Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/613887
ByDonThompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Lawmak- ers and state agencies on Wednesday began explor- ing ways to make sure mil- lions of charitable dollars donated annually by Califor- nia taxpayers aren't stalled for years and don't wind up in state coffers. Among the ideas raised at a legislative hearing were requiring speedier no- tices to state agencies that funds are available for dis- tribution and requiring that agencies publicly report how they spend — or fail to spend — the money. Others sug- gested giving back unspent funds that have since been dumped into the state's gen- eral fund. Sen. Bob Hertzberg, chairman of the Senate Gov- ernance and Finance Com- mittee, called the hearing in response to an Associ- ated Press report in August that found California agen- cies failed to spend nearly $10 million in taxpayers' charitable donations over 10 years. Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, also cited delays that in one case stalled a donation for three years before it finally went to the charity. The money is part of the $35 million collected since 2005 for 29 funds through the nation's largest volun- tary tax contribution pro- gram. The tax check-offs typically bring in more than $4 million each year. "Sometimes the money has fallen through the cracks," Hertzberg said at the hearing in Los Angeles. "Does the money get there and how long does it take?" The Franchise Tax Board currently notifies the state controller once a year that money designated for char- ities by taxpayers is avail- able for distribution. Hertz- berg said that notice should be sent monthly. The controller then noti- fies state agencies that the money is available for dis- tribution to the charities themselves. If the funds are untouched for four years they can be returned to the state's general fund. Among the unspent money the AP found, $237,000 was raised to fund colorectalcancerscreenings, enough to pay for more than 200 colonoscopies. But offi- cials with the Department of Public Health testified that they never were authorized to spend the money. Sen. John Moorlach, R- Costa Mesa, blamed the of- fice run by Democratic Con- troller Betty Yee for not do- ing more to make sure the money is actually spent. Lawmakers last year stalled SB1207 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, that would have tapped one agency to oversee distribution of the money and required more reportingbycharities.Moor- lach said the bill should have sounded "an alarm bell" for the controller that some- thing was wrong. "Or do we wait for a re- porter to figure it out?" Moorlach added. Hertzberg said the con- troller may not have that authority over state agen- cies, but should require agencies to post brief sum- maries on their public web- sites on how much charita- ble money is available and why any balance hasn't been distributed. He noted that some of the delay is be- cause in most cases the Leg- islature must allocate the money in the annual bud- get, which delays the distri- bution by a year. Moorlach said if taxpay- ers' gifts were funneled di- rectly to charities, "we can givecheckstothesenonprof- its within minutes of receiv- ing these funds." The AP found that nearly $280,000 that was supposed to be spent on asthma and lung disease research was never allocated by legisla- tors or public health offi- cials. At Wednesday's hear- ing,aneducationofficialdis- puted that nearly $90,000 intended to aid disadvan- tagedyouthwentbacktothe state's general fund and said the department still hopes to distribute the money. TA X MO NE Y Lawmakersaimtoprevent un sp en t cha ri ta bl e gi s By Gillian Flaccus The Associated Press LONG BEACH An unusual warming in the Pacific Ocean may be having di- sastrous consequences for the majestic whales that use the waters off Califor- nia as a migratory super- highway. This year alone, more than 60 whales entan- gled in fishing gear have been spotted along the coast — a more than 400 percent spike over nor- mal and a pattern that be- gan in 2014. Scientists be- lieve the whales may be fol- lowing prey closer to shore as warm water influences feeding patterns, putting them on a collision course with fishermen, crabbers and lobstermen. The situation is so dire that the crab fishery has be- gun working closely with state and federal agencies and environmental groups to figure out where and how the whales are run- ning into their gear. The ocean mammals also have become entangled in gill nets and lobster gear, but authorities have identified the crab fishery as the most urgent concern. "This time of year, the whales would be offshore but with the blob of warm water, they're right off the beach. They're right where the crabs are," said Jim An- derson,acrabberwho'shelp- ing to mobilize the state's 562licensedDungenesscrab fishermen. "You go talk to a guy who's been fishing for 40or50yearsandhe'snever seen anything like it." Whales that have rope stuck in their mouths or wrapped tightly around their fins or tail will even- tually die if they can't free themselves. Highly trained volunteer rescue teams are only able to disentangle a small percentage despite tracking devices that allow them to follow the hobbled animals for miles. Many swim away and their fate is never known. A humpback whale that was partially freed recently off La Jolla, California had line stuck in its mouth, a huge knot of rope six feet behind its tail and 200 ad- ditional feet of rope and buoys dragging behind it. Another rescued nearby had a 70-foot line looped over its tail that was con- nected to a lobster pot still swinging from the rope's end underwater. Keith Yip, who volun- teers as the leader of a dis- entanglement team spon- sored by SeaWorld, was in- volved in both rescues. He's been called out four times in the past six weeks and has logged 10 rescues in the past two years — one-fifth of all the calls he's had in a 30-year career. "It's another job in and of itself recently," said Yip, who is the curator of mam- mals at SeaWorld. "My weekend days alone just the past couple of weeks I've spent on the water." Rather than crack down on the Dungeness crab fish- ery, which can bring in up to $100 million a season, state and federal agencies decided to tap into the crab- bers' collective knowledge to figure out where way- ward whales and fishermen are overlapping. The crab season is delayed this year because of a massive bloom of toxic algae in the Pacific, but crabbers are commit- ted to help when the sea- son does resume later this winter or next year. At a training session this fall in Half Moon Bay, nearly 100 crabbers already learned how to photograph tangled whales, call them in to a hotline and then "babysit" them until au- thorities arrive. A best practices guide has been distributed to all crabbers. And when crabbing does resume, fishermen will work alongside scientists on their boats to test differ- ent densities and strengths of rope and gear configu- rations, including a new "sinking rope" that reduces slack in the line that could entrap whales. Another pi- lot program will log where crabbers drop their pots on GPS-enabled iPads. "We've got pots in the water, we've got ropes in the water and we've got whales in the water," said Anderson. "What can we do to make this a safe place for everybody?" Environmental groups are on board, too. The co- operation comes against the backdrop of a two-de- cade battle between envi- ronmentalists and lobster fishermen on the East Coast that hasn't yielded answers but has financially devas- tatedlobstermen,saidGeoff Shester, California cam- paign director for Oceana. It's a promising start but ultimately might not be enough, said David Ander- son, captain of Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watch- ing Safari in Dana Point, California. Anderson, who is no re- lation to the crab fisher- man, was among the first to realize there was a se- rious problem under the water when his tours kept running into distressed whales. Now, a critical part of his work also involves doc- umenting — and respond- ing to — entangled whales off the Southern California coast. Anderson, who's cer- tified by federal marine au- thorities as a volunteer res- cuer, believes the hobbled whales here are a symptom of a larger crisis that's tele- graphed to the surface with each struggling creature. "We've had more than 50 entangled whales this year off California, but that's just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "Most of the whales we're not seeing — and it's a huge problem." MIGRATORY ROUTE Wh al es e nt an gl ed a t al ar mi ng rate along California coastline By Sue Manning The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A team of veterinarians, scientists and lab workers gathered around a surrogate hound and watched her give birth to seven half-pound pup- pies, the first dogs ever con- ceived in a test tube. "We each took a puppy and rubbed it with a little towel and when it started to squiggle and cry, we knew we had success," said Dr. Al- exander Travis, who runs the lab at the Baker Insti- tute for Animal Health at Cornell University's Col- lege of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York. "Their eyes were closed. They were just adorable, cute, with smooshed-in faces. We checked them to make sure they looked nor- mal and were all breath- ing," he said. The puppies born July 10 are a mix of beagle, Labra- dor and cocker spaniel and are now healthy 5-month- olds, Travis said. All but one female were adopted. She's being kept by the lab to have her own litter. The lab kept track of the puppies by painting their nails with different color polish. Travis adopted two, still known by their nail pol- ish names, Red and Green. In vitro fertilization, the process of fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the body, is widely used to as- sist human reproduction these days. The first human birth from IVF took place in 1978. But IVF efforts with dogs repeatedly failed un- til now, according to Dr. Pierre Comizzoli, a repro- ductive physiologist for the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, which works with Cornell. "The biology of the dog is really, really different than humans," Comizzoli said. Dog pregnancies last only two months and females go into heat just once or twice a year, releasing immature eggs instead of mature eggs needed for IVF. An earlier experiment at Cornell helped pave the way. In 2013 at Cornell, Klondike became the first puppy born from a frozen embryo. Klondike's bea- gle mother was fertilized using artificial insemina- tion. Her embryos were collected, frozen and im- planted in Klondike's sur- rogate mother. Comizzoli described the birth of the seven puppies "as a huge breakthrough." SCIENCE [Sen. John Moorlach] said if taxpayers' gifts were funneled directly to charities, "we can give checks to these nonprofits within minutes of receiving these funds." MICHAELCARROLL—CORNELLUNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE Seven-week-old puppies born by in vitro fertilization are shown at the Baker Institute for Animal Health in Ithaca, N.Y. 7 half-pound mutts become first test-tube puppies in world ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The rescue of a humpback whale that got entangled in crab pot netting last month got national attention, but scientists and fishermen have been alarmed for months by a dramatic spike in the numbers of whales becoming entrapped in fishing gear off the California Coast. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015 8 A