Archive By Section - Editorial
Regulating ourselves into bankruptcy
A study was quietly released last week by the governor that highlighted the absolute abuse that California families, small businesses and farmers are taking from over-regulation by bureaucrats in state government.
American dreaming
I had a dream last night. I was famous, a super star. Everyone knew who I was. I don't remember the reason. Maybe I had cured cancer, or maybe I had rescued a man from a burning building. Perhaps I was a famous author. But the reason doesn't matter compared to the feeling, compared to the knowledge that I had done something incredible. That I had earned the respect of my fellow man. It was ...
A leap of faith
If you are reading this on Saturday morning before 8 a.m. and plan to head north on Highway 99 towards Sacramento, make sure to look up and wave as you pass Acampo. I just might be able to see your friendly gesture as I rapidly descend to the earth from 13,000 feet in the air.
If you build it, you still have to advertise
Here's a challenge, Journal readers. Sit down at your nearest computer, visit the search engine of your choice, and try to find a facility to hold a soccer tournament in the Central Valley. Pretend you're a little league baseball commissioner and search for a set of fields for your year-ending tournament. Heck, Google up a patch of shovel-ready industrial park alongside Highway 99 while you're at it. Maybe I'm not using the right search terms. ...
A moment of silence
On Tuesday night, the Turlock City Council stood together, bowed their heads and sent a clear message to those who would try to stop them from beginning every meeting with a prayer.
A furlough by any other name ...
Since when does the word "furlough" mean "mandatory un-paid day off?" According to my Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, the word "furlough" means "a leave of absence, especially granted to a member of the services or to a missionary." I always thought a furlough was something that you granted to someone, not something you forced on an employee. I first heard the word "furlough" used in that context about a year ago. If I remember correctly, ...
Pot talk smoking online
A debate is raging this very instant on our nascent Web site, turlockjournal.com. Or perhaps I should say, a debate is blazing. The myriad stories about local government, state budget cuts, and even murders just haven't been able to get our readers riled up in the way that a green, leafy plant has in these past few weeks. Yes, the TurlockJournal.com comment section is veritably alight with varied viewpoints on the vile demon weed of ...
Stay away from my Xbox, Mr. President
How dare you, Mr. Obama? Just because Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Master Chief are not registered voters, that does not give you the authority to lambast them at every turn, good sir. When, in a June 15 American Medical Association speech, you advocated, "raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside," I first became concerned with your anti-gaming policy. Shortly after that speech, however, I foolishly ...
Your eyes and ears
Lately, I feel a little bit like a shoemaker. Shoemakers used to be important tradespeople in every town in America until the industrial revolution made their jobs obsolete. I imagine shoemakers across the country talked about the end of their profession in guild meetings and in trade newsletters in the 1900s. Newspapers probably had headlines like "Cobblers clobbered by machines." This same doomsday talk has been reported far and wide about my trade, the newspaper ...
Have you forgotten?
Even without movies like "Pearl Harbor" and "Saving Private Ryan," I know that on Dec. 7, 1941 - "a date which will live in infamy" - the Japanese pulled off a massive attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that decimated the United States' Pacific fleet and pulled America into WW II as a full combatant. I also know that June 6, 1944 - D-Day - was the day that U.S. soldiers, along with the Allied forces, ...
Eggzamining ‘Sunny Side Up’
If you haven't heard about the "Turlock Sunny Side Up" temporary public art project, it's a pretty eggcelent idea.
Good news, bad news
Almost every week I get a phone call from someone who asks, "Do you cover good news?" I always answer, "Yes, of course we do." These callers then proceed to give me a story idea about a local club event, interesting person or outstanding student.
Keep violent criminals behind bars
California's criminal justice system is complicated and a confusing mess, and the recent proposal to release thousands of convicted criminals back into our communities early makes it even worse.
Stumbling on good finds in odd places
About a decade ago I was cruising up a 130-mile long reservoir behind America's largest dam - Grand Coulee - built across the mighty Columbia River. The area around the reservoir is rural, but it's hardly the isolated wilderness of the Yukon. Nevertheless, geologists are still finding some quite intriguing things that lie in such rural places, because there are many outcrops still on Earth that we just haven't looked at seriously.
Bulldog to bulldog
I started my current career adventure as a bulldog, a Ceres High Bulldog that is. I then became a Wildcat in college and now I'm back in Bulldog territory, only this time in my high school's rival town.
Articles by Section - Editorial
All the benefits of a small town, none of the baggage
According to the United Nations' Population Division, the world's human population hit seven billion on Oct. 31. Locally, we have also seen a jump in population - although not quite as drastic - with over 70,000 people inhabiting Turlock today, compared to just 13,992 in 1970. With all the people in the world - and the growing number of Turlockers - it's amazing to me that one night of the year can make ...
Stepping up to a bright idea
At first I wasn't sure I was reading the CNN report correctly. The story hinged on special pavement that uses the impact of human feet to generate electricity. That's right. A young man in Britain has invented a device that harvests the energy from a footfall hitting the pavement to power things like LED lights. Talk about a bright idea. The "PaveGen" project is the brainchild of Laurence Kemball-Cook, age 25 ...
Bad times? Most of us have no inkling
These aren't exactly the greatest of times. Even those who normally would feel comfortable with a decent paying job have anxieties about the economy. In reality, most of us still have it good compared to many. And with the holiday season just around the corner, the pain of hunger at a time when people traditionally celebrate their good fortune of family and life becomes more acute for those who are struggling more than the ...
The missing piece of the Turlock arts scene
There really is no excuse for Turlockers sitting at home on Friday nights. Despite what a few Bay Area transplants may think, Turlock has a lot to offer those seeking cultural stimulation.
Doing more with less on the road
Between the debt-ceiling kerfuffle and Hurricane Irene, you may have missed two bits of summertime news that will be important for what we drive in the coming years. First, President Barack Obama announced that the administration and automakers had reached a deal to double the fuel economy of our national fleet of cars starting in model year 2017 and reaching the goal by 2025. Right now, cars and light trucks – light trucks ...
Power of the pedal
Lately, I've been encouraged to see more bicyclists pedaling their way around town. With the Valley's air quality issues, the increasing childhood obesity rates, and a country-wide emphasis on "greener" power, bicycling is a beneficial activity. Around the U.S. new bike lanes and paths are all the rage, helping cash-strapped cities simultaneously green operations and trim budgets-adding bike lanes is far less costly (to taxpayers and the environment) than building new roads. Also, ...
Sign of the times: To twirl or not to twirl
It is a sign of the times. The Great Depression had men walking around in A-frame signs. The Great Recession has young people twirling signs. Employing them are businesses vying for a commodity that seems as scarce at times as common sense in Sacramento - consumer dollars. I haven't come across anyone who said they were prompted to visit a particular business because of someone head banging to i-Pod music ...
Occupy Wall Street: All bite, no apple
As Occupy Wall Street activists clogged New York's Zuccotti Park protesting "corporate greed" and Occupy SF hit San Francisco's Financial District on Wednesday protesting "corporate greed," the world learned that Steve Jobs, perhaps America's most beloved modern capitalist, had died at age 56. The protesters claim to represent the working people, the 99 percent of Americans who, according to their blog, are getting kicked out of their homes, must choose between groceries and ...
A big, blue, acid ocean
Our deep blue has always been engulfed in a rich and remarkable legacy. After all, its Portuguese name "pacifico" was chosen by explorer Ferdinand Magellan to mean peaceful, steady, pacific. But such times are quickly changing. The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, as a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has affirmed that the oceans are truly the prisoners of our pollution– adapting to increasing carbon-dioxide emissions by swallowing one-fourth of ...
The other side of death
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking ...
High speed rail means quicker trip to poor house
The Central Valley Water Project implemented during the Great Recession helped lift the lot of the poor in the San Joaquin Valley by providing the means to turn fields into fertile farmland. There are those who believe launching the California High Speed Rail will do the same thing for the San Joaquin Valley and help it shake poverty that is rooted deep especially in the valley's southern part. Unlike the CVP that brought construction ...
Nothing heroic about same old, same old
If your business was failing, would you keep doing the same thing, or would you try something new? Or would you even know what doing something new would look like, having spent so long mired in an unworkable business model? Just recently, DC Comics was forced to answer those questions, opting to fight falling sales with a "new" tactic which, sadly, ends up being more of the same old thing. For ...
Not too long ago …
One hundred years seems like a long time in most situations. When someone turns 100 years old, I can't help but marvel at all the technological changes that one person has seen just in his or her lifetime. In 1911, automobiles were a novelty and many people still traveled by horse and carriage. Radios were only in the homes of the rich, but entertainment was something that many families didn't have much time ...
Real VIPs
Today I had the honor of meeting some impressive VIPs and I don't think I will ever forget the time we spent together. They were patients at Emanuel Cancer Center. As I tell you about some of them, I'm going to use fake names because of patient privacy, but they were anything but phony. These were real men and women involved in a major battle for life. First I met "Sally." She was ...
Season of new beginnings
According to my desk calendar, Friday was the start of autumn. I usually don't like to argue with inanimate objects, but I made an exception when temperatures reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit on what was supposed to be the start of a cooler season. I'm not sure if my calendar was trying to make up for the sizzling hot end of last week with two days of mild weather conditions on Sunday and Monday, ...
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