This is not good.

Makes me think of the Bee movie. This is sad, hopefully something good will happen to the bee keepers and businesses who are losing money.

Desert News must of been in a hurry to get this out today as there are several factual errors in the story. First off beeshive rental is not $140 a day. This years pollination rental was more in the neighborhood of $150 per hive for the pollination period. Second, bees are sold by the pound but not at the rate quoted. This years rate for a package of bees (three pounds of bees and one queen) was about $65 dollars total.
Although commercial bee keepers MIGHT of been loosing bees to CCD I didn't see this with hobbist beekeepers. They lost bees at higher rates than the year before BUT most of the hives I saw went into winter stressed with lower reserves due to the very hot dry summer of 2007. I also saw several hives just frozen out. On the other hand I didn't see any hives that showed signs of CCD.
Bee losses last year, Yes. CCD the main cause, I doubt it. It is interesting to note that interest in beekeeping this spring is up substantially. I saw two to three times the interest in beekeeping (new beekeepers) this spring over last spring.
Just my observations.

On the road to becoming a land NOT "flowing with milk and honey"? This is indeed serious. One estimate puts one out of every three bites of food we take is made possible by honey bees!

Thats kinda weird..

but bees are mean.
they sting you and stuff..
but I guess what it is bad if they die..

HAHA!

Other stories about CCD seem to suggest this is a problem occurring globally. For some reason, it freaks me out.

So here is the dilemma. I have always wondered if I'm killing bees when I spray my trees. If I don't spray my apple and pear trees, the fruit gets infected with coddling moth making them essentially worthless for eating. Does anyone have an answer for this?

Bees are out during the day when the temperatures are up into the 50's or above. Either spray very early in the morning or better yet in the evening after the bees return to the hive.
Since you brought it up...might I recommend that you think about even spraying at all. There are times when a spray is needed BUT often we spray because it is "that time of year" or we heard it on the radio garden show. There are some sprays that do less harm and there are other non-spraying alternatives. Organic gardeners/farmers use them all the time and get wonderful fruit and vegetables.
For every pest there is a preditor. Generally speaking there are much less preditors than pest/pray. When you spray an insecticide you kill off both but since the original pest numbers were much greater there is a good chance more of them survived but now they have less preditors to worry about and your problem is much greater. Pesticides should be a last resort not the first reaction.
Evets

The timing of your spray for coddling moths is very important. Most people spray around the first of June, and follow up with two more sprays every ten days. Most agricultural colleges like USU publish the dates they trap moths at different locations and have recommendations for "safe" spraying. Spray after blossoming is finished and in the evening when bees aren't as active and the wind is down.

It must be Global Warming

The Bee deaths are caused by Chemtrail spraying. The particulates in the spray are destroying the organs and immune systems of the Bees just like they are to everyone and everything else that is still alive. Every form of life is falling apart physically from this. We don't fall apart just because temperatures change a little! THINK. Don't be fooled by anything else. SPRAYING of the world is what's doing this-- nothing else is.