How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Business News
- Details
- Written by: Editor
"As the State Bar's Director of Real Property, Pearl methodically embezzled more than $600,000 to bankroll a lavish lifestyle," Brown said. "Under today's sentence, Pearl will spend the next two years and eight months in prison and will be required to repay the State Bar and the State of California in full."
In April 2009, Brown filed seven criminal charges against Pearl in Alameda County Superior Court, including one criminal count of embezzlement for violating section 504 of the state Penal Code and six counts of filing false tax returns for violating section 19706 of the state Revenue and Taxation Code.
Pearl pleaded no contest to all charges in December 2009.
As part of Friday's sentence, Pearl was ordered to pay:
$615,790 in restitution to the State Bar;
$167,422 in staff, audit and attorney costs to the State Bar; and
$116,652 in taxes, penalties, interest and investigation costs to the Franchise Tax Board.
Pearl has already paid $393,212 of the $615,790 owed to the State Bar in restitution.
In 1999, the State Bar purchased an office building at 180 Howard St. in San Francisco for its headquarters. The State Bar inherited tenants who leased retail space in the building. As the director of real property, Pearl handled building management and collected rent from the building's tenants.
As early as 2002, Pearl began to embezzle a portion of the rental funds she collected. As part of her scheme, Pearl directed some tenants to make their rent checks payable to "PLOT-The State Bar of California." Unknown to the renters, "PLOT" stood for the Piedmont Light Opera Theatre.
Pearl deposited the checks into accounts held by the Piedmont Light Opera Theatre. Because she was a signatory on the theater's accounts, she could then transfer funds from the theater accounts to her personal bank account.
Pearl used the embezzled funds to pay for spa treatments, designer clothes, lavish meals and fancy hotel rooms. Because the State Bar did not track its rent payments, Pearl was able to continue her scheme for several years.
In 2008, the State Bar finally uncovered Pearl's scheme when she requested a check for what she claimed was a tenant's security deposit refund. Because there were no records that the tenant had ever paid a security deposit, the State Bar launched an internal investigation into the financial discrepancies.
The State Bar ultimately discovered that Pearl was maintaining two sets of books, and the investigation was referred to Brown's Special Crimes Unit for prosecution.
The State Bar was created by the Legislature in 1927 and is a public corporation within the judicial branch of government, serving as an arm of the California Supreme Court. It admits attorneys for practice in the state, provides continuing education classes and conducts disciplinary hearings.
- Details
- Written by: JoAnn Saccato
Co-op members and email recipients received advance view of the survey over the weekend.
The public is invited to take the survey by following the link on the LCCC's Web site at www.lakeco-op.org .
Additionally, LCCC member volunteers will be out in communities around the lake during the month of February taking random surveys.
Those without Internet access may call the Co-op at 707-993-4270 for more information and assistance.
The CCCD received grant funding that included a feasibility study for the LCCC in their 2009-10 funding cycle.
The feasibility study will determine whether a storefront for the co-op is feasible in Lake County, and if so, what specific locations in Lake County would most likely be successful.
The co-op currently operates a buying club with emphasis on purchasing locally grown organic produce for their members on a weekly basis.
Members also can participate in monthly online ordering of bulk natural foods through www.azurestandard.com .
For more information, go to www.lakeco-op.org or call 707-993-4270.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
FINLEY – Growers and others involved in the North Coast tree fruit and nut industry are invited to attend the upcoming workshop, “Irrigating orchards efficiently,” to be held Wednesday, Feb. 17, from 8:30 a.m. until noon at the Big Valley Grange, 1510 Big Valley Road, Finley, a wheelchair accessible facility.
The workshop is sponsored by University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the East Lake and West Lake Resource Conservation Districts.
Topics include choosing the most efficient irrigation system, water use monitoring to schedule irrigations, efficient irrigation system operation, and NRCS cost-share programs to encourage efficient water use and protect water quality.
There will also be a hands-on demonstration of soil- and plant-based moisture blocks and pressure bomb.
There is no charge for the meeting and refreshments will be served.
For information or directions to the meeting location, please contact UCCE at 707-263-6838 or
- Details
- Written by: Editor
Open to all California wineries and vineyards as a voluntary option, CSWA's new program, Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, requires applicants to meet 58 prerequisite criteria to be eligible for the program, assess winery and/or vineyard operations, create and implement an annual action plan and show improvement over time.
The goals of the new certification program are to enhance transparency, encourage statewide participation and advance the entire California wine industry toward best practices in environmental stewardship, conservation of natural resources and socially equitable business practices.
Three years in the making, the certification program is the first statewide program available to both wineries and vineyards.
"Third-party certification helps California's wine community speed efforts to create a healthier environment, stronger communities and vibrant businesses," said Robert P. (Bobby) Koch, Wine Institute president and CEO. "The program reflects the California wine community's commitment to continually produce the finest quality wine and grapes with practices that are environmentally and socially responsible."
"The scale on which California's wine community is adopting and expanding sustainable practices is truly impressive, as the state is the fourth leading wine producer in the world," said California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) Board Chairman Kim Ledbetter Bronson of Vino Farms in Lodi. "CSWA's mission is to bring recognition to the California wine industry as a change leader in the global marketplace and serve as a model for other industries."
To date, 1,566 vineyard and winery organizations representing 68.1 percent of California's 526,000 wine acres and 62.5 percent of the state's 240 million case shipments have evaluated their vineyards and wineries with CSWA's Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices Self-Assessment Workbook.
Wine Institute and CAWG established the Sustainable Winegrowing Program in 2002 and incorporated CSWA a year later as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to continue implementing the program.
"When you discuss sustainability within the California wine community, it is not just a statement of a program but an imbedded philosophy that we live by each and every day," said CSWA Board Chairman Chris Savage, Senior Director of Environmental Affairs at E. & J. Gallo Winery. "It is the commitment to this philosophy and the very positive impact it has on our businesses that will ensure the continued growth of the California wine industry long into the future."
"With a majority of our industry already involved in CSWA's Sustainable Winegrowing Program, the new certification option evolved as the appropriate next step," said CSWA Executive Director Allison Jordan. "Every organization is at a different point in the sustainability journey so our program allows businesses to use their own baselines to determine a set of goals based on their region, operation and other factors, and then focus their resources on the practices that will make the most difference for their company, the environment and the community, continually improving year after year."
Seventeen companies have received certification for some or all of their vineyard and winery operations after participating in a pilot program to test the certification requirements and offer feedback.
They are: Clos LaChance Wines; Concannon Vineyard/Concannon Winery; Constellation Wines U.S.; Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards; Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines; Fetzer Vineyards/Bonterra Vineyards; E. & J. Gallo Winery; Goldeneye Winery; The Hess Collection; Honig Vineyard & Winery; J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines; Kunde Family Estate; Meridian Vineyards/Taz Vineyards; Monterey Pacific, Inc.; Roberts Vineyard Services; Rodney Strong Wine Estates; and Vino Farms.
CSWA also released its 2009 Wine Community Sustainability Report measuring the California wine industry's adoption over five years of 227 best management practices from the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices Self-Assessment Workbook.
For participants who have self-assessed their operations against the 227 best management practices in 14 areas from the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Self-Assessment Workbook, the 2009 report indicates that a majority of the 227 practices showed an improvement in average self-assessment scores since the 2004 report.
The strengths of the state's industry are practices for viticulture, soil management and ecosystem management.
Areas identified as opportunities for improvement include energy efficiency, materials handling, waste reduction and environmentally preferred purchasing.
Practices receiving scores in the middle ground are vineyard water management, pest management, winery water conservation and quality, human resources, neighbors and community, and air quality.
CSWA has increased participation in its Sustainable Winegrowing Program. The 1,566 California vineyard and winery organizations in the Sustainable Winegrowing Program represent a 66 percent increase in the number of wine businesses participating since the 2004 Sustainability Report. Since the program's launch in 2002, it has held 200 self-assessment workshops and 184 educational events with 9,239 workshop attendees.
A three-minute video providing overall background on California's sustainable winegrowing practices can be viewed and downloaded in various formats at: http://inr.mediaseed.tv/EcoWine_36816 .
Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers are the primary funders of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, and have received additional support from American Farmland Trust, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Natural Resource Conservation Service, USDA's Risk Management Agency, California's Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The next Sustainability Report will be published in 2014.