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ByDanElliott The Associated Press DENVER Drought-weary Californians can't expect much encouragement from mountains elsewhere in the West: Snow that fills the Colorado River is lagging, too, officials said Friday. The snowpack in the Col- orado and Wyoming val- leys where the river origi- nates now ranges from 51 to 79 percent of normal, said Brian Domonkos, Col- orado supervisor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture snow survey, which mon- itors snowfall and water availability. The Colorado River sup- plies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland in seven states, including California. The Rocky Mountain snow that melts into the river doesn't flow directly to California and other down- stream users. Instead, it's held in a se- ries of reservoirs that re- lease enough water to ful- fill the legal allotments to southwestern states under a series of agreements and court rulings. The reservoirs have suffi- cient water to provide Cal- ifornia and other down- stream states with their full shares this year and for the foreseeable future, said Matthew Allen, a spokes- man for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which man- ages the reservoir system. California also gets wa- ter from the Sierra Nevada range, where the snow cover was the lowest it has ever been in 65 years of re- cord-keeping as of Wednes- day. Warm temperatures and scarce snowfall in early March caused the snow- pack in Colorado to shrink significantly. "To see the decline that we saw at the beginning of March, that is abnor- mal," Domonkos said. "And to see it continue almost unabated, almost to now, that's quite abnormal." A storm brought up to 11 inches of snow on Thursday and Friday to parts of the Colorado mountains and foothills, but much of it fell east of the Continental Di- vide and will eventually melt into the South Platte and Arkansas rivers. Preliminary readings showed the snowpack on Friday in the South Platte basin was 87 percent of nor- mal and 79 percent of nor- mal in the Arkansas basin. The U.S. Drought Moni- tor says 40 percent of Cal- ifornia is in an exceptional drought, the most severe category, and another 25 percent is in an extreme drought, the second-most severe. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory, statewide wa- ter cutbacks by cities and towns, aiming for a 25 per- cent cut in water use. Extreme drought condi- tions also spread into Ne- vada and southern Oregon, along with smaller pockets in Utah and Arizona. Milder drought condi- tions extend across the rest of the West, except for most of Montana and Wy- oming. Other states served by the Colorado River are Ar- izona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. DROUGHT RockyMountainsnowoffersscant encouragement to California BRENNANLINSLEY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Cows graze on a farm a er a light snow, near Eldorado Springs, Colo., on Friday. By Justin Pritchard The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A tentative contract agreement that restored the flow of in- ternational trade through West Coast seaports earlier this year took a big step closer Friday to becoming official, as representatives of the dockworkers' union overwhelmingly recom- mended that rank-and-file members vote to approve the deal. Difficult contract negoti- ations nearly closed 29 sea- ports from San Diego to Se- attle, causing major delays in the delivery of billions of dollars of imports and ex- ports. Negotiators for the In- ternational Longshore and Warehouse Union reached the tentative, five-year deal in February with compa- nies that run the massive ships and sprawling ma- rine terminals which are integral to trans-Pacific trade. This week, a caucus of 90 union delegates met in San Francisco to study the offer in detail. On Friday, 78 percent of delegates voted to urge the broader membership to approve the contract, the union said in a statement. The contract covers about 20,000 workers but only 13,000 have voting rights. Votes are cast by mail and will be tallied May 22, the union said. The tentative agreement restored labor peace on the West Coast waterfront, which handles about $1 trillion of trade each year. At the height of the dis- pute, three dozen ships stacked with tens of thou- sands of containers were anchored outside the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, awaiting space atalreadyjammeddocks.On Friday, there were 13 vessels, according to the Marine Ex- change of Southern Califor- nia. The Pacific Maritime Association, which repre- sents shipping lines and port terminal operators, said it would not comment on the caucus vote. Neither the union nor the maritime association has publicly released a copy of the contract. In a letter to his mem- bers just before the fi- nal agreement in Febru- ary, association President James McKenna outlined what he called employers' "last, best and final" offer. It included maintenance of nearly no-cost health cov- erage, an $11,000 increase in the maximum pension benefit to $91,000 a year, and a $1-per-hour wage in- crease over each of the five years. PORT LABOR Representatives for West Coast dockworkers urge union to approve contract IL — GREGORY BULL YogainstructorKristenMcCloskey,right,leadsaclassofthird- gradersatOlivenhainPioneerElementarySchoolinEncinitas. The Associated Press SANDIEGO Yoga taught in a San Diego County school system is not a gateway to Hinduism and doesn't vio- late the religious rights of students or their parents, a California appeals court ruled Friday. The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego up- held a lower court ruling that tossed out a family's lawsuit that tried to block Encinitas Union School District from teaching yoga as an alternative to traditional gym classes. "While the practice of yoga may be religious in some contexts, yoga classes as taught in the district are, as the trial court de- termined, 'devoid of any re- ligious, mystical, or spiri- tual trappings,'" the court wrote in a 3-0 opinion. Stephen and Jenni- fer Sedlock and their two children had brought the lawsuit claiming yoga pro- moted Hinduism and in- hibited Christianity. They were disappointed with the ruling and consider- ing their options. Paul V. Carelli IV, a law- yer for the district, said there were no rituals oc- curring in the classroom and no one was worship- ping the sun or leading Hindu rites. The district said the practice is taught in a secular way to pro- mote strength, flexibility and balance. Yoga is now taught at schools across the coun- try, but the district is be- lieved to be the first with full-time yoga teachers at all schools. Appeals court: Yoga do es n' t be nd r ul es on religious freedom CALIFORNIA By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California prison officials said Friday they are changing state pol- icy so mentally ill inmates who act out can get coun- seling instead of being au- tomatically sent to isolation cells or kept in prison lon- ger. It is the latest in a series of policy shifts after a fed- eral judge ruled a year ago that the state's treatment of mentally ill inmates vi- olates constitutional pro- tections against cruel and unusual punishment, in part because their illness isn't taken into account when they are disciplined. U.S. District Judge Law- rence Karlton acted after the release of videos made by correctional officers that showed guards pumping pepper spray into the cells of mentally ill inmates, some of them screaming and delirious. The tactics were used on inmates who refused to take medication, be hand- cuffed or leave their cells. The new policy was filed Friday in federal court in Sacramento. "This is a very significant reform of the disciplinary process for prisoners with mental illness," said Mi- chael Bien, an attorney rep- resenting mentally ill in- mates in the long-running lawsuit. "What's the point of punishing someone who's psychotic?" The change is good for inmates and taxpayers, Bien said, because keeping inmates in disciplinary seg- regation is expensive and keeps them in prison lon- ger by taking away early re- lease credits at a time when the state is under a federal court order to reduce the in- mate population. Corrections officials de- clined to comment beyond the court filings. A scathing report in January by court-ap- pointed monitor Matthew Lopes found that for 7 years the Department of Corrections and Rehabili- tation has failed to follow a court directive requir- ing prison employees to evaluate whether inmates' misbehavior was involun- tarily prompted by men- tal illness or was a delib- erate choice that merited discipline. Lopes attributed what he called the "disturbing ... pervasive" failure to a lack of training on prison poli- cies for dealing with men- tally ill people. "He's refusing orders or flailing around, which is the kind of thing that psy- chotic people do," Bien said of the sort of behavior that has brought disciplinary ac- tion in the past. "When you bang on your cell or mouth off at your custody officer, let's talk about that. ... Don't punish him and send him somewhere else." California is one of the few states to try to move away from punishing in- mates for behavior that re- sults from mental illness, he said. Bien credited the de- partment, and particularly Corrections Secretary Jef- frey Beard, for making the policy change without wait- ing for another court order. In August, the depart- ment agreed to create spe- cialized housing and pro- vide more treatment for mentally ill inmates who are moved into solitary confinement for disciplin- ary reasons. The latest ruling "is in- tended to solve the other half of that problem: Why are they going there in the first place?" Bien said. CALIFORNIA PRISONS Punishment policy changed for mentally ill inmates By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Parents doing their best to protect their out-of-control kids got a tough message from a Cal- ifornia appeals court: If you don't keep them from harm, the state can take them from you. Legal observers said Thursday's ruling by the 2nd District Court of Ap- peal runs contrary to laws and court rulings that de- fer to parents in custody disputes with the state. "Typically, for the state to take a child from a par- ent involuntarily, there is a finding of abuse or ne- glect or unfitness on the part of the parent," said Ralph Richard Banks, a Stanford law professor who teaches family law. "But in the absence of any type of determination of parental deficiency, it is unusual and perhaps un- constitutional." Other experts say the case reflects frustration with how to corral wayward kids, and shows the need for early, comprehensive inter- vention that keeps children with their families but gets them help. The ruling came in the case of a Los Ange- les County mother whose teen daughter repeatedly ran away from home, had a child at the age of 15, and skipped school. At least one of her absences required a visit to a hospital, accord- ing to court documents. The appellate court said the girl remained incorri- gible despite her moth- er's best efforts, which in- cluded looking for her each time she left home, send- ing her to live with her grandparents, and calling the police and Los Ange- les County Department of Children and Family Ser- vices for help. "(The) mother in this case was neither neglect- ful nor blameworthy in be- ing unable to supervise or protect her daughter," the court said. State law is clear, though, that children can be taken if they have suffered or are at substantial risk of suffer- ing serious harm that a par- ent is unable to stop, Associ- ate Justice Brian Hoffstadt wrote. The court's ruling upheld a juvenile court's decision to assert control over the girl and allow the county to place her elsewhere. The county placed her back with her grandparents. The decision contra- dicted a different state ap- peals court's ruling in 2010. Such conflicts between ap- peals courts are often re- solved by the state Supreme Court. It's not clear how agen- cies will react, said Michael Wald, another Stanford pro- fessor who focuses on chil- dren's rights and welfare. Wald said the state law on which the appel- late court ruled Thursday is meant to apply to cases where parents have a severe mental illness or are home- less. Though parents are not to blame for those con- ditions, the state may inter- vene in order to keep chil- dren out of harm. CALIFORNIA Expert: Custody fight ruling runs contrary to law CANNED FOOD DRIVE *Validonly at H & R Block 1315 Solano St, Corning Call 530-824-7999 for a appointment Bring in 4 cans of food when you come in to get your taxes done, and get $15.00 off your tax preparation fees.* Allcannedfoodswillbedonatedto CorningChristianAssistanceFoodBank. 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