Archive By Section - Letters to the Editor
Howze decides which kids are worthy of safe recreation
Turlock City Councilman Ted Howze has struck again! He proposes cutting all summer swim programs at the Turlock High and Pitman High schools. He calls the current programs "the biggest money loser in the entire recreation department." He also disagreed with Councilwoman Mary Jackson that these pools afforded children a safe place to swim and recreate during our 105 degree summers. He wishes to "force" everybody to use Columbia Pool. This means ...
Children of Turlock deserve a safe place to swim
Thank you Turlock City Council for allowing two more weeks to hopefully get the community to rally around keeping at least one more pool open for recreation swimming.
Older teachers are better at their jobs
Teachers are evaluated by school administrators. School administrators are generally either failed teachers who were excellent sycophants or persons who have never taught a day in their lives. Teacher evaluations are based upon your sycophantic abilities, the church you attend, whom you are related to, what your current social status in the community is, and other unmentionable criteria. <span style="font-size: 12pt; ...
Apology was warranted
At Tuesday's meeting of the Turlock City Council, I issued a personal apology to members of the city's finance staff for a statement made in my opinion editorial to the Turlock Journal. I would like to clarify the facts involved and why an apology was the right thing to do.
Councilman Howze makes unsubstantiated claims
Editor, I am greatly concerned by the incendiary and malicious tone of Turlock City Council member Ted Howze's letter of May 21. Accounting and budgeting for insurance reserves is a complex and challenging task. Estimates and projections about future events are required. It is likely that an over or under provision will occur when doing this work. It is not proof ...
The truth behind the city’s ‘found’ money
Turlock's residents and our city employees deserve to know the truth about the millions of general fund dollars "found" stashed away in a series of special holding funds that covers the city's state unemployment, workers compensation and health insurance costs. In reality, the money was never "lost" to begin with. There are individuals within city staff who knew the funds existed and that they held ...
Enough is enough
I am thoroughly disgusted with the California Legislature. I believe the public should and does have the right to be irate about this situation of passing a budget on time. I am 69 years old and I cannot remember the last time a budget was passed on time.
Student health services top notch
Though I am covered by a "Cadillac" insurance plan with Kaiser, I choose to frequent the Student Health Center at California State University, Stanislaus. I called to book an appointment with Kaiser recently, and there was a three week wait to see my doctor. I would be charged a $20 co-pay at the time of the appointment and would be charged between $20 and $30 for my prescription. Disappointed, I ...
Digitizing best left to Lundrigan
As the Stanislaus County Assessor I know that digitizing documents is both time consuming and costly. It takes thorough research, planning, and execution to get the best results at a reasonable cost to taxpayers. Because I meet on a regular basis with the County Clerk-Recorder Lee Lundrigan, I know that she has already started this time consuming process. It may be easy for her opponent to say that he plans ...
Teachers continue to work towards excellence, despite obstacles
With the budget crisis, teacher lay-offs, low test scores, and struggling students and schools… we can still continue to find something positive! Turlock Unified School District's Instructional Coaches offered a voluntary staff development that was targeted to meet the instructional needs of teachers and learning needs of all students. The reception of teachers "choosing" to attend on their own time was amazing, especially now, when teachers are finishing benchmark ...
Christianson is a dedicated public servant
I am proud to be supporting Adam Christianson for Sheriff. Adam has taken the high road and insisted on everyone keeping positive. He deplores negative campaigning and I have never heard him bring up any negatives about his opponent.
AB 32 will help drive a sustainable economic recovery
Just a few years after passing AB 32, our state's challenge to reach a clean energy future, a handful of reactionaries in Sacramento (including Sen. Jeff Denham) are trying to repeal it, a move that will create economic uncertainty for thousands of businesses and stymie billions of dollars of investment in solar, wind, and other clean tech projects in the Central Valley. ...
Unfair deadlines prevent taxpayers from correcting mistakes
The deadlines for tax appeals illustrates one way California law creates a hostile work environment for taxpayers.
Where is the partnership?
Editor, It is with great disappointment I have read the recent comments of the Turlock Unified School Board and District Office in the papers. By their comments, it appears they have already made up their minds as to what they intend to do. They intend to impose a 2 percent salary cut on employees and ignore other effective cost cutting measures such as furloughs. <p style="margin: ...
Articles by Section - Letters to the Editor
Future bright for downtown
In her recent editorial, Kristina Hacker asks "whatever happened to Turlock's bridal district?" It is a good question, and in fact, she partially answers it herself. Whether or not the concept was a good idea, the timing could not have been worse. Launched in January 2008 at a time when vacancies downtown were near zero, the Turlock Downtown Property Owner's Association attempted to create a long term vision for downtown to attract new businesses and ...
School medical program needs community support
Dear Editor, Thank you for your story on the Delhi JAMS (Junior Academy of Medical Sciences) program published Saturday, March 10. I'm Eloisa Fuentes, the physician who was mentioned in the piece. I'm writing to give due credit for the inception of the JAMS program to Delhi's former superintendent Mr. Baltazar. His vision was materialized and is being developed by Mrs. Gomes, director of curriculum and instruction. Mr. Baltazar has retired and the ...
Dean’s Pizza steps in for sandwich shop’s lack of character
Dear Editor,
Gray should watch his endorsements
Dear Editor, I noticed a few oddities while looking at the website of State Assembly candidate Adam Gray. It was Mr. Gray's list of endorsers that intrigued me the most. The list includes numerous legislators, mostly from the Bay Area and Southern California. The most interesting of these is State Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco. This is the same Leland Yee who launched a nasty campaign of political harassment last year ...
Freedom of religion ignored in federal health plan mandates
On Friday, January 20, 2012, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ruled that virtually all private health plans will be required to include sterilization and contraceptives, including abortion inducing drugs. A very restricted "religious exemption" is granted to religious groups only if they are serving people of the same belief in a very narrow setting such as a parish and employ people of their own faith. However, the Catholic Church in ...
Cities need SB 659
Dear Editor: Legislators should pass SB 659 to extend the dissolution date of redevelopment agencies or cities will face dire consequences. Senate Bill 659 is a pertinent piece of legislation that would extend the Feb. 1 deadline for redevelopment agency dissolution as prescribed by last year's Assembly Bill 1X 26. Without it, cities throughout California are facing significant job losses and financial burdens, bond payments will be at risk and credit ratings ...
Starbucks brightens holiday for hundreds of local foster youth
Thanks to the giving spirit exhibited by Starbucks in the Turlock area, many foster youth in our community have great memories of the 2011 holiday season. Starbucks lent their support to Aspiranet's third annual holiday gift drive, helping us solicit and collect gifts for foster children and families in need during November and December. Because of the generosity of Starbucks' staff and their customers, we collected and distributed 3,400 gifts throughout California. Whether ...
Construction should happen after school hours
In response to the article in Wednesday's Journal, "Blaze burns Crowell School classrooms;" First and foremost our family would like to thank the teachers and staff for keeping our grandson Aaron Murray and all the other boys and girls safe during this time. Thank God they had their fire escape plans in place. Second, we tip our hats off to the first responders, the Turlock Fire Department and Turlock Police Department. To all ...
Generosity abounds in Turlock
We would like to thank the community of Turlock for the outpour of love and care towards the children who would have gone without a toy this Christmas. We feared because of the state of our economy, that our donations would be low; thankfully this was one of our best years! Mr. Claus and I (Mrs. Claus) delivered over 200 toys. Thank you so much Turlock for giving us the opportunity to see the joy ...
Thank you Turlock
On behalf of the Turlock Branch of the American Association of University Women, I want to thank the many businesses in Turlock that contributed to our Wine Event Fundraiser. Thanks to your generous support, we were able to raise $6,000 for educational fellowships, scholarships for local high school students and Tech Trek, a summer camp for middle school girls to encourage their interest in math and science. Despite the difficulties of maintaining a ...
A good example
A couple of weeks ago, I was going to an appointment and went down Mitchell Road. There was a group of men working with a police officer cleaning the side of the road. I assumed they were inmates or men that were working off time. To my surprise, I saw the officer that was with them working hard right alongside of the men. He was raking and had already worked up a sweat ...
Make sure veterans have all the benefits they deserve
The Veterans Caucus of the California Democratic Party thanks President Barack Obama for honoring his pledge to bring home all of our troops from Iraq by the end of 2012. We encourage the President to bring the war in Afghanistan – the longest in America's history – to a rapid and responsible close as well. It's time once again to turn veterans' swords into ploughshares and attend to the growing inequities here at home. ...
Life in America for an Assyrian
I was born in Iran and now my family and I live in Turlock. Life between America and Iran is very different. The biggest difference is freedom, notably, religious and social freedoms. In this country you can have freedom about religion without somebody telling you how to think. You have freedom about the clothes you wear, how you wear your hair, or anything about your appearance. In Iran you can get in trouble ...
Shame on the City of Turlock
The city came out a couple of years ago while my parents were out of town for a few weeks, tore out their nice driveway, poured a new one that is cheap and has a place where the water sits. They also removed nice brass automatic lawn waters, replaced them with plastic, and didn't even get them all reconnected. The city also cut roots off of trees that have since died; and put ...
Coming to America
My wife and I had many serious discussions when we considered emigrating to the USA from Iran. We would leave behind family, friends and my position as a millwright. We would have to learn about a different culture and acquire a new language. One reason we decided to leave Iran was because of the repressive government. Most people in Iran - from any religion - are very unhappy with their government. We ...
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