Guest View

This guest view is the first in a periodic series of upcoming op-eds on tips to prepare for wildfire season, which officially starts May 1 in Santa Clara County.Most people believe that wildfires ignite homes through direct contact with flames, but it is rare to have a home ignite this way. Thanks to effective defensible space campaigns, very few homes are in direct contact with traditional wildland fuel models (e.g., uninterrupted fields of seasonal grass, flammable brush or tree canopies). The collective experience of our wildland firefighters suggests that homes most commonly ignite from airborne flaming brands and embers.Flaming brands and embers can travel a mile or more ahead of the active front of a wildfire. Scientific research finds that up to 60 percent of wildland/urban interface home ignitions result from embers landing on flammable materials such as roofing or landscaping materials, or ember penetration into concealed spaces through vents and other structural openings.Most of the activity that makes a home less vulnerable to ignition focuses on the home and its immediately surroundings. Defensible space preparations are part of the equation, but they do not address the ember threat. Our Ember Aware campaign is intended to educate people on the risks of ember cast and the actions they can take to reduce those risks, to encourage residents to harden their homes against embers and/or to maintain those ember-resistant features, and to practice ember-safe housekeeping and landscaping. You can learn more at emberaware.com.In the coming weeks, we will provide a series of articles and tips on the topic. Make changes now to reduce the ember threat to your home. Tip number one: Stop shaking.• The most reliable way to predict which houses will survive a wildfire and which will be destroyed is by looking at the roof.• Houses with wood shake or shingle roofs are many times more likely to be destroyed during a wildfire. Using wood shakes or shingles for roofs in high fire hazard areas is like stacking hundreds of pounds of kindling on top of your home. During the hot summer months, the shakes or shingles can be nearly bone dry and easily ignited by embers. The embers come from pieces of burning material that can be lofted high into the air during a wildfire and travel a mile or more from the actual fire.• Unfortunately, there is no effective, inexpensive long-term solution to the ember threat to wood roofs. We recommend replacing wood shake or shingle roofs with a rated, fire-resistant roofing material, such as asphalt composition shingles, metal, or concrete or clay tile. Although this can be expensive, it may well be the one thing that saves your home when the embers arrive.Fire Marshal Dwight Good serves the Morgan Hill Fire Department and South Santa Clara County Fire Protection District and the CalFire Santa Clara Unit. He has 24 years of fire service experience. He can be contacted at [email protected].

On Sunday, March 26, residents gathered at St. Catherine Church in Morgan Hill to receive educational information about immigrant rights. Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Steve Betando was asked to speak about the district’s stance on the national immigration discussion and what MHUSD is doing to help students and families. Here is a portion of that speech, which can be read in its entirety on mhusd.org.

April 22 marks the 47th Earth Day—a day created to celebrate our planet, environment and wildlife. Every Californian has a story to tell about how nature has made their lives richer. For some, it is regional food, lakes and rivers, or a beloved local park. For others, it is the ties to ranches, working farms, forests or our magnificent public lands. The ecosystem is one of California’s greatest assets. We have a unique and diverse climate and geography, and some of the most extraordinary plants and wildlife in the world.Today, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the effects of climate change become more and more apparent. Earth Day 2017 provides an opportunity for all of us to do something meaningful for our planet by giving back in our communities. Thousands of volunteers will be needed throughout California to assist with projects such as campfire center improvements, habitat restoration, native garden conservation, fence building, trail maintenance and beach cleanup.The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after he took a trip to Santa Barbara following a devastating oil spill off California’s central coast. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Nelson introduced a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the Earth. The date was chosen to help commemorate the birth of California naturalist and conservationist John Muir, who was born April 21, 1838.In 1970, the first Earth Day celebrations took place in hundreds of communities across the United States, bringing together millions of Americans who supported environmental reform.  By the end of that year, Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.  By 2000, formal events celebrating Earth Day were being observed in 184 countries, and more than 500 million people participated in those events. It now is considered the largest secular observance in the world, celebrated by more than one billion people every year.Earth Day is a day of action designed to change human behavior and provoke science-based policy changes, and serves as a reminder to us that our planet’s future is in jeopardy. The science is clear: climate change continues to harm our planet and has led to rising sea levels, warmer oceans, rising global temperatures and increased incidences of extreme weather events. I encourage everyone to attend local Earth Day events, which are planned throughout the month of April in communities throughout California. Help do your part to restore and care for the places where we live, work and play…for this and future generations. Seize the opportunity to ensure that nature continues to sustain us in the 21st century.Monning represents the 17th Senate District, which includes all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties, and portions of Monterey and Santa Clara counties.

Why do I Relay? My biggest reason is this amazing woman who left us all too soon. Jennifer Pavicich-Murphy was by far one of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing and calling my friend. For her I Relay!This time last year she and I were lucky enough to be placed in the same corral for the Disneyland Star Wars 10K. Funnily enough, we'd chosen to go as Anna and Elsa. This would be both of our first 10Ks. I was very nervous at first since I had not even run a 5k straight before, but running with Jen pushed me to do it. We spent the first three miles just chatting and catching up when suddenly I realized we'd hit the 5K mark. We both got excited and did a little shout out.We were feeling the Disney magic! She then asked if I was okay to keep going. I felt great, so we did. This was Jen. The girl had been through hell and back battling cancer, was running a 10K, laughing and goofing around, and making sure that I was okay.We slowed around mile 5 to make sure we'd take some pictures and could meet up with the other girls in our group. Thankfully were able to finish with most of them. It was the best feeling in the world to have accomplished that race with my mama tribe and with Jen at my side. We spent the rest of the weekend tearing up Disneyland and having the best weekend ever! Those are memories I will cherish always.We'd make a lot more memories over the following months, especially during special events like her 80s themed birthday and Relay for Life. At Relay we'd all planned to really go all out the following year and make the event one for the books.Sadly, we would lose our beautiful Jen much sooner than anyone expected. Our sweet girl went up to be our forever angel this past August. It still hurts that she can't be with us, but I know deep down inside that she is watching over us all, smiling, just waiting to catch up on all of our adventures one day.This beautiful friend, mother, wife, daughter, sister, niece—she is why I Relay. I will participate in her memory and in memory of all of those we've loved and lost to cancer. I will continue the fight because we all deserve to live in a world without cancer.Last year Jen shared why she relayed: "I RELAY because I want my boys to live in a world where cancer is a disease of the past. Where adults and children of all ages no longer have to endure this fight. And where technology and medicine can provide us with a CURE for every type of cancer. Every step we take brings us closer to these goals."   People like Jen and their families deserve a cure. We shouldn't need to share our warriors stories anymore. We should be able to celebrate that cancer has been cured and that our children get to grow up without knowing the pain of this ugly disease.  The American Cancer Society strives to improve the lives of all those touched by cancer. By creating Relay for Life, they gave us an event to focus all of our energy on, to help raise those funds that are so desperately needed to end this disease.I really hope that after reading this, you'll consider attending our Relay for Life event here in Morgan Hill May 20. Teams, sponsors, attendees, each and every one of you has some way, whether it be large or small, to help make this event great. Let's end this fight for Jen, and for all of those who have been touched by cancer!Amanda Banta, a Morgan Hill resident, is the social media lead for the local Relay for Life.

Regulations issued by President Donald Trump to Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices are chilling.All undocumented people working and living in the U.S. are now legally deportable. This includes not only “the bad guys” with criminal records but millions of hard-working, taxpaying undocumented immigrants who have contributed greatly to the economy of this country.All people in this country have constitutional rights. Trump’s goal is to take away the right to a hearing in preparation for mass deportations. He has increased the budget for Homeland Security to $3 billion from our taxes. He has expanded the number of ICE agents to 25,000 on the border. Thirty percent of these are veterans of the war in Iraq who were trained to kill, not to arrest and deport.“Expedited removal” is the law allowing ICE to pick up and deport without giving access to a hearing or a lawyer. Under former President Barack Obama, expedited removals were limited to those caught within two miles of the Mexican border. Now, there are no limits. All can be deported wherever they are found, and if they cannot prove they have been here for eight years (on the spot), they can be deported with no legal hearing.  Two-thirds of those detained are not able to access lawyers. Those who can afford a lawyer or have access to legal aid have seven times the opportunity to be released from detention.The movement by city police chiefs to disassociate from any cooperation with ICE is admirable. In a raid several weeks ago in Santa Cruz, ICE agents lied to local police when they promised they had warrants. During the raid, they emptied an entire apartment building and detained law abiding, innocent people who were there. The mayor and police chief apologized to the community and said it would not happen again.ICE has also misrepresented themselves as “police officers,” and thus gained access to homes where they could not enter without a warrant. They question people who do not know their rights and get them to sign them away.The state of California is asking for regular reports on their raids and the daily publication of people detained, which ICE has refused to do. These refusals by ICE are illegal.What can we do to help the terrified undocumented in our area? Having the police pledge not to cooperate with ICE is one step. Educating the people who are frightened about their rights is a priority. We can arrange for public Know Your Rights workshops through Siren and the Asian Law Center. We can educate ourselves to educate all the undocumented we know or meet.   Can we organize to form groups that will intercept these ICE raids? Nothing works better than bad publicity from newspapers and radio stations.Which churches and homes in our areas will be willing to be sanctuary places for a family? Have we educated our teachers and principals about ICE coming to schools?If we work together in true community we can bring back constitutional rights to all.Natasha Wist is a former school psychologist and family therapist with 31 years experience. Since retiring, she has volunteered teaching immigrant women in Morgan Hill. For many years, she has been active in peace and justice movements in Morgan Hill and San Jose.

While many know about the impact of February 1942’s Executive Order 9066 on Japanese-Americans in the U.S. in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, surprisingly few are aware that thousands of Italian-Americans were swept up in the same law that imposed various restrictions including unannounced warrantless searches and even incarceration on certain foreign-born residents. San Jose resident Chet Campanella, 86, was a child when he lived through the imposition of these harsh, discriminatory restrictions. Campanella gave a presentation on the impact of EO 9066 on Italian-Americans in Morgan Hill Feb. 11, at the annual membership meeting of Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans (FFNV). The meeting took place at the Morgan Hill Buddhist Community Center. Sunday, Feb. 19, marked the 75th anniversary of EO 9066. Below is a short version of Campanella’s Feb. 11 presentation.

A much deserved windfall is on its way to many low- and moderate-income California workers. For those who file state taxes and claim their benefit in 2017, the state is offering an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that, combined with what is available through the federal government, could provide up to a $6,000 rebate to families who meet specific qualifications.Research has shown that the cash benefit from the EITC has been one of the single greatest contributors to move people and families out of poverty and to improve their financial security. Unlike other programs to assist low- and moderate- income families, this benefit applies only to those who are working but still remain in financial difficulty.  For many of us, $6,000 could ease our financial challenges and it could make the difference between a family keeping a roof over its head or becoming homeless.In 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature created California’s EITC program, CalEITC, as a way to help qualified working, low-income families. This cash-back credit is intended to complement a similar federal EITC that has existed since enactment by President Gerald Ford in 1975. In order to benefit from the state credit, eligible families need to claim it when they file their state tax returns.According to the California Department of Community Services and Development (CSD), the state agency that administers CalEITC, one out of five eligible workers does not claim the EITC on their state income tax return. On average, a qualified family that did not participate in 2016 lost $2,409 from the state and federal governments.The specific amount of cash-back credits for qualified working individuals and families depends on income and family size. Californians with an income of up to $53,505 annually may be able to receive cash-back by claiming the federal EITC on their tax return. Additionally, California families that earn up to $14,161 annually may be able to utilize the CalEITC to supplement the federal EITC when a state tax return is filed.If you meet the criteria, you must file federal and state income tax returns to claim the credits, even if you do not owe taxes or are not required to file a return.For more information, visit CSD’s website, www.csd.ca.gov/.  During this tax season, I encourage you to find out if you are eligible to receive the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit.  Monning represents the 17th Senate District, which includes all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties, and portions of Monterey and Santa Clara counties.

On Jan. 21, 2017, I joined what are now estimated to be 800,000 other people at the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. (and an estimated four million fellow marchers around the U.S. and the globe). The results of the Presidential election sunk my hopes for this great country, and inspired personal fear as a woman, a person of Jewish descent, as well as for the many marginalized folks whose rights Donald Trump staked his campaign on overturning.I felt alternating bouts of rage and despair that we elected a president who is on record making abusive and derogatory statements about women, people of color and the disabled, as well as bashing our venerated intelligence agencies, to name just a few. Not to mention he has no prior experience in any political office.At first, I was more nervous than excited—I feared reprisal from Trump supporters; I feared that in this frustrated and angry time, a tightly-wound lone shooter might express his dissent in bullets.Fortunately, that was not the case. If the counter-protesters were there, I never saw them. I was packed densely into the center of the National Mall, near Independence and Fourth Streets, with a direct view of the nation’s Capitol. My friend and I arrived by 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and by 8:30, you could no longer see streets in any direction—just bodies upon bodies carrying clever signs announcing their fears and concerns, many bedecked in the now-iconic pink hats.For five hours I stood and listened to fierce, passionate, committed speakers and artists plead for the rights of women, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, and against a Muslim registry and a wall at the Mexican border. Speakers included Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Michael Moore, Ashley Judd, Alicia Keys, Van Jones, California Sen. Kamala Davis, D.C. Mayor Muriel Brown, the mothers of slain black children and so many more activists, politicians and entertainers.Despite this enormous outpouring of energy and effort around the country, people are criticizing the movement. What did you want to say? What purpose did it have? Why can’t you all just shut up and accept things as they are?Last I checked, this country is still a democracy, albeit one that’s under threat. The Trump administration has already made clear it is hostile to media criticism. It has made steps to defund women’s health and climate science, and to repeal healthcare. Protest and demonstration are our Constitutional rights and one of the many ways we can create change.Change comes when we the people put pressure on our leaders to let them know what matters to us. As President Trump’s loss of the popular vote by nearly three million votes reveals, he doesn’t speak for many of us.The Women’s March was a fierce rallying cry as we launch into the beginning of many battles: for women’s bodily autonomy, for civil rights, for a decent world where we take care of our own and stay in good stead with the rest of the world.I’ll be bringing the same fierce energy to my own community in the days to come.Jordan Rosenfeld is a local freelance writer and author of seven books. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Some things turn out to be harder than you expect. For me, I like to go into things a little head strong and overly confident, then figure out I’m in over my head. Most times I like to think I  figure it out and get the job done. Such was the case when Morgan Hill’s Eddie Bowers asked me to read the Honor Roll at the Veterans Day ceremony downtown just a few weeks ago. I couldn’t turn him down, as he has almost single handedly kept this tradition going. I’ll say that I was completely confident at the time that I would have no issues doing it.

Just like our bodies require routine health screenings and checkups with age, so does our aging water infrastructure. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has been busy inspecting and maintaining our county’s aging water infrastructure, and in some cases making needed upgrades.The water district is responsible for the operation and maintenance of 142 miles of pipelines that transport water from reservoirs to its treatment plants, and from its treatment plants to water retailer distribution systems. Through our network of massive pipes (some as wide as 10 feet in diameter), over 121 billion gallons of water travel annually from their source to groundwater replenishment ponds throughout the county and, ultimately, to your tap.  For most people, pipeline maintenance isn’t a topic at the forefront of our water concerns. However, the majority of our pipelines are over 30 years old. Because they are underground, it becomes easy to forget about them—an “out of sight, out of mind” perspective. For the water district, it is important to perform routine inspections to ensure proper operation and to detect any repair needs, which helps avert a potential pipeline failure that could cause serious damage and disrupt water service.The water district maintains and inspects some of its pipelines on a 10-year inspection cycle to detect signs of corrosion, weak spots or leaking. Some of the more critical pipelines require a maintenance and inspection cycle every five years.The water district visually inspects pipelines, but also uses modern technologies to enhance the quality of diagnosis and to identify any signs of pipe distress quickly. Recently we used a high-tech sensor held in a floating foam ball that traveled through several miles of pipeline to literally listen for leaks. Another device we are using is acoustic fiber optic cables that monitor breaks in the wires that keep concrete pipes intact, and can provide instant status reports.Regular inspections are also a cost-saving measure; it is much more expensive to deal with the consequences of pipe failure than to invest in regular maintenance.Scheduling inspections and repairs for so many miles of pipe is a major challenge since we all depend on them for our water supply. Many key pipelines can only be taken out of service for short periods of time without affecting water supply availability.Another major pipeline project that started this fall will install large flexible pipelines that deliver water to the Penitencia Water Treatment Plant and connect to water distribution systems. The pipes are made to withstand movement from landslides or earthquakes registering a 6.0 magnitude, to prevent future pipe failures. This is the first project of its kind for the water district.Identifying warning signs also helps avoid wasting water through pipe leaks. As we do our part, we encourage residents to check for leaks at home in both indoor plumbing and outdoor irrigation systems, and repair them. Taking action now helps avoid future losses.For more information on upcoming pipeline projects, water supply, flood protection, board updates and more, sign up for our monthly newsletter on valleywater.org.John Varela sits on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors, representing the district that includes South County. For further information, contact Varela at [email protected].