Weed and Wine Face Off in Santa Barbara

If you are having trouble reading this email, [read the online version](. [News Daily Logo]( [California's Largest Legal Weed Farms Face Conflict From Winemakers]( [Fiddlestix Vineyard sits right next to John De Friel's cannabis farm's hoop houses.]( NPR: In June, Kathy Joseph of Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills learned that the fungicide she has been spraying on her grapes for decades could be drifting onto her neighbor's cannabis farm. Unlike food crops, cannabis can't be sold if there's any trace of fungicide or pesticide in it, according to state law. So while the county investigates, she is using a more expensive and far less effective spray on the grapevines that are nearest to the cannabis farm. "We may lose crop because we can't protect it," Joseph says. The cannabis farmer neighboring Fiddlestix Vineyard, John De Friel, has nearly 100 separate permits for neighboring plots of land — creating two of the largest legal pot farms in the U.S. He says conflicts with other farmers are as old as agriculture itself. "It's just farmers learning to farm next to each other, which is not new for California," De Friel says of his Raw Garden farm. Photo: Fiddlestix Vineyard sits right next to John De Friel's cannabis farm's hoop houses. (Claire Heddles/NPR) [S.F. School Board Votes to Cover Controversial Mural Instead of Painting Over It]( [The WPA-era mural by Victor Arnautoff at George Washington High School depicts slave ownership and Native American genocide.]( A controversial mural at a San Francisco high school is not going away quite yet after the San Francisco Unified School District's board reversed an earlier decision to paint over the mural in a 4-3 vote Tuesday night. The SFUSD Board meeting was packed, with attendees voicing opinions on the 13-panel mural at George Washington High School. At times things became heated with boos and shouting. The 1,600 square-foot "Life of Washington" was painted by Victor Arnautoff in 1936, and depicts scenes from Washington's life. One of the panels features Washington directing white men westward over the body of an apparently slain Native American. Another shows Washington among his slaves at Mount Vernon. In June, the Board voted to paint over the mural. But SFUSD Board President Stevon Cook decided there should be another vote. Cartoon: Mark Fiore/KQED [PG&E 'Falling Short' in Removing Hazardous Trees Near Power Lines]( A court-appointed monitor who was ordered earlier this year to track PG&E's wildfire safety program says the company's effort to remove hazardous trees near power lines suffers from a series of potentially dangerous deficiencies, including missing large numbers of trees that need to be removed or trimmed and an error-plagued record-keeping system. In a report submitted to U.S. District Judge William Alsup late last month and made public Wednesday, monitor Mark Filip said his team had recorded hundreds of instances in which PG&E contractors failed to treat trees that posed potential wildfire hazards. Filip, a former federal judge and deputy U.S. attorney general, was appointed in 2017 by former U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to monitor PG&E's compliance with the terms of its probation for felony violations of pipeline safety laws. [San Jose Bans Discrimination Against Renters With Housing Vouchers]( Following hours of debate, the San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to block landlords from discriminating against would-be tenants who use housing vouchers, like Section 8, to subsidize rent. The ordinance prevents landlords from refusing to rent units based on an applicant's legitimate source of income, including government housing vouchers. It also prevents landlords from including any prohibitive language in their apartment listings. San Jose, one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation, joins a spate of other cities that have introduced source-of-income legislation. Most recently, Los Angeles passed a similar measure in June, and a statewide bill is currently being considered in the Legislature. # [Bay Area Filipinos Stand Up For Activist Shot in the Philippines]( From KQED podcast, The Bay: A San Francisco native was shot in the Philippines earlier this month in what friends and family believe was an attempted extrajudicial assassination by the Philippine government. Brandon Lee, who became an activist through San Francisco State University's League of Filipino Students, moved to the Philippines in 2010 to work as a paralegal and human rights advocate for indigenous communities in the country's northern Ifugao province. San Francisco has been the epicenter of activism for decades, and Filipinos are significant part of that history. Activist friends of Lee's are seeking a moratorium on U.S. aid to the Philippines National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. ['It's All About Race': Parents Want Say in How Oakland Schools Integrate]( Frustrated with a lack of information from the Oakland Unified School District about its controversial plans to merge or move their schools, parents are creating an alliance in the hopes of gaining more control over the decision-making process. "We don't trust [the district]," said Kaiser Elementary parent Alicia Johnson. "And we don't trust any plans that they give us. And right now we are not willing to move until we see they are taking it seriously and thoughtfully implementing plans for change." The issue of what it would take to integrate across a racial and class divide, and whether parents of privilege are willing to do so, is a problem facing other urban districts across the county: How can the district create equitable schools in districts shaped by a history of redlining and racially segregated housing? In Oakland, white students are 11.4% of the district-run public school population but are concentrated in a few top-performing schools. OUSD argues that merging a stronger school with a weak one is a path to creating more equity. But the district is also relying heavily on an economic rationale for the changes, saying it must shrink the number of schools it operates to save money and avoid a state takeover. [California Defends Wolves, Argues Against Feds Removing Protections]( [OR-25, a male gray wolf in Oregon, in 2014. OR-25 was killed illegally in 2017. ]( California is pushing back on the federal government's proposal to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states. This step would remove wolves' federal protections, transferring decisions about wolf management to individual states and tribes. The proposal, announced in March, frames the wolves' current status as "one of the greatest comebacks in conservation history." But environmentalists and now the California Fish and Game Commission have argued that, to make a full recovery, wolves still need Endangered Species Act protections. On July 15, the Commission sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, strongly opposing the proposed delisting. The letter, signed by president Eric Sklar, says the ruling would end recovery efforts prematurely. Though California wolves would retain their listing in the state's Endangered Species Act, a ruling in the federal government's favor would likely affect the state's wolf population by restricting the numbers of the animals that enter from other states. Photo: OR-25, a male gray wolf in Oregon, in 2014. OR-25 was killed illegally in 2017. (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) [Underground Lakes and a Vanished Church Await in California Cavern]( [Overhanging rock formations in California Cavern ]( For you adventurous souls who like to get your sightseeing thrills underground, California has a wealth of caves open to the public — offering everything from walking tours to mud-caked spelunking. Yet subterranean tourism isn't as new a concept as you might assume. Hidden in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California Cavern became the first cave to open to the public in the state in the 1850s. It's still operational 170 years later, and its unique sights are as astonishing now as they were to those first visitors. An elaborate network of tunnels and yawning crystalline chambers awaits 80 feet below the earth. The network stretches underground for two and a half miles, giving it the distinction of the state's longest cave system. "It's really just a different world," says Andrew Kilbreath, a California Cavern tour guide who's been guiding visitors in the cave for 17 years. Watch the [video](. Photo: Overhanging rock formations in California Cavern (Carly Severn/KQED) Today's KQED News Daily was produced by Miranda Leitsinger in San Francisco. Got ideas, stories, comments? Email me: mleitsinger@kqed.org [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [Donate]( [Manage Subscription]( | [Privacy Policy]( KQED 2601 Mariposa St. San Francisco, CA 94110 Copyright © August 14, 2019 [KQED](. All Rights Reserved.