Sacramento, Calif., airport's parking garage part of economic development plan. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Cameron Jahn, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 26--In a metal shop near the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, as classical music blared in the background, Terry Schutten put the heat on Ron McPherson.

'We'd really like to have all the birds done next month,' said Schutten, talking loudly over the din of welding torches and polishing wheels.

Sacramento County's chief executive was pressing the welder to finish 12 giant stainless-steel birds -- each to be covered with plastic the colors of fresh salmon, lemon rind and mint ice cream, among others -- for the grand opening next month of Sacramento International Airport's first parking garage.

'We can't be done by then,' McPherson said quietly, shaking his head. He said he can deliver only one complete bird for the Sept. 23 ceremony.

You can understand Schutten's impatience.

Designed by artist Dennis Oppenheim, the birds are the final flourishing touches, a signature piece of artwork, for a $65 million garage meant to dazzle travelers arriving in California's capital.

'The idea is you round the corner and all these birds -- it's this vision of a flock of birds coming in to land,' Schutten said. 'Our goal is to have the best-looking garage in the country.'

But that's not all.

The 6,000-space garage is a precursor to an airport makeover that business leaders view as a ticket to the big leagues. The 37-year-old airport is in line for its most extensive renovation, including $1 billion for a new terminal, complete with a double-decker roadway, top-flight hotel, control tower and runway extension.

That work will not start until at least 2006, but local officials are hitching their fortunes to the airport, a $2.4 billion economic driver for the region that provides more than 14,000 jobs.

While Sacramento County's flagging budget does not benefit directly from airport operations, county officials believe that a profitable airport will translate into more jobs, commerce and sales tax dollars.

'County government is in a sort of shrinking phase, but the airport is one department that runs like a business,' said Schutten.

The airport's latest strategy to boost business is to compete head-to-head with airports in San Francisco and Oakland for passengers, while extending its reach into Redding, Reno and Tahoe, said airport spokeswoman Cheryl Marcell.

The more aggressive approach could transform the airport into the centerpiece of the region's economy, possibly creating more jobs than the current anchors of health care and government, said Robert Fountain, economist for the Sacramento Regional Research Institute, a joint venture of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization and California State University, Sacramento.

'I think the issue is people have trouble seeing Sacramento beyond its next 1 million people,' he said. 'By 2030, it's a more sophisticated, complicated picture, and that's where this airport will become a significant piece of our economy.'

Rick LaPado is an example of how the airport lures jobs to the region. When LaPado uprooted his 250-person operation in Sunnyvale in 2002, he passed over Monterey and San Francisco expressly because of Sacramento's 'easy-to-use' airport.

'The ultimate discriminator was the airport,' said LaPado, a vice president and general manager with defense contractor Northrup Grumman Mission Systems, which now leases 250,000 square feet of space at McClellan Business Park. 'It was really facilitating travel for my customers that drove me to this decision.'

While the airline industry as a whole has taken a hit since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Sacramento International has added five new airlines. Carriers now fly nonstop to 25 cities, up from 20 in 2000.

LaPado recently boarded his 11th nonstop flight to Washington D.C., something he couldn't do until JetBlue began offering that route in May. United launched similar service in June.

Mexicana Airlines established the airport's first international flight with service to Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2002.

Passenger totals ticked up 5 percent last year, topping 9 million for the first time. Officials expect to see 17 million by 2020.

The additional flights and growing passenger rolls strengthen Paul Hahn's sales pitch. As the county's economic development director, Hahn is charged with rustling up business any way possible.

'When we're chasing businesses, having excellent plane service and transportation service is very, very important,' he said. 'Flying nonstop out here, from New York say, is very critical to where (executives) place their business.'

The airport also wants to wring more money from concessions and parking. When the new terminal is completed, passengers will see minimalls and eateries on both sides of the security screeners so people who are not traveling also can shop. That terminal, replacing the existing Terminal B, will be built where a daily parking lot now sits.

The new parking garage nearly completed next to Terminal A also will boost airport revenues, bringing in another $2.7 million a year with a $2 hike in daily parking rates to $12 per day, Marcell said.

The building will feature an automated system to count the number of cars per floor, and electric signs on each level will inform drivers whether spaces are available.

The new garage will serve both terminals with hourly and daily parking. Rental cars and economy parking will remain in the remote lots served by shuttle buses.

Also on tap is a new, three-story central processing building that will connect terminals A and B as the airport's sole entry point. Marcell said passengers will check bags on the ground floor, pick up their boarding passes on the second floor, and ride to their gates on a people mover on the top floor.

The third floor also will have access to the lobby of a new hotel, a Starbucks coffee shop and a Chili's Too restaurant. Beyond the security gate, passengers will be able to wait for their flights in two breweries, Gordon Biersch and Pyramid Ale.

The new control tower is expected to open by 2007, the runway extension by 2009, and the new Terminal B, hotel and central processing complex could open as early as 2010.

A few plane lengths from the airport's eastern runway, construction teams are at work on another project that promises to create more airport-dependent businesses. Metro Air Park, 20 million square feet of industrial and office space, is designed for 38,000 jobs when it is completed over the next two decades.

Economists predict the airport will one day be surrounded by a ring of similar projects. The first one may get off the ground in November if voters in Sutter County, a few miles north of the airport, approve turning 7,500 acres of farmland into industrial parks and housing for as many as 39,000 residents.

Meanwhile, planners are working to enhance travelers' first impression of the Sacramento International Airport with more than $1.4 million in public art.

In the next few months, passengers walking out of Terminal A will gaze onto the airport's own version of the Pacific Flyway. The 12 bird sculptures, each with the wingspan of a small airplane, will hang from the new parking garage, some banking upward and others diving head-first toward the ground.

When the birds finally are bolted into place later this year, cascading planter boxes will begin to fill in the space between each sculpture to soften the six-story concrete facade.

The garage will connect to Terminal A via an enclosed 150-foot pedestrian bridge outfitted with a $105,000 custom-made wool carpet designed by Bay Area artist Seyed Alavi. The carpet depicts the twists and turns of the Sacramento River in a full palette of colors.

The airport is in line for a third piece of public art next summer, a bronze statue of an 8-foot-tall woman with open arms to welcome international passengers to Sacramento. Local artist Camille VandenBerge's statue cost $38,000.

'One day these projects will show up in all the art books, and people will come to the airport just to see the art,' Supervisor Muriel Johnson said while surveying the new garage recently. 'We've only got one chance to do this right.'

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com.

(c) 2004, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

SACRAMENTO STATE RESPONDS TO CAMPUS NEEDS AFTER SHOOTING - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 22 -- California State University Sacramento issued the following press release:

Sacramento State officials offered sympathy Thursday to the family of a student who died following an altercation on campus Oct. 21.

Campus police were called to the American River Courtyard residence hall at 2:23 p.m. regarding a disturbance. One student, Scott Hawkins, 23, was allegedly beaten by a suite mate, Quran Jones, 19.

When officers arrived, Jones confronted them with a knife, according to police. Officers fired several pepper balls at him when he refused to drop the knife, but it had no effect and when he charged the officers, they fired their weapons, police say.

Police found Hawkins on the floor with extensive injuries. He later died at UC Davis Medical Center.

Jones underwent surgery for his gunshot wounds and is listed in stable condition. He is under arrest on an open count of homicide and attempted murder of a police officer.

Police quickly contained the incident and ensured there was no further danger to the campus. A motive has not been determined.

'I want to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Scott Hawkins, who died yesterday in a terrible act of violence,' Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez said at the Thursday press conference. 'His life was far too short, and this is a tragedy that affects everyone in the Sacramento State community.'

Campus Police Chief Dan Davis and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori Varlotta also made statements and answered reporters' question.

'The brave officers who responded to the scene contained the incident and prevented further loss of life,' Gonzalez said. 'They risked their lives to protect the campus community, and they have my most sincere thanks for their courage.'

Sacramento State officials quickly arranged help for members of the campus community who needed to talk with someone. Crisis counselors were available to residence hall students Wednesday night. The students could also reach a chaplain through a special number. Psychological services are available to students through Sacramento State's Health Center at (916) 278-6416 during business hours. Faculty and staff can obtain counseling services through the Employee Assistance Program, (916) 278-5018.

A special website, www.csus.edu/pa/CampusSafety was set up with contact information and news updates. And a hotline was established at (916) 614-3277 with a recorded message guiding callers to campus resources.

The criminal investigation is being led by the Sacramento Police Department. Sacramento State police and administrators are cooperating fully and assisting the investigation.

Sacramento, Calif.-Area Hospital to Be Remodeled, Build New Facilities. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Lisa Rapaport, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

May 12--Sutter Health will spend $200 million over the next five years to remodel Sutter General and build a new women's and children's hospital in midtown Sacramento, hospital officials said Friday.

The capital project is part of a 10-year regional expansion plan that includes additions to emergency and trauma services at Sutter Roseville Medical Center, new medical office buildings in Roseville and Lincoln, and the possibility of construction in Davis and Auburn.

The ambitious plans come at a time when the vast majority of hospitals in the state are losing money on patient care and struggling to maintain stable credit ratings.

Financial problems were a main force behind 23 hospital closures in the state between 1995 and 2000, according to a recent study by the University of California at Berkeley.

Sutter, however, has investment-grade bonds and saw substantial gains in its operating surplus last year.

For the year ended Dec. 31, investments and real estate sales helped Sutter achieve net income of $111 million on revenues of $3.5 billion.

'There's been a lot of down news of hospitals holding on for dear life, but now there's been a turnaround for us,' said Jim Gray, chair of the Sutter central region board of trustees. 'We have modest and conservative expectations of increased revenue and cost reduction to finance expansions.'

Sutter officials said their health system will also go to the bond market and the community to help fund expansions, which will ultimately include work on a midtown Sacramento business improvement district.

As part of the master growth plan, Sutter Memorial in east Sacramento will close once its services are moved to Sutter General and the new women's and children's facility. While hospital officials offered no date for closure, they said it is likely to come before 2008 to avoid major state-mandated earthquake safety renovations.

'We focused our first phase of planning on the regional expansion, and one of the next phases is to decide the fate of Memorial,' said Thomas Gagen, chief executive officer of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento.

By fall, Sutter will develop capital plans for Auburn Faith Community Hospital, which will need retrofitting or a new facility, and the 48-bed Sutter Davis, which needs more room for outpatient services, Gagen said.

Sutter said it will spend about $156 million to build its new 156-bed women's and children's hospital at 29th and L Streets. The seven-story building will house maternity services, a neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric wards for neurosurgery, cardiac and cancer care.

At Sutter General, an additional $43 million will be spent to add a new pediatric emergency unit to the recently expanded ER and to accommodate cardiovascular and transplant services now offered at Sutter Memorial. The work will transform Sutter General into a 290-bed facility.

The health system will spend another $25 million in Placer County by the end of 2003.

Much of this will fund nine new treatment bays for Sutter Roseville's emergency department and eight additional beds for the intensive care unit.

Sutter will also add a 62,000-square-foot medical office to the Roseville campus and purchase land to erect a 12,000-square-foot medical office in Lincoln.

Sutter said it has yet to determine whether the region will gain jobs as a result of planned expansions. Much of the construction relocates existing services to new facilities.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

UPDATE REGARDING RECALLED H1N1 VACCINE IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 16 -- Sacramento County issued the following press release:

Sacramento County Public Health has completed its review of vaccine inventory following yesterday's Sanofi Pasteur recall of pediatric single-dose syringes of H1N1 flu vaccine. The recall was not related to safety problems, but rather because some lots were found to be slightly below the potency standard for the vaccine. The review has shown that Sacramento County Public Health received 400 doses of one recalled lot. Of these, 43 doses were administered at the Public Health Division's H1N1 vaccination clinics held between December 10th and December 12th. The rest of the doses are still in inventory and have not been used. 'We are in the process of pulling all 43 Vaccination Consent Forms to notify parents that their child received a dose of this recalled vaccine,' said Sacramento County Health Officer Glennah Trochet, M.D. 'The vaccine is still considered effective even though the potency was slightly below the standard.' Trochet said the parents will be told that no action is necessary on their part, other than making sure that their child receives a second dose of the vaccine one month after they received the first dose.

The Public Health Division is working with medical providers in the community who also received the recalled batches of vaccine to make sure that they are aware of the recall and to help them find substitute doses for their patients.

Per instructions from the California Department of Public Health, the unused vaccine will be returned to the manufacturer. For more information, go to www.SCPH.com and click on the H1N1 Flu Clinics graphic.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

REP. MATSUI PRAISES SACRAMENTO CLEAN-TECH COMPANIES FOR ACTIVE PURSUIT OF FEDERAL FUNDING. - States News Service

WASHINGTON -- The following information was released by the office of California Rep. Doris Matsui:

After touring green job training sites in Sacramento, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) returned to the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the 111th Congress this week, praising Sacramento's burgeoning clean-energy industry's dedication to and aggressive pursuit of federal grant funding. The federal government made historic levels of grant funding available in 2009 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including the largest federal investment in renewable energy, energy-efficiency, and green job training in our nation's history.

Sacramento has been one of the largest beneficiaries of this funding in the country, largely due to the aggressiveness of local business, government agencies, and non-profit organizations in seeking out and applying for competitive grants. As a result of their efforts and the grants made available through the Recovery Act, our local economy has received $27,126,256 for job training and assistance in clean-energy jobs, and $18,651,100 for energy efficiency improvements and investments. The almost $48 million is in addition to the $127,506,261 million SMUD and their partners are receiving to install a comprehensive regional smart grid system to serve the Sacramento community.

'As I toured the green job-training programs and construction sites of Sacramento last week, I was pleased to see Sacramento's growth in this sector,' said Matsui. 'Our local agencies, business owners, citizens, and students exemplify a community which is engaged in finding sustainable, eco-friendly, and cost-efficient solutions to our nation's energy woes. I also saw the eagerness of our local workforce to gain new skills to take advantage of employment opportunities that are coming as a result of these federal investments. As an emerging clean-tech capitol, Sacramento's economy is poised to become a leader in the green industry for the twenty-first century.'

Last month, McClellan Park-based Renewable Energy Institute International (REII) received a $20,000,000 grant in federal funding authorized by the Recovery Act. REII's receipt of this award showcases the opportunities federal agencies have made available through the stimulus bill and is just one example of many Sacramento businesses which have competitively sought after grants.

'We are very happy that the Department of Energy has selected this project to demonstrate the conversion of biomass to renewable diesel fuel,' said Greg Tamblyn, REII Executive Director. 'The commercial deployment of the technologies that will be demonstrated under this grant have the potential to play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing the United States' reliance on foreign oil and creating high quality green jobs.'

Congresswoman Matsui continued, 'REII is just one of many constituents which I have witnessed succeed in securing federal funding. Last year, over $13,000,000 was awarded in stimulus dollars to Sacramento County, the City of Sacramento and other jurisdictions for energy efficiency improvements and training programs alone. Just this week, the Department of Health and Human Services released $48,660,000 in block grant funding for FY2010 to support the state of California's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). As Congress reconvenes for 2010, I will continue to advocate for federal funding in our region.'

To see where over $525 million in federal stimulus dollars was distributed around Sacramento, visit www.matsui.house.gov/recovery for a comprehensive list and interactive Google Map. Constituents interested in more information about applying for federal grants are encouraged to call Congresswoman Matsui's Sacramento office at (916) 498-5600.

REP. MATSUI PRAISES SACRAMENTO CLEAN-TECH COMPANIES FOR ACTIVE PURSUIT OF FEDERAL FUNDING - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 -- Rep. Doris O. Matsui, D-Calif. (5th CD), issued the following news release:

After touring green job training sites in Sacramento, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) returned to the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the 111th Congress this week, praising Sacramento's burgeoning clean-energy industry's dedication to and aggressive pursuit of federal grant funding. The federal government made historic levels of grant funding available in 2009 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including the largest federal investment in renewable energy, energy-efficiency, and green job training in our nation's history.

Sacramento has been one of the largest beneficiaries of this funding in the country, largely due to the aggressiveness of local business, government agencies, and non-profit organizations in seeking out and applying for competitive grants. As a result of their efforts and the grants made available through the Recovery Act, our local economy has received $27,126,256 for job training and assistance in clean-energy jobs, and $18,651,100 for energy efficiency improvements and investments. The almost $48 million is in addition to the $127,506,261 million SMUD and their partners are receiving to install a comprehensive regional smart grid system to serve the Sacramento community.

'As I toured the green job-training programs and construction sites of Sacramento last week, I was pleased to see Sacramento's growth in this sector,' said Matsui. 'Our local agencies, business owners, citizens, and students exemplify a community which is engaged in finding sustainable, eco-friendly, and cost-efficient solutions to our nation's energy woes. I also saw the eagerness of our local workforce to gain new skills to take advantage of employment opportunities that are coming as a result of these federal investments. As an emerging clean-tech capitol, Sacramento's economy is poised to become a leader in the green industry for the twenty-first century.'

Last month, McClellan Park-based Renewable Energy Institute International (REII) received a $20,000,000 grant in federal funding authorized by the Recovery Act. REII's receipt of this award showcases the opportunities federal agencies have made available through the stimulus bill and is just one example of many Sacramento businesses which have competitively sought after grants.

'We are very happy that the Department of Energy has selected this project to demonstrate the conversion of biomass to renewable diesel fuel,' said Greg Tamblyn, REII Executive Director. 'The commercial deployment of the technologies that will be demonstrated under this grant have the potential to play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing the United States' reliance on foreign oil and creating high quality green jobs.'

Congresswoman Matsui continued, 'REII is just one of many constituents which I have witnessed succeed in securing federal funding. Last year, over $13,000,000 was awarded in stimulus dollars to Sacramento County, the City of Sacramento and other jurisdictions for energy efficiency improvements and training programs alone. Just this week, the Department of Health and Human Services released $48,660,000 in block grant funding for FY2010 to support the state of California's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). As Congress reconvenes for 2010, I will continue to advocate for federal funding in our region.'

To see where over $525 million in federal stimulus dollars was distributed around Sacramento, visit www.matsui.house.gov/recovery for a comprehensive list and interactive Google Map. Constituents interested in more information about applying for federal grants are encouraged to call Congresswoman Matsui's Sacramento office at (916) 498-5600.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Official Takes Notice of Cancer Scare in Sacramento, Calif., Neighborhood. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Chris Bowman, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 31--Three months after going public with fears of too many cancers in their neighborhood, residents on the southern outskirts of Sacramento see the first hint of expanded government help.

Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Glennah Trochet has invited some residents in the Calvine-Florin area to meet with her and top state health officials next month.

Though the officials have made no promises, their call for the Jan. 16 discussion opens a crack in the state Department of Health Services' reluctance to use more than statistical analyses to investigate.

'There is now an activist group there that is not convinced there isn't a problem, so we need to engage in dialogues,' Trochet said.

Volunteers organized as the Concerned Residents Initiative believe their neighborhood just north of Elk Grove has an abnormally high rate of leukemia and lymphoma, which stem from cancerous cells in the bone marrow.

The cancers have struck at least 60 residents -- 17 of them children -- in the past 12 years, The Bee has verified. The diseases have killed 16, including two girls and a 3-year-old boy.

The victims were diagnosed while they lived in a 3-square-mile area between Florin and Calvine roads, or shortly after they moved away. Twelve lived on or within a few blocks of Auberry Drive, a milelong street with 127 homes.

Some residents suspect something toxic in their air, soil or drinking water is partly responsible for the cancers and fear more people will fall ill before the culprits are identified.

They hope to get the kind of leave-no-stone-unturned investigations that were undertaken with suspected cancer clusters -- an unusual grouping not likely due to chance -- in areas such as Long Island, N.Y.; Woburn, Mass.; and McFarland in the San Joaquin Valley.

But veterans of those investigations warn that results have been confounding and disappointing.

Scientists descended on the tiny Kern County farm town of McFarland in the 1980s believing pesticides most likely were to blame for the various cancers that struck 13 children.

More than 20 years of multiple environmental and health surveys totaling millions of dollars failed to unravel the mystery, said Richard Kreutzer, the principal investigator.

'We could not demonstrate anything we could assign as a factor causing the cluster,' said Kreutzer, now director of the state's environmental health investigation branch.

In the Calvine-Florin area, health officials maintain there is no evidence of a cancer cluster based on their statistical analyses of cases reported to the state.

But they have encouraged residents to come forward with cases and possible environmental causes.

'We want to find out what the questions are and hear what the issues are,' Trochet said of the upcoming meeting. 'It's an opportunity for us to do some education and find out how best to communicate with residents.'

The meeting would be the first between health officials and the community since The Bee broke the news of the residents' cancer concerns on Sept. 22.

Dee Lewis, a resident near Auberry Drive who is leading the neighborhood's search for answers, called Trochet's invitation 'a good start.'

Earlier this month, the state health department invited Lewis to join a group of nationally recognized scientists and public health advocates working to establish an environmental heath tracking system for California.

Such a system would help scientists spot disease clusters in individual communities and neighborhoods, such as Calvine-Florin, and act swiftly to resolve them.

For now, Lewis and her growing band of volunteers are pressing state officials with troubling questions:

What gave us cancer? How can we protect our children? Is there something different about the Calvine-Florin area? Are there clusters of cancer cases in neighborhoods here?

The odds are stacked against them getting definitive answers soon, if at all.

Even if the state looked deeper, and even if it found an unusually high cancer rate, chances are it would be the result of a random occurrence, most scientists say.

Even if it were an environmentally spawned cluster, health investigators would not likely find it in their computer analyses. Populations such as Calvine-Florin's 40,000 are too small for scientists to distinguish true clusters from statistical flukes.

And even if residents uncovered evidence of cancer-causing contamination, it likely would take huge political support to launch an investigation.

'These studies require a huge investment of human capital. They're not just academic exercises. They're political campaigns. And unless there's the political will, studies don't get done,' said Jan Schlichtmann, an attorney who represented families in the working-class Boston suburb of Woburn.

Residents' willingness to help solve the puzzle is key, said Schlichtmann, whose court battle over industrial pollution and childhood leukemia was the subject of the popular book and movie 'A Civil Action.'

'What I learned from Woburn is that nobody is going to care more about that community than the community itself,' he said.

Calvine-Florin is a relatively young, middle-class and transient community without much clout. Most of the community didn't exist until the mid-1980s when tracts of starter homes replaced farm fields.

It has nowhere near the influence of Marin County, one of the nation's wealthiest enclaves, nor the influence of New York's Nassau and Suffolk counties, home to some of the most well-connected people in the country.

Federal officials recently confirmed plans for a joint investigation of Marin's high rate of breast cancers -- 223 per 100,000 people compared with the national rate of 140 per 100,000.

The investigation will pull researchers from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of the Environmental Health Sciences, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On Long Island, a group of women drew on their political connections and public relations savvy to engineer an astonishing achievement: Congress' 1993 passage of a law forcing the National Cancer Institute to spend about $30 million for an unprecedented series of studies on pollution and breast cancer in their communities.

'People with more resources and better connected to policymakers can make the wheel squeak louder,' said Joseph Lyou, executive director of the California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, which is pushing for environmental health tracking.

On the flip side, Calvine-Florin is not poor enough nor disenfranchised enough to attract interests that come to the aid of the defenseless.

McFarland, a town of mostly farm workers, became a cause celèbre in the 1980s for politicians, pesticide-reform groups and civil rights advocates. The United Farm Workers union organized a well-funded campaign around the town's tragedy, complete with a video, 'The Wrath of Grapes.' '

In Calvine-Florin, Lewis and her volunteers have been building political and media attention from scratch.

'We're middle class and we get placated, kind of like parents do to the middle child,' said Lewis, 37, a stay-at-home mom with two children.

Her battle is hardly unique, said Shelley Hearne, a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore.

'Far too often, neighborhoods are forced to do the detective work that should be the job of public health experts,' Hearne said.

So far, Lewis and her helpers have not found any environmental smoking guns.

But in the past three months, she has formed a grass-roots group, held community and family meetings and recruited more than 200 volunteers who passed out health surveys at 17,000 area homes.

Lewis' group is verifying information from the 400 cancer questionnaires returned so far and plans to canvass another 8,000 homes in the area.

Meanwhile, individual scientists, engineers and doctors have volunteered to help residents evaluate disease patterns and test for pollutants. A pair of University of Arizona scientists recently extracted core samples from several area trees to check for toxic metals absorbed from soil and groundwater.

Also, Lewis and other residents have engaged two law firms that recently began sampling soil and water at the homes of cancer patients.

Some scientists and residents experienced in cancer cluster investigations said Calvine-Florin residents should not pin their hopes on environmental testing.

The best insights into the causes of the cancers won't come from reconstructing past exposure, they said. Rather, the causes will be revealed by following a group of healthy individuals who have different levels of pollution exposure and monitoring their health over time.

When scientists suggested such a 'cohort' study to the Long Island breast cancer activists a decade ago, 'most of them screamed, 'No, you should study me,' ' recalled Barbara Balaban, 73, a social worker who helped organize the women.

Scientists ended up doing a 'case-control' investigation of the prior exposures of 1,000 local women, half of them with breast cancer.

The study, released in August, found no evidence that pollution caused breast cancer. In retrospect, Balaban wishes the activists had put egos and individual concerns aside.

'Studying 'me' is not as fruitful as studying people who are unborn, newborn and adolescents,' Balaban said. 'That's the population where we really have to look and see what toxic exposures there really are.'

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Two More Possible Cases of Outbreak Appear in Sacramento, Calif., Area. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Edie Lau, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Apr. 15--The number of possible cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Sacramento County has risen to three, and the county's health chief predicted the number would continue to grow.

Dr. Glennah Trochet, Sacramento County public health officer, said Monday that all three SARS instances are associated with travel to Asia.

The first case in Sacramento was identified last week; over the past weekend, physicians reported two more cases. Trochet said the three are unrelated.

'Right now we have no evidence of any spread of this disease in this community,' she said.

Nevertheless, she predicted the number of residents affected will rise to 10 or more before the international epidemic is over because 'we have a lot of travel to that area of the world.'

The respiratory syndrome first surfaced in China's Guangdong province in November. It has since appeared in other parts of Asia, in North America, Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East. The vast majority of cases are in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Adding to the anxiety, the New York Times reported that 47 new SARS cases have been reported in the Shanxi interior province of northern China, heralding the possible spread of the disease through that country's vast, medically underserved hinterlands.

A World Health Organization tally showed 3,169 cases worldwide as of Monday. Of those, 144 people have died, and 1,499 have recovered.

In the United States, the number of cases totals 193, 41 of which are in California.

SARS is an insidious illness in that it comes on like the flu, but may rapidly deteriorate into a lethal pneumonia.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines American cases of SARS this way:

-- Illness began on or after Feb. 1; and

-- Fever is greater than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit; and

-- Patient exhibits one or more signs of respiratory illness, including coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, hypoxia or radiographic findings of either pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome; and

-- Within 10 days of onset, patient traveled to China; Hanoi, Vietnam; and/or Singapore -- areas of documented or suspected community transmission of SARS; or patient had close contact within 10 days of onset with a person who traveled to a SARS area or has a suspected case of SARS.

Travel includes visiting an airport in a SARS hot spot. Close contact means having cared for, lived with or had direct contact with respiratory secretions or body fluids of a suspected SARS patient.

The cause of SARS has yet to be confirmed. The leading hypothesis is that the infection is caused by a coronavirus, which until now in humans was associated with the common cold, not killer pneumonia. The virus suspected of causing the syndrome is completely new to science.

In California, the illness has struck both genders equally, with 22 males and 19 females counted as suspect cases, according to Lea Brooks, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services.

Brooks said the people involved range in age from 1 1/2 to 85 years, four of them children under age 10. The vast majority -- 38 -- traveled recently; the remaining three were household contacts of travelers.

In Sacramento, Trochet declined to give the age or gender of the individuals involved, saying that with such a small number of cases, it would be too easy to determine from the details the patients' identities.

She also declined to say whether any of the people were hospitalized. 'Our understanding is that all of the cases are getting better,' she said.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Smog Officials Declare Sacramento, Calif., Air 'Unhealthy' Five Days in a Row. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 13--Valley and foothill residents in the Sacramento area are enduring one of the longest stretches of unhealthy air in recent years, smog officials said Monday.

The siege of smog has children's sports coaches and summer camp counselors on alert as the worst of the pollution comes during the peak swimming team practice and the start of soccer and football drills.

'Today's a hot day, so we're not going to do a lot of running,' Miguel Guido, an assistant soccer coach, told his Land Park boys team as it lined up for practice Monday afternoon.

Other coaches canceled workouts because of the heat and smog.

Sustained triple-digit temperatures, stagnant air and a strong system of high pressure over the region have combined to cook up high concentrations of smog in the Valley and keep a lid on the brew, from Sacramento to Grass Valley and Placerville, meteorologists said.

The scourge began Thursday when smog levels in Sacramento and western El Dorado counties reached 150 on the Air Quality Index -- unhealthy for sensitive people.

Ozone levels on Saturday, Sunday and Monday reached 174, a level deemed unhealthy for everyone. By state law, smog officials issue health advisories warning people to avoid prolonged periods of vigorous outdoor exercise in the late afternoon and into the evening, when smog levels peak.

The smog is forecast to be just as bad through Thursday, said Kerry Shearer, spokesman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. The high temperature Monday was 105 in Sacramento and triple-digit heat is expected to continue through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

On Sunday, the Sacramento area broke a record with its fourth consecutive day of 'unhealthy' air.

The region experienced higher levels of smog in the 1970s through early 1990s, when pollution controls on vehicles and businesses were not as strict. But the episodes typically last hours, not days, Shearer said.

'This is the only time I'm aware of when we have had a smog episode of this length, with numbers this high,' said Shearer, who has been with the air district since 1989.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, ozone levels measured at monitoring stations in Folsom and Sloughhouse in southeastern Sacramento County surpassed the federal health standard, marking the sixth such violation this year -- with 2 1/2 months remaining in the smog season. By comparison, the Sacramento region exceeded the federal ozone standard three times all of last year, Shearer said.

Factors combine to fuel the string of bad-air days.

Higher temperatures accelerate the formation of ozone from tailpipe emissions -- mainly nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons.

The stubborn ridge of high pressure over the area pushes air down. The compression heats the air, forming a thermal lid over the cooler air below.

This 'inversion layer' traps pollutants close to the ground, and the lack of wind ensures the smog will remain.

Shearer said the thermal lid was evident in the change of sky color from a hue of tea to clear as he flew over the Valley on Friday.

'It seemed you could see a very distinct line above 3,000 feet,' Shearer said.

Much of the day's pollution is carrying over to the following day, especially in the foothills, when ozone lingers throughout the night and early morning, said Charlie Knoderer, a meteorologist with Sonoma Technology Inc, a consultant for the Sacramento air district.

'Yesterday's pollution is added to today's,' Knoderer said.

The spate of smog heightens concerns among parents and coaches because of studies showing children's respiratory systems are more vulnerable than adults to ozone.

In addition, a recent study by the University of Southern California showed that children who routinely compete in vigorous sports on smoggy days are three times more likely to get asthma than their nonathletic peers.

Schools and sports leagues are getting the message as the air district steps up its 'spare-the-air' broadcasts on days predicted to be smoggy.

'If we have poor air quality for our sports with youth, we postpone or cancel the event,' said Rick Hormann, a youth sports coordinator for Folsom's Parks and Recreation Department. 'We're not going to put kids in danger.'

El Dorado Hills makes the call depending on the temperature, which is typically linked to smog, said Matt Lishman, a recreation supervisor with the El Dorado Hills Community Services District, who canceled a T-ball game last month.

'It was hard to breathe,' said Lishman, noting it was 112 degrees that day.

SPARE THE AIR

Active children and adults, and people with respiratory diseases such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion. Everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.

Things you can do to Spare The Air:

--Eliminate all vehicle trips

--Use public transit whenever possible

--Carpool with friends or co-workers

--Eliminate the use of gasoline-powered yard tools

--Postpone errand

--Bicycle or walk in the morning before air quality hits unhealthy levels

--Work from home instead of driving to work if your employer is supportive

On the Web

--To monitor current air quality conditions, visit www.sparetheair.com .

Source: Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District

By Chris Bowman and Alicia Roca

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

CONGRESSWOMAN DORIS MATSUI ANNOUNCES $2.7 MILLION FOR SACRAMENTO HEAD START PROGRAMS. - States News Service

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The following information was released by the office of California Rep. Doris Matsui:

Today, Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that more than $2.7 million in federal funding has been awarded to the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) for its Head Start program. Local Head Start programs improve the lives of low-income children by providing quality comprehensive child development services that are family focused, including education, health, nutrition and mental health. The $2,765,155 awarded today will be used to expand its preschool services and to make health and safety improvements at its Early Learning Centers.

The funding has been made possible in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that Rep. Matsui voted for earlier this year, and will be distributed through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funding has been awarded as two grants, the first for $1,730,722 through an HHS discretionary grant program, and the second for $1,034,433, through the Recovery Act. Both grants will be distributed immediately.

'SETA will be able to provide preschool services to an additional 150 local children and families with this important new infusion of funding,' said Congresswoman Matsui. 'It is expected to result in an additional 17 jobs created or retained in our community, as well as make health and safety improvements at its Early Learning Centers. These include repairs to classroom flooring, installing carpeting, fixing and upgrading playground structures, making vital repairs to location restrooms.'

'SETA is very excited to receive this funding,' said Kathy Kossick, Executive Director of the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency. 'Through the Stimulus and Department of Health and Human Services, SETA is able to provide more care to Sacramento area preschool aged children and give them a safe and healthy place to learn and play.'

Soto beats pneumonia, ready for Sacramento - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)

ONTARIO - After postponing her return to Sacramento after a three-month illness, Assemblywoman Nell Soto said she feels well and plansto be back in the Legislature next week.

The Ontario Democrat, who turns 81 on Monday, has been recoveringfrom a months-long battle with pneumonia. She planned to return toSacramento this week but changed her plans in order to see herdoctor.

She also opted to stay home a few days longer after realizingactivities in Sacramento were slowing down and ramping up again nextweek, she said Thursday.

Soto said her constituents shouldn't be concerned about herhealth.

'I feel fine and I'm doing very well. I don't feel the least bithealth-threatened,' she said.

The assemblywoman has been away from Sacramento and her districtoffice since March 8.

At the third annual Cesar Chavez Day Breakfast in Pomona on March30, she looked somewhat tired and her voice was weak. On Thursday,Soto appeared far better, her voice having regained its customarystrength.

Thursday was also the first time Soto had been in her Ontariodistrict office since taking time to recover, she said.

She said she managed to fight off a cold she feared could turninto another case of pneumonia.

Relapse has been a concern for her. In the course of her illness,she relapsed and was again diagnosed with the same condition, shesaid.

'I didn't let myself get well,' Soto said.

Soto is making monthly visits to her doctor and has permission toreturn to her activities in Sacramento.

'He told me not to go back until I feel really well,' she said.

The assemblywoman said her doctor urged her to try to rest beforeresuming her activities and asked her not to abuse her health.

'I have a habit of thinking nobody can do it but me,' she said,referring to her work.

Soto said she expects to be back in Sacramento on Monday inpreparation for the resumption of activity on the Assembly floorThursday.

The state budget is expected to come up on the Assembly's schedulethe following week. But before that, she'll be reviewing the budgetand making sure her projects are included, Soto said.

While she's been recovering in her Pomona home her children havebeen keeping an eye on her, she said. Two of her children call orvisit regularly, and one son lives at home.

A health-care worker has also been visiting her at home checkingher blood pressure and other vital signs, which appear to be in goodshape, Soto said.

Asked why her staff didn't make an announcement about her illness,Soto turned to Chief of Staff Paul Van Dyke, who said that hasalready been explained.

Soto's staff did not make an announcement about her illness untilthey began receiving media calls. Last week Van Dyke said noannouncement was made because at different points in time when thestaff was preparing to do so, it appeared she would be able to returnto her duties. He also said although pneumonia is a serious problem,with proper treatment a person can make a full recovery.

Medical experts said Friday pneumonia in people older than 65 canbe difficult, if not deadly.

Some reasons are linked to changes in the immune system, said Dr.Brandon Koretz, assistant clinical professor of geriatric medicine atUCLA's medical school.

As people age, 'some of the body's defenses may be less capable offighting pneumonia,' he said.

Other medical problems and taking certain types of medication canalso contribute to aggravating an already difficult problem, Koretzsaid.

Another factor that affects older adults is that as people agesome lung capacity is lost, said Dr. Zab Mosenifar, pulmonarydepartment chairman and director of the Women's Guild PulmonaryDisease Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Patients with a history of smoking or who have been around smokershave extra obstacles to overcome, Mosenifar said.

Doctors agree treating the conditions as quickly as possible isimportant, but an obstacle to treatment is that elderly patients maynot have visible symptoms of pneumonia.

'Young immune systems are very aggressive - they have fever,cough' and other symptoms, Mosenifar said.

Sometimes an older patient will only feel tired, complain of notbeing able to sleep or of loss of appetite, Koretz said. Unless aphysician does a thorough examination and runs tests, the conditionmay go unnoticed, Koretz said. Memory problems can also prevent quickand accurate diagnosis.

Full recovery can take weeks if not months, doctors said. Forevery one day of bed rest, a patient may require a week of recoverytime.

While she has been recovering, Soto said she has been keeping aneye on what has been going on in Sacramento and the bills sheauthored. She even made calls lobbying in her bills' favor.

Van Dyke said while the assemblywoman was gone, her staff has beenmaking sure her bills were still moving through the legislativeprocess with the help of Assembly members such as Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara; Joe Coto, D-San Jose; Bill Emmerson, R-RanchoCucamonga; and Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto.

Twelve of Soto's bills moved to the Senate, including proposedlegislation offering financial assistance to schools with strongparent-teacher involvement, providing funds to communities to helppay for sidewalks used by children on their way to school, and fosterfamily home licensing, Van Dyke said.

'They are all bills that make sense,' Soto said.

Another bill, AB301, which calls for creating a state gang-prevention coordinator in the state Department of Justice hasn'tmoved that far.

Instead, a similar version by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, has gone to the Senate.

Soto, a sixth-generation Pomonan, is the second oldest member ofthe Assembly. The oldest is Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, who is morethan a month older than Soto, Van Dyke said.

Soto has no plans to leave politics any time soon and intends tocomplete her current two-year term and run for another.

In the short term, Soto said she and several members of her familyleft Friday for the Central Coast this weekend to attend today'sgraduation of a grandchild at UC Santa Cruz.

Sacramento Judge Bars California Agency from Releasing Doctors' Financial Data. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Lisa Rapaport, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 6--In a complex legal battle pitting the advocacy goals of state HMO regulators against the business concerns of physicians, a Sacramento Superior Court judge has barred the California Department of Managed Health Care from releasing medical groups' financial records.

Regulators had planned to release physician groups' financial data last year in compliance with a new state law aimed at preventing disruptions in patient care that come when medical practices go broke and close their doors.

But the California Medical Association took the state's HMO regulators to court, arguing that any disclosure of detailed financial information would expose medical groups to greater risk of insolvency by giving health insurers an unfair advantage in contract negotiations.

In a ruling released Tuesday, Judge Gail D. Ohanesian sided with the doctors' organization, calling state regulators' attempts to disclose balance sheet details 'arbitrary and capricious.'

Daniel Zingale, director of the HMO agency, said the ruling effectively shuts down state efforts to enforce minimum financial solvency standards for medical groups.

'I don't see how you can craft a corrective action plan to facilitate a financial turnaround if you don't have access to the books,' Zingale said.

When physician groups close without warning, patients can be left without access to their doctors or medical records, and health care providers can be left with stacks of unpaid bills.

State regulators said they have used financial reports to avert disruptions in care for about 250,000 patients by directing health plans to assign members to solvent medical groups, shunning fiscally unstable practices. While the California Medical Association has not disputed Zingale's right to collect financial data, doctors believe actions taken by the department may be doing patients more harm than good.

'If the health plans said this group is not as strong as the other group and we better move our patients now rather than later, it would pretty much destroy the group that is struggling to get back into financial health,' said John Whitelaw, president of the California Medical Association.

The law, authored in 1999 by State. Sen Jackie Speier, is hardly clear on how far state regulators should go in gathering data or what enforcement actions Zingale might take against faltering medical groups.

But the law does require data collected by the department to be kept confidential, Speier said.

Tuesday's ruling upholds this law, but strikes down overly broad enforcement regulations proposed by Zingale, Speier said. In her reading, nothing prevents the department from continuing to collect quarterly reports from medical groups.

'There's no harm that comes to consumers in this ruling. I would argue that it has constrained the department from interpreting the statute more broadly that it was supposed to be applied in the first place,' Speier said.

Late Tuesday, regulators remained unsure if they would appeal the ruling.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Testing Reveals Hot Spot for Carcinogen Tungsten in Sacramento County, Calif. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Chris Bowman, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 28--A south Sacramento County neighborhood hit by fears of a childhood leukemia cluster appears to be a hot spot for the metal tungsten, an environmental contaminant of emerging cancer concern, according to a tree-ring study commissioned by The Bee.

Two University of Arizona scientists who ran the study say in an unpublished paper that their findings mark 'an important discovery that justifies continued research on the Calvine-Florin childhood leukemia neighborhood as well as on clusters of childhood leukemia elsewhere.'

The study is a follow-up to tree-ring and water tests the newspaper commissioned a year ago after state health officials declined to do an environmental investigation of the neighborhood, which extends east of Highway 99 to Elk Grove Florin Road, between Calvine and Gerber roads.

The Bee focused on tungsten because the element has surfaced as the most notable find in a 2002 federal probe of a childhood leukemia cluster in Fallon, Nev., 60 miles southeast of Reno.

Though tungsten is not known to cause cancer, investigators with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found extraordinarily high levels of the metal in Fallon residents and in their drinking water. Those findings suggested to scientists that tungsten might be linked to the childhood cancer.

The newspaper's tests last December in Calvine-Florin found minute amounts of tungsten in the drinking water and surprisingly high levels of the metal in neighborhood trees.

State Department of Health Services officials said last week -- as they did after The Bee's first round of testing -- that the tungsten findings do not merit further inquiry. They also dispute the study's premise that leukemia rates are elevated in the neighborhood.

While ruling out tungsten testing, state officials said they are preparing to conduct limited tests of the neighborhood's drinking water for NDMA, a probable cancer-causing compound, at the urging of a resident activist group.

At least nine children who live or had resided within two miles of each other in the neighborhood have been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia since 1992.

State health officials last month confirmed the cancer numbers but said the incidence does not signify a cluster, which is an unusual grouping that is not likely due to chance.

Nonetheless, state health officials have granted residents' requests to re-evaluate the neighborhood's disease rates, looking at all types of cancer that have been diagnosed among children who drank from the same water system.

Little is known about the health effects of exposure to tungsten, a naturally occurring element used in hardening tools and military armor.

The National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health, however, recently singled out tungsten and its soluble compounds for 'high priority' research to assess their cancer-causing potential. The decision was based mainly on the federal findings in Fallon.

Unlike Fallon, the Sacramento region's native soil and rock contains only slight traces of tungsten. That leads the scientists in the Sacramento study to suspect that the source is industrial.

The tree-ring specimen showing the biggest change -- 446 percent gain in 12 years -- came from a redwood between Union House Creek and a 1960s industrial center at Elsie Avenue and Cottonwood Lane. The Bee has not found any past or present commercial activities that for certain involved tungsten.

'The polluters may be long gone in the Calvine-Florin area, but their fingerprints are still there. They're embedded in the trees,' said Mark Witten, a University of Arizona professor of pediatric medicine who co-wrote the study with lead investigator Paul Sheppard.

The Bee focused on tree rings because the Arizona scientists had found tungsten levels rising in trees they examined in Fallon and Sierra Vista, Ariz., 70 miles southeast of Tucson, which like Fallon has a confirmed childhood leukemia cluster.

By measuring the changes in the chemicals taken up by trees and stored in the wood, scientists believe they can reconstruct a rough rendering of an area's past environmental exposures.

The Bee's first round of tests was confined to Calvine-Florin and found tungsten levels rising in all but one tree. But the study left open the question of whether the pattern is unique to the neighborhood.

The second round of tests was on trees elsewhere in the Sacramento region, in neighborhoods with no known concerns over leukemia incidence.

The trees sampled in these 'control' sites included a behemoth coast redwood shading the steps of the state Capitol, a sequoia in Folsom City Park, redwoods planted along a Mokelumne River vineyard east of Lodi, and trees surrounding the former Sacramento Army Depot just north of the Calvine-Florin area of cancer concern.

The scientists preferred redwoods because they showed the most dramatic increases in tungsten among the variety of species examined in the first tests.

Sheppard, a scientist at the University of Arizona's renowned Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, took core samples of two growth rings representing two time periods in each of several trees.

The Bee hired Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory of Sequim, Wash., to analyze the wood for tungsten. Battelle specializes in detection of environmental metals at ultra-low levels.

The 15 trees sampled in March in neighborhoods outside Calvine-Florin generally showed no change or slight decreases in the metal through time, according to the lab results.

By comparison, the 12 trees tested last December in Calvine-Florin generally showed high and rising levels of tungsten through time, measured in the dated tree rings.

'You now have the first solid chemical evidence that something is different in that area,' said Thomas Cahill, an international authority on measuring pollutants. 'Nobody can argue with these data.'

Cahill, a retired University of California, Davis, atmospheric physicist, helped The Bee design the study.

Sheppard and Witten recently submitted their findings for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

'High tungsten concentrations in the outermost rings of most Calvine-Florin trees are environmentally meaningful and should motivate research into the carcinogenicity of tungsten as well as its environmental sources near Calvine-Florin,' they wrote in a draft manuscript.

Earlier this month, at the American Geophysical Union annual conference in San Francisco, the scientists presented portions of the Calvine-Florin study.

Also this month, Witten, who had been paying for most of the research costs out of pocket, was awarded a $140,000 grant from the Gerber Foundation to continue investigating environmental links to leukemia in Calvine-Florin and in cities in Nevada, Arizona, Kansas and Vermont.

Scientists debate the use of tree rings as indicators of environmental exposure.

Wendy Silk, a UCD environmental scientist, said studies of metal contaminants generally show tree rings to be unreliable in relating time of exposure.

But Thomas Yanosky, a research botanist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the Sacramento tree data are 'reasonably convincing that tungsten in the environment has recently increased' in Calvine-Florin.

'Whether this increase has caused an increased incidence of leukemia, I cannot say -- that's for the biomedical community to decide -- but the tree-ring results along with the (study's) citations certainly support that inference,' said Yanosky, who has worked with Sheppard on earlier projects.

Some Calvine-Florin residents have long suspected that portions of their neighborhood are victims of a leukemia cluster. But they have been at a loss to explain what they perceive to be unusually high rates of the cancer, particularly among children.

At residents' requests, state health officials have completed several statistical analyses of leukemia in the area. All have shown rates of the disease to be well within expected numbers.

'We feel very secure in that,' said Dr. Raymond Neutra, who heads the state's environmental health investigations.

In a significant response to residents' persistent concerns, however, Neutra last month offered to conduct limited drinking water tests for a chemical used in making rocket fuel. In the 1960s, a Union Carbide plant in the neighborhood produced liquid hydrogen to fuel rockets made at Aerojet's plant in Rancho Cordova.

The compound, n-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, is federally classified as a probable cancer-causing agent.

Tests by The Bee last year turned up no trace of NDMA in water tapped from area wells. But the compound turned up in more recent tests commissioned by lawyers representing some residents, according to Dee Lewis, who has led the neighborhood's search for answers since 1996.

Neutra also agreed to expand the health agency's analysis of cancer incidence to all childhood cancers in the entire area served by the same water supplier, California-American Water.

'I'll be taking a look at the percent of leukemia (among children) served by the water company as opposed to others in the census tract,' Neutra said.

Richard Clapp, a professor at Boston University's School of Public Health, persuaded state officials to remap their cancer analysis, which had used conventional census tract boundaries.

'To me, this is the way it should have been looked at in the first place,' Clapp said. 'The suspicion was that a major route of exposure would be through the water.'

Clapp has signed on as a consultant for Concerned Residents Initiative, a community grass-roots group Lewis founded to press for a health investigation.

'This is quite incredible,' Lewis said of the state's new efforts.

Health investigators have great difficulty uncovering possible environmental causes of cancers in part because they seldom have a good fix on past exposures. Breast milk, blood, urine and body tissues can contain clues, but the sample collection and analysis are invasive and expensive.

Trees are widespread, stationary recorders of their environments, according to experts known as dendrochemists who measure and analyze chemicals in the dated growth rings. The wood stores a wide variety of non-nutrient metals and chemicals in soil and water, incidentally taken up through the roots. Dendrochemistry can show relative changes in elemental concentrations through time.

Though exposed in different ways, people and trees share the same soil, water and air, said Cahill, the UCD physicist.

'Every time you play in your yard, every time you vacuum your house, the soil that you have there is coming from the same area that the trees are living in,' he said.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Sacramento, Calif.-Area Hospitals Take Extra Measures to Prevent Spread of Flu. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Dorsey Griffith, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 4--Bracing for an ever-broadening onslaught of influenza, area hospitals and medical clinics are taking extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of the disease this season.

Patients who are sneezing or coughing at Kaiser Permanente clinics throughout the region, for example, are being asked to don surgical masks and to wash their hands before being seen by a doctor.

One infectious disease expert said the flu is hitting children hard now, pointing to a likely outbreak among adults by Christmas.

The precautions come in response to a warning issued by state health officials late last week alerting hospitals to early flu outbreaks and the need for additional controls to prevent an epidemic.

'This is the first time this has ever happened for routine diseases like influenza or the cold,' said Dr. David Herbert, an infectious disease specialist for Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento and Roseville.

'Especially with the difficulty distinguishing flu from pneumonia and SARS, it makes sense to take a more vigorous approach to preventing transmission of all respiratory infections,' he said.

Kaiser Permanente also is extending many of its flu vaccination clinics an additional week, going to lengths to vaccinate its workers, and bolstering supplies of drugs that combat early flu symptoms.

Other area health systems are gearing up, as well: Mercy patients are being offered masks, tissues and waterless hand-washing gels; Sacramento's Sutter hospitals also are asking emergency department staff to wear masks when caring for patients with respiratory symptoms; and the UC Davis Medical Center is providing tissues to patients for use in covering their coughs.

'That is the way we should live from now on,' said Dr. Jon Rosenberg, the state epidemiologist and an author of the influenza warning. 'We've got a double whammy -- first we had SARS, and now we have a really bad flu year. Hopefully, this will have a lasting effect.'

This year's influenza apparently packs a wallop. In Colorado, health officials Wednesday reported 6,306 confirmed cases of influenza, including five deaths, all children. Most recently, a 2-year-old and 4-year-old died of complications from the flu.

In California, the flu is hitting the Central Valley -- including Sacramento and Fresno -- especially hard, particularly children. Because flu is not a reportable disease, the state does not maintain precise statistics, but its monitoring system has detected a significant increase in reports of flu this year.

A spot check of schools throughout the region found varying degrees of flulike illnesses. Many schools report far more absences than are typical for this time of year.

'They are just dropping like flies,' said Debbi Herr, nurse for the Black Oak Mine Unified School District in El Dorado County. Herr said she spent much of the day Wednesday sending ill students home from Georgetown Elementary School. On Monday, Herr reported, 80 students -- 18 percent of the student body -- were out sick.

Sheryl Murphy, attendance secretary at Parker Whitney Elementary School in Rocklin, offered a similar story.

'Yesterday I had 31 messages on the attendance line, and most of them were kids who were sick,' she said. 'That's a lot for one day.'

In Roseville, Sargeant Elementary School attendance secretary Ann Wilmouth added that the illnesses have swept in early, and hard. 'It usually doesn't hit until February or March,' she said.

Headaches, stomachaches, nausea and sore throats have been common complaints at California Middle School in the Sacramento City Unified School District, where about 10 percent of the student population has been absent each day since the end of September, said Toby Frank, a school nurse.

Kaiser's Herbert said it's just a matter of time before sick kids infect their parents.

'We know based on experience it will quickly go to the parents and their co-workers and the adult population around Christmastime,' he said.

Rosenberg, the state epidemiologist, concurred. Citing the overcrowding crisis during the state's flu epidemic in 1997-1998, he urged hospital administrators and emergency personnel to beef up staffing during the holiday season and to review vacation requests so they are not caught ill prepared.

'If hospitals don't prepare for that ahead of time and don't adequately vaccinate their staff, it's going to further increase the stress on the health care system,' he said.

Vaccination is especially important, he said. This year's vaccine may not offer complete protection against this year's most common strain of the virus, but will most likely prevent severe illness, Rosenberg said.

At Kaiser, a roving nurse takes influenza vaccine from unit to unit offering shots to any staff member yet to be vaccinated, Herbert said.

In addition, Kaiser has embraced the state's recommendations for preventing transmission of respiratory illnesses.

'We will strongly encourage anyone who is coughing to wear a mask,' said Herbert. 'It isn't fair to other patients or staff if they don't. And once they are in the exam room, we ask that they wash their hands.'

The precautions also will aid against spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, should the newly discovered disease reappear in the United States this year, he said.

The Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services also is taking additional steps to better prepare for potential SARS cases. In letters to doctors sent Tuesday, Dr. Glennah Trochet, the county health officer, announced that public health nurses will be calling intensive care units throughout the county to find out if any patients are being treated for pneumonia with an unknown source.

Kaiser members seeking more vaccination clinic information can go to www.members.kp.org. County residents seeking locations of clinics providing flu vaccinations can call (916) 875-7053.

Bee staff writers Bill Lindelof, Laurel Rosen, Pamela Martineau, Kim Minugh, Sandy Louey and Walter Yost contributed to this report.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

SACRAMENTO COUNTY PREPARES TO IMPLEMENT TRANS FAT BAN - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 29 -- Sacramento County issued the following press release:

Beginning with the New Year, nearly 5,500 Sacramento County food establishments will be prohibited from using, storing, distributing or serving food prepared with oil, shortening or margarine containing artificial trans fats. Trans fats reportedly contribute to clogged arteries, strokes and coronary heart disease. AB 97 (Mendoza), signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, will phase out the use of artificial trans fats in California restaurants beginning January 1, 2010. The full effect of the ban will take place on January 1, 2011. Deep frying of certain foods, like doughnuts, is exempt during the first year.

The ban does not apply to food sold or served in a manufacturer's original, sealed package. In addition, schools in California have already been barred from preparing food with trans fat.

Artificial trans fat is created through a process called hydrogenation. The process improves the shelf life of prepared foods and it enhances the flavor. It also turns liquid oils into solid fats, such as shortening and stick margarine, which have been used in french fries, baked goods, crackers, candies, snack foods, fried foods and other items.

Sacramento County Environmental Health Division has led a working group consisting of several local jurisdictions throughout the State, the California Restaurant Association, representatives from the California Department of Public Health, and industry representatives to interpret the law and provide materials to health departments and affected retailers to help them meet the new law.

Many local food establishments have already replaced artificial trans fats with healthier options states Environmental Management Department Director Val Siebal. 'Our health inspectors will continue to work with owners and operators to provide the necessary guidance and information to ease the transition,' Siebal adds.

For more information, see Sacramento County Environmental Health Division's compliance bulletin for food facility operators: http://www.emd.saccounty.net/Documents/Info/EH/Trans%20Fat%20Bulletin%2012-16-09.pdf.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

HOMELESS TO BE COUNTED IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

Sacramento County issued the following media advisory:

Who: Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance; multiple county and city law enforcement and park agencies; other community and business organizations.

What: Count of unsheltered homeless persons in Sacramento County.

When: Tuesday, January 29, 2008; 8:00 to 11:00 PM.

Where: 1725 28th Street, Sacramento.

A 'point in time' count of unsheltered homeless persons will be conducted by the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance (DHA) along with other government, law enforcement, and community agencies in the evening hours of Tuesday, January 29, 2008. MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA WISHING TO ACCOMPANY A TEAM OF COUNTERS MUST ARRIVE AT 1725 28TH STREET BY 6:45 PM. THEY WILL BE ASSIGNED TO A TEAM AND TRAVEL TO A DESIGNATED LOCATION. THE COUNT WILL BEGIN AT 8:00 PM. WE ASK FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN PROTECTING THE IDENTITY AND PRIVACY OF THE HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS ENCOUNTERED.

As a condition of receiving Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding, counties are required to conduct a 'point in time' count of homeless individuals every two years during the last seven days of January. DHA, the major grantee for these funds, receives approximately $13.5 million annually to use to contract with numerous community agencies to provide housing and services for formerly homeless persons.

HUD now requires that counties covering a large geographical area employ particular research models that include tests of statistical significance. DHA is partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services Mental Health Research Unit and contractors experienced with doing statistical counts in other counties. As a result, the count will be targeted to particular areas chosen through a random selection process.

In addition to meeting HUD requirements, this count will help DHA statistically determine the number of unsheltered homeless persons in Sacramento County; help with planning for the number and types of housing (e.g. shelter, transitional living or permanent supportive housing); determine the kinds of services they need; and provide data for the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

This is a community-wide effort involving DHA, Sacramento County Sheriff Department, Sacramento City Police Department, Citrus Heights Police Department, Rancho Cordova Police Department, Folsom Police Department, the Regional Transit Police Department, Downtown Partnership Guides, Sacramento County Park Rangers and Sacramento City Park Rangers. Also more than 400 individuals have volunteered including employees from the county, City of Sacramento, emergency shelters and dozens of other agencies.

DAY OF EVENT: Contact Lucinda Serynek, Communications and Media Officer, Department of Human Assistance, 916-997-5998.Contact: Lucinda Serynek, 916/875-3736, 916/997-5998.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY MEDIA TIP SHEET - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

Sacramento County issued the following tip sheet:

Feb. 25 - Feb. 29, 2008

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING - ITEMS OF INTEREST

Please note that additional background information on these items and all items on the agenda can be found at http://www.saccounty.net -- click on 'Board of Supervisors,' then click on 'Sac County Agendas and Action Summaries.' Archived information, summaries, and video clips of previous meetings also are available. * Zeke Holst will be out of the Sacramento area until Feb. 28. Please contact Bob Haagenson if you have any questions before that date.

February 26, 2008

Item #4 - Appointment of Thomas J. Zlotkowski as Director of Multi-Agency Collaboration

The Board of Supervisors is being asked to approve a resolution that authorizes the chair of the board to enter into an agreement with the Elk Grove-Rancho Cordova-El Dorado Connector Authority, a joint powers agency (JPA), to appoint Thomas J. Zlotkowski as its director. The board is being asked to fund Zlotkowski's position and initial start-up activities. This agreement provides that the county will be reimbursed 100% by the JPA for all the costs associated with the retention of Zlotkowski as the director and any other start-up costs necessary to begin independent operations of the JPA. The JPA was created to construct a connector roadway between Interstate 5 in Elk Grove and US 50 in El Dorado County. Zlotkowski is currently the county's director of transportation and will leave that position to assume the new department head position on Mar. 4Contact: Dan Regan, Communication & Media Officer, Municipal Services Agency at 916-874-7056 or regand@saccounty.net

2:00 p.m. - Presentation Recognizing National Parents Leadership Month

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will recognize 15 parent-leaders at this presentation. People being recognized are volunteers who work in partnership with the county to help shape policies and ensure services help the people they are intended to help. They plan outreach events, assist with grant proposals, and participate on various county committees, including the Child and Family Policy Board, Mental Health Board, Mental Health Board Children's Committee, Family Resource Advisory Team, and Parent Advocacy Committee. Sacramento County will recognize the vital perspective these volunteers bring to health and human services agencies. Honorees include Angela Murchison; Angela LeBeau; Pamela Maxwell; Cheryl Penney; Christine Robinson; Lois Cunningham; Brooke Gross; Yolanda Yanez; April Pearson; Stephanie Griggs; Serina Drake; Maria Rodriguez; Kristen Smith; Evelia Gomez; and Juana Guido.

Contact: Laurie Slothower, Communications & Media Officer, Department of Health and Human Services at 916-874-5462, cell 916-956-3130 or slouthowerl@saccounty.net

Future File Items of Interest

Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness Anniversary Report

This will be the first annual report on the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and will be presented to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday, Mar. 4 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.Contact: Lucinda Serynek, Communications & Media Officer, Department of Human Assistance at 916-875-3736, cell 916-997-5998 or seryneklu@saccounty.netCalifornia Capital Air Show, March 15 and 16, 2008

The California Capital Air Show returns to Mather Airport on Saturday and Sunday March 15 and 16.

Headlining this year's air show will be the Blue Angels, the U.S. Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron flying a mix of formation and solo routines in FA-18 Hornet aircraft. The Blue Angels serve as positive role models and goodwill ambassadors for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Many other flight and static aircraft displays will also return to this very popular regional event.

Contact: Gina Swankie, Communication & Media Officer, 916-874-0780 or for more information go to www.californiacapitalairshow.comContact: Zeke Holst, 916/874-2691, 916/531-0232, holstz@saccounty.net; Bob Haagenson, 916/874-8572, 916/599-5462, haagensonr@saccounty.net.

REP. MATSUI ANNOUNCES $2.7 MILLION FOR SACRAMENTO HEAD START PROGRAMS - US Fed News Service, Including US State News

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 23 -- Rep. Doris O. Matsui, D-Calif. (5th CD), issued the following news release:

Today, Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that more than $2.7 million in federal funding has been awarded to the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) for its Head Start program. Local Head Start programs improve the lives of low-income children by providing quality comprehensive child development services that are family focused, including education, health, nutrition and mental health. The $2,765,155 awarded today will be used to expand its preschool services and to make health and safety improvements at its Early Learning Centers.

The funding has been made possible in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that Rep. Matsui voted for earlier this year, and will be distributed through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funding has been awarded as two grants, the first for $1,730,722 through an HHS discretionary grant program, and the second for $1,034,433, through the Recovery Act. Both grants will be distributed immediately.

'SETA will be able to provide preschool services to an additional 150 local children and families with this important new infusion of funding,' said Congresswoman Matsui. 'It is expected to result in an additional 17 jobs created or retained in our community, as well as make health and safety improvements at its Early Learning Centers. These include repairs to classroom flooring, installing carpeting, fixing and upgrading playground structures, making vital repairs to location restrooms.'

'SETA is very excited to receive this funding,' said Kathy Kossick, Executive Director of the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency. 'Through the Stimulus and Department of Health and Human Services, SETA is able to provide more care to Sacramento area preschool aged children and give them a safe and healthy place to learn and play.'

To see recovery funds that have been allocated throughout Sacramento, visit www.matsui.house.gov/recovery for a complete list and interactive Google Map.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Sacramento County, Calif., Steps Up Restaurant Inspections. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Melanie Payne, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Oct. 31--Sacramento County is closing restaurants until they clean up and putting pressure on repeat health code violators as officials move to strengthen the restaurant inspection program after years of chronic understaffing and lax enforcement.

County health inspectors temporarily closed two restaurants with numerous violations and forced some restaurateurs to attend meetings where they discussed how they will bring their eateries into compliance. For the first time in years, the county is also on track to inspect each restaurant at least once during a 12-month period.

Richard Sanchez, chief of the Environmental Health Division, is also floating other ideas -- many in use elsewhere, others untried -- to toughen up health and safety regulations.

Among them: posting grades on restaurant windows, compelling violators to attend classes and levying fines or other penalties.

Sanchez said he planned many of the proposed enhancements when he came to office in January. But an Aug. 10 story in The Bee drawing attention to the paucity of routine restaurant inspections 'probably sped things up,' he said.

Some restaurant industry veterans, however, expressed fears that the county's newfound zeal could burden the industry with fees and regulations that hinder business.

Although California's 70,000 eating and drinking establishments will post record revenues this year, net profits are down, said John Dunlap, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association.

'A lot of that has to do with actions taken by government,' Dunlap said, expressing concern that additional fee-funded programs could add more of a financial burden to the industry. In Sacramento County, the restaurant inspection program costs about $1.5 million a year and is paid for by restaurant permit fees. There are about 2,690 restaurants in Sacramento County.

Consumer activists, however, want county health officials to focus on public health, not bottom-line results at restaurants.

'The (restaurant) associations are doing a disservice to their good clients by fighting measures that will let good restaurants survive and the bad restaurants to clean up their act or get out,' said Nancy Donley, the president of Safe Tables Our Priority or STOP, a national organization of food safety proponents.

Despite industry concerns, the county appears to be putting changes on a fast track. As reported in August, it was not unusual for a restaurant to wait 30 months between inspections. The environmental health department is now on track to make its goal of inspecting every restaurant in the county at least once a year.

The department is also identifying 'high risk' establishments that warrant more than one inspection a year, tracking restaurants that are closed because of violations and suspending licenses to operate restaurants.

On Aug. 28, for example, an inspector closed the China House restaurant on Arden Way after it was cited numerous times this year for health and safety violations.

The inspector found rodent droppings in storage rooms, a refrigerator and in a bucket of rice. Chicken was defrosting in a sink, and foods were kept at 57 degrees, far above the recommended 41 degrees for cold foods and in what food safety experts call the 'danger zone' for growing bacteria.

The restaurant was allowed to reopen the next day after cleaning up and hiring a pest control service. The restaurant owner could not be reached for comment.

The department closed another restaurant, El Herradero on Fruitridge Road, two weeks later because of a roach infestation that had contaminated food and equipment.

Ana Machuca, who helps run El Herradero, said that the place was dirty and roach-infested when her mother-in-law purchased it a year ago and that they had been trying to clean it up.

After the inspector closed them down on Sept. 13, they hired a new pest control service and were allowed to reopen.

'We did what we had to do and reopened the next day,' Machuca said.

The restaurant was charged $138 for a reinspection, still had some roaches but 'looked clean,' the inspector wrote in her report.

Sanchez discussed other ways that his department can get tough with restaurateurs. In order to provide the public with greater access to the inspections, Sanchez is considering posting grades or inspection reports in restaurant windows.

He proposed a 'food school' that he likened to 'traffic school' with mandatory classes for operators or employees who earn violations.

'People are more likely to comply if they understand the logic behind a regulation,' Sanchez said. 'If people understand why they have to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, they are more likely to do it.'

For those who can't be reasoned into compliance, the department is taking other steps, Sanchez said. 'Basically, we're looking at escalating enforcement,' Sanchez said, by leveling fines -- currently not an option -- or even referring the violators to the district attorney.

Dunlap, of the California Restaurant Association, said he does not support giving grades or posting inspection results, saying either would be 'a snapshot in time' and may not reflect the overall health and safety of a facility.

Restaurateurs could lose business from a poor grade, Dunlap said, even though it merely reflects one bad day or a number of minor problems.

But consumer activists contend that one of the best ways for a restaurant inspector to force compliance is for restaurant owners to 'feel it in the pocketbook,' said STOP's Donley.

Clean restaurants don't have to worry about paying fines or losing business with a low grade on their window placard, she said.

'We definitely support placards and a grading system,' Donley said. 'It's easy for consumers to see at a glance. And it's an incentive for restaurant owners to be on their toes.'

Donley also supports the health department's emphasis on educating operators but insisted that 'the safety training should come before you open the doors.'

Currently, California requires that one restaurant employee pass a food certification examination. But Donley advocates food handling and safety training for everyone who works in the restaurant, 'down to the busboy.'

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Foes of Sacramento, Calif., Port's Expansion Outspend Backers. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Steve Gibson, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Oct. 29--Labor unions and developers battling West Sacramento's Measure L are outspending backers of the initiative nearly 10 to 1.

The measure would, among other things, encourage more retail development while limiting industrial expansion in and around Port of Sacramento property.

Measure L opponents, who have dubbed it the 'kill the port initiative,' have raised $180,956 and spent $155,513, according to the latest election spending reports filed at West Sacramento City Hall.

Supporters of Measure L reported contributions of $19,956, while spending $16,320.

Meanwhile, four candidates seeking two City Council seats reported collectively raising $98,459, setting a new record for the 15-year-old city.

Two years ago, four candidates running for three council seats collectively raised $69,496.

Measure L was written by City Council candidate Kimber Goddard and qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot with petitions signed by more than 3,000 of West Sacramento's registered voters.

Funds supporting passage of Measure L are being collected by a citizens group called West Sacramento Quality Urbanization and Development.

Three committees are raising money to defeat the measure. They are developer-sponsored West Sacramento Citizens for Responsible Planning, $119,637; ILWU Coast Committee Fighting Fund -- No on L, $35,367; and union-sponsored Save Our City -- No on L, $25,952.

Among council candidates, incumbent Councilman Christopher Cabaldon, a vice chancellor for California Community Colleges, reported contributions of $29,297 and expenditures of $26,608.

Carolyn Castillo Pierson, an administrator for the state Department of Health Care Services, reported raising $27,119 and spending $14,964.

Goddard, an estate planning attorney with offices in Sacramento, said he raised $26,855 -- including loans of $9,881 -- and spent $25,181.

The other candidate, Mark Johanssen, an attorney and CPA who works out of his home, said he raised $15,188 -- including a $1,500 loan -- and spent $19,616. He listed outstanding campaign debts of $7,079.

Meanwhile, the committee running West Sacramento's sales tax override campaign reported raising $31,674 and spending $18,022.

The committee, called Yes on J and K -- Better Services for West Sacramento, said its contributions included $10,000 each from Tampa, Fla.-based Richland Investments and one of the committees opposing Measure L, West Sacramento Citizens for Responsible Planning.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com

Sacramento County, Calif., Restaurants May Have to Display Inspection Reports. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Melanie Payne, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 11--Sacramento would become one of a handful of places in the nation to require restaurants to publicly display health inspection reports under a proposal before county supervisors today.

The Environmental Health Division will also ask the County Board of Supervisors to approve:

Changing the frequency of inspections for most food facilities.

Requiring 'food school' for health code violators.

Hiring additional health inspectors and increasing fees.

County supervisors and representatives of the restaurant industry expressed concerns about fee increases, but the most contentious issue is a proposed ordinance to require about 4,400 county eateries to post a copy of their most recent health inspections in a 'conspicuous place' where patrons can view it without having to ask.

Richard Sanchez, the chief of the Environmental Health Division, said that numerous jurisdictions post grades or scores for restaurants, but he's aware of few that require the complete report to be posted.

Sanchez said that his department recognized that the public wanted some accountability for restaurant inspections. Posting the entire report, he said, was a better way than giving out grades which can unfairly penalize a restaurant for minor infractions.

County Supervisor Roger Dickinson hasn't decided if he supports posting inspection reports. A better solution, he said, may be to have it within easy access should a restaurant patron want to look at it.

State law requires every food establishment to post a sign saying the current health inspection report is available and to provide it on demand to patrons.

'We think that's a reasonable thing,' said John Dunlap, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, who opposes the division's proposal to post inspection reports.

The report is 'a snapshot in time,' Dunlap said, and restaurants shouldn't 'suffer' for a problem that may be easily corrected.

Dunlap is also opposed to the 80 percent fee increase the Environmental Health Division is proposing for the program. The county staff has said the additional income would pay for new personnel and educational programs.

Inspection fees will jump about 21 percent each year for the next four years. For example, a restaurant with a bar currently pays $551 a year for licensing fees, but will pay $667 in 2004; $809 in 2005; $978 in 2006 and $1,188 in 2007.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com