Central Valley

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

The chief of the state bullet train authority said Tuesday that he hopes to obtain some type of relief from environmental laws that would eliminate a risk that the 130-mile initial construction project could be stopped by an injunction, a potentially growing prospect as agriculture interests in the Central Valley gear up for a legal fight. At a state Senate hearing, Chairman Dan Richard also said the agency plans to spend the entire $6 billion of initial construction money within a 2017 deadline set by the federal government.

The chief of the state bullet train authority said Tuesday that he hopes to obtain some type of relief from environmental laws that would eliminate a risk that the 130-mile initial construction project could be stopped by an injunction, a potentially growing prospect as agriculture interests in the Central Valley gear up for a legal fight. At a state Senate hearing, Chairman Dan Richard also said the agency plans to spend the entire $6 billion of initial construction money within a 2017 deadline set by the federal government.

State bullet train officials Thursday approved the environmental impact studies for an initial section of high-speed track to be built from Merced to Fresno, a decision that sets the stage for possible legal challenges from powerful Central Valley farming interests. Certification of the final state and federal environmental reports is a critical step before the California High-Speed Rail Authority can begin to secure government permits and award construction contracts for the first phase of the $68-billion project that would link Los Angeles and San Francisco with 200 mph trains.

The cherries are gone, the peaches are about done, and now Pat O'Connell has a chance to stand back and take stock of the summer of the fruit stand wars. For decades his family ran one of the few small roadside stands along beautiful, dangerous California Highway 152 through Pacheco Pass, the most direct route between the Bay Area and the Central Valley. It's a winding road many motorists travel, but few stop along the way. Then, a couple of years ago, reasons to pull off the road — in the form of fruit stands boasting heirloom tomatoes, fresh-squeezed orange juice and plates of pre-cut fruit — sprouted like a new crop.

"Contest Offers Chance to Reshape the Central Valley" (March 13) seems more like a search to find just the opposite of saving what is probably the world's largest bread basket. In my view, contrary to the so-called experts, the solution is simple. All the Legislature has to do is to pass a law that will preclude the conversion of agricultural land to any other use. Doing this, which is no doubt politically difficult, would not only save this most precious natural resource, but would strictly limit a population explosion, whether by birth or by migration.

Justin Savitt slugged a 3-2 pitch for a home run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Central Valley a 5-4 victory over Van Nuys East in a District 20 game Saturday at Notre Dame High. Casey Roth had a two-run double in the sixth for Central Valley (6-0), which rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the final three innings to hand Van Nuys East (4-1) its first defeat. Mike Schultz (2-0) scattered seven hits for Central Valley.

ABDEL Salem is hunched over a small aerial map in his office, divining the future. "This is going to be new," he says, gesturing toward a blank spot that's slated to be the site of 1,700 residences, a park and a school. His finger glides across the paper. "This is going to be new too," he adds, pointing to another vacant part of the map that's poised for a burst of commercial construction. He stabs at the paper again. "And this is going to be new over here."

Substantial rainfall in Northern and Central California during the last few weeks will enable the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to increase water deliveries to Central Valley farmers to 80% of normal and fully meet its contracts with most municipal customers, federal officials said. "Thank God for the rain," said Jason Peltier, head of the Central Valley Water Assn. "We're out of what was really a crisis situation. . . ."

To be honest, living in the Central Valley takes some getting used to, especially if you're from the coast. It's an acquired taste. Oppressive heat in summer. Depressing tule fog in winter. Sure, fall and spring are OK. But where aren't they? First-rate culture is scarce. The state capital doesn't even have a symphony. One of the attractions--it's almost a local joke--is the ability to get away, particularly from Sacramento.

FRESNO - The first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 surfaced in California's Central Valley on Tuesday, triggering concerns about food safety. But health officials stressed that the diseased animal never entered the human food chain and that U.S. beef and dairy products are safe. The diseased cow "was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health," John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief veterinarian, said in a statement.

Joy Sydney, 12 Magic Pen Kids Irvine It was one of those warm, sweet red velvet cupcake days, when your thoughts skip over fields of golden sunflowers and the sky is as clear as a sheet of aquamarine glass. I Am the Central Valley Lauren, 4th grade Sinai Akiba Academy, Los Angeles I am the Central Valley. My farms are full of animals. Chickens hatch. Pigs play in the mud. The plants grow high. Their leaves are as gorgeous as the stars. The flowers all around me are as dazzling as my baby cousin.

A member of one of California's best-known farming families pleaded guilty Friday to federal criminal charges related to a scheme to inflate the prices of tomato products. Frederick Scott Salyer, founder of tomato processing company SK Foods, pleaded guilty in Sacramento to racketeering and price-fixing charges. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Salyer faces between four and seven years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 10. Salyer, 56, who lives in Pebble Beach, remains free on $6-million bail.

Johnny Ramirez got better grades during his second stint in high school. Unfortunately for him, this senior year didn't count. The undercover police officer posed as a high school student for eight months to aid a Central Valley drug bust. While he worked with investigators on the Police Department's payroll, he also did everything a student at Exeter Union High School would be required to do. "He would come into the narcotics investigations office and do homework," City Manager Randy Groom said.

The name painted in the plate-glass window, "Bradley's," has a martini glass standing in for the "y. " The late-afternoon sun has turned the other windows into mirrors. Deep inside, in bar-appropriate shadow, patrons rest their drinks on 100-year-old mahogany and, as in many a neighborhood pub, consider hopes gone astray. Across the way are a marina without boats and parking garages without cars. There are few people outside on downtown sidewalks. PHOTOS: Hard times in Stockton This is what it looks like when a city is close to going under.

One by one, the young women vanished from the dusty farm towns of the Central Valley. They were often addicts or prostitutes, and their disappearances over a 15-year period in the 1980s and '90s didn't seem to draw much official concern. Two childhood friends and locally renowned troublemakers, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, were eventually arrested in 1999 for a series of murders known as the "Speed Freak" killings, and many of the missing were presumed to have fallen victim to the methamphetamine-addled duo. Shermantine and Herzog never disclosed where they dumped the mutilated corpses of their victims, leaving bereaved families with only grim speculation.

UC Merced wants a medical school to increase the number of physicians in the Central Valley. The area from Bakersfield to Sacramento has 30% fewer physicians and half as many specialists for its population as other regions, a UC Merced study shows. "The resources are already stretched to their limits," said Dale Bishop, assistant health officer for San Joaquin County Public Health Services. The UC report found that physicians are tend to stay where they complete training.

California's political air war escalated Monday in the race for governor as Republican Dan Lungren began televising his first spots and Democrat Gray Davis expanded the reach of his weeklong advertising effort. Both candidates are limiting their initial forays to the Central Valley, which is strategically crucial and a relatively cheap place to buy ad time. As part of their regional focus, the contenders will meet in their second face-to-face debate next Tuesday in Fresno. Atty. Gen.

The way things are going in the GOP presidential primary, there's now an outside chance that California's 169 delegate votes — the most of any state in the nation — could come into play. Who knew? It seemed, way back when, that Mitt Romney was a safe bet to make it to the dance with President Obama in November. Then Newt Gingrich came on like the bull terrier he is, followed by a surprising surge from Rick Santorum. If the seesaw ride continues, it could even make California's June 5 primary relevant for once.

Reporting from Washington -- The long-stalled new federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles will finally move forward, Washington officials announced Thursday, despite scrutiny from congressional Republicans looking for ways to cut the federal budget deficit. The roughly $400-million project at 1st Street and Broadway, planned for more than a decade, would replace the Depression-era federal courthouse on Spring Street, which officials say has security and asbestos problems. It would also fill an immense hole: The Junipero Serra State Office Building, considered seismically weak after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, was demolished in 2007, leaving a gaping cavity and a rainy-season pond occasionally inhabited by ducks.