Archive By Section - Editorial
What not to target during the California crisis
It is irksome to know that California legislators continue to look upon sacrificing the state's education system and prison system as the best way to reverse the deteriorating financial situation. Most Californians are familiar with the recent "trigger cuts" that have been whittling down the quality of our education system at a dangerous rate. A few weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a $6 billion cut from K-12 school funding in November although ...
Airline ticket shock
As the days get longer and the temperature rises, a familiar feeling of wanderlust comes over me. I don't know if it's the sunshine or a flashback to the "school's out" mentality of my youth, but I feel the need to travel. Fortunately, my generous employer offers paid vacation days - unfortunately, I will have to sell a kidney to afford a plane ticket this season. The cost of air travel has ...
Feeding children during summer meal gap
While the kids are exuberantly shouting, "School's out!" many parents may be quietly worrying just how they're going to feed their kids all summer long. I want to assure those moms, dads and caregivers that USDA has a program that can help. All it takes is a toll free phone call to find a USDA Summer Food Service Program site where children in low-income areas can get a free ...
Red light runners underscore sense of entitlement
I could hardly believe my eyes as I approached the intersection of Keyes and Hickman roads on the morning of Sept. 14, 1984. The carnage of the aftermath of a grinding crash in the path of my 1974 Camaro was less than five minutes old. It looked as though a bomb blew over a tractor-trailer rig with a set of axles in the road, a set of trailers blocking the southbound lane and a load of grapes scattered about the scene.
Times are a-changing, but not enough
As both high school and college graduates don their academic regalia and stand before family and friends in a public display of triumphant, it's easy to read the enthusiasm and optimistic outlook on their faces. These newly-minted grads are ready to take on the future – whatever it may hold. Ask any graduate what their future plans are and you will hear a mix of altruistic goals like curing cancer and finding a ...
An epidemic of whooping and worse
Even if you don't have kids in your household, you could be exposed to serious diseases that often affect children. And at the moment there's a sharp spike upward in one contagious disease that you could help protect yourself and youngsters against by getting a simple shot at the doctor's office.
The problem with government isn’t a few bad apples
Americans get angry when they learn of government bureaucrats spending lavishly at a Las Vegas hotel or Secret Service agents consorting with prostitutes. As well they should. Such conduct wastes money and drains Americans' respect for their government.
Bring on summer
While the official start of summer is still three weeks away - June 20, to be exact - the season began for many last weekend. Local lakes, rivers and parks were full of families looking to start summer with a bang - or a splash and the sizzle of a grill.
To the Class of 2012: It’s all about attitude
Dear graduates: You are naturally going to think you are the greatest generation ever to walk the earth and that you will have all the answers, while being scared at the same time. And before the night is over, someone is going to tell you, "welcome to the real world." Just smile and ignore them. You have been in the real world. It's just now you're going to find out how things such as an ...
Berryhill working on sensible Delta solution for state water, fish needs
It doesn't have to be "us" against "them" in California water politics. The 45-mile tunnel advanced by Southern California interests to make sure the Sacramento River water they use doesn't have to mingle with the Delta and the San Joaquin River flows would make the ecological and economical damage that the Los Angeles Water Department did to Owens Valley look like a positive thing in comparison. Southern California water interests - and to a lesser ...
Entitlement 101: Cheat in honors class & sue school to stay in class
A sophomore at Sequoia High in Redwood City in an English honors class is caught cheating and is kicked out of the class. His parents sue as it may hurt his chances of getting into an Ivy League school.
Student loans rates aren’t what ail higher education
It's time that common sense guided higher education spending in California. We have three statewide college systems - community colleges, state universities and the University of California. It is time to stop blurring the distinction between the CSU and UC systems. At the same time, we need to tweak the community college system. Things started going haywire a few decades ago when the CSU system - feeling somewhat inferior - made a push to shed ...
More than breasts, bones, and babies
I spent two hours the other day standing in front of the greeting card display at my local grocery store trying in vain to pick out the perfect Mother's Day card for my mom. Mother's Day is the one day in the year that I take the time to express just how much I love, appreciate and admire the woman who put up with me for over three decades. I finally realized that ...
One for Turlock
Turlock itself has seemingly been at the center of my priorities these past few weeks. I recently participated in the 2012 Ode to Turlock Poetry Contest, in which I composed a seven stanza poem praising Turlock as a locus of culture, strength, and agriculture. I was both honored and humbled to be selected as one of the winners of the contest, and was invited to present my poem at a poetry reading night ...
Thank you, Mr. Lincoln
I had an opportunity this week to acknowledge and help commemorate a genuinely transformative event in American history. The action itself was simple – the stroke of a pen. And, as it turned out, the man wielding the pen has been immortalized for very different achievements. But this one, in its own way, changed the world. It was 1862, and President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, signed a piece ...
Articles by Section - Editorial
Environmental perfection claims another 118 jobs
Clean air, or perhaps more precisely, environmental perfection is the killer of blue collar head-of-household jobs in the San Joaquin Valley. The 118 men and women who are about to lose their paychecks at one of Lathrop's most high profile and longest employers - the Pilkington flat glass manufacturing facility - are the latest victims. Sixteen years ago it was 220 workers at Manteca's Spreckels Sugar plant. In both cases, each manufacturer had spent ...
Google Glass may do for eye sight what iPods have for hearing
Remember the good old days? It's when TVs required vacuum tubes and about the flattest they got was three feet deep. Meanwhile the screen was the size of a moderate-sized tablet and, if you were lucky, produced a relatively clean black and white image devoid of snow. Now TVs thinner than a book dubbed "The Wit and Wisdom of Congress" adorn the walls in many homes. They are often larger than the screens that ...
New report highlights the need for a Food, Farm and Jobs Bill
This week, the White House released a new report showing the critical need for Congressional passage of a new Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. This comprehensive report highlights how the thriving business of agriculture is a cornerstone of America's economy, creating jobs and boosting opportunity. Agricultural production and its related sectors contributed $743 billion to U.S. GDP in 2011, accounting for nearly 5 percent of economic output. Today about one out of every 12 jobs ...
'Wild Turkey on the Rocks?'
Much we believe about turkeys is not true. Myth No. 1: They were served at the "first Thanksgiving" feast in Plymouth, Mass. There's no evidence for that. The Plymouth Colony governor, an observer wrote, "sent foure men on fowling" for the dinner. Fowling is an Old English reference to waterfowl. So ducks and geese were probably on the menu, not turkey. Myth No. 2: Benjamin Franklin proposed that the wild turkey ...
Giving so much more than thanks
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American invention, and I think it must be one of our finest. The celebrations, the food, the parades and pronouncements give us an annual reminder of all that we are so thankful for – and also a reminder to share our blessings. One benefit of my position as California's Secretary of Agriculture is that my department coordinates the annual State Employees Food Drive, which last year donated 647,110 pounds ...
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