Federal Government

That there is a partisan budget deadlock in Congress is no surprise. It is Washington, after all. Some are blaming the tea party forces, who believe compromise is a dirty word, for the present budget gridlock. But there were times before the tea party existed when things were just as bad, including 1995, when battling between Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the Clinton administration resulted in a brief shutdown of the federal government. The House of Representatives, which controls federal purse strings, has been unable to pass a budget for this fiscal year, which ends Sept.

Days after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced the approval of a 112 wind-turbine energy project, the Quechan Indian Tribe filed suit against the federal government, a Quechan official announced in a press conference Tuesday. Please read our e-edition or print edition of the Imperial Valley Press for the complete story. For the news rack or sales location nearest to you, please click here . To join this discussion and add comments to this story, please click here to be directed to Facebook.

Nearly $1 million in Community Development Block Grant funding previously awarded to El Centro was disencumbered by the federal government, halting a storm drain development project at El Dorado Colonia. “This is the first time that they (federal government) actually do this,” said Economic Development Director Marcela Piedra. Please read either the e-edition or print edition of the Imperial Valley Press for the complete story. For the news rack nearest you, click here . To comment on this story click here to be directed to Facebook.

Can someone find out how, amid all the budget constraints and looming fiscal cliff, that certain federal employees are receiving bonuses? From $500 up to $5,000 each. Namely Border Patrol agents, ICE and DEA across the country. Not everyone, but only the “special” ones who their supervisors deem worthy. Where does this funding come from, what is the criteria for receiving it and who decides how much? - Belt Tightener, Imperial Valley Federal employees are indeed eligible for end-of-the-year bonuses by law. The money is allocated at the beginning of the year by the federal government and is reserved for workers and managers.

With the odor of the Salton Sea still fresh in many people's minds, U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Riverside, sent a letter last week to two federal government agencies in an attempt to focus the federal government's attention on the troubled body of water. The Salton Sea this month made news outside its immediate area when its odor drifted as far north as Los Angeles County, triggering numerous panicked phone calls to area authorities. “Southern California is witnessing first-hand the impact of a dying ecosystem,” the letter begins.

The public-private partnership that could fund the expansion of the Calexico West Port of Entry continues taking shape, now in the form of a memorandum of understanding between the county and the California Power Corp. which the county Board of Supervisors could approve today. Under this MOU, the county agrees to negotiate for one year exclusively with the California Power Corp., a developing consultant from Carlsbad, that Deputy County Counsel Kyle Sand said is connected with the investment firm Kinsell, Newcomb & de Dios Inc. “This is clearly Kinsell's corporation,” said Sand while referring to the California Power Corp.

The nature of being a border city fire department often leads to unnatural predicaments, and Calexico Fire Department gets to deal with those issues firsthand. When most municipal fire departments are solely responsible for the treatment and care, and sometimes transport, of their citizens, border fire departments - especially those with a Port of Entry with heavily used pedestrian and vehicle crossings - have a whole other set of patients and problems to contend with. But for some reason, the federal government, from which these patients and problems originate and present themselves, does not seem to have a consistent method to reimburse a city and state taxpayer-driven public safety agency, that is, the city fire and police departments for which they rely on help.

As attempts to bring federal dollars to expand the Calexico West Port of Entry continue, the same can be said about the county's “Plan B” that could fund the expansion project estimated to cost some $300 million. The latest move is a memorandum of understanding between the county and the developing consultant California Power Corp., which the Imperial County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Tuesday. “The only way that we are going to get this port of entry done is if we take the bull by the horns, find our own financing and do it ourselves,” said Bob Ham, Imperial County's intergovernmental relations director to the board.

After facing a bumpy start, SeaPort Airlines could finally be on the city's good side as the City Council will discuss a letter of support to the airline's destination tonight. SeaPort faced opposition from some community members and the El Centro City Council shortly after being selected by the federal government to service the county's subsidized airport. This opposition came as SeaPort had initially offered flights to Burbank and San Diego commuter terminal; but the federal government went with the cheaper option, which discarded Burbank.

> > 50 Years Ago   - HOLTVILLE - Dragsters fans were holding their breath, hoping the weather would break, so the day's drags could get underway. Luck was with the dragsters, when 1 p.m. rolled around. Fans were greeted by a beautiful shiny sun. Such cars competed in the event as Jess Van Deventer's BMR, 283-inch fuel injected Chevrolet roadster. Jess sped himself to victory in the NHRA in points system which won him a new Pontiac last year. This year Jess was middle eliminator.

After facing a bumpy start, SeaPort Airlines could finally be on the city's good side as the City Council will discuss a letter of support to the airline's destination tonight. SeaPort faced opposition from some community members and the El Centro City Council shortly after being selected by the federal government to service the county's subsidized airport. This opposition came as SeaPort had initially offered flights to Burbank and San Diego commuter terminal; but the federal government went with the cheaper option, which discarded Burbank.

Politics is a game, we all know that. But sometimes the game gets worrisomely dirty. The president has been playing politics and he has been playing dirty. And I, for one, am getting worried. In the dirty game people get hurt and in this game it is all of the American people who are being hurt. By now most everyone has heard about the “sequestration.” It's the term being bandied about with respect to the spending cuts at the level of the federal government that went into effect this month.

The $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts due Friday and the $109 billion in cuts every year after for nine years were meant to be so ridiculous, so shameful to the members of Congress and the president, that there was no way on God's green earth that sequestration would go forward. But federal politicians' capacity for shame is greater than their capacity to do the right thing, to eat a little crow, to compromise for the good of the country. Instead, no one is giving ground, and the paltry $24 billion in cuts earlier this year to stave off the March 1 sequestration deadline did little to avoid the inevitable.

> > 40 Years Ago - The body of a man who had been dead an estimated 10 days was found in the desert 22 miles northwest of Winterhaven early Sunday afternoon. It was identified by the office of the coroner as that of Don Carl Kosck, 43, of Salinas, an agricultural worker who pursued the hobby of rock collecting. He was known epileptic and apparently died after an attack. The body was found, lying face down, by other rock hunters. His car was found about a mile away and contained medication for epilepsy.

COACHELLA - The Salton Sea Authority may convene its next meeting ahead of schedule to hammer out a unified message in anticipation of a meeting with officials from the Department of the Interior. “When we had the visit from Secretary (Ken) Salazar and other state and federal delegations, there was a request, or rather a follow-up meeting to happen in Washington, D.C., with the members of the Salton Sea Authority,” said IID Government Affairs Specialist Antonio Ortega at the Salton Sea Authority's Board of Directors meeting Thursday.

Can someone find out how, amid all the budget constraints and looming fiscal cliff, that certain federal employees are receiving bonuses? From $500 up to $5,000 each. Namely Border Patrol agents, ICE and DEA across the country. Not everyone, but only the “special” ones who their supervisors deem worthy. Where does this funding come from, what is the criteria for receiving it and who decides how much? - Belt Tightener, Imperial Valley Federal employees are indeed eligible for end-of-the-year bonuses by law. The money is allocated at the beginning of the year by the federal government and is reserved for workers and managers.

2012 was a big year for renewable energy, an industry touted by many to be critical in the county's fight against its chronic unemployment.  And although many solar projects were approved, the biggest story in this industry is surely the approval of the controversial Ocotillo Wind Express. This project illustrates what renewable energy in Imperial County can mean to residents. On one side there is the opposition, which in this case voiced concerns during various meetings, including a Board of Supervisors meeting in April that lasted two days.

As attempts to bring federal dollars to expand the Calexico West Port of Entry continue, the same can be said about the county's “Plan B” that could fund the expansion project estimated to cost some $300 million. The latest move is a memorandum of understanding between the county and the developing consultant California Power Corp., which the Imperial County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Tuesday. “The only way that we are going to get this port of entry done is if we take the bull by the horns, find our own financing and do it ourselves,” said Bob Ham, Imperial County's intergovernmental relations director to the board.