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Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
June 2006
ARCHBISHOP GEORGE NIEDERAUER JOINED both Christian and non-Christian religious leaders and about 10,000 protestors in a march from Dolores Park to the federal building in San Francisco on Sunday, April 23, to call on Congress to enact humane immigration legislation. Niederauer and the other leaders held an interfaith prayer service on the steps of Mission Dolores Basilica, said the April 24 San Francisco Chronicle. The archbishop read a statement drawn up by the religious leaders that said immigration reforms should give the undocumented "a just path to lawful permanent residence and citizenship" and allow "families torn apart by immigration to reunite."
In an interview with the Chronicle, Niederauer said the House of Representatives' proposals of criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants and of a fence along the border are "very shortsighted and even mean-spirited." Niederauer said that "a country has a right to protect its borders;" but, he said, "if that's the only concern, then your country will turn into a fortress."
IN A STATEMENT published in the April 14 Catholic San Francisco, Archbishop Niederauer asked that Divine Mercy Sunday, April 23, "be a day of prayer for our nation's legislators who are debating immigration legislation." He "encourage[d] all Catholics" in the archdiocese "to pray on Divine Mercy Sunday for just and humane immigration reform legislation that respects the dignity of our brothers and sisters who have come here from other lands." The archbishop then "urge[d] our Catholics to pray and make sacrifices for this intention throughout the coming weeks, and to contact their legislators in this regard."
Quoting the U.S. bishops' 1995 message, Strangers No Longer, which said, "solidarity means taking responsibility for those in trouble," Archbishop Niederauer said that "one important way that we can 'take responsibility' for" immigrants "is to pray and advocate for just and humane immigration reform legislation that respects family unity and reunification; that creates effective and welcoming opportunities for undocumented immigrants to become citizens; that allows for secure borders with humane enforcement; and that dignifies the important work that is done by the immigrant community in our society."
Niederauer quoted Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, who said on April 5, "sometimes [immigration] is painted as a threat and is manipulated for short-term political gain, at the expense of the most natural rights of all human beings -- the right to life, to citizenship, to work and to development."
PRO-IMMIGRATION MARCHES and rallies were held throughout the Bay Area on April 10, following the U.S. Senate's failure to reach a compromise on an immigration bill. About 10,000 gathered for a march in San Jose, which featured a yellow flatbed carrying three Buddhist monks in saffron robes, a Muslim woman in a white burka, and a Catholic priest holding a cross. In the morning, several thousand demonstrators gathered under drizzling skies in San Francisco's Mission District, with 5,000 more rallying in the evening. About 1,000 marchers gathered at 100th Avenue in East Oakland in the morning and marched to the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Buildings, gathering participants as they went. At the end of the march, about 12.30 p.m., the marchers numbered "several thousand," according to police.
WELCOME THE IMMIGRANT. On March 21, the California Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a statement on immigration. Recognizing the "polarization and frustration" over the immigration issue, "because the status quo serves neither the immigrant nor the citizenry well," the bishops called "on people of faith to welcome the strangers among us as our neighbors." The bishops further "implore[d] our national legislators to give us a law that reforms immigration in a way that protects human dignity and promotes the common good."
More particularly, the bishops urged "reform that includes earned legalization for the undocumented and their families, a temporary worker program, and timely family reunification policies; restoration of due process protections for immigrants; policy directions that address the root causes -- so that migrants can remain in their home countries and support themselves and their families; and reform that does not include sanctions for those who provide humanitarian aid for the undocumented."
"YOU HAVE TO HAVE TRADITION," Oakland mayor and former California governor Jerry Brown told the April 22 Los Angeles Times. Though long known for being a radical and iconoclast, the 68-year-old Brown, who was running for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, told the Times that tradition is "the backbone of stability in our society." But, he added, "you have to have innovation, or you ossify. I think I know how to match those two." In his spiritual life Brown, perhaps, has displayed little of the traditional and more of the innovative. Once a Jesuit seminarian, Brown later studied Zen Buddhism, though he also worked among the poor of India with Mother Teresa. Today he "describes himself in terms of the Jesuit," said the Times: "'a contemplative in action.'"
As holder of the office, whose duty is "to see that the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced," Brown said his priorities would be environmental protection, fighting crime, and protecting workers in the state's underground economy, who often don't benefit from the state's labor laws.
BROWN'S RIVAL FOR the Democratic nomination, Los Angeles city attorney Rocky Delgadillo (who an April Field Poll showed 41 points behind Brown), was, in the weeks before the June Democratic convention, criticizing Brown's judgement and his record as Oakland mayor. One of the chinks in Brown's armor, according to Delgadillo, was the former governor's 1988 appeal to Florida officials for the release of a protestor, Joan Andrews, charged with disrupting abortion clinics in that state. Brown, though a supporter of legalized abortion, said he appealed for Andrews' release at the urging of Mother Teresa. Andrews, he said, was not guilty of a violent crime. "It was [about] clemency," Brown said in a March 24 debate in Oakland with Delgadillo of Andrews, who had spent some prison time in solitary confinement. "It's not that what she did wasn't wrong."
In a television advertisement aired April 25, Delgadillo said that while he and Brown "agree on most issues," on the issue of "a woman's right to choose, we're miles apart. Jerry claims to be pro-choice," Delgadillo continued, "but he's called abortion,' and helped a violent anti-abortion activist get out of prison. I believe that a decision this personal should be left to a woman, her family and her doctor. And for my opponent to label the exercise of a woman's right of privacy as 'killing' is disturbing. I'm Rocky Delgadillo. I'll fight to protect your right to choose because I believe in it."
Delgadillo's advertisement, however, said the April 26 Sacramento Bee, did not mention that in a 1988 interview with Catholic News Service, Brown said not only that "the killing of the unborn is crazy," but that Mother Teresa "gave me a different perspective on the whole question of abortion."
But Brown's pro-abortion record has remained consistent through the years. As governor from 1975 to 1982, Brown supported abortion funding for the poor. Last year he opposed Proposition 73, the "Parents Right to Know" initiative.
MORE THAN A HARDHAT. MTV was slated to air an advertisement from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate that a pro-life organization called a "demeaning ad targeted at young people [that] defies any and all sense of decency," said an April 19 LifeNews.com report. The advertisement, part of Planned Parenthood's "Safe is Sexy" campaign, featured a young woman using a jackhammer in a construction zone. "My father always told me to use the right tool for the right job," she says. Returning home, she finds her boyfriend under the covers, wearing a hardhat and, presumably, nothing else. According to the Planned Parenthood website, she strips down to "a 'Safe is Sexy' tank top, shorts style underpants and a tool belt. She dives across the bed for her safe sex toolbox, which is well stocked with colorful condoms, courtesy of Planned Parenthood. The ad closes with a shot of the safe sex toolbox and the same female voice-over saying, 'Nice tool!'"
Jeff Sedlak, executive director of the pro-life STOPP International, said Planned Parenthood's "shameless promotion of its attempts to influence teenagers with a morally reprehensible TV spot is just another reason why all taxpayer funding of the group should be yanked immediately." According to Planned Parenthood's annual reports, said LifeNews.com, last fiscal year Planned Parenthood received over $265 million in federal, state, and local tax funding.
ARGUMENTS THAT CALIFORNIA'S $3 billion stem cell research institute is unconstitutional were rejected by an Alameda County superior court judge on April 21. Judge Bonnie Lewman Sabraw dismissed two lawsuits brought by opponents of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created after voters approved Proposition 71 on the November 2004 California ballot. The institute has not been able to issue bonds to raise the money it would grant to universities and institutions for embryonic stem cell research because of the lawsuits. Despite Lewman Sabraw's ruling, this situation will not likely change until plaintiffs exhaust the appeals process.
Plaintiffs argue that Proposition 71 violated state laws against proposing two subjects on a single ballot measure. David Llewellyn, a lawyer representing the California Bioethics Council, told Associated Press on April 22 that the proposition not only authorized funding for stem cell research but for other kinds of medical research as well. The Bioethics Council and the taxpayer group People's Advocate argued further that the stem cell institute, run as it is by a 29-member citizen's board unaccountable to state government, is not a proper state institution. But Judge Lewman Sabraw rejected these arguments, saying that Proposition 71 "is clearly, positively and unmistakably constitutional."
Because of $14 million in loans it has received, the institute in April awarded its first grants, $12.1 million worth, to 16 universities and research institutes. Wealthy California families, included the Gettys, planned to hold a fundraiser for the institute on May 22. Julie Andrews and Marvin Hamlisch were to be among the entertainers at the event. Tickets were going for as much as $10,000 apiece.
AT A CONFERENCE HELD in April in Cambridge Massachusetts, scientists from Harvard University and California announced they intended to clone embryos for their stem cells, said an April 13 Bloomberg.com report. The researchers said they planned to clone human embryos by combining women's eggs with DNA from other adults. The embryos would then be destroyed to extract stem cells. Companies such as the Menlo Park-based Geron Corporation said that they would attempt growing replacement tissue from the stem cells for use in medical therapy. Until now, scientists have extracted cells from unused embryos donated by fertility clinics. The new experiments would for the first time produce laboratory-made embryos that have the same genetic code as the DNA donors.
According to the Bloomberg report, the University of California at San Francisco is currently seeking permission to get egg donations for embryonic research.
TWO SAN FRANCISCO CATHOLICS, Richard Sonnenshein and Valerie Meehan, and the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights brought suit in federal court on April 4 against the city and county of San Francisco for violating the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, said the April 7 San Francisco Chronicle. On March 21, the San Francisco board of supervisors issued a resolution condemning the Catholic Church for opposing adoption of children by homosexual couples. The board was criticizing a March 9 e-mail statement sent to the San Francisco archdiocese in which Archbishop William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reiterated Church teaching on same-sex adoptions. In response, the board of supervisors issued its non-binding resolution, which said, "it is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great city's existing and established customs and traditions, such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need." Levada, said the resolution, "is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear." The resolution called on Archbishop Niederauer to defy the Levada's directive.
According to plaintiffs in the case against the city and county, the supervisors' resolution "sends a clear message to plaintiffs and others who are adherents to the Catholic faith that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community...."
THE THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER of Ann Arbor Michigan is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, said the April 14 Catholic San Francisco. Explaining the basis of the lawsuit, Thomas More president Richard Thompson told Catholic San Francisco that in prohibiting "the promotion of any religion," the United State Constitution has "been interpreted to bar the disapproval of or interference with the internal affairs of any religion." Since, according to Thompson, San Francisco's supervisors are "promoting hostility to the Catholic Church ... Catholics are made to feel outside the political community."
Thompson called the case "highly unusual." He said he was "not aware of any modern case where a government agency has specifically attacked a church.... No other city has gone to the extent San Francisco has."
A NEW ECUMENICAL ORGANIZATION of churches approved by the United States Catholic bishops held its founding meeting during a March 28-31 gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, Catholic News Service reported in April. Christian Churches Together in the USA, which Catholic News Service called broadest, most inclusive ecumenical movement in U.S. history," at present represents 34 Christian churches and national organizations, representing over 100 million Americans. And more churches and organizations are interested in joining, with 22 groups participating as observers and 30 others in conversation with the new organization.
According to Baltimore's archbishop, Cardinal William Keeler, who serves as one of the organization's five co-presidents, Christian Churches Together's mission is "to enable churches and Christian organizations to grow closer together in Christ in order to strengthen our Christian witness in the world." A 12-member U.S. bishops conference-appointed delegation, headed by Stockton's Bishop Stephen Blaire, chose Cardinal Keeler along with Bishop Blaire (former head of the bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs), and Father Ronald Roberson (the bishops' ecumenical committee's associate director), to serve on the new organization's steering committee. Mercy Sister Ana Maria Pineda, of the religious studies department at Santa Clara University, serves as the steering committee's member-at-large.
BE POSITIVE! Sister Susan Olson, the diocese of Monterey's new director of pastoral support, wrote in the April Observer (the diocesan newspaper) that the question to ask in Lent is "not, what's broken, what's wrong with me?" but "what do I want to see more of in my spiritual life?" "Lent is about change," said Sister Susan; and, she continued, "the church is changing too."
One of the changes the Church is undergoing, Sister Susan noted, is the shrinking number of priests. In keeping with her Lenten theme, Sister Susan continued, "is there something broken that we should be fixing or shall we begin by saying 'What do we need more of?' It would be easy to say 'Priests!'" said Sister, but such a response misses the point that "maybe the Holy Spirit is calling us to think about ourselves, the laity, that need to lend more of our baptismal fire to heat up the church." Presumably, in Sister's mind, focusing on the lack of priests would be to dwell on "what's broken," which we are not to do. Rather, we are to focus on what we have -- increased lay ministry -- and strive for more of it in the Church's life. "Now that we have learned that we are the Church we are being called to ministries that demonstrate our equality in baptism with everyone who is part of the church regardless of their title or position," said Sister.
The Church in Monterey should be like the early Christians spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, said Sister, who "were paying attention to what was working and doing more of it." Lay ministry is flourishing in the parishes of the Monterey diocese, Sister Susan noted. "Appreciating the work of the Holy Spirit even when it's not clear what the outcome will be releases that energy and vision that was needed when change is occurring," said Sister Susan. "And our Diocese is changing along with the whole church. 'Behold, I make all things new' (Rev 21:5)."
"WHAT IS THERE ABOUT SHOPPING, and consuming goods, natural resources and services that we equate with personal happiness?" "How does consumption help us fill up the empty self and make us feel part of something larger than ourselves?" Faculty and students at Carondelet High School in Concord were asked these questions during this year's Fontbonne Forum, a yearly gathering to address social issues (previous forums have discussed the Iraq war and feminism), according to the April 17 Catholic Voice, the newspaper of the Oakland diocese. About 12 student organizers began last fall to research business and advertising practices linked to the phenomenon of consumerism. Students worked up presentations, including skits and a film documentary by sophomore Emma Thatcher that included Father Brian Joyce, pastor of Christ the King in Pleasant Hill, explaining that consumerism has become society's religion, with holiday shopping its ritual.
On the day of the presentation, participants entering the auditorium where the forum was held were met by a large American flag with corporate logos instead of stars. They also received handouts with quotes and questions to spur conversation -- as, "every company with a powerful brand is attempting to develop a relationship with consumers that resonates so completely with their sense of self that they will aspire, or at least consent, to be serfs under these feudal brandlords;" and "is it an accident that teenaged girls are the most 'branded' group of consumers in the history of humankind?"
The forum "definitely stirred the pot," said one of its teacher-organizers, Mike Murphy. He and his two co-organizers, teachers Andy Hodges and Maureen Wanket, though counseling moderation, agreed, according to the Voice, that consumerism is not necessarily a bad thing, since it allows for good as well as bad choices. But Emma Thatcher noted that making the good choice is often "hard to do when it's so easy to buy what's quickest and handiest."
ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM LEVADA was, perhaps, "underestimat[ing] the imaginative capacities of the Catholic laity" when he said it would be difficult for Catholics to visualize Christ's spousal relationship to the Church if his representatives are homosexual priests. So wrote Marian Ronan, associate professor of contemporary theology and religion at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, in a letter to the editor in the April 3 Catholic Voice. But, said Ronan, perhaps "the Catholic imagination is less literal than the archbishop thinks;" for, "we have, after all, managed for centuries to visualize a Christ who is married to the church in the persons of men who are most emphatically not married." (Why this would be at all difficult to imagine, Professor Ronan did not say.)
The real reason behind banning homosexual priests, according to Ronan, is not to be found in any high-falutin' in persona Christi argumentation but in the "homosocial" character of the Church. By "homosocial," said Ronan, social scientists signify "that the not-necessarily-sexual but certainly social, political and economic bonds between men make it possible for them to control institutions, nations, and especially women." When male homosexuals become more visible, she continued, it becomes "more obvious that a society or institution is structured this way." Why this is so, Ronan does not say; but she continues that "the repression of homosexuality is essential if it is not to become apparent that a particular institution is run by men. Christ as the heterosexual spouse of the church conveys the idea that the church is female." So it is, according to Ronan, that the Church, an homosocial" institution, must prohibit the ordination of homosexual men.
A TWENTY-THREE YEAR OLD Lodi man was convicted on April 25 in federal court in Sacramento on one count of providing material support for terrorism and three counts of lying to the FBI, the April 26 Los Angeles Times reported. He may face up to 39 years in prison. Hamid Hayat, a Pakistani man born in Stockton, was arrested last June in a federal terrorism probe. Hayat, according to the FBI, had attended a religious school and an al Qaida camp and was plotting a jihad against supermarkets and hospitals in the United States. Prosecutors said Hayat had failed a lie-detector test, admitted to attending a terrorist camp for three days in 2000 and another for six months in 2003 and 2004, while FBI agents said they found a book, Virtues of Jihad, in Hayat's bedroom. According to the Times, FBI agent Harry Sweeney got Hayat to admit to having attended the terrorist camp "by suggesting that the FBI had satellite photographs of Hayat at the camp." In court, Sweeney admitted that the FBI had no such photographs. Hayat later contested the confession, saying he never attended a terrorist camp. "Hamid Hayat never attended a terrorist training camp," Wazhma Mojaddidi, his lawyer, said. "The fight is definitely not over."
Umer Hayat, Hamid's 48-year-old father, also stood trial for allegedly lying to the FBI by denying his son had attended a terrorist school. But the jury in his trial failed to reach a verdict.
The federal government has characterized the case against the Hayats as evidence of a terrorist network in California; Lodi had a "home-grown jihadist cell," said national intelligence director John Negroponte to the Senate last year. But to date the government has offered no further evidence for this claim.
A SPEC HOUSE built on Clipper Street in San Francisco "showcases every high-end Earth-friendly feature" its builders, the Lorax Development company, could incorporate, said the April 22 San Francisco Chronicle. Among these features is a rainfall collection system developed by Wonderwater, Inc. of Mount Shasta. The system collects on average 18,000 to 20,000 gallons of annual rainwater, which it cleans and stores in tanks below the house. The water can be used to flush toilets, water gardens, or wash clothes. Dylan Coleman, president of Wonderwater, said his company has merely perfected a 3,000-year-old practice; yet, despite the innovation, "there hasn't exactly been a flood of activity," he said, because, in part, government permitting agencies are not familiar with the system. But it could save a lot of waste, according to Coleman, who said that on a rainy day in San Francisco about 450 million gallons of water pour into the city sewers and are treated as sewage. This is "stupid," he said, "and it's a waste of energy."
"MANY" OF THOSE SPEAKING OUT against a proposed Sacramento city unified school district resolution to express support for the April 26 pro-homosexual "Day of Silence" were "recent immigrants from Slavic countries who are active in churches throughout the region," said the April 7 Sacramento Bee. While other protestors, who appeared at an April 6 school board meeting, based their opposition to the resolution on scripture and the Declaration of Independence, said the Bee, others argued that it would marginalize those who think homosexuality immoral. Said recent Ukrainian immigrant and Mira Loma High School senior Nadiya Chorney (who addressed the crowd outside in Russian through a bullhorn), "for us Christians, in school, we don't get a lot of rights. It's 'Don't say this; don't say that ... but I don't want my kids to be [taught] in school about homosexuality."
The request for a resolution in support for the April 26 "Day of Silence" came from the school district's LGBT Task Force, which the board formed in 2004 to make schools safe for "gender nonconforming" students. In a "Day of Silence," students are encouraged to go an entire school day without speaking; however, said an April 18 Pacific Justice Institute news release, they are to wear clothing and pass out cards explaining that their silence is "protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools ... which is caused by harassment, prejudice and discrimination." According to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, about 450,000 students at 4,000 schools participated in last year's "Day of Silence."
WARNING NOT HEEDED. The Pacific Justice Institute said one of its lawyers would address the Sacramento city school district at its April 20 meeting, advising it not to pass a resolution recognizing the "Day of Silence." According to the institute's April 18 news release, the attorney was "to remind officials of their obligations to serve their constituents, not special interest groups." The institute cautioned "that teachers who openly support or participate in the Day of Silence may be in danger of losing their teaching credentials for improper political advocacy."
The school board at its April 20 meeting, however, in a 5-1 vote approved the "Day of Silence" as a "student-led, constitutionally protected" activity.
ONLY PRO-"GAY" SPEECH ALLOWED? In a case involving a suburban San Diego teenager who was barred by school officials from wearing a t-shirt with the words "homosexuality is shameful" (and a Bible verse supporting it) to class, the U.S. ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco ruled April 20 that schools, to avoid disruptions, could restrict what students wear on campus. According to Associated Press, the justices did not rule on the larger issue of whether the Poway Unified School District had violated the student, Tyler Chase Harper's First Amendment rights, but the panel of judges said Harper was unlikely to prevail in court.
In 2004, Harper, then a sophomore at Poway High School, wore his t-shirt to school the day after the school's Gay-Straight Alliance had held a "Day of Silence" to protest discrimination against homosexuals. The Day of Silence the previous year had led to disruptive protests and conflicts between students. While the school allowed the homosexual protest, Poway High's principal refused to allow Harper to attend class wearing the shirt. Instead, the principal assigned him homework in a conference room.
The three-judge panel, in an opinion written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt and seconded by Judge Sydney Thomas, said, "the school is permitted to prohibit Harper's conduct ... if it can demonstrate that the restriction was necessary to prevent either the violation of the rights of other students or substantial disruption of school activities." But the decision went further, according to an April 25 Pacific Justice Institute report; it asserted that homosexual students need special protection from views contrary to their own. "It is well established that attacks on students on the basis of their sexual orientation are harmful not only to the students' health and welfare, but also to their educational performance and their ultimate potential for success in life," said the judges. "Those who administer our public educational institutions need not tolerate verbal assaults that may destroy the self-esteem of our most vulnerable teenagers and interfere with their educational development."
Judge Alex Kozinski, however, dissented from Justices Reinhardt and Thomas. The school, wrote Kozinksi, had authorized a heated debate over homosexuality in allowing the "Day of Silence." "Harper's T-shirt was not an out-of-the-blue affront to fellow students who were minding their own business," wrote Kozinski. "Rather, Harper wore his T-shirt in response to the Day of Silence, a political activity that was sponsored or at the very least tolerated by school authorities."
A PUBLIC COLLEGE WAS WITHIN ITS RIGHTS to deny funding and official recognition to a Christian students group because it barred membership to non-Christians and homosexuals, U.S. district judge Jeffrey White ruled April 17. The chapter of the Christian Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco's Hastings College of the Law had university recognition and funding until 2004, when it required members to endorse a "statement of faith" and refused membership to any engaging in "unrepentant homosexual conduct." While the college allowed the group to continue meeting on campus, it removed official recognition.
Represented by the Virginia-based Christian Legal Society, the Christian Fellowship argued that the college's action violated the organization's freedom of speech, religion, and association. However, Judge White, a George W. Bush appointee, disagreed. The Hastings policy, he said, "regulates conduct, not speech." It "affects what [the society] must do if it wants to become a registered student organization -- not engage in discrimination -- not what [the society] may or may not say regarding its beliefs."The school's policy, said White, is "a reasonable regulation that is consistent with and furthers its educational purpose."
EXTENDING SAN FRANCISCO'S MINIMUM WAGE protection to independent contractors -- house cleaners, baby sitters, newspaper vendors -- who work at least 20 hours a week was given initial approval by the city's board of supervisors on April 18. Sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly, the ordinance passed 8-1 on its first reading, said the April 19 San Francisco Chronicle; only board president Aaron Peskin dissented, since, he said, it was unclear that the city's labor standards department has enough staff to ensure enforcement of the legislation. Daly said he decided to work up the legislation after he learned of the low wages paid to some independent newspaper street vendors.
According to the ordinance, those hiring covered workers would have to keep records of payments made to them. Employers who neglect to pay the city's $8.82 minimum wage could face up to a $50 fine for each infraction of the proposed ordinance.
CITIES MAY LEGALLY KEEP BIG BOX stores out to prevent business collapse and urban blight, a state appeals court ruled April 5. In 2004, the city of Turlock in Stanislaus County passed an ordinance prohibiting retail stores over 100,000 square feet that devote over five percent of their space to items such as groceries. Wal-Mart, which has a store in Turlock, wanted to convert the store to a supercenter, initially with the city's approval. However, after labor and businesses opposed the move, the city passed its big-box ordinance in January 2004. Wal-Mart sued Turlock but lost in superior court. The April Fresno court of appeals decision upheld the superior court decisions, saying the city had the authority to "control and organize development within its boundaries." The court rejected Wal-Mart's argument that the city neglected to study the environmental effects of one-stop stores and smaller outlets, saying these were speculative and were to be addressed when and if such stores were proposed. Further, said the court, "while zoning ordinances may not legitimately be used to control economic competition, they may be used to address the urban/suburban decay that can be its effect."
With Wal-Mart seeking to build supercenters -- combination grocery and retail centers -- throughout the state, cities and counties have passed ordinances to protect smaller retail businesses, which supercenters frequently put out of business. In 2003, Contra Costa County approved a ban of supercenters in its unincorporated areas, though voters overturned the ban in a 2004 referendum (in which Wal-Mart spent over $1 million.) After the referendum, Alameda County, which had a similar ordinance, rescinded it under threat of lawsuit. But in March, the county passed an ordinance that requires big-box retailers to detail the impact their new stores would have on the local economy and on workers' wages and benefits.
Wal-Mart is challenging the Turlock ordinance in federal court.
WHY NOT TO HEALTHCARE? The Mercy Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Catholic Healthcare West, said on April 20 that it was donating $100,000 for a stained glass window commemorating 150th anniversary of the Sisters of Mercy's arrival in Sacramento, to be placed in Sacramento's recently renovated Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, said the April 21 Sacramento Bee. The window will be one of eight in the clerestory of the newly renovated cathedral.