TOWN WIDE YARD SALE

Each year dozens of homes have a yard sale on the same day. This year it will be on Saturday, May 14 from 8 am to 4 pm. The event is sponsored by our chamber of commerce and is a chance to convert stuff in our garage into cash. I suspect some of that cash goes to buying other peoples junk to sell next year. As you drive into town you will have an opportunity to purchase a map of yard sale locations. In your search you will drive by the Crockett Museum in the old SP depot at Loring and Rolph. Stop and explore some of the artifacts that made it to the Museum before leaving town in the yard sales.

In Search of Community Roots

If you are "struck" with a desire to learn more about your town of residence, or if your third grader is seeking information, don't overlook the resource of local museums. Of course I am biased toward the Crockett Museum and Historical Society but there are many in Contra Costa County. We are located in the old Southern Pacific Depot at Loring and Rolph at the truck entrance to C & H Sugar. Another local historical society is the Pinole Historical Society. Visit them on the web. Their site will suggest other great sites.

Saint Rose Fish Fry

Friday March 25, 2011 is the day to eat a great fish dinner in the St. Rose Church hall from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm. This is the 26th year for this major Crockett event. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $7 for diners age 12 and below. Take the Crockett off-ramp from I-80, follow Pomona to 2nd Avenue, turn north to Starr, turn right a block and you are there. Take any parking place and follow the crowd.

This event was started 26 years ago when the immediate past pastor was reassigned to Alaska. One of his parishioner caught the fish and sent them to St. Rose, Crockett. We held the dinner and split the profits with St. Rose, Alaska. It continues today as one of the two fund-raisers of the parish.

Crockett Historical Museum Events

The meeting of the Board of Directors highlighted several topics we will be addressing during the next few months.

1. The question of whether we will seek a broadband internet connection will be pursued. The Board decided it is a good idea.
2. We will develop a policy governing the use of the Museum's non-profit status in pursuing grants. A committee was established and will prepare something for consideration at the next Board meeting in September.
3. We will determine to costs of digitizing our microfilm of the Crockett Signal and other newspapers.

Nervous on the Hill

During the last couple of days there have been several small earthquakes in the Bay Area. This morning the small one was just 4.5 miles deep and on the fault that runs through Crockett. Well, if the "big one" hits, we are totally unprepared. Pray for us.

The Dream Games

My dream for a perfect football weekend came true. Greenbay and the Raiders won. Dallas and the 49er's lost. It will probably never happen again but if it does it will be this season.

C&H Now Part of the World's Largest

Who would have guessed a few years ago that C&H would be part of the world's premier cane sugar refinery. With the acquisition of Tate and Lyle (world's oldest) by ASR (owned by Florida Crystal), C&H provides a dream world for someone who dwells in the milieu of local Crockett history.

American Sugar Refining to Acquire Tate & Lyle's European Sugar Operations

YONKERS, N.Y., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- American Sugar Refining (ASR), North America's largest cane sugar refiner, signed an agreement to acquire Tate & Lyle PLC's European cane sugar operations.

Tate & Lyle is the leading cane sugar producer in the European Union. The acquisition of its refineries in London, England, and Lisbon, Portugal, increases ASR's total refining capacity to six million metric tons per year. The 211 million pounds Sterling ($318 million) acquisition includes a license for use of the distinguished Tate & Lyle brand in connection with the sale of sugar.

Modern Drunkard Magazine

Modern Drunkard Magazine

Here is a website for all good Crockatonians

Keith

Florida Crystals : Company News

Florida Crystals : Company News

These pages tell the story of the C & H owners

C & H Sugar May Benefit from this deal

With the demise of US Sugar, the C&H brand and the Domino brand will own the cane sugar market in the US. Now if the Congress would allow the importation of ethanol from Brazil, (but thats too much to ask)


Blockbuster land deal faces many obstacles: "On the other hand, another potential roadblock may be easing: Gaston Cantens, spokesman for the Fanjul family's Florida Crystals Corp., said the company now sees the U.S. Sugar buyout as a chance to acquire an even bigger share of the market.
Florida Crystals owns 31,000 acres in the district's proposed water pathway, which means the state would have to swap part of the U.S. Sugar property for the Fanjul-owned tracts.
'We see it as a positive for everyone,' Cantens said, adding: 'We are comfortable the state is committed to maintaining farming in the area"

Price of Pot Will Rise

Man arrested after pot grow found in burning houseBy Karl FischerWest County TimesArticle Launched: 05/22/2008 04:18:15 PM PDT

Authorities clearing 300 marijuana plants out of a burned house in Crockett ran into the tenant Thursday morning, resulting in an arrest and the confiscation of a new, 30-foot stretch limousine.
The Crockett Carquinez Fire District answered a house fire call about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on the first block of Rolph Park Drive. Firefighters found the house burning, Contra Costa sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
While extinguishing the blaze, they also found some marijuana plants growing inside and summoned deputies, who found that most of the house had been converted into an indoor growing facility. Deputies found about 200 growing plants and about 100 more being processed and prepared for sale.
On Thursday morning, while deputies documented and bagged the contraband, a 30-foot stretch limo with paper plates rolled up to the house, Lee said.
The driver and tenant of the house, 31-year-old Casey Saul, approached and, after deputies identified him as the cultivator of the drugs, was taken County Jail in Martinez, Lee said.
He remained there Thursday evening in lieu of $120,000 bail, arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana for sale, possessing drugs and theft of a utility, as the operation's electrical hookups bypassed the meter.
Deputies confiscated the car, Lee said.
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@bayareanewsgroup.com.

THE ILLUSTRATED CONSERVATIVE | LIBERALISM IS A SICKNESS, CONSERVATISM IS THE CURE: 'Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x'

I knew I should never have left North Dakota.

'Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x'
Watch out OPEC,

America is about to become a super ginormous, oil superpower.
"America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant...In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951." -

Next Energy NewsHere's the best part, "if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run."I know many on the left will find this terrible, even catastrophic news because it will set solar, wind, and Skittle power efforts back decades, maybe even killing them outright. I say, in a loud steady voice - okay by me. That foolishness wasn't going to solve
America's energy needs, not now, not ever. So someone put the juniors, Algore,
Robert Kennedy and Ed Begley on suicide watch, "thar's (black) gold in them thar hills." I will see all of you on the barricades."Onboard High-Tech Oil Rig, U.S.
Answers to Rising Prices" - PM
Posted by The Illustrated Conservative at
7:43 AM URE: 'Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x'

The Ethanol Powered Plane (Flightblogger)

The Ethanol Powered Plane (Flightblogger)

When you read this consider what the agriculture protections and subsidies are costing us. C & H's owners are now exploring ethanol.

Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California June Term, 1853, to June Term, 1858, Inclusive By Ogden Hoffman, Numa Hubert

Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California June Term, 1853, to June Term, 1858, Inclusive By Ogden Hoffman, Numa Hubert: ""

C & H Boosts Production

Word floating about the refinery is that C & H has gone on a 6 day week to raise production in order to benefit from Imperial's loss resulting from the Gorgia explosion.

Feb. 19, 2008, 10:26PMImperial says fire did much damage
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle News Services
TOOLS

Imperial Sugar Co. said "significant portions" of its refinery near Savannah, Ga., appear to have been "seriously damaged" by the fire that killed nine workers earlier this month.
The refinery's bulk storage capacity and its packaging facilities were among the areas damaged in the Feb. 7 explosion and subsequent fire, Sugar Land-based Imperial said Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The assessment was made during a "preliminary visual inspection" from beyond the perimeter of the damaged area, Imperial Sugar said. A full assessment won't be made until the company's engineers have access to the factory, after regulatory investigations are completed, Imperial Sugar said.
The plant accounts for about 58 percent of the company's refining capacity and 9 percent of U.S. refined sugar capacity, said Jonathan Lichter, an analyst at Sidoti & Co.

DR is Great at this time of the Year

First president Bush to pay 7th visit to Dominican resort
SANTO DOMINGO. - Former United States president George H. Bush will arrive in the country this week for his seventh visit to a Dominican resort, said the newspaper Listin Diario.
It was unofficially reported that Bush, accompanied by his wife Barbara, will vacation and visit some friends in the resort in the city La Romana (east).
A source told Listin that Bush will stay in one of the villas in the resort Casa de Campo, where he’s been previously hosted by Central Romana executive Jose (Pepe) Fanjul and Venezuela mogul Gustavo Cisneros.

Georgia Sugar Refinery Explosion

Folks around town are naturally interested about whether a similar explosion has ever occured or might happen at C & H. So far, sometime in the 1960's there was an explosion/fire above the powder mill.

FANJUL Will own the world

Now anyone employed by C&H can say, almost, that they work for the world's biggest sugar refining organization.

YONKERS, N.Y., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- American Sugar Refining, Inc., based in
Yonkers, New York, today announced that it completed the acquisition of Ingenio
San Nicolas S.A. de C.V. San Nicolas owns and operates a sugar mill and refinery
in Veracruz, Mexico that produces 75,000 tons of superior quality refined sugar.

Luis J. Fernandez, Co-President of American Sugar commented that "this acquisition is an extension of our strategy to be the premier sugar producer and supplier in North America, as evidenced by our recent acquisitions of Redpath Sugar in Canada and C&H Sugar in California. Our goal is to effectively service our multinational customers whose operations span all of North America. This acquisition furthers our strategy to seamlessly provide our customers with quality sugar products and excellent customer service throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico."

Antonio L. Contreras, Jr., Co-President of American Sugar said, "This acquisition is particularly significant now that the Mexican and United States sweetener markets will merge under the North American Free Trade Agreement effective January 1, 2008. The sugar industry is an important part of the Mexican economy and will play a significant role in the combined U.S. - Mexico sugar market."

American Sugar Refining is owned by Florida Crystals Corporation and Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. Florida Crystals is a subsidiary of Flo-Sun Incorporated, a Fanjul Family company, and Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative is an agricultural cooperative owned by 50 sugar cane farmers. American Sugar Refining owns six sugar refineries in the United States, Canada, and Mexico that collectively
produce over four million tons of refined sugar for sale to the industrial, food
service and retail markets. Its products are sold throughout the United States
under the leading Domino and C&H brands and in Canada under the Redpath
brand.
CONTACT:
Donald
Brainard
914-709-8010

Source: American Sugar Refining, Inc.

The Power of Sugar

I guess I shouldnot be surprized. Sugar rules!