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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Friday, former state Sen. Wes Chesbro, who was termed out of the Senate in 2006, announced his plans to run for Berg's First District Assembly seat this year, with her endorsement, as Lake County News has reported.
Berg's term runs out in December.
In a Saturday morning interview with Lake County News, Berg said she's known Chesbro for 30 years and has confidence he'll serve the North Coast well in the Assembly.
“He'll be exemplary,” she said. “He'll hit the ground running.”
Last Tuesday, California voters defeated Proposition 93, which would have given California legislators up to 12 years of time in one or both houses, and extended Berg's years of service.
That would have altered the term limits law, Proposition 140, adopted by the state's voters in 1990, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Those limits impose a lifetime ban after three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate.
Berg said she was “gravely disappointed” at Proposition 93's defeat, because of its impact on the institution of state government.
With constant turnover of legislators, the only people in Sacramento who have the institutional memory are lobbyists and staff, Berg said.
Since 1990, 21 states have enacted term limits, and six have repealed them, said Berg. Voters, she added, can term out legislators on any election day.
Berg said former state legislator John Vasconcellos, who served in office for 38 years and was termed out in 1996, said it took him a minimum of 10 years to understand the complicated state budget.
“It's all about the budget,” said Berg. “Social policy derives from the budget.”
Berg chairs the Health and Human Services Budget Committee. She said many new legislators with little experience are thrown into the budget mix headlong, with little understanding or experience.
With only six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate, Berg said, “You don't even have time to really build relationships, which is what it's all about, too.”
Berg said she doesn't plan to make a run for Sen. Pat Wiggins' Second District Senate seat, which Wiggins will be termed out of in 2014. Berg is now 65, said she would be well into her 70s by that time.
Berg said she isn't ruling anything out. “Right now I'm just going to keep all my options open.”
She does have a goal in mind, she said.
“I've started a committee to run for state insurance commissioner,” said Berg.
Her interest in health care and health insurance drew her to the insurance commissioner post, Berg explained.
She said she feels the health care industry must be regulated, and that health care is a right, not a privilege. “I really care about people being covered.”
Berg said she would run for the insurance commissioner office, currently held by Steve Poizner, in 2010.
Political commentators have pegged Poizner as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2010. That would open the door for Berg to run for insurance commissioner.
In order to take on the prospect of a statewide race, Berg said she formed the exploratory committee.
For the remainder of her term, however, Berg said she has a lot on her plate in serving the Assembly's First District, which stretches from Del Norte County in the north to Sonoma County in the south, is one of the largest areas of representation in the nation. She called it California's best district.
Some of the issues she plans to work on for the remainder of the year involve health and human services programs, she said, including those dealing with California's aging population – one of her consistent areas of interest.
“My focus is doing the best I can in the time I have left,” Berg said.
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Shannon Ridge will host the final race of USA Cycling's 2008 National Ultra Endurance series. Events in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, Arizona will precede the showdown, which takes place in Clearlake Oaks Oct. 18 and 19.
The Shannon Ridge Showdown Ultra-Endurance race will be a 16-hour competition and the course itself is approximately 7.5 miles in length with over 1,700 feet of climbing per lap, according to Chris Baker, Shannon Ridge’s southeast regional sales manager. The course route is a combination of single track, double track, fire access roads and vineyard rows.
“It's probably going to be one of the hardest races in the country,” said Baker, an avid mountain biker who helped design the course and the event.
Baker, who took up mountain biking in 1989, first brought the idea of hosting the race to vineyard owners Clay and Margarita Shannon.
A few year ago he started endurance racing, taking part in 12- and 24-hour solo races, and racking up wins and high national finishes. He also began to meet national racing champions.
When he saw the ranch for the first time, Baker said he suggested to the Shannons that they should get on the national racing calendar as a great way of promoting both the county and the winery.
Baker said they submitted the necessary paperwork to host the race last November.
While the biggest race category will be solo riders, Baker said there also will be two-person teams and multi-person teams.
Additionally, there will be a wine industry race category for mountain bikers who are involved in the wine industry, according to Baker. Participants in this category will be allowed to race solo or on a team of up to five riders. The wine industry race will run from 4 p.m. until midnight on Oct. 18.
The race will have a controlled start in front of the Shannon Ridge tasting room on Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks, Baker explained. Sheriff's cars will go before and behind the riders, who will ride two miles up Highway 20 before turning onto Morine Ranch Road.
“That's really where the race will start,” said Baker.
Riders will start off with a grueling race to the top of the hill, with 900 feet of climbing in less than a mile and a half, said Baker. Cash prizes will be awarded to the first male and female racers to reach the top, who also will be named King and Queen of the Hill.
USA Cycling is recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Union Cycliste Internationale, and promotes American cycling through its 60,000 members and 2,500 annual events.
The showdown will be the first time that a USA Cycling Mountain Bike Ultra-Endurance series race course has included vineyards as part of the course route, Baker reported. The race and course is designed, promoted and directed by endurance racers.
Ultra-endurance racing is the fastest growing form of mountain bike racing.
Rebecca Rush, who is the current 24-Hour Solo mountain biking world champion, will make the trip to Lake County to compete, along with many of the top ranking male and female Ultra-Endurance racers, Baker reported.
Baker said the winery is focusing on this event before it decides on hosting future races.
“It could be a really big deal for Lake County and for Shannon Ridge,” Baker said.
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- Written by: Sophie Annan Jensen
LAKE COUNTY – New technology often referred to as convergence has ended a 40-year monopoly of your television set by cable providers. Now the struggle for control includes your telephone, wireless phone and computer.
California and other states were persuaded to enact statewide video franchise laws by a powerful coalition of interests.
The new regulations have been touted as opening the industry to competition and lowering prices for consumers, as well as streamlining the franchise process for providers. The immediate effect on costs to consumers is unknown.
Now, instead of negotiating with 400-plus communities in California, the providers will negotiate with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) once every 10 years for licenses covering broad areas. They will no longer pay franchise fees to the communities or be required to support public access channels, but will pay a one-time 5 percent of gross to the state, which is expected to pass through 1 percent to the communities.
Licenses already granted are:
AT&T – much of California, including the counties of Alameda, Marin, Yolo, Mendocino, Humboldt, Butte, and Tehama;
Comcast – Northern and central California;
Cox Communications – San Diego;
Verizon – Southern California, border to Ventura County;
Time Warner – Los Angeles area, desert;
Northland Cable TV – City of Mt. Shasta, Siskiyou County.
Detailsof the franchises granted and other proceedings are at: www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/hottopics/2Telco/videofranchising.htm.
When an AT&T public relations representative was asked if she foresaw a time when the company's satellite television partners would provide a public access channel, she did not respond. She said there was no schedule in Lake County for completing AT&T's fiber optics system, which could provide the company's U-verse television, already in operation in some areas of the state.
Michael Morris of the CPUC said Mediacom had not applied for a statewide franchise as of Jan. 13. He added that no municipal entities, such as cities or counties, and no consumer groups had applied to intervene in the recent CPUC hearings.
Lake County's exclusive franchise with Mediacom ends on Feb. 16.
The city of Clearlake franchise runs until 2013. The city of Lakeport's franchise expired in 2002, according to Shawn Swatosh, Mediacom's manager for the county.
Mediacom's Tom Larsen, vice president for legal affairs, said in a phone interview from headquarters in Middletown, New York, that the company does plan to apply for a California statewide franchise.
“The process is really new to us, but we are generally applying in the states with the new franchise law and California is no exception,” Larsen said.
He noted that every state “has its unique quirks,” in application requirements. He said Iowa is their biggest consumer base, with 30,000 subscribers, and they are working on an application for 70 communities there.
They recently filed in North Carolina and Indiana. California will be next, followed by Georgia and Florida.
The other states which either have instituted or are considering a statewide franchise law are Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
The interested technology companies have been heavy contributors to politicians.
AT&T sponsored the spring Speaker's Golf Cup at Pebble Beach, a fundraiser for the California Democratic Party. The day before the November election, the Democratic Party, which received the proceeds of the AT&T Pebble Beach event, gave Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, $4 million.
Núñez, who hosted the golf event, was the main author of AB 2987, the cable-access legislation the company was pushing.
According to opensecrets.org, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, Núñez also received $21,500 in contributions from Verizon employees in California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts; from AT&T and its affiliates, $3300 and from AT&T California employees political action committee, $6,700; Time Warner and affiliates of Charlotte, North Carolina $3300; Cox Communications, Atlanta, Georgia, $3300; California cable and telecommunications PAC, $6,600.
AT&T also has been generous to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A Sacramento Bee story of March 23, 2007 – a week before the statewide franchise was granted to AT&T and just months after the governor approved a bill easing access for the telecommunications giant to California's multibillion-dollar cable market – reports that eight top-ranking executives at AT&T gave $5,000 apiece to the governor's campaign committee. Seven of the donors reported addresses in Texas; none had previously donated to Schwarzenegger. The company had earlier given the governor $500,000.
Mediacom does not show up on sites tracking political contributions. Tom Larsen said the company “is a dwarf”compared with companies like AT&T and Verizon, and makes its political contributions through the National Cable/TV Communications Association PAC, or through state-level associations.
Nationwide franchising would have been enabled by the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunities Reform Act, an omnibus bill introduced by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).
The controversial bill died when the 109th Congress adjourned in December 2006, after long awaiting floor consideration. It became too controversial for floor time and the whole telecom bill (including the House version) will have to be re-written in the next session of Congress.
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"Calpine is proud to once again be traded on the New York Stock Exchange," said Robert P. May, Calpine's chief executive officer, in a written statement.
"We have streamlined our operations and strengthened our balance sheet, and we are returning to the New York Stock Exchange as a stronger and more competitive power company with one of the cleanest generating fleets in the United States,” May said. “We are confident that the new Calpine is well positioned in the market and poised for success as a corporate leader in the nation's energy industry."
Calpine declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2005, as Lake County News has reported.
Company executives were on hand at the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning for the ringing of the market's opening bell.
The company's stock was relisted under the symbol “CPN” after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy just over a week earlier.
The new stock opened at $16.50 per share, closing at $16.38. The older stock is now inactive, valued at 15 cents per share.
Calpine is one of the largest power generation companies in the United States, with nearly 24,000 megawatts of installed generating capacity and approximately 2,200 employees.
The company, founded in 1984, owns 19 of 21 geothermal units in the 40-square-mile Geysers steamfield network, which is the world's largest geothermal facility. The Geysers plants generate 725 kilowatts of power, enough to supply 725,000 households, and employ 350 workers.
On Jan. 31, the company officially concluded its Chapter 11 reorganization after meeting all statutory requirements of the company's Sixth Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization, including successfully closing its $7.3 billion exit financing facility that includes a one-year, $300 million bridge facility that is expected to be paid by the end of the first quarter.
Calpine's Plan was confirmed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in an order entered on December 19, 2007, as Lake County News has reported.
Gregory L. Doody, Calpine's General Counsel, who has also served as the company's chief restructuring officer, called Calpine's restructuring “truly remarkable.”
“In just over two years Calpine dramatically improved its capital structure, reducing approximately $7.2 billion in debt while generating a significant recovery for our creditors as a whole,” said Doody in a written statement.
The company also enhanced and streamlined its core power generation business, Doody said.
Calpine plans to issue a total of 485 million shares of reorganized Calpine common stock to holders of allowed claims. Initial distributions are expected to begin this month.
In addition to the 485 million shares, Calpine will reserve 15 million shares for its management and director equity incentive programs, which will be implemented pursuant to the terms of the reorganization plan.
In connection with its first distribution, Calpine also intends to set aside 62 million shares of reorganized Calpine common stock on account of disputed unsecured claims, the company reported. As claims are resolved, Calpine will make further distributions of reorganized Calpine common stock on a periodic basis.
Old common stock will be canceled, the company reported, and holders of the old common stock will receive warrants to purchase new Calpine common stock with an exercise price of $23.88 per share.
The warrants to purchase the new stock will expire on Aug. 25.
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