Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published by “Jim Shields”

State Considers Regulation of Wells

We officially closed out the precipitation year on June 30 with a very wet total of 47.25 inches, which is 70.5% of our historic normal of 67 inches in the greater Laytonville area. So we…

Making Oil Refiners Disclose Profits

As I reported to you last month, there’s a proposed law that would require oil refiners to disclose their per gallon profits on a monthly basis. The bill recently already passed out of the California…

Supes Drop Water Sales Tax: Fire Tax Only

As they say, all’s well that ends well, and that sums up Tuesday’s (June 21) Board of Supervisors meeting where a decision was finally made ending the Great Sales Tax War. Quick background on sales…

Supes’ Sales Tax Proposal

In last week’s column I explained that three Supervisors, Ted Williams, Mo Mulheren, and Glenn McGourty, are planning to place a sales tax measure on the November ballot. The stated purpose of their proposed sales…

State Weed News

The Governor’s Office this week released a revised 2022-23 state budget proposal, jiggering numerous line item estimates from the original January budget. One of the areas Gov. Gavin Newsom looked at in the so-called “May…

Coastal Commission’s Water Obstructionism

Last week, the California Coastal Commission rejected the proposed construction of a desalination plant in Huntington Beach “sealing the controversial project’s fate after more than 20 years of debate,” according to Calmatters. “The unanimous decision…

Water, Wells & Water Hauling

More good news on the weather and drought fronts. While all of California is classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor as being in a ”severe drought” or “extreme drought”, we’re fortunate here in Laytonville’s Long…

Mending Fences & Problem Solving with the Sheriff

I found out a long time ago that problems just don’t happen, people make them happen. So it’s half-past enough already for the Board of Supervisors to end this 7-month unseemly, unnecessary, and unwarranted legal…

The Drought – Doing Nothing Is The Only Sure Way To Fail

You can say everybody who’s a politician is getting into the drought act. They’re all coming up with solutions to end all solutions. It would help if Mother Nature were giving her advice to the…

-