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The Bureau of Recla- mation has updated the Standard Criteria for eval- uating its Water Manage- ment Plans in response to the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 and in accordance with the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982. The purpose of the Standard Criteria are to promote the highest ef- ficiency of water delivery. Section 210 of the Rec- lamation Reform Act re- quires contractors to pre- pare and submit Water Management Plans ev- ery five years with defi- nite goals, delivery time- tables and appropriate wa- ter conservation measures. Section 3405(e) of the CV- PIA requires the Standard Criteria be reviewed every three years and revised if necessary. With no addi- tional requirements set for 2017, the updated criteria will become effective Feb.1. Visit https://www. usbr.gov/mp/watershare/ docs/2017/2017-water- management-planner.pdf to view the proposed 2017 Standard Criteria. RECLAMATION Water management standards revised I'm on my way out the door, headed for Califor- nia. What could have been a very ex- pensive trip is going to be so cheap that even I am amazed. This is a last-min- ute trip, so I did not have the benefit of booking well in advance. In fact, I only had five days advanced no- tice of this trip. FLIGHT: My first choice in air travel is now South- west. I try to keep all of my flights with the same airline to build up fre- quent flier miles. That usu- ally works pretty well. I've found that it is a very com- petitive airline in most cases. The cheapest round- trip fare for flights that fit my schedule cost a whop- ping $742. Gulp! Granted, I knew I wasn't booking 21 days in advance, but still. So, I started the search over. I was pretty sure I'd made a mistake. But no, it really was the best price. I put the reservation on hold to give me time to shop around. Most airlines will do this for 24 hours. I went straight to the Kayak website (which searches thousands of flights of different airlines and gives results, lowest price first) and input the same itinerary. Within 30 seconds it had pulled up many options for the same date, time and destination. The cheapest: $146 round- trip including all fees and tax on Frontier Airlines. Realizing I was about to spend $596 less than the other itinerary, I booked it immediately but not through Kayak. I went on the Frontier Airlines site and booked direct using my account so I got the re- wards. I never book through Kayak or other simi- lar sites because if I need to make any changes or something goes wrong with the flights, dealing with a third-party travel site to rebook can be a nightmare. I use Kayak as an information site. Know- ing that the Southwest ticket on hold will simply expire if I do nothing, I go ahead and do nothing. HOTEL: I don't even go to specific hotel sites anymore. I rely solely on Priceline (and choose the name-your-own-price op- tion, not the Priceline dis- counted hotel rooms). I find this to be so easy to use. I input my city of choice, and the site re- turns a map with regions of that metropolitan area. First I select the region where I want to be. Then I usually chose the three- star hotel (I know that Courtyard by Marriott, Homewood Suites by Hil- ton, Country Inns — my favorites — are all consid- ered three stars in Price- line's world, and that is my favorite kind of accommo- dation when I travel on business). Next, I name a price. Here's the tricky part: Priceline hints that I'd bet- ter input $70 per night or more if I have a prayer of my deal being accepted. Phooey! I know better. Fifty dollars is my target (knowing they will add tax and other fees on top of whatever price I name), so that's the amount I bid. Of course, I got a pop-up mes- sage from William Shatner that I must be out of my mind with such a low offer and that I need to rethink and increase my bid. I laugh as I hit submit. Ten seconds later I get "Con- gratulations, your offer has been accepted!" That's when they reveal which hotel I will be staying at. Bingo! My most favorite hotel for $59 per night, all inclusive. CAR: My first stop in finding a rental car is the Hertz website, where I am a gold member (I have no idea why, but some- how years ago I quali- fied for this dubious privi- lege.) I want to get an idea of the going rate, so I in- put my itinerary, indicat- ing I will need this car for just about 24 hours. I choke when I see the low- est option for an economy car will $82 inclusive for one day. Once I recover from the shock, I decide (as I always do, because this happens routinely) that if Priceline is good enough that I can name my own price for a hotel, it's gotta be great for a car. And yes it is. My boldness now surg- ing, I go straight to Price- line rental car name-your- own-price option, which is a little tricky to find, and opt for a full-size model for — get this — $20 a day. Poor William. He's very put out with my low bids. And do I care? No. All it takes for him to see things my way is about 10 sec- onds! Yep, I got the car, too. With fees it cost $29 for one day. When Price- line reveals which rental car company I'll be deal- ing with, I am tickled pick to see I'm getting this steal of a deal from good ol' Hertz. BONUS: As I receive email confirmations for each part of my travel itin- erary, I forward them to my TripIt account. It's free, and is it ever slick. I simply add a new trip, and TripIt takes all the con- firmations and builds my itinerary in chronologi- cal order, every detail in- cluded. The app makes sure I have every detail at my fingertips, includ- ing driving directions, es- timated drive times, up- dates, etc. They don't call me the queen of cheap for noth- ing. If there's one thing I know how to do (and love doing), it's booking my own business travel. It gives me great practice for when I book personal travel. Because I make it a point to join every fre- quent flier/point program out there, no matter how little I pay for hotels, air- fare and cars, I get lots of points and miles. And as a reward, Harold and I get fabulous vaca- tions that are mostly paid for with all of the points and miles I rack up during the year. Would you like to send a tip to Mary? You can email her at mary@ everydaycheapskate. com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Ste. B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. EVERYDAY CHEAPSKATE How I book cheap travel Mary Hunt From soaring vistas to intimate moments of farm life, submissions to the California Farm Bureau Federation 2016 Photo Contest captured diverse perspectives of the state's rich agricultural and ru- ral tapestry. Farm Bureau has an- nounced the winners of the 35th annual compe- tition aimed at celebrat- ing California agriculture through photography. Capturing a pre-dawn glimpse of a Napa County winegrape harvest, pho- tographer Andrew Lincoln of Napa took home the competition's top honor, the $1,000 Grand Prize. Witnessing the night har- vest "makes for a very sur- real environment and very dramatic moments," Lin- coln said. Hannah Gbeh of Jamul garnered First Place and $500 for a portrait of her husband cradling peanut plants on their San Diego County farm. Becky Han- son of Clements earned Second Place and $250 for capturing a colorful walnut orchard in San Joaquin County, and also earned an Honorable Men- tion for a second photo. Mary Heffernan of Fort Jones won Third Place and $100 for a scene fea- turing her young daughter with a lamb on their Siski- you County ranch. Five additional contes- tants earned Honorable Mentions and $50 for their efforts: Vanessa Al- exandre of Crescent City, Del Norte County; Jenny Manuelli of Riverbank, Stanislaus County; Becky Reisdorf of Carmel, Mon- terey County; Julie Thorn- ton of Potter Valley, Men- docino County; and Su- sana Velasco of Alpaugh, Tulare County. In the Budding Artists category for ages 13 and younger, presented by the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Class- room, 13-year-old Chelsea Davis of Riverdale claimed First Place and $250 for a photo of her 2-year-old brother playing with toy tractors on the family's Fresno County farm. The Second Place prize of $100 went to 13-year-old Bella Locke of Tulare for a spir- ited selfie with her expres- sive 4-H heifer. The contest received hundreds of entries from throughout the state. All eligible participants were amateur photographers and members of county Farm Bureaus in Califor- nia or supporters of the California Bountiful Foun- dation. This year's theme, "Fresh Perspective," en- couraged participants to explore unique view- points. In addition to the cash prizes awarded to the photographers, all 12 prize-winning photos will be published in the weekly California Farm Bureau newspaper, Ag Alert®, as well as the or- ganization's bimonthly magazine, California Bountiful. The photos will also appear on the organization's websites — www.cfbf.com, www. agalert.com and www. californiabountiful.com — and social media pages. The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of more than 48,000 mem- bers statewide and as part of a nationwide net- work of more than 6.2 million Farm Bureau members. Winners of photo co nt es t an no un ce d CONTRIBUTED Mary Heffernan of Fort Jones won third place and $100 for this scene featuring her young daughter with a lamb on their Siskiyou County ranch. FARM BUREAU This week's most wanted subject is Jose Dejesus Tor- res-Herrera, 29, from Corn- ing. Torres-Herrera has a warrant for his arrest for having sex with a minor with a bail of $175,000. Torres-Herrera's physi- cal description is a Hispanic man, 5'10" tall, 224 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Anyone with informa- tion regarding Torres-Her- rera's whereabouts can all any local law enforcement agency at any time or dur- ing business hours can call the Tehama County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigations Office at 529-3590. All callers will remain confidential. MOST WANTED Jo se D ej es us To rr es -H er re ra Torres-Herrera My first choice in air travel is now Southwest. I try to keep all of my flights with the same airline to build up frequent flier miles. 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