The delicate, feathery leaves of summer savory, shown here, are more tender than the tough leaves of their relative, winter savory. Photo by Esther Oertel.

As I was perusing farmers’ market stalls not too long ago, sweet little bundles of summer savory caught my eye.

While not as popular as herbs such as thyme and basil in today’s kitchens, savory once held a place of dominance in the cooking of Europe, so much so that its name refers not only to the herb, but an entire segment of cooking.

There are about 30 species in savory’s genus; however, two of them, summer savory, an annual, and winter savory, a perennial, are best known to us and used for cooking. Jointly, they’re referred to as “the savories.”

This herb can pack a punch, particularly the more strongly flavored winter savory. Native to a swath of southern Europe from Spain to Turkey, the two savories were the strongest herbs available to Europeans for cooking until world exploration and trade brought such spices as black pepper to the table.

Since both savories are available fresh from mid spring through fall, one might wonder about their seasonal names. The monikers likely developed because more gently flavored summer savory marries well with the fresh produce available in the summer, while the stronger flavor of winter savory is best with hearty winter dishes.

Savory is nicknamed “the bean herb” because it goes so well with all kinds of beans, both fresh and dried. The name for savory in German is bohnenkraut, meaning just that, bean herb, and in Italian cuisine, savory is a staple ingredient in bean dishes.

And what of the differences between the two species?

Both savories have wiry stems and small, needle-like leaves, similar to rosemary, to which they’re related; however, the leaves of summer savory are tender, enough so to add fresh to salads, while winter savory sports tough leaves, making it useful in dishes that require long cooking.

The stems of winter savory are woodier than those of its summer savory cousin. It may be planted as a hedge, and was popular in the intricate knot gardens of Tudor England.

As a perennial, winter savory will return each year from the same root and should provide pungent leaves for cooking in all but the coldest months. In the mild climate of coastal California, it’s an evergreen.

In contrast, summer savory must be replanted in the garden each year.

In the kitchen, the two are generally interchangeable, but less of the more pungent winter savory should be used in recipes. It has a more intense version of summer savory’s peppery notes and its subtle hints of dill, mint and pine.

A tablespoon of chopped fresh summer savory translates to a teaspoon of winter, a difference of two thirds.

Savory was a popular herb in ancient Rome, where it flavored vinegar as one of their main condiments and was a component in many of their sauces. Adding a sprig of summer savory to infuse its herbal notes into vinegar is a great way to enjoy its flavor throughout the year.

The genus’ Latin name, Satureja, is attributed to the Roman writer, Pliny, and is a derivative of the word “satyr,” a mythical half man, half goat. According to the lore surrounding these creatures, the satyrs lived in meadows of savory, making them passionate, thus fueling a persistent belief in savory as a love potion. Some believed that summer savory fueled passion, while winter savory decreased it.

San Francisco was originally named Yerba Buena because of a relative of summer and winter savory native to the Pacific coast. Early settlers dried the herb and drank it as tea to cure a variety of ailments, thus earning the name, which translates to “good herb.”

Both savories keep their character when dried, and savory is often found in the dried blends that mimic the herbs of Provence, France.

Summer savory in its fresh form may be bundled with herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage to flavor soups and stews. Winter savory is not recommended, as its pungency will overtake the other herbal flavors.

These bundles of summer savory were offered for sale by Full Moon Farms at the Lake County Farmers' Finest market at Steele Winery in Kelseyville, Calif. Photo by Esther Oertel.

In an effort to determine whether dried spices marketed as savory contain the winter or summer species, I found that it depends on the company. Spice Islands, for example, uses summer savory and labels it as such, while McCormick bottles the winter species without identifying it that way. Some companies that deal in online bulk herbs don’t differentiate between the two.

Fresh springs of either of the savories may be frozen for later use in cooking. As well, the herb may be whirred in a blender with a little water to make a thick slurry and frozen in ice cube trays, similar to basil. Once frozen, transfer to zipper sealed bags for freezer storage.

Fresh herbs are best kept in the fridge standing in water like a bouquet or wrapped in a slightly damp paper towel and stored in a plastic bag.

The savories’ pungent taste complements foods with milder flavor profiles, such as potatoes or beans. Sprigs of savory add a wonderful flavor to slow-cooked dried beans, and chopped fresh savory may be mixed with olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a flavorful rub for roasted potatoes.

In Atlantic Canada, summer savory is used in the same way sage is elsewhere, such as for the main flavoring ingredient for dressing for fowl.

In addition to its popularity in Italy and Germany, summer savory is popular in various Eastern European cuisines, including as a flavoring for sausages.

In Bulgaria, salt and pepper is replaced on tables with a combination of salt, paprika and savory, known there as sharena sol, meaning colorful salt.

Other uses include as a flavoring in tomato dishes, as a robust alternative to dill in sour cream dips, as a component in marinades and vinaigrettes, and as a flavoring for fish, especially when combined with garlic, bay leaves and lemon juice.

A classic summer dish is green beans flavored with summer savory. These fresh beans are available now at farmers’ markets, and if you’re lucky, you may find a bunch of fresh savory to go along with them.

To make it, blanch beans first in boiling water until tender crisp, about six to eight minutes, depending on the size of the beans. Rinse with cold water if using immediately, or plunge into an ice water bath if holding for later use.

Sauté blanched beans in butter or olive oil and chopped fresh summer savory, about two tablespoons for every two pounds of beans, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Like green beans, tomatoes have arrived at local farmers’ markets, and today’s recipe celebrates their combination with summer savory. If fresh savory is unavailable, you may substitute two teaspoons of dried savory for the two tablespoons of fresh in the recipe. Enjoy!

Savory fried tomatoes

4 large tomatoes, cut into thick slices

½ cup cornmeal

¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

2 tablespoons finely chopped savory

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons olive oil

Pat the tomato slices thoroughly dry.

Mix together the cornmeal, Parmesan, savory, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl.

Coat each tomato slice with the mixture, pressing gently to make sure it adheres.

Heat the oil in a pan until hot, then fry the tomatoes in batches, two to three minutes on each side, until golden brown. Add more oil if needed. Serve at once.

Recipe compliments of Mariquita Farm at www.mariquita.com.

Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel teaches culinary classes at Chic Le Chef in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., and The Kitchen Gallery in Lakeport, Calif., and gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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The thieves are responsible for stealing approximately 1,000 trout from the San Joaquin Hatchery on Sunday, Aug. 21, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

On that day, sometime between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., someone forced entry into the hatchery, stealing the trout, and killing and leaving another 70 large trout in the process, the Department of Fish and Game reported.

The state said the stolen trout weighed 3 to 4 pounds each and had been growing in the hatchery for three years.

Fish and Game wardens have collected evidence at the scene and hope to get additional information from anyone who may have seen someone trying to sell the trout.

The value of the fish and the cost to repair the damage to the hatchery elevate the crime to a felony, the agency reported.

Citizens are encouraged to be watchful for anyone attempting to sell trout on the street, outdoors markets, or markets where trout are not normally sold.

Physical descriptions, vehicle license plate numbers, time, date and locations would be extremely helpful.

The toll-free, 24-hour CalTIP hotline is 888-334-2258.

For details on the CalTIP program, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement/caltip.aspx.

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Could the dream come true?

A new study by Stanford researchers suggests that such forecasts may one day be possible – not on Earth, but on the sun.

“We have learned to detect sunspots before they are visible to the human eye,” said Stathis Ilonidis, a PhD student at Stanford University. “This could lead to significant advances in space weather forecasting.”

Sunspots are the “butterfly's wings” of solar storms. Visible to the human eye as dark blemishes on the solar disk, sunspots are the starting points of explosive flares and coronal mass ejections that sometimes hit our planet 93 million miles away. Consequences range from Northern Lights to radio blackouts to power outages.

Astronomers have been studying sunspots for more than 400 years, and they have pieced together their basic characteristics: Sunspots are planet-sized islands of magnetism that float in solar plasma.

Although the details are still debated, researchers generally agree that sunspots are born deep inside the sun via the action of the sun’s inner magnetic dynamo.

From there they bob to the top, carried upward by magnetic buoyancy; a sunspot emerging at the stellar surface is a bit like a submarine emerging from the ocean depths.

In the Aug. 19 issue of Science, Ilonidis and co-workers Junwei Zhao and Alexander Kosovichev announced that they can see some sunspots while they are still submerged.

Their analysis technique is called “time-distance helioseismology,” and it is similar to an approach widely used in earthquake studies.

Just as seismic waves traveling through the body of Earth reveal what is inside the planet, acoustic waves traveling through the body of the sun can reveal what is inside the star.

Fortunately for helioseismologists, the sun has acoustic waves in abundance. The body of the sun is literally roaring with turbulent boiling motions. This sets the stage for early detection of sunspots.

“We can't actually hear these sounds across the gulf of space,” explains Ilonidis, “but we can see the vibrations they make on the sun's surface.”

Instruments onboard two spacecraft, the venerable Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and the newer Solar Dynamics Observatory constantly monitor the sun for acoustic activity.

Submerged sunspots have a detectable effect on the sun's inner acoustics – namely, sound waves travel faster through a sunspot than through the surrounding plasma. A big sunspot can leapfrog an acoustic wave by 12 to 16 seconds.

“By measuring these time differences, we can find the hidden sunspot,” Ilonidis.

Ilonidis says the technique seems to be most sensitive to sunspots located about 60,000 kilometers beneath the sun’s surface. The team isn't sure why that is “the magic distance,” but it's a good distance because it gives them as much as two days advance notice that a spot is about to reach the surface.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to point to a blank patch of sun and say 'a sunspot is about to appear right there,'” said Ilonidis's thesis advisor Prof. Phil Scherrer of the Stanford Physics Department. “It's a big advance.”

“There are limits to the technique,” cautioned Ilonidis. “We can say that a big sunspot is coming, but we cannot yet predict if a particular sunspot will produce an Earth-directed flare.”

So far they have detected five emerging sunspots – four with Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and one with Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Of those five, two went on to produce X-class flares, the most powerful kind of solar explosion. This encourages the team to believe their technique can make a positive contribution to space weather forecasting.

Because helioseismology is computationally intensive, regular monitoring of the whole sun is not yet possible – “We don’t have enough CPU cycles,” said Ilonidis – but he believes it is just a matter of time before refinements in their algorithm allow routine detection of hidden sunspots.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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From left, Joshua Leo Johnson, 39, and David Daniel Dabbs, 41, both of Santa Rosa, Calif., are wanted in connection with the beatings of two men on June 4, 2011, in Lakeport, Calif. The men are alleged to be Hells Angels members who assaulted members of the rival Vagos motorcycle club. Courtesy photos.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County District Attorney's Office said Friday that it is charging four Sonoma County men for a June 4 incident in which the men – allegedly Hells Angels members – beat two rival Vagos motorcycle club members.

Those who are being charged are Santa Rosans Joshua Leo Johnson, 39, and David Daniel Dabbs, 41; Timothy Robert Bianchi, 33, of Petaluma; and 32-year-old Nicolas Felipe Carrillo of Geyserville, the District Attorney's Office said.

Carrillo and Bianchi were booked into the Lake County Jail on Friday after being arrested in Sonoma County on Thursday, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.

Hinchcliff said the men were being held on an enhanced bail of $500,000 each.

Still at large are Johnson and Dabbs, Hinchcliff said.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that Dabbs also is being sought on a no-bail warrant out of San Diego for alleged kidnapping and torture.

The sheriff's office warned that Johnson and Dabbs are known Hells Angels and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. The public should not approach or attempt to apprehend them.

On Tuesday, Aug. 23, the District Attorney's Office filed the charges against the four men, who are all alleged to be members of the Hells Angel’s Motorcycle Club.

Hinchcliff authorized the filing on July 19 but the matter was not actually filed until this week in order to accommodate ongoing investigative efforts, the District Attorney's Office said.

The four men are alleged to have beaten 39-year-old Michael Burns and 48-year-old Kristopher Perkin in a confrontation at Konocti Vista Casino outside of Lakeport, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Burns, who the sheriff's office identified as a validated member of the Vagos motorcycle club, was viciously beaten in the attack, which was recorded on the casino’s video surveillance system.

The sheriff's office said investigators believed the Hells Angels members in the video were from Sonoma County.

As a result, they called on members of the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, Santa Rosa Police Department Gang Task Force and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department Gang Task Force, who were “invaluable assets” in identifying the four suspects, according to the report from sheriff's public information officer Michelle Gonzalez.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes, which reportedly spearheaded the investigation, also received assistance from the Lakeport Police Department’s motorcycle gang expert and the District Attorney’s Office, Gonzalez said.

From left, Timothy Robert Bianchi, 33, of Petaluma, Calif., and 32-year-old Nicolas Felipe Carrillo of Geyserville, Calif., were arrested on Thursday, August 25, 2011, during a search warrant service in Sonoma County, Calif. The men, who are alleged to be Hells Angel members, are charged in connection with the beatings of two men who are alleged to be rival gang members. Courtesy photos.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said Friday that his gang expert, Officer Norm Taylor – who has given community workshops on gangs – assisted the investigation.

“We were happy to be able to provide our expertise to assist on that case because we're committed to working with all the agencies in the county to deal with the gang issues,” Rasmussen said.

The investigation led to the issuance of arrest and search warrants, which Gonzalez said were served in Santa Rosa and Petaluma at 6 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, by Lake County Sheriff's detectives assisted by SWAT teams from the FBI, Santa Rosa Police Department and the Petaluma Police Department.

Carrillo and Bianchi were arrested during the Thursday warrant service, Gonzalez said, and numerous items of gang clothing, financial and other records with “great evidentiary value” also were seized.

Following their Thursday arrests the two men were booked into the Sonoma County Jail, with bail set at $500,000 for each, Gonzalez said.

The District Attorney's Office said the charges against the men include felony participation in a criminal street gang, punishable by up to three years in prison; misdemeanor fighting in public, punishable by up to 90 days in jail; misdemeanor battery for the assault on Burns, a charge punishable by up to six months in jail; and several special allegations relating to the infliction of great bodily injury and the participation in a criminal street gang, which could result in up to additional 10 years in prison.

Dabbs and Bianchi are additionally charged with felony assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury for the assault on Burns, which the District Attorney's Office said is punishable by up to four years in prison.

For the assault on Perkins, Johnson and Carrillo are charged with misdemeanor battery, and could each face up to six months in jail if convicted, the District Attorney's Office reported.

Sheriff Frank Rivero expressed his deepest gratitude for the tireless work of his detectives and members of the allied agencies during the investigation.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of David Dabbs or Joshua Johnson is asked to call local law enforcement or the Lake County Sheriff’s Office's Investigations Division at 707-262-4200.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

A Cal Fire air tanker drops retardant on a fire in Clearlake Park, Calif., on Thursday, August 25, 2011. Photo by Kimberly Illia.

CLEARLAKE PARK, Calif. – A fire Thursday afternoon burned several acres of brush but claimed no homes as firefighters worked to quickly contain it.

The fire was reported on Crestview Drive in Clearlake Park after 2 p.m., according to radio traffic.

Lake County Fire Protection, Cal Fire and Northshore Fire responded to the blaze, reports from the scene indicated.

Witnesses reported that Cal Fire aircraft arrived and began water and retardant drops shortly before 2:30 p.m.

Lake County Fire and Cal Fire officials couldn't be reached Thursday afternoon, but Northshore Fire Assistant Chief Pat Brown, who responded to the scene along with a fire engine and water tender from his agency, said a total of eight acres was burned.

No structures were harmed, but some were initially threatened, he said.

Cal Fire – which sent six engines and two dozers – helped stop the fire at a ridge with its aircraft, Brown said.

At about 9:30 p.m., firefighters at the scene reported that, while there was some wind on the fire, the containment lines were holding well and that a day shift crew would return at 9 a.m. Friday to continue any needed work.

Radio reports indicated that firefighters remained on scene until about 10 p.m., when the incident was reported to be terminated.

The fire on Crestview Drive occurred two weeks to the day following a damaging fire along Lakeshore Boulevard in Clearlake Park that burned three homes and an outbuilding. The cause of that fire has still not been released by fire investigators.

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Kimberly Illia captured the shot of this Cal Fire helicopter as it dropped water on a fire in Clearlake Park, Calif., on Thursday, August 25, 2011.

The ride will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1.

The Konocti Challenge is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lakeport and is a fun-filled cycling event for all ages.

The challenging 65 and 100 mile routes encircle beautiful Clear Lake while the more subdued 40 mile route travels up Lakeshore Boulevard through Scotts Valley and then around gorgeous Big Valley.

The Rotary Club reported that they have a family-friendly 20 mile ride in which children enjoy participating.

There also are seven well placed and fully stocked rest stops located around Lake County. All stops are manned by local nonprofit groups that are competing for votes and their share of a $5,000 prize pool. This equates to themes, decorations and all sorts of crazy antics to get your vote.

The organizations participating this year are People Services, Hospice of Lake County, Middletown Rotary, Clear Lake High School Class of 2014, Scotts Valley Womens Civic Club, Kelseyville Business Association and Operation Tango Mike (last year’s winner).

In addition, there will be plenty of support on all routes to assist riders and the end-of-ride barbecue on the shores of beautiful Clear Lake at the Lakeport Yacht Club is something not to miss.

The first 400 registered riders get a free t-shirt, bottle and patch, all of which is included in the price of registration.

Also, new this year is our Sunday Guided Wine Adventure with an emphasis on “adventure.”

For more information or to register, go to www.konoctichallenge.com, or contact Jennifer Strong at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-349-0815.

All proceeds benefit the local and international projects of the Rotary Club of Lakeport.

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By planning ahead we can authorize a trusted agent to oversee our personal care during incapacity. Let’s examine the power of attorney for personal care.

“Personal care” encompasses a wide range of domestic and personal issues, including providing for our in-home care, maintaining our customary standard of living, taking care of our home and personal property, ensuring our transportation needs are met, taking care of our pets, picking up our mail, providing for our living arrangements – such as our placement into a nursing home or assisted living center – and hiring, compensating, and discharging our household and health care employees and providers.

Personal care issues involve transactions that impact our quality of life, while managing our assets affect the ability to pay for these transactions.

Most durable powers of attorney, however, are rarely drafted to deal with our personal care issues. Powers of attorney are typically drafted to address other important issues, such as our banking, government benefits, taxes, real property and investments.

Personal care issues – discussed above – are not expressly addressed in the typical durable power of attorney.

Granting the authority to make personal care decisions can be incorporated either into a broader durable power of attorney for finances or into an advanced health care, wherever more relevant.

Better yet, the authority can be placed into a separate standalone power of attorney for personal care

decisions. That way, each document can be used in the most appropriate context.

Banks, for example, will not be interested in the personal care provisions when examining a durable power of attorney for finances.

If personal care authority is incorporated into the broader durable power of attorney and advanced health care directives, then the same agent will have access to person’s financial resources necessary to pay for their personal care transactions.

This approach works well for attorney drafted durable powers of attorney, but for not the simple statutory power of attorney.

When using California’s simple one-page statutory power of attorney (and not a customized broadly drafted power of attorney), one should also consider a separate power of attorney for personal care.

The same persons can be named to act as agent under both powers of attorney. The durable power

of attorney for finances should expressly require the financial agent to pay for all transactions entered into by the agent for personal care decisions. The personal care agent must rely upon the durable power agent to pay for the personal care.

Finally, when different persons are named as agent under the advance health care directive than those who are named as agent under the power of attorney for personal care, the funeral, burial, or cremation arrangements should be left to the advance health care agent.

California law gives the health care agent priority over all other persons in regards to such arrangements.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com.

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Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) said she will seek reelection in 2012, this time to the newly redrawn California Assembly District 4. Courtesy photo.

DAVIS, Calif. – A state assemblywoman from Davis said Thursday she will seek reelection next year, and will run for the newly drawn Assembly district that will represent Lake County beginning in 2013.

“The Citizens Redistricting Commission concluded its work on Aug. 15 after months of spirited public participation,” Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) said in a written statement.

“With the new maps now in place, I am announcing today that I will seek reelection in the new California Assembly District Four, which includes all or part of six counties – Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo, where I have lived for the past 16 years,” Yamada said.

Yamada, who was in Lakeport last weekend for an annual event for the local Democratic Party, said she is in her second term in the Assembly.

She said she will continue to “vigorously” serve the Eighth Assembly District, which includes parts of Solano and Yolo counties, until the end of the 2012 legislative session, when the new district lines go into effect.

“I now look forward to the honor of running to serve the residents of the newly-drawn Fourth District, by meeting, listening to and engaging with its residents and continuing my focus on agriculture, water, education, health care, public safety, veterans, and the critical issues of jobs, aging and long-term care,” she said.

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, who currently represents Lake County in the Legislature, has indicated he will seek reelection to his third and last term next year, but as Chesbro is from Humboldt County, he will run for the new Second Assembly District.

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Sgt. Greg Stefani said Aaron Bassler, a transient from Fort Bragg, had been identified as the suspect in the incident, which was alleged to have taken place at about 10:20 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27.

It was just minutes afterward that the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted regarding a shooting incident, which Stefani said occurred in a remote, rugged area on private timber company property adjacent to the Noyo River. He said the location is four miles east of Fort Bragg and adjacent to the Skunk Rail-road lines.

Stefani said that Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies – along with Fort Bragg Police personnel, California Highway Patrol and Fish and Game Officers – proceeded to the area and contacted a witness to the shooting.

The witness advised law enforcement personnel that they were conducting property management in the area and that the gunman – Bassler – allegedly started shooting at them. Stefani said the witness was able to flee the area and contact law enforcement via cellular telephone.

The Mendocino County SWAT Team was deployed later in the day in an attempt to locate Bassler and any victim, Stefani said.

As of late Saturday evening no suspect or victim had been located, according to Stefani's report.

Stefani said a reverse 911 was sent out to residents in the general area of the incident. He said once the suspect is in custody, a second reverse 911 will be sent notifying residents that the area is secured.

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“We're hoping for the best for all of those in the path of Hurricane Irene and we urge residents to take this storm seriously,” said California Emergency Management Agency Acting Secretary Mike Dayton.

“California stands ready to provide assistance to our sister states as they prepare for this natural disaster,” said Dayton. “We're appreciative of the help we received in the past and are glad to provide help in their time of need.”

In anticipation of the storm's impact, several eastern states have requested assistance through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a congressionally ratified agreement that provides form and structure to interstate mutual aid.

Through Emergency Management Assistance Compact, Cal EMA is in discussions with New York state to deploy possibly six emergency service coordinators with experience in Emergency Operation Centers and an Incident Management Team to assist in emergency response, remaining there until the situation stabilizes.

The Incident Management Team is the Easy Bay Type 3 Incident Management Team and consists of 36 first responders from Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Expenses for the deployment will be covered by the states requesting assistance. Cal EMA will be in constant contact with emergency management staff on the East Coast for future requests.

California has also deployed several members to form an Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. These are common requested organized by FEMA and have responded to various disasters around the world.

California Task Force members deployed to the east coast include one member from CA-TF6 (Riverside), two members from CA-TF2 (Los Angeles), three members from CA-TF8 (San Diego).

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SACRAMENTO – California's governor has proposed a three-part California Jobs First plan that offers over $1 billion a year in tax relief for businesses that create jobs in the state.

“Boosting job growth in California is a top priority, and this proposal is a critical step in making sure the state does everything it can to support local job creation,” Gov. Jerry Brown said on Thursday.

“Our state has added 116,000 jobs since January, but we must do more to build economic momentum. This legislation would expand a currently existing job credit to make it more effective while adding new tax incentives for growth in the manufacturing sector,” he added.

The first part of the California Jobs First plan reforms and expands an underutilized tax credit for small businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

To date, much of this funding has been left on the table because too many small businesses were excluded from the credit.

The governor’s plan expands eligibility to small businesses with up to 50 employees (up from 20) and the credit for each new hire will jump from $3,000 to $4,000.

These changes will encourage small businesses to hire immediately, as the credit will expire at the end of 2013.

The second part of the California Jobs First plan will give California’s economy an immediate shot in the arm by providing over $1 billion in tax relief to businesses that purchase new manufacturing equipment.

The plan exempts start-ups in their first three years from the state portion of sales tax (3.9375 percent) – and provides an exemption of 3 percent for all other firms – on manufacturing equipment purchases.

The exemptions will drive innovation, investment and growth by targeting many of California’s most dynamic industries, including manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, clean energy and software.

The backbone of the California Jobs First plan is the application of the Mandatory Single Sales Factor (SSF) to all businesses in California.

This change levels the playing field by eliminating what Governor Brown called “an outrageous and perverse tax incentive that encourages multi-state businesses to create jobs outside of the state.”

This places California-based businesses at a competitive disadvantage and is a disincentive for out-of-state businesses to locate jobs here.

The revenues produced by closing this loophole will fund the expansion of the small business tax credits for new hires and the sales tax exemption for manufacturing equipment.

“Job creation is essential to our economic recovery and future budget stability,” said Senate Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg. “Our tax laws should reflect that reality, rather than provide incentives for companies to increase their profits within California by investing and creating jobs outside of California.”

“Democrats in the Legislature fought hard all Spring and Summer to enact the Governor’s budget proposals to close the Single Sales Factor loophole and to generate in-state jobs – but the efforts fell short when no Republicans would step forward to support a compromise that would help California businesses,” said Speaker John A. Pérez. “It’s time to enact this common-sense plan that puts California’s economy and our jobs ahead of out-of-state tax loopholes.”

Brown’s proposal drew immediate praise from California job creators.

“As a company with several major manufacturing sites in this state, Boeing applauds the governor’s initiative to support manufacturing in California,” said Jeff Sweet, director of California Government Relations for the Boeing Co. “He understands the need for consistency and certainty to spur investment and job growth, and is seeking solutions that will help accomplish that goal.”

“The package proposed by the governor will make California more competitive with other states and provide a foundation upon which we can rebuild California's job base,” said Joe Panetta, president and chief executive officer, BIOCOM, “Governor Brown is to be commended for putting the strength of his office into these efforts.”

“The governor has shown great leadership in supporting job growth in the solar industry,” said Tom Werner, SunPower CEO. “With the kinds of policies proposed today, SunPower has expanded to more than 1000 direct jobs, including manufacturing jobs in Silicon Valley. In addition, thousands more solar jobs have been created at our dealers and partners who install the world’s highest efficiency solar systems across the state on homes, businesses, schools and power plants.”

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