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Breaking away from the position of many U.S. farmers, Christopher Ranch, the nation’s premier garlic company, announced on Tuesday, Sept. 18, that it fully supports the imposition of a 10 percent tariff on imported Chinese garlic (under the United States Trade Representative Section 301 Investigation).“Christopher Ranch applauds the decision of the U.S. trade representative to raise the tariff to 25 percent on Jan. 1, 2019,” said Ken Christopher, executive vice president of Christopher Ranch, based in Gilroy.“For decades, Chinese exporters have flooded the US market with cheap and often illegally dumped garlic, and this tariff will help to level the playing field for American garlic farmers,” said Christopher.Recently, third-generation farmer Christopher flew to Washington DC to build bipartisan congressional support for the US garlic industry and to offer testimony to the US International Trade Commission in support of the enacted tariff. Officials from the Departments of State, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor, Small Business Administration, and the office of the US Trade Representative were present to receive the testimony.According to the US Department of Commerce, Chinese garlic exporters have defrauded the US government out of more than $600 million of billed but uncollected duties. This represents the largest single industry of the total $2.6 billion of total uncollected duties since 2001. https://www.gao.gov/assets/680/678419.pdf Unlike past duties, the proposed new tariff would require that fees be paid in advance, preventing exporters from engaging in illegal duty evasion schemes.“In broad macroeconomic terms, we recognize that an escalating trade war may not be in the nation’s larger economic interest, but immediate relief for the US garlic industry is needed,” said Christopher in the company statement. “Illegally dumped Chinese garlic continues to flood the US market, making its way to unassuming American consumers, and US farmers need our government’s support.“The anticipated tariffs of Chinese garlic will go a long way to restoring a longstanding injustice on American garlic farmers.”

Getting to the Sweepstakes round at the largest wine competition in North America takes a wine that outshines and outlasts 5,700 entries from more than 1,000 wineries in North America, Mexico and Canada.  The San Francisco Chronicle is not only the first official wine competition...

After three rough losses to open the season, Live Oak High School girls soccer regrouped and got rolling. The Acorns were basically in every game, even against powers like Valley Christian and Gilroy. Yet it was a bit of an up and down campaign. “Overall...

A handful of employees in the City of Gilroy Recreation

South County commuters will be moderately affected by the proposed changes to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s bus route system, which is reviewed every 10 years for a scratch redesign.

For many, the name Charlie Palmer is immediately associated with his eponymous steak houses—and his Michelin star gem Aureole—in Manhattan. But, it’s also synonymous with Sonoma Wine Country and Dry Creek Kitchen, a pioneering restaurant that helped establish Healdsburg’s status as an international culinary destination. His...

Longtime Morgan Hill coach and educator Jim Green’s ability to motivate and mentor young students and athletes throughout his 45-year-plus career was evident in the turnout of generations of supporters who packed the visitors’ side of Britton Gymnasium for a June 2 ceremony renaming...

Exactly what caused a wild pig harvested in Morgan Hill to turn bright blue on the inside remains a mystery, but two state experts have a consistent and convincing theory.A reddit.com user by the name of “GlendilTEK” posted the discovery on the social media site Sept. 8, with a link to photos of the unusual pig. The user said his or her in-laws shot the wild pig on their ranch in Morgan Hill. The in-laws cut open the pig and found its fat was a fluorescent blue color throughout its body. The animal’s muscle and organs did not appear to be discolored, GlendilTEK noted.The reddit user has been seeking input from the online community as to how the pig turned blue on the inside, and even sent a sample to University California, Davis for research.A spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said experts have “occasionally” seen previous cases of wild pigs exhibiting a similar discoloration of their insides. In those cases, it was determined the affected animals had likely consumed chemicals that contained a blue dye.“Pigs eat pesticides and rodenticides, and it stains the fat of the pig,” said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan. “We recommend not eating the animal, and you should try to dispose of it so it doesn’t get back into the environment.”Robert Poppenga, a veterinary toxicologist with the California Animal Health and Food Safety at UC Davis, agreed the pig might have been exposed to an “anticoagulant rodenticide.”“These things have happened in the past,” Poppenga said.He added that the dye itself is probably not harmful to surviving pigs. But he doesn’t recommend letting scavengers get into an affected pig’s carcass.“I would probably dispose of the carcass if possible, where it’s not left out for other animals to feed on,” Poppenga said.Neither Poppenga nor Hughan are familiar with the specific details of the case of Morgan Hill’s blue pig.If the UC Davis lab receives a sample of the pig tissue from the Morgan Hill rancher, researchers could examine the item to determine a specific cause.Hughan added that Fish and Wildlife would like to speak to the rancher who discovered the discolored pig in order to obtain a sample that department staff can test on their own.This newspaper attempted to contact GlendilTEK for more information including the exact location of the blue pig, but has not heard back from the reddit user.

Morgan Hill’s Mark Muhn is the world’s fastest paraplegic cyclist, and he has the gold medal to prove it.Muhn and his wife Carol traveled to Zurich, Switzerland in early October so Mark could compete in the inaugural Cybathlon, an international athletic competition for physically disabled individuals using assistive technologies.Muhn, who has been paralyzed from the chest down since a skiing accident crushed his spinal cord in 2008, competed in the “Functional Electrical Stimulation bike race”—one of six events at the Oct. 8 Cybathlon. He came in first place, beating his closest competitor by more than a minute on the 750-meter course. It was about a three-minute race.“I was the oldest person there,” said Mark Muhn, 59. “There were a lot of young guys.”More than 60 teams from around the world competed at the 2016 Cybathlon in a total of six events including the bike race, plus other futuristic-sounding competitions such as the Powered Exoskeleton race and the Brain-Computer Interface race.These disabled athletes use highly advanced technologies—typically in the experimental stages—to gain mobility. In Muhn’s case, he has a surgically implanted electrical stimulation system that allows him to contract and coordinate his leg muscles enough to stand up, ride a three-wheeled bicycle and even walk a short distance.Two “pulse generators” implanted in his abdomen connect to a series of electrodes up and down his back and legs, and more than 60 feet of wires that send electric shocks directly to his muscles and nerves—all surgically installed under his skin.“The electrodes excite the nerves and move the muscles,” Mark Muhn summarized.Muhn is a test subject for the system, which was developed by researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs before the Cybathlon was even a thought. He looked into having the surgery back in 2012, after voraciously pursuing every kind of therapy that offered him a hope of walking again after his injury.He entered the program wanting to stand and “maybe walk.” By 2015, “I surpassed my goals,” said Muhn, who walked about 300 feet last year.Needless to say, the 12-hour, life-changing surgery was worth the commitment.“The choices are, sit in a wheelchair forever, or try something that will get you standing up, and possibly walking,” Muhn said.One recent afternoon, Mark and Carol offered a demonstration of his system at their west Morgan Hill home, where they have lived for about 16 years. Mark’s practice bike—a three-wheeled Catrike brand—stands on a trainer in the family’s living room, allowing him stationary exercise. The system connects to a portable receiver box—about the size of a brick—which he attaches when he wants to move his legs. With the system off, Muhn can barely wiggle his big left toe—the extent of his lower body movement.When he turns the system on with the push of a button, Muhn can stand up, ride a bicycle or walk a short distance. While training for the Cybathlon, Muhn rode laps at the Morgan Hill Courthouse parking lot on the weekends.He typically gets around on a hand-powered electric wheelchair. The owner of Muhn & Sons commercial construction company, on the job Mark Muhn operates heavy machinery equipped with hand controls.Muhn is quick to hype up the technology. “I get on the bike and push a button, and aim it down the track,” Muhn said humbly. “The technology is really what won the gold medal.” When he arrived at the Cybathlon, Muhn was immediately in awe of the variety of assistive systems used by other athletes.Life-changingCarol Muhn described how much the couple’s life has changed since Mark received the implants. Chiefly, the program has expanded Mark’s options.“It gives us a little more freedom to try new things,” said Carol, an eighth-grade science teacher in San Jose. “He looks healthier because of this program. It’s inspiring—his health, his determination.”The couple has been married for nine years, and have 10 grown children between them. Carol and Mark took a few days to go sightseeing together while in Switzerland for the Cybathlon.The scientist who developed Muhn’s system said one of its advantages over other forms of therapy is its ability to build and keep muscle mass.“As you can imagine, after a spinal cord injury, your muscles atrophy,” said Ronald Triolo, Professor of Orthopedics and Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve. “So people who receive our systems need to accomplish those maneuvers. We instrumented a system with a bike that measures where the pedals are, and communicates that to an external controller that delivers to an implanted stimulator, and that delivers energy to his nerves. That way he gets the right muscles contracting at the right time.”The implanted stimulator is what sets this project apart from other assistive systems, explained Triolo, who is the principal investigator, scientist and engineer for the system used by “Team Cleveland” at the Cybathlon.Systems that use surface-only stimulation are not as effective because the current has to traverse layers of skin and fat, Triolo explained. With the surgical implants used by Muhn and other participants in the motion study, “We can be very specific, more precise and more repeatable.”Triolo said his team has installed the implant system on about 30 people in the last 15 years or so. He couldn’t begin to estimate the overall cost for a single patient—which starts at about $25,000 for the equipment only. He noted that Case Western Reserve and the VA deserve the credit for funding and supporting the project.Team Cleveland actually brought two “pilots” for the 2016 Cybathlon FES bike race in Zurich—Muhn and Michael McClellan of Rocklin, Triolo said. McClellan had been testing faster than Muhn on the bike during training, but Cybathlon organizers determined at the last minute that McClellan had too much “voluntary motion” in his hips and asked him to step aside.“Both gentlemen worked very hard and pushed each other as they trained,” Triolo said.