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.

California: Plenty of oil with highest gas prices in the nation

Contemplate this little tidbit the next time gasoline prices push the $5 a gallon mark: The nation's largest known shale oil reserve is in our own backyard. The Monterey Oil Shale that encompasses virtually all of the San Joaquin Valley, with the Santos Oil Shale covering the Los Angeles Basin area, has 15.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves. The U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that is three times more recoverable reserves ...

Ballot measures’ triage approach to school funding

Let's be honest. Neither Proposition 30 nor Proposition 38 will solve California's school financial problems. Education spending is the 900-pound gorilla of the never-ending state budget crisis. And until such time as the entire system is reformed from pensions to hacking away - and restructuring - the administrative structure above the district level school cuts are going to keep getting more and more dire. States that have taken bold and decisive pension reform measures ...

Politicians are just playing the percent

They're kids. Well, actually young adults. And at age 20 they're part of the Percentage People. The 99 percent. The 47 percent. The 7.8 percent. They aren't part of the wealthy. They don't pay income taxes. They don't have jobs. That doesn't mean they aren't industrious. It doesn't mean they are living on entitlements. And it doesn't mean they don't want to work. They are dealing with reality. Good people come from tough backgrounds. ...

Renewing Turlockers’ civic virtue

On the Stanislaus County website, there reads a thought-provoking saying, "Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in."

Common sense scores two wins up in Sacramento

Big Valley Christian High in Modesto wanted to build a press box for its football field.

Roads can wait; Turlock has tougher problems to tackle

I have been a resident of Turlock for 13 years. During that time I have had at least two tires go flat and multiple bumper scrapes due to the poor state of our city's roads. Despite my own personal run-ins with Turlock's famous pot holes, I must respectfully disagree with those Turlockers who feel that the state of the roads should be a priority for city officials. Please allow me to plead my ...

What’s next? Ban on plastic straws, dime for paper ones?

The cost of shopping in San Francisco is going up Oct. 1.

Big Brother on the road

Tougher fuel efficiency standards have the potential to turn our freeways and highways into havens for potholes. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting a $57 billion loss in federal gas tax funds through 2023 due to the new federal fuel efficiency standards that have just been adopted. The revenue reduction - roughly 13 percent less than what was originally projected just a year ago - will also impact separate gas tax collections for ...

Get rid of the death penalty, get rid of plea bargains

Recently, editorial page editor John Diaz asked Mark Klaas whether he expects to feel closure if California executes Richard Allen Davis, the man who kidnapped, toyed with and then killed Klaas' 12-year-old daughter, Polly, in 1993. A jury found Davis guilty and sentenced him to death in 1996. From the early days after Davis snatched Polly from a Petaluma slumber party, Klaas has been a highly visible advocate for strong laws to protect ...

Everyone, not just 53%, pay federal taxes

Teachable moments: Don't expect them from politicians - or their hacks - whether they are Republicans or Democrats. The flap over the comments that 47 percent of Americans don't pay income tax and that nearly half the population receives government benefits is a perfect example. First off, we all pay federal taxes and a lot of them. The most visible of all taxes are income taxes of which 53.6 percent of ...

Getting a handle on stress

Stress is a part of life; how you deal with it is what matters. This axiom seems simple enough, but recognizing when stress is overwhelming us and then actually taking steps to reduce its affects is another matter. When it comes to stress, I am an expert at dealing with true emergencies - I can handle fires, flat tires and criminal acts without breaking a sweat - but the daily pressures of life ...

A Food, Farm and Jobs Bill as soon as possible

After spending much of August out of Washington, Congress is back &ndash; and rural America is watching closely, hoping for passage of a Food, Farm and Jobs Bill as soon as possible. With farmers facing the worst drought in decades this summer and the current Farm Bill set to expire on September 30 of this year, time is running out for Congress to act. You and I both know the stakes couldn't ...

SB 9 puts lives of criminals above safety

A few things to consider before voting on Prop. 34

Your son and his 16-year-old best friend are celebrating the fact he just got his driver's license.

Reviving the power of questioning

With the 2012 Presidential Election just around the corner, the American public is caught in the midst of a torrent of propaganda. As the popular trend of politicians fashioning their own facts abounds, folks here and around the nation encounter the same issue: what are we supposed to take to heart? I think the newer generation is hit hardest by this difficult decision. They're the most impressionable, having only recently been exposed to ...