Story and photo by Miriam Raftery

February 24, 2009 (San Diego)--State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, who represents East County, has joined 27 other Republicans in signing a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, urging him to call upon the President and the Secretary of the Interior to convene the Endangered Species Committee, which the GOP has dubbed the "God Squad." The letter requests an appeal of water restrictions mandated by a federal court to protect the Delta smelt. But now a new federal study reveals that if Hollingsworth's plan is approved,lifting those restrictions would endanger killer whales as well as fish.