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Section A | The Union | Saturday, March 17, 2012 | A9
by HOFFMEYER’S
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Animal Control Departmentremoved more than a dozenanimals from Silva’s PatinoRoad property, west of PennValley, after being called out onMarch 15 for a dead llama.
The officers testifiedThursday that they found anumber of animals in poor con-dition, with no food or water;one llama was euthanized thefollowing day.
Silva’s attorney, StephenMunkelt, argued that a series ofunfortunate personal circum-stances culminated in a perfect
storm that led to authoritiesfinding the livestock in suchconditions.
Munkelt argued that Silva’serror did not constitute criminalconduct.
Pong argued Munkelt’scharacterization was nothingbut an excuse for neglect.
Munkelt said the jury vin-dicated his client’s decision notto accept an earlier offer by thedistrict attorney’s office to pleadguilty to a felony in exchangefor a lesser sentence.
To contact Staff Writer Christopher Rosack-er, email [email protected] or call(530) 477-4229.
SILVA:Continued from A1
least Wednesday, when samplestaken once the rain stops areexpected to be processed.
Encounters with largeamounts of sewage can result inmany human health hazardsincluding E. coli and other bac-terial infections, viruses andexposure to pathogenic organ-isms.
The overflow situation rep-resents the first of its kind in thelast six or seven years, Nicks said.
A potential penalty hand-ed down from the CaliforniaWater Resources Board is pos-sible, but the county will arguethe incident was unavoidabledue to the extreme weather
event, Nicks said.On Friday afternoon, work-
ers with the Nevada CountyDepartment of Public Workswere addressing various minorflooding problems throughoutthe region.
“The rain has been torren-tial,” said Principal EngineerSteve Castleberry.
Much of the flooding trou-ble has centered in Penn Valley— a relatively flat area with ahigh water table, Castleberrysaid, noting downtown PennValley has sustained the mostflooding.
On McCourtney Road nearAdair Avenue, a culvert has beenclogged by pine needles and var-ious debris, meaning county
workers have had to employ abackhoe in extricating the mate-rial, Castleberry said.
Clogged culverts have alsobeen a problem in areas of AltaSierra.
Squirrel Creek in the PennValley area is running abnormal-ly high, Castleberry said.
Pat Paddock, who lives onWaterfall Lane off Lime KilnRoad south of Alta Sierra, saidWolf Creek has turned into a“raging river.”
“It’s unbelievable,” she said.“It’s coming over all the boul-ders. It’s kind of scary being soclose to it.”
Cline said there are nomajor floods in the NorthernCalifornia region, although the
Consumnes River has exceededits banks in select remote areas.
Snow in the Sierra
Large volumes of snow areexpected to accumulate in theSierra this weekend.
A winter storm warning isin effect from 5 p.m. Friday to 5p.m. today, according to theNational Weather Service inReno, bringing the potential for2 to 3 feet of additional snow tohigher elevations.
The higher snowfallamounts are forecast above7,000 feet, according to NWS,with 9 to 18 inches possible atlake level.To contact Staff Writer Matthew Renda,email [email protected] or call(530) 477-4239.
WEATHER:Continued from A1
Photo for The Union by John Hart
The road crossing to the baseball fields at Western Gateway Park in Penn Valley was closed Friday due to high water of Squirrel Creek rushingover the road following heavy rain over the course of the week.
BY CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON — Infla-tion remains tame throughoutthe U.S. economy, with one bigexception: gas prices.
Those higher prices haven’tderailed a steadily improvingeconomy. But if they surpass $4or $5 a gallon, experts fear Amer-icans could pull back onspending, and job growth couldstall, posing a potentially seriousthreat to the recovery.
And the longer pricesremain high, the more they couldimperil President Barack Oba-ma’s re-election hopes.
A few weeks ago, econo-mists generally agreed that theeconomy was in little dangerfrom higher gas prices as long asjob growth remained strong. Butfears are now mounting that gasprices could begin to weakenconsumer confidence.
The average pump pricenationwide is $3.83 a gallon.Energy analysts say it’s bound toclimb higher in the weeks ahead.
“It’s a thorn in the side ofthe consumer and businesses,”said Chris Christopher, an econ-omist at IHS Global Insight.The economy this year “wouldhave been better and stronger ifwe didn’t have to deal with this.”
So far, higher prices aren’tundermining the economicrecovery, which is getting a liftfrom strong job creation.
It would take a big jump —to around $5 a gallon — beforemost economists would worrythat growth would halt and theeconomy would slide into anoth-er recession.
That’s because an improvingeconomy is somewhat insulatedfrom any threat posed by higherprices at the pump.
The risk is that gas pricescould eventually slow growth bycausing some people to cut
spending on other goods, fromappliances and furniture to elec-tronics and vacations. Gasolinepurchases provide less benefit forthe U.S. economy because abouthalf of the revenue flows to oil-exporting nations, though U.S.oil companies and gasoline retail-ers also benefit.
Many American businessessuffer, too. They must pay morefor fuel and shipping and formaterials affected by high oilprices, such as petroleum-basedplastics. Profit margins getsqueezed.
Even if prices ease after thesummer driving season, don’texpect gasoline to fall below $3 agallon. The government esti-mates that this year’s average willbe $3.79, followed by $3.72 in2013.
Most economists accept arough guideline that a 25-centrise in gas prices knocks about0.2 percentage point off econom-ic growth.
Gas prices also have an out-size impact on consumerconfidence, Christopher noted.It’s a high-frequency purchase.Consumers notice the pricewhether they’re filling up or driv-ing past a gas station.
Along with the unemploy-ment rate and stock marketlevels, gasoline prices heavilydetermine how Americans seetheir financial health.
That effect was evident Fri-day when a decline was reportedin the Thomson Reuters/Univer-sity of Michigan index ofconsumer sentiment. The resultsurprised some economists whohad assumed that higher stockprices and lower unemploymentwould lift consumer sentiment.
Higher gas pricesthreaten economyif they persist
BY DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — Alaw professor was named Fridayto monitor a settlement with thenation’s five largest banks that isexpected to bring $18 billionworth of benefits to California.
Attorney General KamalaHarris appointed University ofCalifornia, Irvine professorKatherine Porter in a move sepa-rate from the national mortgagesettlement reached last month.
“California being the largeststate with some of the hardest hitcommunities, I wanted to makesure that we had someone who
was focused specifically on Cali-fornia,”Harris said in a telephoneinterview. “It was really criticalthat we make sure that promisesmade are promises delivered.”
Porter will ensure the bankshonor their promises to home-owners and borrowers to modifyloans for those who are behind intheir payments, repair neighbor-hoods blighted by foreclosuresand pay off some overdue mort-gages.
The banks are: Bank ofAmerica, Wells Fargo, JPMor-gan Chase, Citigroup and AllyFinancial.
Benefits earmarked in theagreement for California include:
— $12 billion to reduce theamount owed on loans or offer-ing short sales to an estimated250,000 homeowners who arebehind on their payments or owemore on their loan than theirhome is worth.
— $849 million to refinanceloans for about 28,000 home-owners who are paying withinterest rates above 5.25 percent.They must be current on theirmortgage payments but under-water on their loans to qualify.
A separate agreement withCalifornia imposes certain dead-lines on delivering those benefits.Failure by banks to meet thedeadlines could require payments
to the state of hundreds of mil-lions of dollars in penalties.
Porter will check lender fil-ings as well as reports andcomplaints from homeowners,and report to Harris’ office.
Porter also hopes to addressfairness concerns that coulddevelop as some beleagueredhomeowners get financial helpunder the settlement and othersare left behind.
Porter also wants to makesure banks are forthright in howthey choose between homeown-ers using the guidelinesestablished by the national settle-ment.
Law professor to monitor $18B bank settlement
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