Valley Headlines

Huge jump in UCM applicants

SF Chronicle. University of CA saw tiny dip in applications – but one campus was up 57%. 
Synopsis: UC Merced saw an absolutely enormous jump in applicants, with 51,745 applying to attend in the Fall semester. That’s nearly 20,000 more than applied for Fall 2024. Part of the reason, suggests the Chronicle, was that the Wall Street Journal rated UC Merced as the 18^th best college in the nation. The second-biggest gainer among the UCS was Riverside, which had 82,904 applicants, a mere 19.4% bump. UCLA and UC Santa Cruz were the only two campuses to see fewer applicants. Latino applications fell by 3.6% across the system but still make up 39% of all applicants, while transfer applications rose. First-year applications from CA were down 2.6% while applications from non-US residents were up 8.7%.

UC Merced a top research school

Merced Focus. UC Merced reaches highest tier of research universities in the nation.
Synopsis: UC Merced is now rated an R1 school on the Carnegie Classification, joining 186 other doctorate-awarding universities. It is the only SJ Valley school to have an R1 rating. UC President Michael Drake is “extremely proud” of the achievement. According to Forbes, 41 schools were given the rating for the first time. One R1 criteria is spending at least $50 million on research.

How we find bird flu

LA Times. New bill could require CA to monitor wastewater for disease in the Central Valley.
Synopsis: Sen. Melissa Hurtado introduced a bill to monitor water-treatment systems for the presence of H5N1 among humans. It will require at least one monitoring site in every county. She says her father and niece were both sickened last summer and weren’t tested for bird flu. Already, the state is monitoring 78 sites in 36 counties for a host of diseases – but only 2 are actually checking for bird flu. “We have a bird flu outbreak. It’s running amok among dairy cattle and herds which are largely in the Valley. And right now we don’t have any waste monitor.”
MAD Take: She’s right.

LA Times. Bird flu infections in dairy cows are more widespread than we thought, says CDC study.
Synopsis: Several veterinarians across 46 states have antibodies to H5N1 in their blood, which means they’ve encountered sickened cows or birds even though they didn’t know it. Few have reported any symptoms and most said they didn’t see any sick animals. The USDA’s John Korslund says the study is fine as far as it goes, but he is worried that the new D1.1 strain will be more problematical.

Politico. Key bird flu lab threatens to strike as CA cases and egg prices climb.
Synopsis: The people who can determine whether or not animals have H5N1 are threatening to go on strike. Members of the University Professional & Technical Employees, which has 20,000 members throughout the UC system, have been in negotiations with UC Davis for 8 months. UC Davis is the only high-level biosecurity lab able to do the most dangerous testing.

How we fight bird flu

Farms.com. Acidification kills H5N1 in waste milk, reducing risk of bird flu.
Synopsis: UC Davis researchers have found that adding citric acid to waste milk, including the first milk cows produce after calving, kills H5N1. Until now, the only proven way to kill the virus was through pasteurization, which is too expensive to use on milk that will be thrown out. Adding citric acid provides a low-cost alternative, says Dr. Richard Van Vleck Pereira. It works in 6 hours and is cheaper whether you have 1 cow or 10,000.

Patterson, builders in a beef

Patterson Irrigator. Developers push back against city’s fee hikes.
Synopsis: The firms attempting to build hundreds of houses in the Zacharrias and Baldwin tracts and at Keystone Ranch are angry with delays from the city and Planning Commission. Pat Gavaghan, president of Keystone Corp., said his company has been trying to build houses in the city for a decade and has been rebuffed. The city notes that the builders have sued the city, and they don’t want to have public meetings until the city attorney says it’s OK. Apparently, a significant bone of contention are the impact fees imposed by the city council last October.

USAID loss explained

Modesto Bee. Former Modestan and USAID senior adviser speaks out on importance of agency.
Synopsis: Reporter Kathleen Quinn Anita Lyn Menghetti rose to the top tier at the US Agency for International Development, which is being dismantled by the Trump administration. Created in 1961 by John F. Kennedy, USAID was put under Congressional jurisdiction in 1998 – which makes it’s dissolution by Trump suspect. Menghetti calls that “short-sighted.” Some of the programs she worked on, for instance, encouraged people to remain in their countries rather than immigrate to the US illegally. Others helped those who worked with our military avoid execution. Interestingly, Marco Rubio has positioned a Jan. 6 rioter at the top of the agency.

Schools meeting turns tense

Merced Focus. Merced City Schools approves boundary changes in tense meeting; 1200 to move.
Synopsis: The decision to send sixth graders onto middle-school campuses will impact 230 students over two years. However, boundary changes will affect 1,200, about a tenth of the district’s 12,000 students. The decision required a re-vote during which one of the board members switched in a highly emotional meeting. That switch removed an exception granting students at Chenowith Elementary a reprieve. Board president Priya Lakireddy was in tears over the re-vote and board member Beatrice McCutcheon’s reversal went unexplained.

Trying to stop a tiny mussel

Western Water. Golden Mussel, CA’s newest Delta invader is likely here to stay – and spread.
Synopsis: We’ve had quagga and zebra mussels for a couple of decades, but now there’s the golden mussel – which is even smaller and more damaging. It was first detected last October in O’Neill Forebay in Merced County, setting off alarm bells throughout the region. Agencies have stepped up monitoring, knowing that if the golden gets a foothold it will destroy pipes, ruin infrastructure and wreak havoc. One solution is to make the forebay off limits to boaters and others.

Freeing the Eel

SF Chronicle. Dam removal deal could create longest free-flowing CA river.
Synopsis: Kurtis Alexander writes about a preliminary agreement to remove two PG&E dams from the Eel River. Environmentalists say it will raise water levels and provide better access to salmon-spawning habitat that has been blocked by dams for around 110 years. Van Arsdale Reservoir in Mendocino County and Pillsbury Lake in Lake County will both be abolished. The city of Ukiah, which had no water in the 2021 drought, relies on Van Arsdale for its water supply, as do other communities. Officials are trying to work out a deal that will have the tribes sell water to cities and farmers.

Booing Barkley in San Francisco

SF Chronicle. Charles Barkley booed by SF crowd during NBA All-Star weekend opener.
Synopsis: Charles Barkley once promised to skip the NBA all-star game rather than come to San Francisco, which he said had too much filth, homeless and rats for his taste. But on Thursday he was at Pier 48 for pre-game festivities. As the booing persisted, the Round Mound of Rebound tried to insist he was all about helping the homeless. No one bought it.