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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2013

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MAKING THEIR PITCHESMore than 70 businesses displayed their waresand services during a glorious day at a PalmSprings Chamber of Commerce expo. B3

GOLDENGOVERNORJerry Brown is setto become Cali-fornia’s longest-serving governornext week. A5

HOT STUFFChili cookoff ex-pected to bringmore than 1,000to the valley nextweekend. E1

Mostparticipants inarecent,first-of-its-kind survey of thehealth of the lesbian, gay, bisex-ual and transgender populationin the Coachella Valley rated

their health as “good,” “verygood,” or “excellent,” and al-most all had health insurance.But the study also found signifi-cant health needs.

More than half of the LGBTparticipants had been diag-nosed with one or more mental

health disorders, and about 40percent had experienced someemotional,mental orbehavioralproblems that worried them inthepastyear, ratesmuchhigherthan the general population butin keeping with limited state-wide andnational data, the sam-ple showed. Forty-one percenthad received a depression diag-nosis, compared with 8 percentof the general valley popula-tion, 36 percent with anxiety

comparedwith6percent, and10percent with a panic disorder,compared with 3 percent of thegeneral public.

“It’s just historically this hasbeen an underserved popula-tion thathasbeendiscriminatedagainst and stigmatized; it’swhat’s called minority stress,”saidJillGover, directorofcoun-seling at the LGBT CommunityCenter of the Desert. “Whenyou’ve got discrimination and

you have a population that’sstigmatized you have muchhigher mental health needs.”

“It’s chronically stressful tolive and survive in an environ-ment that’s notwelcoming,” shesaid.

Palm Springs has a largepopulation of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people,estimated at 40 to 60 percent of

Health gaps found among LGBTValley survey: Most are insured, ingoodhealth, but stressmarkers highBy Victoria PelhamThe Desert Sun

HEALTH CARE

Please see LGBT, A2

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FRIDAY’S PREPFOOTBALLSCOREBOARD� SPORTS

PALM DESERT — A companytied to computer mogul Mi-chael Dell is purchasing theCoachella Valley’s NBC affili-ate television station and itssister station.

Journal Broadcast Groupannounced Friday it had

agreed to sell KMIR-TV andMy 13 KPSE-LP to Virginia-based OTA Broadcasting LLC.

Approval of the sale by theFederal Communication Com-mission will be delayed be-cause of the partial govern-ment shutdown. Craig Marrs,general manager for the twostations, said the process couldtake months and that no prob-

lems with federal approvalwere anticipated.

Until the sale is finalized,the station will remain underthe control of Journal Broad-cast Group. No staffing or pro-gramming changes are antici-pated once the sale is complet-ed, Marrs said.

OTA Broadcasting alreadyowns stations in SanFrancisco,

Seattle and New York City. It’slinked to Dell, the founder ofthe computer manufacturerthat bears his name, throughone of his other companies,MSD Capital Management.

“From what we understand,Michael isaveryforward-look-ing guy,” Marrs said. “The

Company linked to PC mogul buys KMIRBy Barrett NewkirkThe Desert Sun

Please see KMIR, A11

PALM SPRINGS—The topicscovered ranged from federalenergy policy — still nonexis-tent — to sustainable localcomposting, but the messagesemerging from Friday’sSouthern California EnergySummit all touched on a fewcentral themes.

Agoal of an electric systemrun 100 percent on renewableenergy isdoableandanecessi-ty if California is to regain itsplace as an international lead-er in green power — and thatmeans developing a flexible,diverse and intelligent energysystem.

“We have everything weneed to shift to 100 percent,and it’s just amatter of havinga plan,” said actress and envi-ronmental activist Daryl Han-nah in the day’s most impas-sioned presentation. “Peoplewant energy that does not en-danger their water resources,that doesn’t endanger air qual-ity. We need to make sure theinfrastructures and para-digms we set up are in the in-terest of us having a world wecan live and thrive in, and we

Activists, industry look to futureCoachella Valley’srole in renewableenergy field keyfocus of summitBy K KaufmannThe Desert Sun

A group of students from Desert Mirage high school gets a look under the hood of an electric car at theSouthern California Energy Summit in Palm Springs on Friday. JAY CALDERON/THE DESERT SUN

Daryl Hannah speaks with The Desert Sun at the Southern CaliforniaEnergy Summit in Palm Springs on Friday. JAY CALDERON/THE DESERT SUN

ENERGY

“If food waste were acountry, it would bethe third largestgreenhouse gas emitteron the planet. Having acommunity-based,mandatory compostingsystem would getcarbon out of theatmosphere and buildnutrient-rich soil.”DARYL HANNAH,Actress, environmental activist

Please see ENERGY, A11

WASHINGTON — CaliforniaSens.DianneFeinstein andBar-bara Boxer, both millionaires,plan to give awaythe money theyearn during thepartial federalshutdown.

On the otherhand, the Coa-chella Valley’scongressman — arelativepauper—won’t get paid until Uncle Samresumes normal operations butwill eventually accept a salaryfor the periodwhenmuchof thegovernment was closed.

Unlike 800,000 federal em-ployees who began taking un-paid leaveonOct.1,membersofCongress are exempt from fur-

Valley’sofficialsforgo payas disputerages onBy Raju ChebiumDesert Sun Washington Bureau

GOVERNMENTSHUTDOWN

Sen. Barbara Boxer discusses theAffordable Care Act and thestandoff with Republicans overfederal spending during a newsconference in Washington onMonday. AP

Please see PAY, A11

Feinstein

MORE INSIDEOn Capitol Hill: Prospect for quickend to shutdown is remote. A3Wildfire risk: Officials say shut-down won’t hinder firefightingefforts if needed. A4

FROM PAGE 1 THE DESERT SUN | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2013 | A11

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aren’t only beholden to the bot-tom line.

“This isnotstuff that isaday-dream. This is something wecan do,” she said.

Hannah ledarosterof speak-ers somewhat thinned out bylast-minute cancellationscaused by the federal govern-ment shutdown, but still well-stocked with state and businessenergy leaderswho drew an au-dience of about 500 attendees tothe Palm Springs ConventionCenter.

The federal budget impassekept U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, another keynotespeaker, in Washington, D.C.,while JimKenna, state directorof the largely closed-down U.S.Bureau of Land Management,also had to cancel.

The remaining speakers fo-cused mostly on Southern Cali-fornia’s energy future as plansemerge to replace the 2,200megawatts of power from theclosed SanOnofre nuclear pow-er plant, develop renewableprojects at the shrinking SaltonSea and look beyond the state’smandate to produce 33 percentof its power from renewablesby 2020.

Michel Florio, a member ofthe California Public UtilitiesCommission, laid out the scopeof the challenge.

“Weare lookingata100-year-old industry being transformedin one or two decades,” he said.“The electric grid is one of themost complex machines creat-ed by human beings. It has to bebalanced every second. We’vehad programs for energy effi-ciency, for demand response,for solar and for other renew-ables for a number of years.What we’re looking at is bring-ing all these together in a sys-temthatcanmanagesupplyand

demand.”In replacing the power from

San Onofre, the state will needto avoid overdependence onnatural gas by backing up inter-mittent wind and solar power

with a combination of re-sources, he said. Rooftop solar,often referred to as distributedgeneration, and energy storageshould be in the mix.

“Weneed to steerdistributed

generation to places on the gridwhere it has the highest value,”he said.

But Patrick Lee, senior vicepresident with the SouthernCalifornia Gas Company, saidthat natural gas, and particular-ly biogas, could add to thestate’s energy diversity andmove toward cleaner transpor-tation.

“Over the last 12 months wehave seen a lot of announce-ments, people are committingfleets to natural gas,” he said.“Biomethane, if run through agenerationpowerplant canpro-duceenergyjust likewindorso-lar. There aremultipleways forus to produce renewable ener-gy.”

For consumers, the new gridalsowill provide “intelligent de-livery” of energy services,fromthermostatandpool-pumpcontrol toremoteenergyaudits,said Mark Wallenrod, directorof demand side managementfor Southern California Edison

“Intelligent delivery uses acommon platform to reach cus-

tomers,” he said. “It will enableus to push data from meters tocustomers in a way that makessense tocustomersandpushoutsolutions. We want to bundle(services) even further to reachcustomers in ways we haven’treached them before.”

Hannah advocated a moregrass-roots, community-orient-ed approach to tackling energyproblems and climate change.

“If food waste were a coun-try, it would be the third largestgreenhouse gas emitter on theplanet,” she said.

“Having a community-based, mandatory compostingsystem would get carbon out ofthe atmosphere and build nutri-ent-rich soil.”

Coachella Valley leaders arestill figuring out how to best po-sition the region to take advan-tage of the coming trends andchanges.

Robert Hargreaves, attor-ney for the Salton Sea Author-ity, envisions the sea’s increas-ingly exposed shore line —caused by evaporation and a de-cline in irrigation runoff — as apossible test bed for differentrenewable technologies.

“We’ll set up half a dozenplots, invitemanufacturers anddevelopers,” he said. “If you’vegot something that might workas the sea recedes, we can starttesting to see how it handles thedifficult environment.”

Wesley Ahlgren, chief oper-ating officer of the CoachellaValley Economic Partnership,wants to see the valley recruitbusinesses and “thought lead-ers” from outside the area tohelp develop its profile as an in-novation center where “wedon’t make the solar panel, wemake it better.”

He was most heartened bythe conference’smessage of en-gagement.

“I thought ‘green, renew-able’ was getting stale,” he said.“I think it’s looking at new op-portunities.”

EnergyContinued from A1

People attend the Southern California Energy Summit in Palm Springs on Friday. JAY CALDERON/THE DESERT SUN

Keynote speaker Daryl Hannah makes her presentation at theSouthern California Energy Summit on Friday. JAY CALDERON/THE DESERT SUN

company is made up of peoplewho are interested in the nextgeneration of digital productsyet at the same time are excitedabout acquiring the operationhere in Palm Springs.”

While Palm Springs is amuch smaller market for OTA,Marrssaid thecompanywasex-cited to be acquiring its firststation affiliatedwith one of thefourmajor television broadcastcompanies.

Nielsen Media Researchranks Palm Springs as the 148th

largest television market in thecountry with more than 154,000

television homes, according toJournal Broadcast Group

KMIR and My 13 had beencut off to many valley homesthis summer during a contractdisputebetweenJournalBroad-cast Group and Time WarnerCable that ended last month.The stations eventually re-turned to Time Warner sub-scribers but on differentchannels.

Terms of the sale were notdisclosed. Calls and emails senttoOTAafterbusinesshoursFri-day were not returned.

Marrs said talks between thecompanies beganwhenOTAap-proach Journal BroadcastGroup with an interest in pur-chasing the stations.

Inanewsrelease, executives

with the two companies ex-pressed confidence the stationswould continue as a service tovalley residents under newownership.

“We sincerely appreciate thededication of our talented teamin Palm Springs and their con-tinued development of our tele-vision stations over anumberofyears,” Steven Smith, chairmanand CEO of Journal Communi-cations, said in the release.

“We look forward to servingthe Palm Springs market, aswell as welcoming the employ-ees of KMIR and KPSE to theOTA family,” Bill Tolegin, CEOof OTA, said in the release.

Reach Barrett Newkirk at(760)778-4767 or barrett.newkirk@

thedesertsun.com.

KMIRContinued from A1

KMIR news anchors Elizabeth Beaubien, left, and Gino LaMont are seenon set at the TV station’s Palm Desert studios during an Oct. 12, 2012,congressional debate. The NBC affiliate and sister station KPSE, My 13,have been sold to OTA Broadcasting LLC.RICHARD LUI, THE DESERT SUN

loughs and will continue to getpaid once a month as usual un-less they tell congressional ad-ministrators to hold on to theirpay. Lawmakers last got paid onSept. 30, so they haven’t misseda paycheck yet.

According to their aides,Feinstein will donate her pay tothe Consortium of CatholicAcademies; Boxerwill give it tocharities that support veteransand women’s health.

Only eight members of Con-gress are wealthier than Fein-stein, who was worth an esti-mated $42 million last year, ac-cording to theCapitolHillnews-

paper Roll Call.Boxer was worthbetween $1.2 mil-lion and $5.5 mil-lion in 2012, ac-cording to her fi-nancial disclosurerecords.

Ruiz’s filingsfor last year show hewasworthbetween $86,000 and $565,000.In an interview in July, the sonof migrant workers said he has$125,000 inoutstandingstudent-loandebt andcan’t afford topayit off as early as he’d like andcontinue to support familymembers.

Rank-and-file members ofthe House and the Senate arepaid $174,000 a year.

Ruiz, a freshman Democratfrom Palm Desert, told House

officials to put his salary in anescrow account until the shut-down ends, according to hisspokesman, Michael Ford.

“He believes that if (mem-bers of) Congress cannot dotheir job, they should not getpaid,” he said, adding that Ruizsupports legislation denyingshutdown pay to lawmakers.

Boxer has a proposal thatwould do just that.

The Rancho Mirage Demo-crat said Thursday she’s work-ing tobroadensupport for legis-lation she and Sen. Bob Casey,D-Pa., introduced in January todeny lawmaker pay duringshutdowns and debt defaults. Asimilar Boxer bill passed theSenate in 2011 but stalled in theRepublican-led House.

The first shutdown in 17

yearsbeganTuesday, afterCon-gress failed topass a temporaryfunding measure for the newfiscal year.

Republicans refuse to pass abudget bill unless Congressagrees to rework, delay or re-peal President Barack Obama’ssignature health-care law. Thestalemate continued on Friday,four days into the shutdown.

About two-thirds of the 2.1-million-strong federal work-force has to show up to work tomaintain national security andto protect people and property.Social Security and Medicarepayments are still being made.But the rest of the workforcehas been sent home indefinitelyand the employees won’t getpaid unless Congress passes abill awarding retroactive pay.

The House is expected to voteon such a bill, and Obama hassignaled his support of themea-sure.

Like most senators, Boxerand Feinstein have furloughedhalf to two-thirds of their staff,closed their Washington andstate offices and suspendedconstituent services. Acting onthe advice of Senate lawyers,senators have retained justenough staff to help them legis-late, aides say,

ButHouse lawyers have toldmembers that staff can be kepton the job as long as they’redeemed essential.

Like many other Housemembers, Ruiz is open for busi-ness and has, in fact, extendedoffice hours in the 36th Con-gressional District.

PayContinued from A1

Ruiz