News Notes
Badger Pass Closes Due To Lack of Snow
From their website: In consideration of guest safety, resource protection, and guest experience, Badger Pass will temporarily close after business Monday, January 19, 2015. We plan on reopening as soon as we receive the appropriate amount of snow.
Kiss Gestation Pens Goodbye
Looks like the hog industry has decided to stop fighting the inevitable.
On January 10th 2013 Smithfield’s Foods, the largest hog producer in the world with sales of $14 billion announced that their North Carolina subsidiary Murphy-Brown had converted over half of existing sow housing from gestation crates to group pens. On January 23rd 2013 Tyson followed with a similar announcement that they would require Contractors to transition from gestation crates over a seven year period with incentives for more rapid conversion. Concurrently a significant proportion of the membership of the National Restaurant Association, the National Chain Restaurant Association and the Food Marketing Institute announced that they would phase-out purchases of pork from producers using gestation crates.
from EggCite.
Kern To Lose Tax Revenue
Kern County supervisors have been warned to expect a $61 million drop in tax revenues this year as a result of the oil-price bust, including a $17 million decrease in property taxes on oil fields.
Mojave Goes Parabolic
The Mojave Solar Project will become the second largest parabolic trough plant in the world, after Abengoa’s Solana Solar Plant in Arizona. Powering more than 90,000 homes, creating more than 2,200 construction and permanent jobs, and preventing more than 350,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year, the Mojave Solar Project has proven itself to be a boon both environmentally and economically.