Archive By Section - Editorial
Hardy bugs are eating up the mess
The disaster in the Gulf has been plenty grim. I don't envy paymaster Kenneth Feinberg who has now taken over BP's $20 billion compensation fund. Feinberg is no stranger to trying to compensate those who have lost much, including the families affected by Sept. 11, 2001, and a somewhat lower-profile project to compensate victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech.
Get this cat a job
Here's good news: After years of reading and reviewing business books, I have finally found one volume that is 100 percent guaranteed to improve your life. It's not about moving your cheese or swimming with sharks. It doesn't teach you how to read your boss's mind or provide the seven steps guaranteed to fog the mind of a hiring manager. In fact, this book has absolutely no redeeming features at all, except it does ...
The return of the red ribbon
There are a lot of health problems in the world today. A flu pandemic swept the world last year, prompting the cancellation of some public events and temporarily closed schools. Whooping cough is making a comeback. And your morning eggs could be peppered with salmonella. Despite the plethora of things to worry about, I fear that one fatal disease is in bad need of an awareness jumpstart. Approximately 56,000 people become ...
Leaving home
For the past two weeks, I've been traveling across the country interviewing law students who have applied for jobs at my law firm. I talk to young people from New York who want to be in California, and to young people from California who want to be in New York. Some days, it seems like the only constant is that (almost) no one wants to be where they're from - and where their family is.
The science of learning
It was the summer after my sixth grade year and I was looking forward to spending three months lounging by the community pool with my friends. But my mom had other plans.
What is a city manager?
Recent media scrutiny of city managers - or, more specifically, their compensation - has reached a fever pitch in California and across the country. The city management and governmental compensation abuses uncovered last month in the small Los Angeles suburb of Bell are deplorable and warrant a full investigation. Such trespasses are rare in a profession known for transparency and populated by ...
Change in the wind for council
In two months and two and a half weeks, the face of the Turlock City Council may drastically change.
Real tax increases, real consequences
Taxpayers don't look at taxes the way the people who spend the tax money do. Take the battle over the extension of the "Bush tax cuts." Americans to Washington: They were tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. If Washington allows all or parts of the "Bush tax cuts" to expire at the end of the year, the result won't be to not cut taxes, as Beltway lingo ...
Why voters should tell Sacramento to bag it
There are two kinds of people in California politics: those who want Sacramento to ban plastic grocery bags and those who just want state pols to pass a budget.The budget is after all - what? - only 39 days late.AB1998 would ban the distribution of single-use plastic bags in 2012. Shoppers ...
For whom the Bell tolls
I would like to offer the City of Bell my gratitude for proving that newspapers are still needed in this day and age.
Grizzled veterans of America's math wars
I am a veteran of the math wars. I was there in 1995 when the shiny new California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) test told graders to award a higher score to a student who incorrectly answered a math problem about planting trees - but wrote an enthusiastic essay - than to a student who got the answer right, but with no essay.<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New ...
Wanted: Community leaders
Walt Whitman once said, "A great city is that which has the greatest men and women." Fortunately, Turlock has had the support of great men, women and most importantly leaders who have guided and shaped the city from a railroad stop into a city of almost 70,000 citizens.Since its incorporation in 1908, 20 men have held the position of ...
Carlin’s legacy
I wonder if comedian George Carlin knew in 1975 what he was doing.
Keeping it simple
At every level, we humans have a natural drive to understand the world around us. We try to understand people and the economy (with little success), and we try to understand the natural world around us (with more and more success over time).
A new wave of activism
Prior to 2007, protests in Turlock were a rare occurrence.
Articles by Section - Editorial
State water decision would leave Valley hanging dry
There is no life without water, and nowhere is this sentiment truer than in California, where water is critical to the vitality of every part of the state. But that does not give bureaucrats the justification to decimate the San Joaquin Valley to divert water from some areas to give even more water to others. The State Water Resources Control Board quietly decided on New Year's Eve to increase water exports for fish ...
From a nation of risk takers to a nation of litigators
A baseball fan turns away from the action at a minor league game in Idaho to chat with a friend. Suddenly, the crowd around him starts yelling. He turns back toward the field and is hit in the eye with a foul ball. Ultimately he loses vision in the eye. He sues. Earlier this month, NASCAR fans at Daytona sitting feet from the track where cars are racing at speeds approaching 200 mph ...
Yahoo's return to the Industrial Revolution
In January, the Journal relaunched its Women in Business publication after a four-year hiatus. When the advertising department first suggested bringing back this section, I was a little hesitant. Most of the women I know who hold leadership positions in their respective careers consider themselves professionals. Not women professionals. And all of the women interviewed for this year's special publication voiced the same opinion; gender was not a factor in their daily professional ...
The new math for employers
A side effect of more healthcare insurance coverage is becoming painfully apparent - a less robust economy for those struggling to stay afloat. It all comes down to two numbers: 49 and 29. Go above 49 employees and a business has to provide health insurance. Have an employee work more hours a week, and if you provide health coverage you have to extend it to them as well. The firms ...
Texas governor is California dreaming
Everything is bigger in Texas. Including the egos of their politicians. Texas Gov. Rick Perry came to California recently. His objective was to steal jobs. A Rhode Island-sized radio campaign - $24,000 worth of paid spots - preceded his pilgrimage to the cutting-edge land known as California. Perry's spiel is that he's heading here because it's hard to do business in California. It's so hard that Cupertino-based Apple has amassed $187 billion while Texas-based ...
Gun insurance is not the answer
Mandatory gun liability insurance for gun owners sounds reasonable, doesn't it? But so does mandatory liability insurance for dog owners. On paper, at least. In reality, all insurance will do is drive up the cost of owning a gun for responsible citizens and do little if anything to stop the criminal element or crazed individuals from killing people. Assemblyman Philip Ting, D-San Francisco, is pursuing a mandatory gun insurance requirement ...
Dorner's last day
My friends from out of town want to know what I thought of President Obama's State of the Union address. The answer is simple. I live in Los Angeles. I didn't see or hear the State of the Union address. I was watching the Christopher Dorner manhunt. In the days since Dorner became the most feared name in Los Angeles, my adopted city has gone through an emotional roller coaster: horror at the ...
Time to restore a rusting practice
It's commonplace to be familiar with those particularly disgruntled folks who breathe a sigh of relief at the end of each Valentine's Day. However, if there is one typical feature of Valentine's Day that we should take care to continue, it is writing meaningful cards and letters. I still hold memories of myself enjoying how fresh ink scratched the paper as I wrote all my birthday party thank-you notes nearly seven years ago, ...
Patterson dodges anti-Walmart forces
Patterson has done what Ceres has not, so far: Opened a Walmart Supercenter. It appears the project, which opened last month, dodged the bullet of the anti-Walmart forces. On the other hand, the proposed and approved Ceres Walmart Supercenter is balled up in legal proceedings that could take years. What gives? Why was Ceres targeted by paid Walmart assassin Brett Jolley (the attorney who makes a living by fighting Walmarts up and down California) ...
Famous villain back in the news
My father taught me the line when I was a child: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"
Perhaps EPA will invade Mexico next
The Environmental Perfection Agency is finally having its wings clipped.
Do as I say, not as I do
There's a lot that Al Gore says that makes sense. Ditto for Warren Buffet. But the next time they lecture us you may want to see if their words match their actions. Gore has a long history of "do as I say" and "not as I do." It goes back as far as his speech as vice president, lecturing us on the immorality of buying and driving big SUVs and ...
Making the case for Big Brother
If I was a politician, I might be labeled a flip-flopper because I have recently reversed my previous opinion on a local governance issue. The matter in question: red light traffic cameras. Four years ago, the City of Turlock was considering installing red light enforcement cameras at two Turlock intersections. I was personally against the idea of traffic cameras and was happy when the City ultimately decided against their installation. I have since ...
Brown's legacy: Saving the state from splurge spending
Jerry Brown's legacy awaits. And so does the future of California.
Uncle Sam is tough with dopers but not with those who steal billions
I confess. I could care less that Lance Armstrong blood doped. I could care even less whether Barry Bonds and half of baseball uses steroids. They are playing games that happen to be big business. Yes, they either did or may have cheated. But why is this is a national crime? Should the FBI and the Department of Justice be spending inordinate amount of resources going after them? Yes, they broke the law. ...
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