Salem-News.com Laguna Beach articles

Heal The Bay 2013 Beach Report Card: Flunked Again

Santa Monica Non-Profit Fails Overall Water Quality Truth Test.

(LAGUNA BEACH) - If you’re a parent and your kid brings home a straight A+ report card, you should first be worried about the “A+.”

Okay, C+ or B+ is one thing, but like the physical attributes of a woman or a man, there’s no such thing as a perfect “10” or in this case an “A+”.

Steinbeck Country in 2013: The Good Old Boy Network is Alive and Well

Apparently, that smallness of mind since Steinbeck’s time hasn’t gone away. It lingers, and not just among the drunks but among ranchers, land and property owners too, and conservatives who balk at any liberal idea.

(CAYUCOS, CA) - I met a longtime resident at the local bar the other night who challenged me on just about everything from the moment I walked in.

“You live around here?” Sure, I said. He introduced me to his wife of 40-plus years, a beauty, stately and queenly. He told me she’s from a long line of settlers who moved here in the 19th century. She smiled at me, like a queen.

LagunaBeach.com Spotlight: An Interview with Roger Butow

Kate Buckley’s Laguna Beach Blog talks to Roger about the greatest ecological challenges currently facing the coastal community of Laguna Beach.

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Roger Butow was born in 1946 and raised in the LA Harbor area. He moved to Orange County in 1966 when he joined the US Marine Corps.

Roger then acquired a BA from Cal State Long Beach in 1972. He’s lived and worked in and around Laguna Beach ever since in the field of commercial and residential construction.

Investigative Journalism In Mainstream Media: From Flaccid to MIA to DOA

Those who wish to be informed need vehicles like Salem-News!

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Gee, what took them so long? Mainstream Media (MM) are now openly admitting that investigative journalism, theirs in particular, whether in print or on the web, has been dwindling for quite some time.

Unlike the first stages of an intervention, getting someone beyond denial and to admit they have a problem, MM have totally capitulated and abandoned altogether the turf of engagement that formerly gave unique insights

Clean Water Now! Coalition: `Adios y muchisimas gracias!`

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - The CWN!C which I co-founded and for whom I have proudly served as its only Executive Director is saying "Sayonara".

CalDesal 1st Annual Desalination Conference in Irvine CA

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - I’ve intuitionally felt for quite some time the resonance of Churchill’s quote in regards to desalination in general:

We’ve drained our streams, our lakes and aquifers dry, that damned desalination is the last tool in the water supply pouch...

Intervenor Compensation: Proposition 103 In California

Have NGOs Taken A 1988 California Insurance Revolt And Turned It Into A Cash Cow?

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - I’ve seen and heard a lot on my 15-year eco-watch, yet this pulling back of the drapes, this highly compensated intervention strategy kind of gave me the creeps. It has an eerie, freaky and other-worldly feeling to it.

Never having known or heard of it, maybe I could have milked the system long ago and retired to Hawai’i if I had!

Co-locating Alternative Energy Resources

Helping To Offset Increasing Energy Demands In The Water World...

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - Everyone knows the mantra regarding the fiscal benefits of real estate purchases: Location Location Location. All around the world, the pursuit of alternative sources is growing.

We could solve the riddle over where we’ll find the energy supplies for advanced water treatment systems (AWTS) if we recalibrate, readjust our mindset in America as they’ve done elsewhere.

Reclaimed, Reused and Recovered Water In South OC

“You can never step in the same water twice for new water is always flowing upon you.” Heraclitus of Ephesus circa 500 B.C.

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - If you’ve ever seen that sculpture by Rodin, titled “Le Ponseur” (The Thinker) then you’re familiar with the strong depiction of a man posed in deep metaphysical contemplation….or a profoundly depressed guy who just got dumped by his S.O.

That statue in conjunction with the aforementioned quote in fact typifies a modern contradiction: Now you CAN step in the same water twice, maybe shower in it, drink it or water your garden with it twice.

Bandana: Part III in a 3 Part Series

BANDANA: Build Absolutely No Desalination Anywhere Near Anything….or Anyone

(LAGUNA BEACH, CA) - Every focused poll taken by disinterested 3^rd parties in the last 12 years of my watch reflects a 90+% willingness by OC residents to pay more to procure safe, healthy potable and irrigation water.

These polls by professionals in the field reflect eagerness, an obviously increasing awareness that our general water availability is in jeopardy.