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
Still waiting on eggs, ‘Sunny Side Up’
The year was 2009 and the Temporary Public Arts Committee had just obtained a $10,000 loan from the City of Turlock to launch the "Sunny Side Up" project. The committee, chaired by local attorney Axel Gomez, planned to put 24 fiberglass eggs that stand 4 feet tall around downtown Turlock. Each egg was to be decorated by a different artist, chosen by individual sponsors. The Turlock Downtown Property Owners' Association partnered with the ...
The next victim of LA’s insatiable thirst
Want to see the future?
The means to help producers impacted by drought
This week, we continued to see historic levels of drought grip much of our nation, impacting thousands of farm families. Although the hard work and innovation of our producers has fueled a strong farm economy in recent years, President Obama and I understand the major challenges this drought poses for American agriculture.
Patients need drug options, not limitations
Imagine being sick with a life-threatening disease. Most of us would want access to as many medicines as possible - including the full range of proven treatment options.
Entertainment at the fair a deal — but no seat saving
I love summer but the icing on the cake, for me, has always been looking forward to visiting the Stanislaus County Fair. Must-do things on my fair list are checking out the photography exhibits, looking at all the handiwork crafted by FFA and 4-H kids, seeing the farm animals – invariably there is always a big mama pig and her piglets – nesting in sawdust, viewing the putt-putt antique engines and checking out the ...
Time to invest in much-needed mobile infrastructure
Isn't life quite a bit easier with apps on your phone and fast Internet connections? Broadband-high-speed Internet-has become a crucial tool for rural and urban residents alike.
The ultimate gathering place
Every year at this time the county gets a little smaller. This phenomenon is not caused by a rip in the space-time continuum or is it a matter of geographical wonder - it's called fair time. In 2011, over 245,000 people made their way to Turlock to visit the fair during its 10-day run - that's three and half times the normal population of this Valley town. The sheer number of fairgoers is ...
Give popular culture a second chance
"Uncle Sam may hope someday…to Americanize the world," proclaimed an early twentieth century edition of the New York Morning Post. While the U.S. has undoubtedly positioned itself as the Western world's locus of popular culture for decades, the latest piece of news is revealing our even broader influence. Kim Jong Un, the young leader of North Korea, was recently given a special performance in his country that included scenes from Disney's "Dumbo" ...
Exceptional fireworks event, almost
If you weren't at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds on the Fourth of July, you missed one heck of a show. The music was great. The food booths were plentiful. And the fireworks, oh the fireworks. The firework show was, arguably, one of the best I've ever seen in person. If I had any complaint it would be that the show actually lasted too long, and that seems like a rather silly thing ...
Get connected
At least once a month a well-meaning friend or acquaintance will take me aside and ask with a grim look on his or her face, "So, how's it going at the newspaper?" I assume my questioner is expecting a negative response and that's why he or she is talking to me like I just lost my favorite pet. When I reply that things are good and getting better every month, I often get ...
Vandalism not a GOP trademark
Politics in America remains downright sharply polarized. Discernment, however, is required to recognize hypocrisy when it's being flung about the landscape.
Bring back Scandifest — and other cultural events
Diversity is the spice of life. The longer I live, the more truth I find in that saying. Growing up in rural Indiana, diversity was not that common. I can count on one hand the number of students I went to high school with who were not white Protestants from a nuclear family. When I first moved to Turlock, I was amazed at the number of different cultures who all lived, worked and ...
Campaign season flashback
The year was 2008 and five candidates were vying for two open seats on the Turlock City Council. The campaign season began just like any other with formal announcements of candidacies, followed by some neighborhood door knocking and debates held by the Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and the Turlock Journal. Election same-old, same-old. Then, the next thing you know, the campaign train went completely off the rails. There were ...
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A different and very useful kind of bank
I work just a couple of blocks from a special kind of bank. It doesn't accept money for deposit, it won't finance a new car, and it wasn't part of the housing bubble. This unusual kind of bank deals mostly in seeds that it preserves, sometimes propagates, and often disperses without charge to anyone who has a research use for unusual strains of crop plants.
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