Dear Editor: This letter is in response to the Jan. 11 story: "University Students have mixed opinions on AB 656." The story focuses on the creation of the California Higher Education Endowment Corporation. However, it fails to recognize the devastating effects a 12.5 percent oil severance tax, the source of the corporation's funding, would have on California's economy. The story claims that California "is the only state in the nation without an oil severance tax." ...
What is more important, public health care or public education? If you are a healthy child with caring parents, you could walk to the library and self-educate yourself. For example, Abraham Lincoln.
On Jan. 12, 2010, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's bill AB-390 will be voted on by the Public Safety Committee. If it passes, it's scheduled to move on to the Public Heath Committee the very same day.
Dear Editor, In answer to the letter about vaccinations which ran in the Dec. 16 Journal, I can offer some answers to the questions. The simple answer to the question, "Did the 98 million doses contaminated with SV40 lead to the HIV epidemic 25 years later?" is no. SV40 is a simian (monkey) virus and often shows no symptoms when monkeys are infected. It is not a human virus like HIV and the comparison of ...
If vaccines are as safe and effective as our government and vaccine proponents claim, answering these questions will be easy and reassuring.
I was listening and reading about the plight of yet another successful industry going out of business - the dairy industry. Dairy folks receive generous subsidies, but still aren't protected against mountains of regulations or imports. What really is happening it that the corporations want all those cows to be corporate cows and some poor guy from Paraguay to come in and do all the work of taking care of dairy cows then get lost.
I am concerned about the impact that an estimated 3.75 fold increase in the use of Joe Debely Stadium will have on the adjacent neighborhood. So, for the first time in a long time, I attended a meeting of the Turlock City Council on Dec. 1. Based on what I witnessed and experienced there, I now have much greater concerns.
It may have come to your attention that there have been, and still are, drastic budget cuts considered for the arts at California State University, Stanislaus. As a Piano Performance major, I would be extremely devastated if such a thing would be allowed to happen. If these budget cuts were allowed to happen, all private lessons (meaning one-on-one time with an instructor specifically for that instrument) would be canceled, because nearly all instruments taught at ...
Dear Editor, I am a little confused as to why we would be talking about spending millions of dollars on the rebuilding of an art center, when many have written over and over again to the Journal regarding the need for repairing our streets and roads that are in terrible condition. I don't understand why there has not been an explanation to the citizens of this community regarding our street problem. Please someone, give us ...
The current economic recession has financially impacted our entire community. Businesses, families, local governments and our local university, CSU Stanislaus, have been significantly impacted. Tough decisions have been required of all our leaders. Unfortunately, these decisions are necessary in order to ensure the continued viability of our local businesses, governments, and the university.
Dear Editor, Louis Pasteur died in 1895 and Robert Koch died in 1910. Their great works were done in the 1860s through the 1890s. What they knew 120 to 150 years ago was nothing compared to what we know now. Dave Dubyak uses their foundational, but primitive understanding to try to "not to single out each vaccine, but to educate people of their dangers and to advocate effective alternatives." He claims that, "Germs are the ...
Recently, I was shopping at Orchard Supply Hardware for electrical supplies when I had a problem. At age 85 my joints and muscles limit what I can physically do. The electrical PVC elbows that I needed were far back in the bottom bin. I tried to stretch my limbs to reach them. I knew that if I slid down to the floor, I would not be able to get up. What can I do? I ...
Turlock now seems to have entered into a new era. It is one of big city politics with all the earmarks and unwarranted spending that accompanies self-interested politicians. This is ever more apparent with the recent action that the city council has taken. The council has advocated and decided to allow for the misappropriation of Redevelopment Agency funds to remodel the football stadium at Turlock High School. It was an effort headed by Councilman Ted ...
Dear Editor, Thank you for this opportunity to reveal the truth, not create it. Thank you to Eric Julien for your response to my recent letter, and here is mine. The intent of my letter is not to single out each vaccine, but to educate people of their dangers and to advocate effective alternatives. The germ theory is what all vaccination programs are predicated upon. Even Louis Pasture, famous for his promotion of this idea ...
David Dubyak accused the Turlock Journal of rubberstamping the flu shot recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health in his recent letter to the editor. I have been reading the series of science related articles, published on Saturdays, and authored by Dr. E. Kirsten Peters in your editorial page. I suspect, based on your inclusion of these articles, that your action was an intelligent choice, rather than a rubberstamp.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Dear Mayor John Lazar, Kindly give some thought to the following: Stop having (City of) Turlock statements and payments sent to Suisun, Calif. People living in Turlock need jobs, so I'm sure that all of it can be done here - and at the same time will be helping here in Turlock. Thank you in advance for your attention and your consideration. - Eleanor Hendrickson
One year ago this Saturday, Oct. 22, my husband and I welcomed our fourth child, Sydney Grace Garcia. As wonderful and amazing as all of our children's' births were, this was no ordinary birth. Sydney was born in the front passenger's seat of our Subaru Tribeca in the Comfort Suites parking lot. While en route to the hospital, my husband and I realized we weren't going to make it and needed to call ...
A few years ago when I heard that the city was installing water meters on all the homes in town, I knew that it was going to have nothing to do with water conservation, and everything to do with getting money out of our pockets. This spring, actually almost summer this year with all the rain we had, I adjusted my landscape irrigation so that I would use as close to the maximum ...
I want to thank all the wonderful people of Turlock who helped my family last Thursday (Aug. 25) afternoon; it is really comforting to live in a city where people care for each other. This is the story of what happened: We were taking my daughter to her gym class in the afternoon and parked in the shopping center parking lot at Canal Drive. While my wife was crossing the lanes holding ...