Corn Shortage & California The devastating drought in the Midwest is
having a mixed effect on California farmers. Corn producers
in the Golden State, whose crops are being herald as better than
usual, are benefiting from a spike in the price of the crop, which
is being driven up by a bidding war between ethanol producers and
feed dealers. But California cattle ranchers and poultry
farmers are struggling to pay the increasing price for feed and
some smaller farmers may have be forced out of business. Here
to explain the Midwest drought's effects on California is Colin Carter, Director of the Giannini
Foundation of Agricultural Economics at UC Davis; Paul Sanguinetti,
a California corn farmer; and Bill Mattos, President of the California Poultry
Federation.
Republican Party Decline in California The
Republican Party in California is in decline. Not a single
Republican is holding statewide office and registered Republicans
in California now account for 30 percent of the electorate.
The party is virtually powerless in the state legislature and even
when Republicans made huge gains across the nation in the 2010
elections they were wiped out in California races for governor and
the Senate. Many Republicans have switched their party
affiliation to "Decline to State." Their reasons are varied
but many of the former party members are upset that the party's
continual migration to the political right on social issues is
alienating independent voters who once supported the Republicans.
Here to joins us is Kimberly Nalder, an associate professor of
government at Sacramento State University, and Stan
Forbes, a former Republican who changed his registration from
Republican to "decline to state" about six years ago.
Gymnastics Scoring In the early 1990's, a
Sacramento computer programmer whose daughter had started competing
in gymnastics, applied his skills to the gym's scoring system.
Within a few years, this dad, Scott Slater, joined with Technique
Gymnastics' owners to develop and market the ProScore
system now used in all USA Gymnastics competitions (including
Olympic Trials) and in many countries around the world.
Following the scoring in gymnastics seems like rocket science, but
Scott makes it so much easier to understand - just in time to watch
Olympic
gymnastics from London.
Quidditch As the Olympics ramp up in London
we'd like to take a moment to speak with a local athlete who has
recently returned from a different type of Olympics in Great
Britain. Vanessa Goh is a former Davis High School
lacrosse player who has just finished representing the United
States in the Quidditch Olympics in Oxford. If you're
unfamiliar with Quidditch, it's the fictional game created by J.K
Rowling in her massively successful Harry Potter book series that
requires a broom, a flying ball called a "snitch" and a little
magic. With a few modifications the game has become an
international sensation with 150 official teams from almost every
US state, Canada, Australia, France, and Great Britain.