After 60 years of providing redi-mix and aggregate to the southern California construction market, Standard Concrete Products is closing its operations, firing its employees and when it finds lessees for three of its plants, closing the business for good.

Three able and well respected scientists and statisticians spent a couple of hours this month in San Diego making the case that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are pursuing a political agenda rather than paying attention to their primary mission—public health.

The three, Dr. James Enstrom, Dr. Robert Phalen, and Dr. Stanley Young, presented papers to a group of nearly 100 attendees at the annual American Statistical Association meeting, held at the San Diego Convention Center, August 2.

Sacramento-The California Air Resource Board has created a new tool to be used by politicians, environmental extremists and snake oil salesmen to target companies who are “major sources of greenhouse gases.”

The new mapping system will paint a bulls-eye on 625 California companies who have been voluntarily reporting their GHG emissions to the agency, which will create a public relations nightmare for the companies on the list and an open invitation to meddle from the others, which will include opportunistic lawyers.

Carmageddon II Coming to the 405 Next Month

The second 10-mile closure of both directions of the San Diego Freeway (I-405) over the Sepulveda Pass is scheduled for Sept. 29-30.  Carmageddon II will impact the half a million motorists who typically drive this portion of the I-405 every weekend and who are being encouraged to avoid the area during the 53-hour closure.

A must read letter from CCTA (CDTOA) retired member Frank J Miranda, dated, July 23-2012

If I was starting my dump truck business or even if I was in dump trucking for the last 15 or 20 years I would like to read how it was in early dump trucking years ago. I can’t believe the stories I read about CARB and this environmental problem with diesel engines shoved on truckers trying to make a living.

Navistar (NAV) is experiencing an eventful August, with the stock displaying volatility in the first week of the month. The stock plummeted 14% after the company slashed its future outlook amidst a weak U.S. truck market forecast, disclosed its ongoing inquiry with the SEC, and announced its future partnership with Cummins (CMI) to obtain urea-based engines after the company’s CEO, Ustian, decided to give up his disastrous EGR engine strategy.

Small business trucking owner’s need not worry about not being paid thanks to the California Dump Truck Owner’s Bill of Lading and Transportation Agreement.  I can’t believe that there are still a few drivers out in the field that are using any other type of billing system.

There will be a Circle the Capitol rally against cap and trade on August 15th from 11am to 1pm on the West Steps of the State Capitol - the very day CARB will be doing its “practice” cap and trade auction and we need to send a strong message.

It couldn’t be more important for us to show up in huge numbers to oppose $143 billion in unnecessary energy cost increases.

Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach building at furious pace

Los Angeles Times; July 19, 2012

At the edge of San Pedro Bay, home of North America’s largest cargo complex, they’re building new piers, wharves and rail yards at a furious pace to further dwarf the competition.
So much construction is underway that the new facilities by themselves would move more freight than the entire port of Savannah, Ga., which ranks No. 4 among the continent’s ports.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, first and second in the cargo-movement hierarchy, respectively, are hauling in so much dirt, they would have enough land to build a twin of Universal Studios Hollywood with enough left over to fill 100 football stadiums with 20 inches of muck. Long Beach alone expects to use 6,000 truckloads of concrete.

Stockton, like lots of cities, has policies that bring temptation to city employees to make use of the system, at the expense of the naïve and exploited taxpayers.

“Stockton, California, Police Chief Tom Morris was supposed to bring stability to law enforcement when he was appointed to the job four years ago.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has announced that August has been designated “Gear Up for Clean Truck Month.”  In a notice sent out to members of CARB’s Truck Regulations Advisory Committee (TRAC), the agency announced a statewide enforcement campaign for the entire month of August. 

SACRAMENTO – Caltrans announced it has launched Caltrans QuickMap, an online service that provides California truckers with real-time traffic and travel information that will allow them to make better decisions about how to reach their destination more rapidly.

To access Caltrans QuickMap, visit the Caltrans site at www.quickmap.dot.ca.gov .

“A wide range of useful information is now easily accessible to help motorists avoid congestion and reduce their travel times,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “This delivers real-time data so travelers can adjust their routes to get where they’re going as quickly as possible.”

Visitors to the online interactive travel map can access nearly 1,000 freeway cameras and more than 700 electronic message signs on highways statewide. They can also monitor traffic congestion, California Highway Patrol incidents, travel time information, lane closures due to highway roadwork, and Amber Alerts.

Other helpful features of the service include chain control information and color-coded traffic speed displays for freeways statewide.