imagine what the desert was like in the 1970s, particularly in the east end of the valley. It had very little development and a very small population base, with most people still living in the west and central parts of the valley.
That started to change when Vossler and Walser, already legends in Oklahoma because of their amateur and professional play and their development of courses like Oak Tree, turned their attention to the Coachella Valley.
Along with Gerald Barton, Walser and Vossler put a specific plan of action into motion. The Dunes and Mountain courses at La Quinta Resort allowed for home development to spring up around the layouts. At PGA West, they showed that digging the courses down into the desert and raising the home lots to look down on the course could raise the value of the home.

They built clubhouses with a specific look (pro shop to the left, restaurant and bar to the right as the golfer walks in). And being touring professionals at one time themselves, they stocked with pro shops with people who could play the game at a high level.
People driving out to the first course at PGA West in 1985 down Jefferson Street might well have though they had missed the place, it was so far off the beaten path. And they could easily have thought that Walser and Vossler were crazy for building anything so far out into the desert. People thought the same thing when Johnny Dawson built Thunderbird Country Club in 1951 in a barren area that is now the heart of Rancho Mirage.
A key to Landmark’s success was the club pro mind set of Walser and Vossler, the idea of treating members and the public well, of strong but easy-going customer service, of value for the customer. And the idea that marketing their courses through television was important. That’s why so many PGA Tour and PGA of America events were played at Landmark courses. In fact, because of the connections of Vossler and Walser, there was a plan at one point for then-Commissioner Deane Beman to move PGA Tour headquarters from Florida to PGA West.

Things went well for Vossler and Walser and Landmark Land until the mid-1990s, when they lost the courses as part of the widespread saving and loan scandal that had nothing to do with them. There was a settlement later in their favor in a lawsuit against the government, but the courses and developments had new owners. Restarting their efforts resulted in Landmark Golf Club (now Terra Lago in Indio) but the success never reached the same levels as the 1980s for a variety of reasons.
But the success that Walser and Vossler had can never be forgotten and likely will never be repeated. And that’s why people like Walser will be missed in the desert.