Jared Breshears, a mobile sales consultant at Visalia's Best Buy store, said sales of hands-free accessories have been heavy as the deadline nears.
"We have a whole lot of sales going on, and we've sold out of all of our Bluetooth car-mount kits," he said. "And the new Bluetooth Jawbone was just released Sunday and we're running low on that one already."
The big-box retailers like Best Buy aren't the only ones seeing brisk business. At Digital One, a cell phone and accessory specialty store in Visalia, owner Rick Perez said sales are "crazy."
"Everyone's picking up kits and headsets and it's hard to keep anything in stock," he said, "no matter what kind it is."
Both Breshears and Perez said while many people are upgrading their old cell phones to newer Bluetooth-compatible phones for wireless headsets, wired sets are also selling well.
"Some people don't like change, and there are a few old-schoolers who just like their phones and they'd rather have a wire," Perez said.
Starting Tuesday, a new state law will prohibit Californians from driving while using a hand-held cell phone.
Predictably, that's causing a run on hands-free devices at local stores. Wireless Bluetooths seem to be the hottest seller.
At the Sprint Store on the southwest corner of Shaw and Blackstone avenues, retail sales associate Carlos Castro said this afternoon that he has plenty of Bluetooth wireless headsets in stock, but he's out of wired headsets. He said business accounts pretty much wiped out the inventory.
You can find out details in a Q&A by The Bee's E.J. Schultz in Tuesday's Bee.
And at the Radio Shack on North Blackstone, sales associate Anita Sengrath said this afternoon that one custom-bought 10 Bluetooths. She said last week was crazy.
Sengrath also said the story is sold out of speaker phones, "because a lot of people don't like using earphones."
Watch for Bee Capitol Bureau E.J. Schultz's Q&A on the new law in Tuesday's Bee. Here's a sampling:
Q: Will there be a grace period?
A: No. The laws took effect at midnight. Like most laws, law enforcement officers can use discretion as to whether to issue a warning or a citation.
The smoke and smog siege last week might have been the worst ever in the San Joaquin Valley.
I didn't get that from any authority, but I do have a frame of reference based on ozone readings.
Big fires make ozone readings spike. So, take a look at the last week of ozone readings. It is off the charts, compared to anything I've seen in the last six years.
The yellow readings indicate a state health violation. The red ones are federal violations. The blue ones are days when the air did not exceed a health standard.
The Web page has just eight blue numbers out of 154 readings between June 23 and June 29. There are 22 monitors spread from Stockton to Bakersfield.
The page looks like it's bleeding red with federal ozone violations.
I have taken a quick look through the past ozone numbers available on the state's Web site. Going back 12 years, I didn't see any weeks like that one.
Please, go through the numbers yourself. Let me know if you find a worse week.
It's part of a trend, federal officials say, as people react to gasoline price spikes. Since November, Americans drove 30 billion fewer miles than the previous year while ridership has increased on mass transit.
To put this in perspective, let's say that the 1.4 billion miles in April would have been driven in average vehicles. That would mean about 590,000 metric tons of the global warming gas carbon dioxide would have been prevented from going into the air.
Because the mileage probably would have been driven by many types of vehicles, the actual number might be twice as high.
Either way, it's a small dent in a country where carbon dioxide emissions are annually counted in the hundreds of millions of metric tons.
By the way, state estimates show there are nearly 100 million miles driven daily in the San Joaquin Valley -- up from 77.1 million miles in 2000. More perspective? The distance from the Earth to the sun is about 92 million miles.
While I've been away on vacation, the San Joaquin Valley has turned into a cauldron of dirty air.
The visible crud in the air and the smell of smoke should tell you to limit your outdoor exposure. The particulate matter is probably the most dangerous pollutant out there. The tiny particles get into your lungs and migrate into your body -- your blood, your heart, your brain. This stuff has been linked to early mortality.
Ozone is scary, too. It leaves tiny scarring in your lungs. Over many years, the damage can make it difficult to breathe. Scientists this year linked ozone with early mortality.
Remember, ozone oxidizes. So it's not just your lungs. It's your skin and your eyes, too.
Take a look at the rubber on your tires. It cracks over time from oxidation. In the 1950s, scientists would use a rubber band to test the ozone. They would stretch a rubber band around a jar. If the oxidation snapped the rubber band early in the day, it was a bad ozone time.
Did you know fires contribute to the ozone problem? Nineteen of the 22 ozone monitors listed on the state Air Resources Board Web site displayed violations -- on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
It was worse Friday. There was a federal violation at every monitor in the Valley, except the one in Stockton. Friday was one of the worst air-quality days we've had in a while.
Indeed, the fires aren't just sending us particles. Tons of nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons are pouring into the Valley from fires. It is not unusual for a fire to push parts of the Valley into ozone violations.
I don't know how much of it is coming from Northern California. But if you believe what the satellite photos are showing, it could be a significant part of the problem.
Some readers have asked me if this proves that the Bay Area's pollution is the Valley's real air quality problem. The air scientists have told me it does not. More on that later.
For now, keep your eye on the news to see if this stuff clears out soon. Otherwise, stay in as much as you can.
Survey says workers believe employers not diverse enough
Only about a third of workers believe that corporate America has achieved total workforce diversity, according to a survey by a Swiss-based employment services company.
And about 78% of workers feel companies are not “walking the walk.” It also says 47% of employees 47% have felt discriminated against at the office, with age cited as the top complaint.
The survey is by Adecco USA and is to be released July 9. The company said in a statement that its survey seeks to uncover feelings on the future of diversity in the workplace and how far have companies have come to meeting it -- especially as as more and more companies publicly support diversity initiatives and antidiscrimination policies.
The survey is to be released in conjunction with the World Diversity Leadership Summit at the United Nations.
Additional survey findings include:
Top Discriminations in the Office: Of those American workers who have experienced discrimination at the office, age (52%) was the most prevalent form followed by gender (43%), race (32%), religion (9%) and disability (7%).
Practice vs. Preach: The vast majority of workers (78%) feel that having a diverse workforce is something that most companies publicize more than they actually implement
Diversity and Productivity: Not only do the majority of workers think that a diverse workforce makes their organization more successful, half of respondents (53%) felt that the more diverse their company, the more productive a worker they’d become.
Friday was Bill Gates’ final full day at Microsoft Corp. The goofy, geeky man who built a software empire will work part-time and become non-executive chairman of the board, allowing him to focus on his philanthropy.
Media websites are ripe today with photos of the man who empowered nerds everywhere. Let's take a look back at a few, but first check out this hilarious video — created in January — about how Gates planned to spend his final days at work.
The above Associated Press photo was taken in 1984, nine years after Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen.
This file photo distributed by the company was taken in 1978, of the people who got Microsoft off the ground. Gates is at the lower left. A caption often accompanying this photo reads, ""Would you invest with these guys?" according to an NPR story today.
I love this photo, courtesy of NPR and Seattle's Lakeside High School, when Gates was a teen.
For much of the past week, Valley residents have bemoaned breathing air we can slice with a knife (or maybe it just seems that way) because of all the smoke from fires around the state.
We're used to not being able to see the nearby Sierra Nevada in the summertime; it's just part of the ordinary air quality problems we're sadly used to. But this is different because now it's difficult just to see trees on the horizon just a mile away.
But nothing says it quite like pictures. Here's a satellite photo posted today by NASA and the the U.S. Forest Service that shows just how thick the smoke is in the San Joaquin Valley compared to areas outside the mountains that rim the region.
Are you feeling the same throat irritation or breathing difficulties that so many others are complaining about? Feel free to comment and let us know how this smoke is affecting you.
Nationally, no. In California, yes. At least that is what the Business Forecasting Center at University of the Pacific in Stockton says. "The state is in the midst of at least three quarters of essentially zero growth," the center says in a just-released quarterly report.
University economists say that the state economy actually is holding up pretty well considering the multiple whammies from inflated gas prices, a collapsing home market, a credit crunch and higher food costs. Damage is pretty much limited to construction and finance sectors, although retailers, trade and transportation businesses aren't likely to be hiring much.
The economists don't use this analogy, but it sounds almost like an economic cleansing. Lower home prices will jump-start home sales more quickly than in the past, and improve quality of life and the business climate, the report states.
The economy should start improving in late 2009, but housing may take longer if interest rates rise and
and mounting job losses reduce buyer demand, Business Forecasting Center chief Jeff Michael told me. He's encouraged by reports that home sales surged in April and May, but doesn't know if we've hit bottom.
"But prices are coming back in line with incomes," he said.
Meanwhile, Fresno's short term outlook is anemic at best. Job growth will sink to a meager 0.2% in 2009 before rebounding in 2010, the center reports. Surprisingly, Stockton appears at the top of the list. It has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, but still has among the fastest-growing economy thanks to its strategic position in the state.
State Farm Bureau endorses Gilmore in 30th Assembly race
Hanford Republican Danny Gilmore is getting a boost from the California Farm Bureau Federation in his bid for the 30th Assembly District seat being vacated by Nicole Parra.
The Farm Bureau Federation this week announced its endorsement of Gilmore, a retired California Highway Patrol commander, over his Democratic rival, Fran Florez of Shafter.
Agriculture is a big deal in the 30th District, which includes all of Kings County and parts of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties, so the Farm Bureau endorsement figures to be a big plus for Gilmore in the campaign leading up to the Nov. 4 general election.
Gilmore, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary earlier this month, also ran for the seat two years ago but was defeated by Parra, who is facing term limits. Florez, a Shafter City Council member and the mother of state Sen. Dean Florez, was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Barbara Radding Morgan, the Fresno native who waited 20 years for her chance to fly in space, is leaving NASA to return to teaching in Idaho.
Morgan, who graduated from Hoover High School in 1969, was NASA’s first educator astronaut, and flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavor last summer for a construction mission to the International Space Station. She first rose to notoriety more than 20 years ago, when she was selected for the Teacher in Space program as a backup to Christa McAuliffe for the ill-fated January 1986 mission of the shuttle Challenger.
I interviewed Morgan twice by telephone for a story previewing her flight, and she was chatty and gracious with her time -- much to the chagrin of the NASA PR person on the other end of the line in charge of rationing Morgan’s interview schedule.
You could hear the excitement in her voice for her upcoming flight, as well as her enthusiasm for teaching; its easy to see how that will be infectious to the college students she’ll be working with at Boise State University.
It'll be a return to Idaho for Morgan, who taught elementary school in McCall before she joined NASA full-time in 1998.
It’s not for lack of interest, said Tim Robbins, who bought the sign off the bakery and runs Central Valley Estates and Liquidations with his nephew, Chris Robbins.
The first auction’s web site received more than 240 visits and plenty of people clicked the “watch this item” link on eBay, Tim Robbins said. The bids they got didn’t meet the $900 minimum reserve the sellers had set.
“The thing that’s putting people off is that it is so big and it is hard to move,” he said.
The sign is about 11-feet long and 8-feet wide and weighs somewhere around 800 or 900 pounds, Robbins said.
He’s now hoping to sell the sign for at least $650. He’s talking to a handful of collectors in town who may end up with the sign. But he also says it would be perfect to display in a restaurant, “hopefully in the Tower District.”
Did Radanovich even know Bulldogs were going for national title?
Around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, Rep. George Radanovich — as previously scheduled — called in to Inga Barks’ show on KMJ radio.
There was only one problem: the show wasn’t on the air.
Instead, it was pre-empted for one of the biggest local sporting events in the region’s history — the third and deciding game of the College World Series, which ended with Fresno State’s stunning victory over the Georgia Bulldogs.
Radanovich’s gaffe became fodder on the station’s post-game show. Though most of the central San Joaquin Valley and anybody who’d ever lived here during their lifetime followed every pitch and at-bat during the game, it seemed Radanovich was tuned out.
Not true, a spokesman for the Mariposa Republican says. Radanovich was not only well aware the game was being played, spokesman Spencer Pederson said, but was watching it on television.
“I think that he just probably blanked that the game would be covered by KMJ,” Pederson said. “When you do a job for 14 years, you get used to looking at your schedule and doing what it tells you to do.”
Fresno State football and men’s basketball and a select number of baseball games are aired on KMJ — and have been since 1969.
Apparently the tiny copter’s rechargeable battery can overheat and melt the body of the toy.
The commission’s recalls are usually so overly cautious and rarely include reports of injuries that I ignore most of them. This one caught my attention, and not just because we have a similar mini helicopter at home (the non-flaming ones make great cat toys, by the way).
The product has already received seven reports of overheating and/or melting of the helicopter, including one report of flames and two reports of property damage (why, oh why can’t you give us details on what was damaged?)
Toy helicopters can be dangerous — this one was recalled in February for similar issues and this one caused permanent blindness in one consumer.
Whitehouse and colleague Layla Forstedt were in the Chicago suburb this week for a meeting of the Destination Marketing Association International, an association for convention and tourism marketers around the country.
It was a good week to be there, she said. The Bulldogs' historic underdog win had tourism directors and promoters from around the country talking Fresno, and that made her job of selling Fresno easy.
"We happened to be in the middle of Bulldog Mania," Whitehouse said. "It was really an icebreaker for us to say, we’re from Fresno, and everyone was asking us to tell them about Fresno."
But it was the travelers at the bar of the DoubleTree Hotel in Rosemont, Ill., a five-minute drive from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, that really picked up on the Bulldog spirit.
Watching the games while eating dinner, Whitehouse and Forstedt couldn't help but meet new fans of their hometown team -- including some that might just bring some business back their way.
"Everyone was rooting for the Bulldogs," she said. "We were talking to a crane operator, and he was interested in going to his association and saying, I've got an opportunity for a convention location," she said.
After all, any time you're in Chicago and there are more TVs in the bar broadcasting the NCAA Championships than there are broadcasting the Cubs game, you know you've got something special going on.
It's an annual rite. As the start of the fiscal year nears, the state controller sends out a statement warning what will happen if lawmakers don't agree on a budget by July 1. This year's statement, from Controller John Chiang, came today:
“As the State’s chief fiscal officer, I have the authority to pay for some essential services in the absence of a budget,” Chiang said. “But without a signed budget in place, I am legally prohibited from making necessary payments to school special education programs, community colleges, local governments, and vendors doing business with the State.”
Specifically, if there's no budget in July Chiang said he could not pay school districts for categorical programs, such as special education and summer school; community colleges and local governments. State vendors would also not be paid for services provided after July 1. And state elected officials and their staff could not collect salaries and per diem checks.
Most Capitol observers expect a prolonged budget fight this year as lawmakers struggle to close a $15.2 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday.
But Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines of Clovis told me the other day that Democrats and Republicans might reach an accord quicker than most people think. He expects leaders to be able to quickly agree on getting the deficit to about $4 billion -- and then the real fight will start. He said the four legislative leaders are scheduled to meet on Sunday.
Republicans are digging their heels in against tax increases, while Democrats have said tax hikes may be the only way to preserve essential state services.
What I'm wondering is how many people out there follow state budget talks. If you do, what do you care about in particular? Send me an email at eschultz@fresnobee.com
Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines didn't go much of anywhere today without gloating about his beloved Fresno State Bulldogs.
First, it was at a Capitol news conference on prison overcrowding. Of course, prisons and baseball hardly mix, unless, perhaps, when it comes to steroids in the majors. But Villines, R-Clovis, still found a way to squeeze in a word about last night's baseball championship win.
"I just want you to see the picture of the best team in America," Villines told reporters, holding up today's Sacramento Bee, which featured a front page photo of the winning Bulldogs.
Villines, Fresno State class of 1990, later held up the paper on the Assembly floor as he took to the microphone to praise the Dogs. Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D- Fresno, chimed in. The Bulldogs, he said, have been described as a Cinderella team.
"Let me say to you, Cinderella would not survive in the San Joaquin Valley, she would wither like a raisin." But "we do grow strong, hearty people," Arambula said. "Go Dogs."
The race to praise Fresno State started last night, when politician after politician jumped on the bandwagon.
Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto issued a statement moments after the third out was made in the ninth inning. Gov. Schwarzenegger's press office followed suit with a statement calling the win "one of the greatest and most inspirational underdog stories in the history of college sports." The governor was en route to Florida at the time, so I'm not sure if he watched the game.
Statements also poured in from Villines, Fresno mayoral candidate Ashley Swearengin, Fresno Mayor Alan Autry and U.S. Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, who praised the Dogs on the House floor.
Citizen group endorses Swearengin for Fresno mayor
In the race for Fresno mayor, Fresno Citizens for Good Government endorsed Ashley Swearengin, a founding member of the group's board.
The group said it didn't make an endorsement in the primary "to avoid perceptions of a conflict of interest," and because it didn't know all the candidates well.
But group members said they're very familiar with Swearengin and her opponent, Henry T. Perea, and felt comfortable making an endorsement in the general election.
Both candidates support public safety and the cultural arts and efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and air pollution, the group said. But the group found that Swearengin had qualities that place her "head and shoulders above Henry Perea."
Perea, a City Council member, has no executive experience, while Swearengin has headed the Regional Jobs Initiative and the Central Valley Business Incubator, the group said.
Fresno Citizens for Good Government also criticized Perea for receiving more campaign donations from "special interests" than Swearengin.
A new report that says soaring fuel prices could hurt Fresno Yosemite International Airport was hardly a shocker. The study, "Oil Prices and the Looming U.S. Aviation Industry Catastrophe," by the Business Travel Coalition says communities, the economy, jobs and cargo shipments are in danger of being hurt by skyrocketing fuel prices.
Well, duh.
The huge jumps in fuel prices are affecting all carriers and thus all airports. The report lists Fresno as one of 50 airports most likely to lose some service, along with Palm Springs and Bakersfield, but doesn't really explain why that would happen. And Kevin Mitchell, the coalition chairman, didn't elaborate much. He said seven criteria were used, but didn't go much beyond that. He suggested I talk to airport director Russ Widmar for insight.
Widmar said FYI is a strong airport, with flights during the summer often running at least 90% full. The airport recently added Mexicana Airlines and ExpressJet and has among the lowest rents and other costs. .
"Our cost structure is so low," he said. "It costs them $5.08 to put a passenger on a plane in Fresno. That's less than two gallons of jet fuel."
Fresno's airport, of course, doesn't have as many flights as its bigger counterparts, so the loss of any service would be a blow. But Widmar doesn't know how much size contributed to the report's conclusion. "They didn't call us," he said. "There's some shooting from the hip here."
Anyway, a news release that accompanied the report urged residents of Fresno and other cities to contact elected officials and call for some public policy.
Ever had one of those days where you just want to chuck it all and find yourself another job? Why not reach higher – sky high, in fact – in a career choice this time around?
One of the things in my e-mail today is an announcement from NASA that they’re looking for a new crop of astronauts.
There’s been no shortage of Valley ties to the space program over the years. Besides Barbara Morgan, the Fresno native and former teacher who flew last fall aboard the shuttle Endeavour, there are plenty of astronauts whose lives or careers have led them from or through the Valley, including many Navy pilots at Lemoore Naval Air Station.
As the space shuttle program winds to an end in 2010, new astronauts will likely be in line for flying on Orion, the new spacecraft being developed for the Constellation program to fly long-duration missions to the International Space Station and, eventually, to the moon and beyond.
But if you’re thinking of making a move, you need to hurry. July 1 is the application deadline. And the qualifications are rather stringent, so you might need to pad your resume if you’re stepping out from behind the french fry machine.
It’s going to take a college degree in engineering, science or math just to bother filling out an application (well, that rules me out!). On top of that, add three years of related professional experience. Teaching experience – like that accumulated by Morgan before she joined NASA – helps fill the bill if you’ve got the requisite education background.
“Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft,” NASA officials say.
It’ll be interesting to see, when NASA concludes its screening and evaluations six months from now, whether the Valley adds any new astronauts to those who have “the right stuff.”
Plans are afoot for improvements to Visalia's Mooney Grove Park, including a new museum showing off Tulare County's heritage of agriculture and farm labor.
The Tulare County Historical Society, armed with a $1.4 million grant from the California Council and Historical Endowment, wants to develop a two-story, 17,000-square-foot farm labor and agriculture museum near its existing historical museum at the park.
Officials want to get the public's ideas and comments on the plans at a meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the county Board of Supervisors chambers, 2800 W. Burrell Ave., in the Tulare County government center in Visalia.
Besides the new museum plans, workshop issues will include renovations to the existing museum and expanding recreation and education programs at the county park.
More information is available by contacting Brian Summers or Eric Coyne at the Tulare County administrative offices, (559) 733-6531.
An industry newsletter in my inbox this morning tells me that 7-Eleven will carry energy drink Slurpees this summer. Your old-fashioned cherry iced-liquid will now be laced with caffeine, taurine and ginseng-packed Full Throttle or Monster energy drinks.
It’s interesting that on the same day I run across a story about moms who rely on caffeine to get them through the day — some drinking four energy drinks and a six-pack of soda a day to keep going. (Maybe that’s why the working moms over at CentralValleyMoms.com are doing everything they’re doing.)
So why then do most energy drinks seem to be geared toward 14-year-old boys? (Seriously, look at this collection of them.) Names like Crunk, Monster and Diesel don’t exactly bring stroller-pushing mommies to mind.
I have heard of the Tab energy drink and Go Girl's pink can caught my eye, but maybe more companies should take advantage of those tired mothers. How about a Full Throttle Mama drink?
The California attorney general is suing Countrywide Financial Corp for allegedly tricking borrowers into taking on risky home loans they didn't fully understand. Countrywide was one of the biggest lenders of mortgages in the Central Valley, where foreclosures are flourishing.
Ironically, the lawsuit, which Countrywide officials didn't immediately comment on, came on the same day shareholders approved its merger with Bank of America. According to an AP story, the lawsuit claims Countrywide misled customers about the workings of home-equity loans, adjustable-rate mortgages and other exotic loan types.
Government officials of all types are trying to root out blame for the foreclosure crisis nationwide, which could lead to some new laws and restrictions. That's good, I guess, but there's plenty of blame to go around.
Here's the AP story:
Calif. attorney general sues Countrywide Financial
Eds: UPDATES with details on lawsuit, effort to reach Countrywide.
Moving on general news and financial services.
By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Countrywide Financial Corp. is accused of
using misleading advertising and other unfair business practices to
trick borrowers into taking on risky home loans they didn’t fully
understand, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the California attorney
general’s office.
The lawsuit — filed on the same day Countrywide shareholders
were scheduled to vote on the company’s takeover by Bank of America
Corp. — stems from information gathered under subpoena after the
state launched a probe last year into the troubled company’s
business.
It also came on the same day the Illinois attorney general was
filing a lawsuit alleging that Countrywide engaged in “unfair and
deceptive” practices to get homeowners to apply for risky
mortgages far beyond their means.
In the complaint filed in Superior Court, California Attorney
General Jerry Brown asserts that Countrywide violated the state’s
unfair business practices and false advertising laws with just
about every action it took to market and originate some of the most
popular — and potentially risky — types of home loans in recent
years.
“Defendants viewed borrowers as nothing more than the means for
producing more loans, originating loans with little or no regard to
borrowers’ long-term ability to afford them and to sustain
homeownership,” the state claims in the suit, which also names as
defendants Countrywide Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo and David
Sambol, the lender’s chief financial officer.
Countrywide did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The state claims the company misled customers about the workings
of home-equity loans and some types of adjustable-rate mortgages,
including pay-option loans, “hybrid” interest-only loans and
low-documentation loans.
These loan types, which many other lenders offered during the
housing boom, featured low initial payments and the potential for
sharp increases after a few years. They now account for a large
portion of the mortgages that have become delinquent or gone into
default in the past year.
The lawsuit alleges Countrywide obscured the potential risks in
the loans, misled consumers about payment terms, prepayment
penalties and other obligations, and told borrowers they would be
able to refinance before the interest rate on their loans adjusted.
“Defendants knew, or by the exercise of reasonable care should
have known, that these statements were untrue or misleading at the
time they were made,” the lawsuit states.
As the nation’s largest mortgage lender and servicer,
Countrywide has been under scrutiny by federal and state
authorities. It also faces numerous other lawsuits related to its
lending practices.
The Calabasas, Calif.-based lender agreed in January to sell
itself to Bank of America for about $4 billion in stock. The
acquisition, now valued at around $2.8 billion, received clearance
from the Federal Reserve earlier this month.
Assuming shareholders give their approval, Charlotte, N.C.-based
Bank of America has said it could close the deal as early as July
1.
Smoke from fires in Mariposa County have brought increased levels of particulate matter and ozone pollution to the San Joaquin Valley. Read more here. Follow the progress of the fires here.
Panaderia Natalie’s has replaced the business with yummy goodies of its own, but it makes me sad to think that sign won’t glow any more when I drive passed it on my way home. It was part of the artful jumble of neon in the Tower District that makes this place feel like a thriving city.
The faded pink and red sign — presumably as old as the business, 69 years — needs some love, but it still works. As of this writing, the sign had just one bid at $299. The “buy-it-now” price tells you the seller was hoping for a little more: $1,200.
The auction ends today. I wonder what will become of that sign.
It appears no one is holding grudges following Debbie Poochigian's election to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
Supervisor Bob Waterston gave a warm welcome to Poochigian, who attended the county’s budget hearings last Thursday.
Waterston did not appear to be a Poochigian supporter in the June primary. His campaign committee gave $10,000 to a political organization that supported Poochigian’s opponent, Clovis City Council Member Nathan Magsig. Although Waterston never officially endorsed either candidate in the campaign, he did say that he thought Magsig was more qualified for the job.
But he put those sentiments aside as he asked Poochigian to stand and be recognized as the next District 5 representative.
“It’s time for some new blood,” Waterston said. “I think she’s got some good ideas.”
Poochigian said she wasn’t surprised by Waterston’s actions. Instead, she said it was “a nice and gracious thing for him to do”.
The good news is that housing starts statewide edge up 4.4% last month from April. The bad news: Permits declined 52.4% in May from a year previously. The California Building Industry Association is forecasting the lowest number of housing starts since accurate record-keeping started in 1954.
In Fresno County, builders started 27% fewer houses in May than in April, and 45% fewer than May 2007.
The Bee is posting live updates from Arizona Senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's town hall meeting at Fresno State this morning.
When the weather gets hot, the pollution cooks in the San Joaquin Valley and the result is ozone. So, when the temperature hit 110 on Saturday, it must have been a nasty ozone day. Right?
Wrong, I found out. Why? It may actually have gotten too hot for ozone.
The California Air Resources Board online data showed there were no federal violations that day. There also wasn't a federal violation Sunday when the temperature hit 101 in Fresno.
I haven't spoken yet with the experts, but the wind picked up in the afternoon both days. That might have blown out the ozone.
Experts also have told me for years that it can get too hot for ozone. Heat rises, and maybe the hot air just broke through the inversion layer that holds dirty air in the Valley. Poof. The ozone goes away.
By the way, the worst spot in the Valley on Saturday was in Fresno at the First Street monitor where the more stringent state standard was violated. The worst place on Sunday was in Turlock, which also violated the state standard.
Noted management consultant Stephen M. R. Covey has some tips on how the older generation and the younger one can work together to "build the best organizations the world has ever seen."
Millenials, echo boomers and gen Yers were "bred to take on the world, and raised with the tools to do it," his office wrote in a statement to promote his book, "The Speed of Trust."
However, there's a downside to the demographic -- at least in workplace culture. "This group is already making waves with their new rules," Covey's folks wrote. "They are strong, talented, organized, and don’t like the word, 'No.' They also know that they don’t have to work for you."
Here's a list of Covey's recommendations:
Boomers & Managers:
1) Get Better — Embrace the energy, ingenuity, and technology that gen Y brings to the table. Bill Gates says, “The complacent company is a dead company. Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react and reinvent.”
2) Create Transparency — Foster mentorships between boomers who are at a stage in their careers where being a mentor is more practical, and gen Yers who are asking for more responsibility.
3) Confront Reality — Time served does not trump value added. Don’t be afraid to promote early. Jack and Suzy Welch say, “Promoting young insiders is a fast way to attract good people to your ranks; indeed, it will help make you a talent magnet. Best of all, it keeps your top performers inside.”
4) Show Loyalty & Demonstrate Respect — It’s not easy to build loyalty, especially with a demographic known for its short attention span. Give gen Y what they want — knowledge, respect, a model for personal and professional advancement. Don’t underestimate the value new blood can bring to the company. Your bottom line will reflect it, your talent retention will grow, and your stakeholders’ extensive knowledge base will expand with new hires. Think of it as leaving a legacy and give it appropriate mindshare.
Gen Yers:
1) Don’t Sneer at the Small Stuff — You’re young and you’re new here. You are going to get some of the essential busywork. Build trust and confidence in your abilities by delivering results. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”
2) Show Loyalty & Demonstrate Respect — As a company Extends Trust to you, return the favor. Keep your eye on the ball, not the job board.
3) Confront Reality — Advancement is a progression, an investment in your future. Don’t let impatience trump the learning process. Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO, Xerox, says, “I am still learning. That is an important mark of a good leader…to know you don’t know it all and never will.”
4) Deliver Results & Practice Accountability — You asked for the keys to the kingdom. When entrusted with them, behave with Integrity.
RejuViMed Total Wellness has opened in downtown Fresno plans a grand opening today from 3 to 7 p.m. at 2900 Fresno St., suite 100.
The “med” spa specializes in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures such as LipoDissolve, nonsurgical facelifts, micro dermabrasions and Botox. It also specializes in bariatrics support, medically managed by Dr. Cynthia Lopez.
They call themselves Crema, for California Real Milk Association. It's a brand new consumer group touting the benefits of raw milk. Their leader is Christine Chessen. Chessen, who grew up in Fresno and now lives in San Francisco, started feeding her three kids raw milk about a year ago and says they made it through last winter without getting sick. Such testimonials are common among raw-milk drinkers -- and evident in the Internet video below that Chessen helped produce.
On the other side are folks like Bill Marler, a Seatle-based products liability attorney who has been litigating foodborne illness cases since 1993. On his food poisoning blog, marlerblog.com, Marler points to this report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an E. coli outbreak that investigators linked to raw milk from Kerman's Organic Pastures dairy.
In 2006, five children consumed the dairy's milk and colostrum in the week before they got sick, according to the report. CDC said the milk was the "likely vehicle of transmission" of E. coli, though investigators were not able to match the strain that caused the sickness to the dairy samples.
The debate continues Tuesday when the Assembly Health Committee takes up SB 201 by Sen. Dean Florez, D- Shafter. The legislation, supported by raw milk drinkers, would eliminate bacteria limits that treat raw milk like pasteurized milk. Instead, labs would test more for specific disease-causing pathogens, such as E. coli.
Visalia has been without any passenger airline service since May 31, when the previous carrier, Air Midwest, ceased flights as part of a nationwide shutdown of the company.
It's looking like Great Lakes will start its service with flights to Ontario, where it believes it can be up and running sooner than in Las Vegas. Since October, Great Lakes has been wrangling over securing ground operations, counter space and ticketing issues at McCarran International.
Over the past couple of years -- since 2005, when SkyWest Airlines stopped flying to Los Angeles International Airport -- Visalians seem to have taken a shine to the Vegas flights. Problem is, Great Lakes will be the third airline coming into Visalia in three years, as companies have found it difficult to fly profitably even with subsidies from the federal government.
Great Lakes will also be serving Merced, where the airline picture is even more complicated.
As in Visalia, Great Lakes will be getting a subsidy of about $1.5 million a year for flights to either Ontario or Las Vegas. But in nearby Atwater, at the former Castle Air Force Base, Vision Air -- which bid unsuccessfully for the subsidized Visalia and Merced service last year -- plans on starting up service with flights to the smaller, unconnected North Las Vegas airport and to Reno.
No place in America has worse ozone than California, so each week this summer I will try to explain some aspect of this pollutant.
Some weeks, I might give you a quick profile of a city, such as Visalia. Did you know that Visalia has the only official air monitor in Tulare County's flatlands? More on that later in the summer.
Some weeks, like this one, I'm just trying to give you a little perspective.
Let's start with an impression the media cultivated several years ago -- that Houston is as bad as California. Houston has notable ozone problems. But over the last dozen years, California is smog central.
Look at the numbers for the worst cities: Arvin has 917 federal violations in the last 12 years. Crestline in South Coast Air Basin has 877. Houston has 704.
Throw in the 12-year totals for the Valley and South Coast: The Valley has 1,213 federal violations; South Coast 1,144. There's no question about where people are most often exposed to corrosive ozone.
In case you were wondering, the goal is zero violations for the spring, summer and fall. I can't remember a year that the Valley had zero violations before Memorial Day.
It only took one dissenting vote Thursday to stop the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District from launching a program to analyze and reduce area greenhouse gases.
Three governing board members were absent and four other seats haven’t yet been filled. The plan needed eight votes to pass, and the vote was 7-1.
The dissenter was Dr. John Telles, the Fresno cardiologist who was appointed this year to the board. He said the plan is premature, because the state has not yet established goals and procedures for greenhouse gas reduction.
He said he didn’t want to see the district wasting money on a plan that might be rejected. He said the money would be better-spent in fighting Valley air pollution.
“I think it’s a good idea, but state law doesn’t authorize local districts to do anything yet,” Telles said.
Board chairman Leroy Ornellas, a San Joaquin County Supervisor, decided to bring the issue back for the board's next meeting, scheduled Aug. 21.
The state's greenhouse gas law, Assembly Bill 32, passed in 2006, does not require local districts to set thresholds for greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions, including carbon dioxide from vehicles and methane from animal waste, contribute to global warming, according to scientists.
Even though state law has not established thresholds, district officials said construction projects in counties and cities already are facing lawsuits over greenhouse gases. The district's plan would help head off the litigation, they said.
"This is one time when it makes sense to have the horse before the cart," said board member Ronn Dominici, a Madera County supervisor.
District officials said the cost of assembling such a plan would be minimal, because it could be absorbed in work already being performed by staffers. But Telles said he didn't believe the effort would be free.
"It's money we should be using to clean up the air," he said.
Ah, spring, when a young man’s fancy turns to love… or just more sex.
The notion of “Spring Fever” is readily associated with cold weather hermits pouring outside to once again lift their faces to the sun, but the makers of LifeStyles Condoms say it may very well mean that these people are quickly bolting back inside to the bedroom.
“Spring fever is based on the fact that a sunny and warm environment is more conducive to socializing,” says Carol Carrozza, vice president of marketing for LifeStyles. “And this increased social activity, combined with an increase in hormones, leads to a flurry of summertime sex.”
“Spring Fever” is often associated with increased energy levels, weight loss, boosts in confidence and an elated mood due to a hormonal response to the increase in sunlight. LifeStyles Condoms’ sales index support this notion, with a spike in sales during the mid-spring and summer months, proving that as the weather heats up, so does the action in the bedroom.
The U.S. Census says about 40 million people move each year, and about half pick summer to do it.
A recent national survey by Relocation.com found that most people moved due to a job or lifestyle change, such as downsizing or retirement. It also found that more people are moving to California rather than away from it, despite the real estate crisis.
Relocation.com described the moving industry as vibrant and one that produces more than $15.7 billion in annual revenue, employing more than 172,000 people.
Other findings:
-- The majority of recent movers were renters who chose to rent again. However, 15% of them chose to buy houses.
-- Yet, perhaps as a reflection of the current real estate market, 19% went from owning a home to renting.
-- The more mobile and affluent the consumer, the more likely they are to rely on Internet sources for finding a professional mover and/or general information on moving and relocating. This includes finding a new home or rental. This trend is especially prevalent in those consumers between 25 and 54.
-- Some 66% of recent movers searched for their moving professionals online.
-- Slightly more than half of all the recent movers polled had moved from one state to another, with two-thirds moving more than 100 miles and 54% of that group moving more than 500 miles away.
-- California and Texas are the two most popular states for people to move in 2007, based on interstate and intrastate moves combined. Surveys over the past decade have shown that California has always ranked first in terms of destination state for people changing residences.
-- Despite the growing mortgage crisis, declining home values has not kept consumers away. Only 43 percent of people moving to a new location in California currently live in California.
-- California is the No. 1 destination state, followed by Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia.
-- The top destination state for people moving from California is Texas.
Social Security drawings head back to Visalia planners
Are residents feeling any better about the latest site proposed for a new Social Security field office in Visalia? A site on Noble Avenue between Ben Maddox Way and Pinkham Street -- near the Wal-Mart store in east Visalia -- is being pitched as an alternative to property on Lovers Lane near Tulare Avenue.
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"Riled" doesn't quite capture the sentiment of many residents in the neighborhood just west of the Lovers Lane site. It would take a much more, um, rustic term to really sum up how much they didn't want the office, or its clientele, anywhere near them.
The new location (at right), in the process of being sold, belongs to the Pentecostal Church of God and is leased for use by other congregations. Sometimes, on hot days, a snow-cone cart sets up shop along the sidewalk.
Developers brought their drawings for the 12,585-square-foot building to Visalia's Site Plan Review committee -- a panel of city engineers, planners and building officials -- last week for review; the committee asked for tweaks to the plans to address concerns about parking, access for emergency vehicles and trash trucks and parking.
The plans are due back to the committee next week. But before anything gets built, the project will have to go through a public hearing at the Visalia Planning Commission and, perhaps, before the Visalia City Council as well.
The building would replace the current Social Security office at Court Street and Murray Avenue near downtown Visalia.
This map shows the location of the current building as well as the proposed replacements along Lovers Lane and Noble Avenue.
This past week, two talented individuals placed 2nd in differentially prestigious competitions, and were both reported in the paper for mastery in their respective fields. One of these competitors braved laudably over rivals for most resembling his master in a local municipal park; the other, journeyed 2,000 miles to compete against the brightest and most promising young minds in the nation in a high-pressure ring of ferocious mental prowess. Can you guess which of these silver medalists splashed the front page of the Local section with a colossal picture to augment the story?
Though I extend my sincerest gratitude to Fortune for adjourning breaking news, the threshold for my patience was crossed when perusing June 8th’s Local & State section. Nilesh Tripuraneni, a former classmate and fellow science enthusiast, was shelved to obscurity on page B2 following a triumphant victory in the International Science and Engineering Fair—the World Series of high school academic achievement.
The coveted front-page for local affairs was instead bestowed to a leather-clad Shih Tzu posed on a tricycle. In fairness, congratulations are due to Ms McPherson, the owner of the immortalized canine, though the juxtaposition of the winners lends credence to somber criticism: where exactly are the Bee’s priorities in reporting?
Articles chronicling strides in academia are highly critical to contemporary relevance, as these achievements represent the burgeoning of an advancing civilization. These projects are the precursors to the technology any one of us could be exploiting in the future and better instill community pride than, say dog shows, prompting the requirement for this paper to relegate extensive coverage of science and math in the future. The maintenance of a status quo is a most grave offense to logic.
Arjan Singh Puniani
Clovis West H.S. ‘07
UC Berkeley ‘11
Covering academic achievements by local students has always been and continues to be important to The Bee. For example, in the past couple months our reporters have written many stories that focus on academics, including coverage of:
A local student who made it to the final rounds of the national spelling bee.
A community college student who won a prestigious scholarship.
A 2008 version of our annual Academic All Star awards, which honor academic excellence in all grades.
The achievements of hundreds of graduates throughout the Valley, including valedictorians, scholarship winners and honors college students.
The Bee wants to reflect broad interests in the Valley. We often do that by covering local events, such as the K9 Mardi Gras at Woodward Park where we chose to send a photographer to capture the fun, lighter side of life in the Valley.
Our goal is to offer readers a look at many parts of life here, academic successes included.
Best Buy will celebrate its grand opening in Clovis Friday, in the Target shopping center at Willow and Herndon avenues.
The 30,000-square-foot store fills a gap in electronics retailers in the city, with many residents driving to the River Park area or elsewhere in Fresno to shop for TVs and computers.
A 2006 study showed Clovis had a shortfall of more than $18 million in sales of electronics when compared to other cities its size.
Best Buy will solve some of that, said Michael Dozier, the city’s economic development director. The city is continuing to woo retailers in areas such as bookstores and sporting goods, he said.
Best Buy will also substantially increase sales tax collected by the city, probably in the six figure range, he said.
After two years of trying, lawmakers are nearing a deal on new regulations aimed at stopping metal theft.
This is big news for the Valley, where theives have ripped copper and aluminum from farm and utility equipment. The metals are turned in for quick cash -- often to fuel drug habits, authorities say.
Assembly Member Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, has been pushing a bill, AB 844, that requires that junk dealers and recyclers beef up record keeping and pay for some metals with checks. Junk dealers don't like a provision that allows counties and cities to enact even stronger ordinances. They've lined up behind another bill, SB 691 by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, that leaves that part out.
In a compromise that Calderon and Berryhill reached this week, local governments could only enact stronger ordinances if two-thirds of a board of supervisors or city council agree. Also, recyclers and junk deals could still pay regular customers with cash, a provision that was in Calderon's bill.
There's one potential hang-up. The compromise also includes a requirement that dealers get a thumbprint from customers. The Senate Public Safety Committee, which the bill must clear, has opposed thumb printing.
The compromise will be inserted into Berryhill's AB 844, which the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee is scheduled hear Monday.
Michael Ruffino, owner of Fresno's Wild Bird Center, plans to sign copies of his new book “A True Survival Guide for Small Businesses” from 10 to 11a.m. Saturday.
The book discusses "essential marketing and sales technique for businesses to thrive during any economic times but especially in this hard economy we all face," Ruffino said in an e-mail. The book has a chapter that explains what Michael and Kathy Ruffino did when they needed to advertise on a shoestring budget.
Everyone is invited. The Wild Bird Center of Fresno is at 1075 E. Bullard Ave. Details: 559-432-9453.
Wait. Just so we're on the same page, let's have a little background.
We're talking about the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's plan to help reduce greenhouse gases -- mostly carbon dioxide, which is contributing to the swift warmup of our planet.
On Thursday, district staffers will ask the governing board to approve a Climate Change Action Plan, which contains this idea for a carbon exchange bank.
Now, turn to page five on the Web link provided above. This is the description. Here's the translation:
Businesses can voluntarily reduce greenhouse gases -- presumably with advanced technologies that spew out less carbon dioxide. If the businesses do this before certain deadlines, they get credits that are kept in this carbon exchange bank. The air district runs the bank.
The businesses can sell their credits to other businesses that need to reduce greenhouse gases to comply with environmental regulation. The district already does this sort of thing with pollution emissions.
The trick is not to let businesses sell all of the credits. In theory, the air gets cleaner or the greenhouse gases are reduced.
Supporters say this is a good, market-based approach. Critics call it a shell game, saying there's no real reduction of anything.
To form your own opinion, you need to hear the explanation at the meeting -- 9 a.m., district headquarters, 1990 E. Gettysburg Ave. in Fresno.
More proof of the Valley's medical-worker shortage:
California's prison medical czar J. Clark Kelso outlined plans this week to build seven prison medical centers in the state -- but none is targeted for the Fresno area.
The reason? Kelso fears he would not be able to find enough health care workers in the region.
“We think it simply is at this point too difficult to recruit the necessary clinical expertise in the middle of the state,” he said on a conference call with reporters Monday.
Kelso was appointed by a federal court to bring prison medical and mental health care up to constitutional standards. His facilities plan would cost $7 billion. With Republicans opposed, the Senate recently rejected legislation to pay for the medical centers with bonds.
Kelso, who has significant power, has threatened to bypass the Legislature and take money directly from the general fund.
As The Stockton Record reported today, two of the medical facilities could be built in San Joaquin County -- in Tracy and Stockton. The one slated for Stockton would create 1,200 jobs, "bringing up to $85 million annually in salaries to doctors, nurses and correctional officers," the Record reported.
Kelso said he is also targeting Folsom, Chino, Whittier, San Diego, Ventura and Solano County.
Back in 1978, Art Williams left Chicago to play basketball for the Fresno State Bulldogs. But over the decades, he never forgot the tastes of home — the deep-dish pizzas and Chicago-style beef and sausage sandwiches his mother perfected as proprietor of the Williams Inn restaurant on Chicago’s South Side.
Now Williams has brought those home-town specialties to Fresno. On May 31, he opened his new restaurant, The Chicago Connection, an all-family affair that he hopes his California customers will like enough to spread far and wide.
“It’s like a gourmet pizza, you know?” is how Williams, 49, describes the deep-dish Chicago style pizza he serves at his new restaurant in the Hoover Marketplace shopping center at the corner of First Street and Bullard Avenue.
"It has been shown that if all vehicles were to be pulled off the road here in the Valley, we still would not meet the air quality guidelines as so much of the pollution blows into the Valley from the Bay Area.
Yet, what is being done to control this problem at the source?"
Bay Area pollution does come into the Valley, but its contribution to the air problem here is often overstated. Even if nothing came from the Bay Area, the Valley would have big problems.
Does anyone speak up about pollution that blows into the Valley? Yes.
I have heard officials at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District argue that the Bay Area should have the same stringent smog controls as Valley residents have. The argument has been successful many times.
There have been federal health violations seven of the last eight days here. Yesterday, the only monitor to show a violation was in Sequoia National Park. I wonder if Bay Area pollution had anything to do with that?
There is good housing news out there. This week’s Word on the Street features a new apartment complex at Shields and Brawley avenues, 50 new houses sold in an online auction and one house with a price tag of $100 as part of a fund raiser.
Oh, and a local truck driver will compete in the truck driver’s version of the Olympics.
NASA will send a flying laboratory over California this month to track the flow of air pollution from cities, roads, farm country and even ships along the Pacific coast.
There will be four flights from San Diego to Eureka in a DC-8 plane equipped with 22 sophisticated instruments and about 35 scientists.
I have no clue of exactly when the flights will be. I'm guessing most folks here won't see this airborne expedition. But it seems like quite an opportunity to take a pollution snapshot of the state and analyze what's going on.
What will it tell us? NASA's researchers are collaborating with the California Air Resources Board on a study of air pollution and greenhouse gases. Presumably, we will know when the study comes out. No word on that yet.
This is part of a bigger picture. NASA is collecting information on a series of flights over the Arctic and northern latitudes that began in April from Alaska. Scientists are studying the impact of air pollution on the Arctic's atmospheric chemistry and changing climate.
I've written a story scheduled to appear in Monday's Bee about the smog season returning, and I mention that there are fewer early season violations these days. That nice spring ride ended Friday.
The highest reading on Friday was in Arvin. According to state figures, the Kern County community -- which has more violations than any other place in the country over the past decade -- had unhealthy air between 7 and 8 a.m.
Read more about the plan to fight ozone in Monday's Fresno Bee.
Google Maps adds Fresno to list of Street View locations
Fresnans can now enjoy the creepy thrill of seeing their houses pictured on Google Maps.
This week, the Internet giant added Fresno to its roster of Street View cities. Google Maps' Street View allows viewers to type in an address and see actual pictures taken from the street. You can zoom in and out, rotate the view or click on little arrows to move the view up and down the street from the initial address -- a nifty feature, if a little unsettling to those who might see an image of themselves standing on the sidewalk, back when the pictures were taken.
To counter concerns about the privacy of those inadvertently captured in the photographs, Google agreed to blur the faces of any people captured in its photographs. Street View debuted in May 2007 with images of the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami.
The new expansion, according to a Google-watching blog, googlemapsmania.blogspot.com, adds Fresno and 36 other cities, including the California cities of Bakersfield, Sacramento and Stockton. Also added are views of 10 well-known parks and recreation areas, including the California destinations of Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Sequoia National Park and the Lake Tahoe region, the blog reported.
I don't think this is widespread, but it has finally reached the media's attention. More people are apparently taking advantage of lower prices to buy a new house - and then walking away from the old one, defaulting on payments.
It's called "buy and bail" , and its practitioners see it as a way to get the house they really want. In some cases families who walk away from their house, which has lost value, say the choice is easy because they didn't make a substantial payment. They feel they don't have a lot invested in the first home.
I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time doing that. I've lived in the same house for 15 years and don't plan to move. We resisted the temptation to "move up" during the recent boom, deciding instead that 1,500 square feet was enough for our family of three.
A Grizzlies fan has asked about the "Hit sign, win fruit" target on the manual scoreboard in right field at Chukchansi Park. Has a player ever hit the sign? What kind of fruit would they get? Raisins? After all, the team was once nicknamed the Raisineaters.
It turns out, the sign was painted on the manual scoreboard when it was built in 2003, a year after the stadium opened, says Scott Carter, Grizzlies vice president of marketing. Targets like the "win fruit" sign were common on old wooden scoreboards.
The old-style scoreboard "brings a nostalgic element to the stadium," he says -- but apparently no fruit. Carter says there's no "protocol" if someone does hit the sign, and he's not even sure it's ever been hit. Rumor has it that Grizzlies players have passed around a gag basket of plastic fruit, but Carter says he's never seen it.
Truthfully, are you driving a compressed natural gas or electric vehicle? Raise your hands. Or write a comment to confirm.
I don't. And I don't know many people who do. But state officials say some folks do it. How do they know? They're giving rebates -- real money -- to those who buy selected vehicles that operate on alternative fuels.
It's call "Fueling Alternatives," and it offers $1.8 million for rebates until March 2009. Or until the money is gone. Apparently you can get up to $5,000 for buying one of these vehicles.
Which vehicles? Here's the list along with the rebate amount:
BAF Technologies 2007 Compressed Natural Gas Ford Crown Victoria, $3,000.
BAF Technologies 2007 Compressed Natural Gas Lincoln Towncar, $3,000.
BAF Technologies 2007 Compressed Natural Gas Mercury Grand Marquis, $3,000.
GEM 2007/2008 e2, $950.
GEM 2007/2008 e4 and eL, $1,250.
GEM 2007/2008 eS, $1,100.
GEM 2007/2008 eL-XD $1,300
Honda 2007/2008 Civic GX $3,000
Vectrix 2007/2008 MaxiScooter $1,500
ZAP 2007/2008 Xebra Sedan $1,000
ZAP 2007/2008 Xebra Truck $1,000
Any takers? Anyone know anyone who has done this? Let me know.
Orange County supervisors recently named Sandra Hutchens as the county's sheriff to replace scandal-ridden Michael S. Carona. Hutchens becomes the state's third currently serving female sheriff. One, of course, is Fresno County's Margaret Mims.
Budget deadline is Sunday, but don't hold your breath
It could be the most overlooked date in all of state government. This Sunday, June 15, is the constitutional deadline for legislative approval of a state budget.
Can you say miracle? That's what it would take for lawmakers to come to an agreement in time this year. By most indications, serious negotiations haven't even started on how to close the state's $15.2 billion budget gap.
Lawmakers routinely miss the June 15 deadline, and, really, there aren't any consequences. The fiscal year starts July 1. The Legislature's only met that date 13 times in the last 31 years. Most of state government can run for a month or more without a budget in place.
This year, the working deadline seems to be sometime in the beginning or middle of August. If the standoff lasts longer, the state would likely have to pay a high price for borrowing money to avoid running out of cash.
Have more budget questions? The Department of Finance has answers here.
Edison foes hope to make their fight political, not personal
The growing cadre of Tulare County residents, farmers and city officials lining up against a proposed Southern California Edison high-voltage transmission line are pointing their efforts toward putting political pressure on the state Public Utilities Commission.
Gathering under the acronym PACE, for Protect Agriculture, Communities and Environment, about 100 people met tonight at the Exeter Memorial Building to hear the latest strategy on Edison's San Joaquin Cross-Valley Loop transmission project.
Over the last few weeks, a PACE steering committee has talked with consultants and attorneys and tonight announced a game plan to play up "economic injustice" -- a phrase intended to depict the economic hardships on cities, homeowners and farmers along the 19-mile route from Lemon Cove to southeast Visalia.
Edison officials filed their application May 30 with the PUC, the group of political appointees who have decision-making authority over utility issues in California. At stake is the route for a pair of 220-kilovolt power lines to link a major transmission line in the Sierra foothills into an electrical substation in southeast Visalia, to provide additional electricity to meet growing demands in Tulare County.
"We want to make this a political decision for the PUC, not an engineering decision," said Jim Gorden, a PACE member whose hilltop home and citrus orchards near Lemon Cove would be in the shadow of the lines, strung over more than 100 steel poles and lattice towers soaring between 120 and 160 feet tall.
"Edison thumbed its nose, flipped us off and gave us a Bronx cheer," said Gorden, characterizing Edison's desire to run its lines through the communities of Lemon Cove and Farmersville and just north of Exeter.
Gorden said he's been working hard to reach members of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff to make them aware of opposition to Edison's plans. While the governor plays no direct role in the decision-making process, his position could be an important factor, Gorden said.
"If he's neutral, I think we've got a fighting chance," Gorden said. "If he sides with us, I think we win. But if he sides with Edison ... we're sunk."
PACE leaders hopes to convince the PUC to select a different route, one that stretches from the foothills near Stokes Mountain and ties into an existing Edison power corridor to head south into Visalia. And they believe it's going to be the economic arguments, rather than aesthetic worries about power poles spoiling a resident's peaceful view of farmland or foothills, that will carry more political weight.
PACE estimates the lines, and the swath of land that Edison would need to have on either side of the lines for safety and maintenance, would affect nearly 300 property owners and wreak havoc on more than 5,000 acres of property in crops or other uses along Edison's preferred route.
That's why the big push now is for letters from residents to the PUC detailing how the lines will affect their property and asking for a public hearing on Edison's plans.
If you feel absolutely compelled to read all about Edison's proposal -- all the nuts and bolts -- you can see it here and here. But be warned -- we're talking about hundreds of pages, and it's not light reading by any stretch.
Unlike other phones with buttons for keyboards, the iPhone displays the keyboard on its touch screen. It responds to electrical charges emitted by fingertips, but not nails. And these aren’t do-nothing women handicapped by freakishly long nails. Check out the picture in the above link of the nails of the woman complaining about it.
Some fat-fingered folks are joining in too, saying both groups would benefit from a stylus — a thin, pen-like device.
The state's capital took a bit of a beating in this Wall Street Journal story about foreclosures.
The majority of home sales in Sacramento are owned by banks and the community ranks 9th in the nation in the foreclosure rate. Things aren't quite as bad here. Foreclosures make up about 40% of home sales and Fresno ranks 15th in the number of new filings compared to households.
Air scientists are studying the monitor readings from the windy Tuesday we had this week. Did the dust cause an air violation? I don't know, but my eyes and sinuses are still burning.
We live in a dusty Valley, folks. In air quality lingo, it's PM-10 -- particulate matter 10 microns and smaller in size. We're talking microscopic here. But your lungs feel it. So do my eyes.
The San Joaquin Valley has not had a "real" PM-10 violation in years, according to air-quality cops with state and local agencies. There have been times when this dust and soot exceeded the federal health standard, but those have been excluded because of high wind.
I take antihistamines to stop my allergic reaction, which sometimes gets worse as the ozone begins to spike in the hotter weather. We're going to get enough heat this weekend to trigger that problem, too.
Keep the antihistamines handy. In about three weeks, we're going to celebrate the Fourth of July with showers of colorful metals and other tiny specks in fireworks. If the ozone also is high, it'll be a double whammy day.
Am I the only one noticing the burning eyes, sneezing and stuffy nose?
The number of houses sold in California at courthouse foreclosure auctions last month climbed 11.8% to 25,523 in May, with the overwhelming majority of those going back to lenders. In most cases, the banks discounted prices an average of 28% under the loan amount. The largest discounts were 31% to 37% in Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties - the big 4 when it comes to foreclosure rates.
As a result, the number of houses sold to third party investors statewide climbed 34.6%, according to Sean O'Toole of ForeclosureRadar, which tracks such things. While the largest percentage increase in awhile, the number of properties sold to investors in courthouse auctions remains tiny - only about 3% of the total, he said.
Meanwhile, the number of houses sold to investors or back to banks in May at the courthouse steps in Fresno county totaled 561, up 21% from April and an increase of 257% from the same month last year. That was similar to San Bernardino County's jump
Developers hope an alternative location for a proposed new Social Security Administation field office in Visalia has smoother sailing than their first option.
Project Manager Joe Cusenza of Visalia and contractor Mike Fistolera met today with officials from the city's engineering, public works, planning and building departments to go over plans for the new site, on Noble Avenue just east of Lovers Lane.
The 12,585-square foot building is intended to replace the federal agency's current 1970s-era building at Court Street and Murray Avenue in downtown Visalia.
The Imperial Group of La Jolla originally wanted to build its project on Lovers Lane, south of Tulare Avenue, but that site ran into pitched opposition from nearby residents who feared the additional traffic and the clientele that the office would attract to their neighborhood.
Will the new site fare any better? Let's hear what you think. It's just across a driveway from Visalia's Wal-Mart store, and there's a greater distance from any homes than the Lovers Lane site. And it's closer to downtown Visalia -- a big issue for city officials who joined in the opposition to Lovers Lane.
But there are concerns, too: Traffic is already a mess at Noble Avenue at Ben Maddox Way as well as the nearby Highway 198 interchange, and there's a question about transit service that only runs one way, from west to east, on that stretch of Noble.
The public will definitely have a chance to voice its opinions; because the building will be a government office, city zoning laws require a special permit that can only be granted by the Visalia Planning Commission after a public hearing.
Back in January, the chief economist of the California Building Industry Association admitted he went out on a limb when he predicted a slight rebound of the market this year. He estimated 80,000 new single-family homes in 2008, a 14% increase from 2007.
He said 2008 would be the year, "We stop the bleeding."
If anything, a hemorrhage occurred. Through April, a measly 11,685 permits for single-family homes had been pulled in the state for a pace far under 80,000. Nevin has changed his tune, saying today that he will revise his forecast for the Pacific Coast Builders Conference that starts June 24 in San Francisco.
"I badly overshot the runway," he said.That means the "stay alive 'till 2009" slogan that builders carried will have to be changed. Perhaps something for 2010? I'm taking suggestions
Yes I have a question why do they keep saying that Obama is Black when he is half breed his mother is white and his father black so answer me why does the new's media keep saying that he's black when he is half white and half black I don't understand their thinking so if you would please enlighten me I would be so appreciative.
Timothy Keith Cardenas
The short answer is that we in the news media adhere to the customs of our society, which traditionally identifies people as members of minority groups even if their heritage is mixed. To unilaterally adopt a different model of race would be not only presumptuous, but highly confusing.
That leads us to question, of course, the tradition itself: Why are people with some measure of African or African-American ancestry customarily described as "black" when they are of mixed racial descent? Barack Obama is not the only example. Many people were surprised to learn that Tiger Woods, most often described as black, is part Thai, African-American, Chinese American Indian and Dutch.
A lingering stereotype from the old South, the so-called "one-drop rule, " declared a person black if he or she had any black ancestry at all. Today it's still common for someone whose ancestry is less than 50% "minority" to be identified as a racial minority. But people are increasingly unsatisfied with this practice.
The Census Bureau, private scholarship funds and others have grappled with racial issues long and hard - yet they have so far failed to arrive at a definitive means of pinning down race in this "melting pot" of individuals who may be one-quarter this or one-sixteenth that. Sometimes, the lines of differentiation can seem blurred or even arbitrary.
A final point worth making: We don't really have the luxury of leaving out racial designations altogether in stories about Obama. He is the first person of significant African-American ancestry to claim the presidential nomination of a major political party, and race is often a theme in his campaign. We will just have to do the best we can to identify his ancestry appropriately.
People often say they learn a lot by reading my column. Believe me, I'm learning a lot myself. One of my favorite examples is when I found the answer to a question from Sue Duxbury of Fresno: "What is the rock structure on Palm Avenue south of Shields?" The answer ran Dec. 10.
I found the river rock and red brick structure at the northeast corner of Palm and Simpson avenues, one block south of Shields. I also found a drawing of it in Doug Hansen's "Fresno Sketchbook," but the caption put it on Simpson and Van Ness, not on Palm.
So I drove back out to the neighborhood, where I found three identical structures on Van Ness at Simpson, Princeton and Michigan avenues. It was an "ah-ha" moment. Librarian and author Bill Secrest Jr. identified the monuments as boundary markers for the Boulevard Gardens subdivision build in the 1930s.
I love to shop. And love my fiance. But it never occurred to me to combine my two passions.
That’s just what some couples are doing at Sierra Vista Mall in Clovis. Last Saturday, Celeese Rodriguez and Ryan Sanders tied the knot in the mall’s community park, the pretty area in front of the theater with fountains, lawn and stonework. The wedding was part of a contest by radio station BESO 107.1, and mall tenants provided everything, including the bridal gown, rings and meals at the reception — which was held in private.
Apparently the idea occurred to a few others too. When “Sex and the City” premiered at Sierra Vista Cinema 16 May 31, the mall held a Ladies Night Out as a benefit for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The film’s main character, Carrie, plans a wedding at a New York City public library (although even she didn’t consider getting hitched at her beloved Manolo Blahnik store).
After the event, the mall received a couple of inquires from people wanting to get married in the park area, said Geanie Silva, who handles events and marking for the mall.
Mall officials haven’t decided yet if they’ll let the mall become the area’s newest wedding venue, but said anyone interested in marrying there should give them a call.
Here’s some photos of the wedding and the park, courtesy of the mall folks.
You would think the swanky areas of the country would be immune to the foreclosure crisis, but that's not necessarily the case. Many high income folks used risky loans to make their purchases - and they also are seeing values fall.
Now, many of those folks have options that middle-income families like us don't have, but stories like this one are evidence that this problem isn't limited to just one demographic.
10:53 a.m.: Autry speaks even though his lawyer advises him not to.
Autry says that ACLU has a win-at-all-costs mentality and he belleves the homeless are being taken advantage of.
Despite his reservations, Autry says he wants the settlement to go forward.
Judge Wanger asks each of the individual defendents, including police chief Jerry Dyer, if they agree with the settlement. All say that they do.
With the settlement intact, Wanger adjourns the proceedings.
10:43 a.m.: Autry is standing before Wanger.
The city lawyer says that Autry has a right to express his opinions as an individual.
Autry says that he doesn't think he is in the Soviet Union.
Wanger says he wants to get to the bottom of Autry's comments that accuse the court of wrongdoing.
The city lawyer objects to Wanger's inquiry and says the inquest violates separation of the courts and legislative branches.
10:32 a.m.: The city's lawyer says that the agreement has been approved by the Fresno City Council and individual defendents, including mayor Autry.
10:29 a.m.: Lawyers for the homeless say they are confident that the city willl honor the terms of the settlement.
10:26 a.m.: Autry is getting a dressing down from Wanger about the law and the settlement. The judge continues to emphasize that Autry criticized a settlement that city negotiated without the court's involvement.
10:20 a.m.: Wanger says he is ready to go forward with the homeless trial vs. the city of Fresno in light of Autry's statements about his disagreements with the settlement negotiated by the city and lawyers for the homeless.
10:12 a.m.: Autry is in courtroom.
Wanger describes mayor as the defendent.
10:10 a.m.: Judge Wanger estimates thirty minutes for Autry hearing.
Visalia slices the pie thin for local nonprofit groups
Something was missing tonight when the Visalia City Council adopted a funding plan for nonprofit groups offering programs for at-risk children and teenagers: the wailing and gnashing of teeth about how little money is available.
The slice of money for nonprofit assistance from the city in the 2008-09 budget year is just over $167,000. But more than two dozen organizations applied, asking for more than $521,000, so no matter what happened, someone was going to go away unhappy.
Of the 26 groups filing applications, only 19 were funded, many at levels much less than what they asked for.
In past years, such reductions in funding have been greeted by complaints from the agencies. Tonight at the Visalia Convention Center, when the Citizens Advisory Committee -- the group tasked by the City Council to screen applications and winnow the field -- presented its recommended award amounts, the report garnered nary a whimper.
Perhaps Council Member Bob Link hit the nail on the head with his observation about tough budget times for the city. "You should all be very appreciative to be part of the mix," Link told the room full of nonprofit representatives.
New Visalia site surfaces for Social Security office
Plans for a new Social Security Administration office in Visalia have turned away from a controversial site along Lovers Lane in southeast Visalia, as developers eye a different site along Noble Avenue a little closer to downtown.
On Wednesday, the city's Site Plan Review Committee will examine plans for a new 12,585-square-foot office building on property now owned by the Pentecostal Church of God on Noble Avenue east of Ben Maddox Way -- not far from the Wal-Mart store in east Visalia.
Assistant City Manager Michael Olmos said the plans represent a shift by The Imperial Group, the La Jolla firm that had wanted to build an office for the federal agency on Lovers Lane south of Tulare Street.
The company has put its application for that site on hold after running into stiff opposition from nearby residents as well as from the city; local officials wanted the Social Security Administration to remain in the downtown district. The U.S. General Services Administration says the current Social Security office at Court Street and Murray Avenue is outdated and has been outgrown.
It may be too early for the Lovers Lane neighbors to declare victory just yet, though. The developer could fall back to that site if there's a snag on the new location, Olmos said.
Berryhill accuses recyclers of meddling on metal bill
Several Fresno-area farmers were more than halfway to Sacramento today when they found out the anti-metal theft bill they were coming to support was suddenly pulled from the agenda of a Senate committee.
Many of them turned around to go home. Then suddenly the bill was put back on the agenda after its author, Assembly Member Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, sent out an angry statement accusing the metal recycling industry of a "shady back room maneuver" to try and kill the bill.
Farmers like Russel Efird, the president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, were almost home by then, so didn't bother to come back.
They didn't miss much.
The Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee took testimony but did not vote on the bill -- that will come next week, said committee chairman Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles.
AB 844 targets the growing problem of thieves turning in stolen scrap metal for quick cash. The bill requires that junk dealers and recyclers beef up record keeping and pay for some metals with checks. Dealers don't like a provision in the bill that would allow counties to enact even stronger ordinances.
Berryhill's office said the bill would clear the way for Fresno County to enact stronger rules that were recently overturned by a state appellate court.
Recyclers are pushing an alternative bill, SB 691, that would not allow for counties to pre-empt the statewide standard.
The bill's author, Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, is on the Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. But other members on the committee seemed willing to support Berryhill's bill, based on comments made during the hearing. But will they be willing to go against a fellow committee member?
Stan Simpson to serve as interim CEO at Visalia Chamber
Stan Simpson of Visalia has volunteered to serve as the interim chief executive officer of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber's board of directors jumped on Simpson's offer. It was his idea to fill the vacant position until a new CEO is hired, and he's doing it for $1.
"The board is very excited about his offer because he bring great connections and ideas," said board chairman Nancy Lockwood. "This will be the best one dollar we ever spent."
It's an inspired pairing due to Simpson's long involvement in the Visalia business community. Simpson, 67, grew up in Visalia. He's on the board of directors of the chamber, and is chairman emeritus of Buckman-Mitchell Insurance company, started in Visalia by his grandfather. The grandfather, C.T. Buckman, was the chamber's first Man of the Year in 1952, and Simpson was selected Man of the Year in 1995.
Simpson vowed he won't just warm the chair: "I've got some marketing ideas," he said.
The chamber is searching for a permanent CEO because ex-CEO Mike Cully resigned to take a job in San Diego. A new leader should be in place in about three months.
Chicago musicians have released a song about Arthur Mkoyan, the Bullard High School valedictorian who faces deportation to Armenia. The single, "Arthur" was written and created by The Certones, a group of musicians who sing about immigration reform.
What do you think about it ?
On a budget but still want to provide dad with that perfect gift?
Susan Orenstein, a licensed counseling psychologist and an expert on stahappilymarried.com, stresses that strong marriages go hand-in-hand with strong families and that recognizing dad as a family this Father’s Day could help strengthen your relationship as a couple.
Orenstein -- in a statement -- shares five ways to celebrate Father’s Day on a budget:
1) Attend a minor league sports game.
2) Volunteer as a family. Nothing makes dad feel more like the head of the family than a group activity.
3) Go for a hike. Many dads like the outdoors. Take the whole family and even enjoy a cookout after the hike.
Some people are beginning to think so. Adam York, an economist with Wachovia Corp said as much in a story today about home sales nationally posting a surprisingly strong performance in April. This story says buyers went on a bargain-hunting spree.
Real estate agents in the central San Joaquin Valley have noticed an uptick in activity too, but the CNN story cited above doesn't get into the cancellation rate, which has been higher than normal in the Fresno area. Sometimes, it's harder than expected to get approved for a purchase..
The housing market clearly remains troubled. Prices have fallen to 2004 levels, which is helping bring more people into the market, but foreclosures are taking a human toll. And then there's the wild card of soaring gas prices.
A Merrill Lynch analyst feels the boost in sales is no cause for celebration.
Word on the Street: Ruth’s Chris, new homes and more
Word on the Street, a weekly feature of the business section spotlighting new local businesses and other news tidbits, was published today.
In this week’s Word: Details about the arrival of steak house Ruth’s Chris in Fresno, along with the opening of Me-n-Ed’s Coney Island Grill in River Park. We also tell you about Magic Moments photo studio changing hands and the cleanup of a former metal salvage yard, which will be reborn as new homes, apartments and a community center in southwest Fresno.
Upstairs in downtown: Visalia planners consider homesite
Planning Commission members in Visalia will get their first look at plans by local developer Sam Sciacca to resurrect the upstairs floor of his downtown commercial building as an upscale apartment -- the first such residential remodel that city officials can remember (see below).
The building, on East Main Street between Church and Court streets, is part of the former Togni-Branch Stationers store. Sciacca has leased the downstairs commercial space to a clothing boutique, Urban Chic. Under the city's zoning laws, Sciacca needs Planning Commission approval to convert the upstairs into a small, but fashionably appointed, living area.
The commissioners will hear Sciacca's plans at their 7 p.m. meeting Monday at Visalia City Hall. Sciacca hopes if it's approved, it may spark interest by other downtown owners to convert their little-used upstairs spaces into more apartments to create a unique style of residential district.
Does this notion of urban living tempt you? Is the convenience of being downtown enough to make you consider such an apartment? Let us know.
Boy, people like their money. After we ran this story about what people are doing with their IRS stimulus checks, I received 10 phone calls. Most people wanted to know when their check would come or if they were getting one.
The IRS is the best place to find out.
If you know you’re getting one and are just wondering when, click here or call 1-866-234-2942. It all depends on whether you filed electronically or via mail, what your Social Security number is and if you filed close to the April 15 deadline and owed money (like me - I'm still waiting too).
Many people won’t see their checks until mid-July.
If you want to know if you’re getting one, generally speaking you will if you filed a tax return and made less than $75,000. For more specifics, click here. Or, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. If you haven’t filed your taxes and want a rebate check, it's not too late. People who don’t regularly need to file, but want to in order to get the check have until Oct. 15.
The stock market took a huge plunge Friday
partly because of disturbing unemployment data. But one analyst, a guy who likes to follow arcane things like
the price of prepainted steel coils and insulation, argues that the government's information is misleading. He says the Feds are counting wrong.
I got a "D" in college economics, so the observations of the economist, Kenneth Simonson, are a little beyond me. But the analysis he released today after the stock market closed is interesting, at least the part I could understand.
Here's what he had to say:
1) The June 6 employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicated that construction employment fell 34,000 in May, seasonally adjusted, and 386,000 (-5.1%) over the past 12 months. Reportedly, the two residential construction categories (residential building and specialty trade contractors) shed 316,000 jobs (-9.6%) since May 2007, while nonresidential construction (building, specialty trade and heavy & civil engineering) lost 70,000 jobs (-1.6%).
However, the Census Bureau reported on June 2 that residential construction spending declined 21% in the 12 months through April 2008. It is very unlikely that homebuilders and residential specialty trade contractors have reduced their headcounts by less than 10% when they are performing 21% less work, especially since building permits and builders' sentiment surveys consistently show a further steep decline in activity. The Census figures also show a 12% increase in nonresidential construction spending from April 2007 to April 2008, a number that would be hard to achieve with a reduction in employees, as counted by the BLS data.
It appears likely that many of the workers being counted as "residential" specialty trade contractors are actually working on nonresidential projects, such as wiring, wallboard installation and concrete finishing for schools, offices, hotels, etc. Indeed, many general contractors have reported that subcontractors who formerly worked on housing are now bidding for nonresidential work. Such a misclassification could occur if a company listed its industry code as residential when it entered the BLS data base but it is now doing nonresidential work and does not change its code.
If residential construction employment is assumed to have fallen 21% rather than 10%, that implies a further drop in residential employment of 360,000 workers. If those employees are added to the nonresidential total, nonresidential employment shows an increase from May 2007 to May 2008 of 290,000 (7%), not a decrease of 1.6%. A 7% increase is much more consistent with the Census estimate of a 12% increase in nonresidential spending, especially since that spending figure includes substantial material cost increases.
The employment report also showed that average hourly earnings for construction industry employees rose 3.7% in the past 12 months, compared to 3.5% for all private sector production or nonsupervisory workers. For construction wages to be rising faster than overall wages when construction employment is dropping (-5.1%) and total private employment is flat is improbable. But such a wage increase is consistent with rising employment in the more highly skilled nonresidential trades and falling employment in the less skilled residential trades.
The Pew Hispanic Center reported on June 4 that 250,000 Hispanic workers lost jobs in construction in the past year; anecdotal reports suggest the bulk of those workers were in residential new construction and improvements. They also tended to be lower-paid than nonresidential employees or even than the median pay for residential construction workers. If they lost jobs disproportionately, the median wage would rise.
Those of you who haven't checked out the new Web site of the Economic Development Corporation Serving Fresno County might want to. The updated interactive features are pretty cool. The redesign, headed by Catherine Curry, the agency's marketing director, is a substantial upgrade.
I like the way the skyline shifts, but it also has zippy information overlays that detail core industries, cities and various incentives, such as enterprise zones. You can even overlay overlays onto, well, overlays. Pay special attention to the CountyScape map and resource library.
"Our job is to put Fresno on the map," says Steve Geil, EDC president.
I'm working on a story about the start of ozone season in the San Joaquin Valley. I've been writing these stories for a number of years, and I'm starting to see a trend in June.
As I'm writing this, the number is 27 for state violations and five for federal. Last year at this point, the Valley had 40 state violations and 11 federal. We're getting a break because of recent mild weather, as the theory goes.
Antelope Valley, which has Joshua Tree National Monument in its basin, has 35 state violations. Joshua Tree already has 30. Antelope Valley has 6 federal violations.
The South Coast Air Basin has 34 state violations and eight federal.
Antelope Valley and South Coast generally lead the pack in the early going. But the Valley often comes on strong in July, August and September.
With just 19% of people in a recent survey saying they’ll spend their rebate money on a special purchase — such as a vacation, jewelry or a TV — many are wondering if the program will actually kickstart the economy.
Some local retailers in today’s Bee story say they’re seeing a slight increase in business due to the money. Others say they haven’t seen a drop of it.
Nationally, retailers saw a bump in sales for the month of May. However, it was stores like Costco and Wal-Mart that did the best, places that the cash-strapped go to for necessities like food and toilet paper.
What do you think? Will such a program breathe life into our ailing economy, or will all the money be eaten up by gasoline and food costs?
If the Lakers don't pull it out, the folks in Massachusetts might be munching on some Valley fruit for free.
This just hit my e-mail box from the governor's press secretary, Aaron McLear: (not totally sure if it will be Valley fruit -- but where else could it be from?)
"Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Governor Schwarzenegger have agreed to a friendly wager on the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals. Since Governor Schwarzenegger is confident that Kobe and Lakers will dominate the Celtics (his press secretary is predicting Lakers in 5; Kobe named MVP), he accepted the bet today. Here’s the wager:
When the Lakers win, Governor Patrick will send a shipment of seafood (according to an AP report, Legal Sea Foods will donate 17 pounds of clam chowder to commemorate what would be the Celtics’ 17th Championship) to a California charity of our Governor’s choosing.
If the Celtics win (not gonna happen), Governor Schwarzenegger sends a shipment of California-grown fruit, vegetables, nuts, cheese, and wine to a charity that Governor Patrick picks.
Game 1 tip-off is tonight at 6 pm Pacific in Boston."
They are still counting mail ballots, but it looks like Fresno County will have among the worst voter turnouts in the state for Tuesday's primary election. As of Thursday afternoon, the county's turnout was 19.9%.
Only five counties are worse: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Yuba. The statewide average is 22.4%.
Locally, Madera County is posting the best number, at 31.7%. Madera County voters have a good track record: The county also led all local counties in February's presidential primary, with a 37.36% turnout. Fresno County's was 33.35% for that election.
Rumors that the restaurant would open here have been flying for more than a year. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but the restaurant is well known for its 120 locations worldwide. (To read more about the history of how a woman named Ruth bought a restaurant named Chris Steak House, click here. To check out their menu, click here.)
The 9,500-square-foot restaurant will open next to REI in the portion of River Park facing Blackstone Avenue. Look for more details on the project in Monday’s Word on the Street in the Bee's business section.
Country songwriter and humorist Brent Burns has tapped into the public’s anger over rising fuel prices.
Burns’ “Pain At The Pump” video posted on You Tube had thousands of hits within hours. CNN picked up the video, posted it on their web site, did a phone interview with Burns and used the song in their report, “Four Bucks! What’s Next? America’s Fuel Nightmare” which aired May 31 and June 1.
This is the second time Burns has written about high guel prices. In 1979, Burns had a Top-40 hit with “Cheaper Crude Or No More Food." With the oil embargo and gas shortages of the day, the song struck the right note with the American people. “Pain At The Pump” is striking the same note with a new generation of angry listeners.
The song's twangy refrain goes:
They're not just pumping oil;
They're drilling me and you.
The big man's gettin' rich;
and the little man's gettin; screwed.
A portion of the proceeds from his CD sales, which include "Pain at the Pump," are channeled back to the community through his Brent Burns Charitable Foundation. Go here to watch the “Pain At The Pump” video on YouTube.
So why did Gov. Schwarzenegger travel to Visalia this morning hold a news conference announcing $2 million in money for rural counties to launch “reverse 911” telephone emergency notification systems?
Tulare County is rural for sure, and qualifies for the federal Homeland Security money to get started. But there’s 16 others counties on the list.
Answer, two words: Connie Conway, the Tulare County supervisor.
“Well, you know, we have a special relationship,” Schwarzenegger said to laughter from local dignitaries when asked by a reporter why he came to Tulare County.
Locally, it’s no secret that Conway is friends with the governor. She struck up a friendship with the movie star governor while on the board of the California State Association of Counties. He was still newly elected. They’ve been pals ever since.
Today on the front page we ran a story about Robert Kennedy's visits to Fresno during the last two years of his life, including the campaign train trip he took on May 31, 1968, just six days before he was assassinated in Los Angeles. Read the Kennedy story.
The story included recollections from people who knew Kennedy or met him on those visits.
Did you meet Kennedy or hear him speak in Fresno or the Central Valley during the 1960s? Were you at Fresno State when he was there? Did you hear him speak in Delano? Were you at the airport or train station when he came to town? Please share your memories on the news blog.
I wrote last week about a carbon fee that will be levied in the San Francisco area next month. It will raise about $1 million annually to collect data and track greenhouse gas emissions.
I thought it sounded like a cutting-edge idea, attacking global warming on a local level. In the blog item, I wondered if the same thing would happen here.
Executive Director Seyed Sadredin of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District says such a fee is not really necessary. He says the Valley district is efficient enough to track greenhouse gases without asking for $1 million.
Here is his e-mailed response:
The Bay Area fee is just an administrative fee to pay for the staffing cost associated with collecting and tracking data – there are other ways to fund such activities. With automation and integration of the existing criteria pollutants emissions inventory systems with the new GHG emissions reporting systems, we can do it with minimal cost and without having to levy new fees. I’m taking a “Climate Change Action Plan” to our Board at their next regularly scheduled Board meeting on June 19th which includes a measure such as this. Not a new fee but means to effectively and efficiently collect emissions data from sources. There are other worthy components in the proposed “Climate Change Action Plan.” Stay tuned.
This so called “Carbon Tax” does not serve as an incentive or a disincentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Most companies will pay less than $1 per year in carbon fees.
None of the money will be spent on funding emission reduction projects.
You would think the rich and famous would be able to escape the foreclosure crisis, but not so. Pitchman Ed McMahon is in danger of losing his house because health issues prevent him from working. This storyis so sad.
On the same day Hillary Clinton's bid for history fell short, female candidates more than held their own in the Valley. Consider these results from Tuesday:
First-time candidate Ashley Swearengin beat several well-known male candidates to qualify for November's run-off election for Fresno mayor against Henry T. Perea.
Debbie Poochigian, another newcomer, beat Clovis City Council Member Nathan Magsig for a seat on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
Incumbent Susan Anderson fended off two strong male challengers to keep her seat on the same board.
The votes are still being counted, but Tulare County Supervisor Connie Conway looks to have wrapped up the GOP nomination for a South Valley Assembly seat. If she holds her lead she will be a strong favorite in the fall against Democrat Desmond Farrelly for the seat now held by Bill Maze.
More on Conway: Her apparent victory virtually assures that the Valley's legislative delegation won't become a club for men only. Only one woman now serves from the Fresno area -- Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, in the Assembly. But she's termed out. Another woman, Fran Florez, is the Democratic nominee to fill Parra's slot and will face off against Danny Gilmore.
Tuesday's female triumphs come a year and a half after Fresno County voters elected the county's first woman sheriff, Margaret Mims.
So much for the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Dean Florez rapprochement.
When the governor announced his revised budget plan last month, it looked as if he and the state senator might actually be on the same page.
The administration pointed to a Florez bill on expanding the lottery to generate more revenue. And Florez, one of Schwarzenegger’s fiercest critics, said he would “work with the governor to address the hurdles that any lottery-related solution to the budget crisis may pose.”
That didn’t last long.
In a recent interview, Florez, D-Shafter, said that he wants to expand the state lottery. But instead of borrowing against extra proceeds to close the budget gap, as the governor proposed, he wants to create a higher education endowment that could be tapped by aspiring university students.
“We’re not going to allow our bill [to be used] in a way that is looking back in the rearview mirror at debt versus looking forward,” he said. The legislation “has nothing to do with solving the budget crisis at all,” adding that the governor “will have to go shop around for another vehicle.”
Fine, said Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear.
The Florez bill “was never part of our plan,” he said. “It was just simply a model we were pointing to.”
The bill, SB 1679, is scheduled for a hearing next week.
Visalia mayor Jesus Gamboa says he's not afraid of anyone revoking his Democratic membership card even after he spent Election Night rubbing shoulders at Republican Connie Conway's victory party.
Gamboa was among several prominent local Democrats visiting Conway's campaign headquarters to celebrate her winning the Republican nomination for the 34th Assembly District seat being vacated by termed-out Bill Maze.
"I support the people I think will do the best for our district," said Gamboa, who said he considers Conway a friend to him and to Visalia. "It's not about the parties. ... When you take off the labels, it's about doing the best for the people of the district."
Other Democrats greeting Conway Tuesday night were Vincent Salinas, a member of the Visalia Planning Commission, and Lali Moheno, a former colleague of Conway's on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors when she was appointed by then-Gov. Gray Davis, after Bill Maze was elected to the Assembly nearly six years ago.
It's not that there's no Democrat running for the seat. Desmond Farrelly, an educator from Visalia, was unopposed in Tuesday's Democratic primary and will face Conway in the November general election. But with Republicans outnumbering Democrats by about a 4-to-3 ratio in voter registration throughout the far-flung 34th District, Farrelly is likely to be a heavy underdog against Conway -- just as he was two years ago when he ran and lost to Maze.
Just for kicks I thought I would share this picture I stumbled across in the Bee’s archives:
Yep, that’s gasoline selling at $1.63 a gallon in February of 2000.
The story that accompanies the photo quotes drivers and gas station owners angry about the exorbitant prices.
“I think it’s way too high,” said [Peter] Davis of Fresno, as he pumped gas into his car. “That’s why I am putting in $3, to get to the Arco station [at Divisadero and Abby]. I really just wanted to put in $1, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself.”
Today $3 won’t even get you a gallon. Ah, nostalgia.
All those ozone violations in Clovis this spring were apparently phantoms. Clovis has gone from 20 violations of the state standard to zero. That's right, zip.
What happened? New equipment was installed at the Clovis monitoring site, and it wasn't quite working right for a while. Now it is, and Clovis is clean. For now.
The San Joaquin Valley's worst locations are, once again, in Sequoia National Park, Arvin, Edison and Fresno. They all have 13 or more exceedences of the state standard. Sequoia's monitor already has tallied 22 violations of the state standard.
For those keeping score, Joshua Tree National Monument has 29 state violations this year -- the most in California.
In fact, California's worst two smog spots so far this year are in a national monument and a national park. Joshua Tree is downwind of Los Angeles, and Sequoia is downwind of the Valley. If you're planning a hike in either place, check air quality first.
There's one other Valley city on the early hot-spot list, and it's a little surprising. Are you ready, Tulare County? It's Visalia.
The monitor on Church Street already shows three federal ozone exceedences. That's the most federal exceedences in the region so far this year. Visalia also has 16 exceedences for the state standard.
Who had more winners in the Tuesday election, The Bee's Editorial Board or the Lincoln Club of Fresno County?
Let's go to the scorecard and tally the results.
Both organizations recommended the three Fresno City Council winners -- Andreas Borgeas, Larry Westerlund and Lee Brand.
Ashley Swearengin, recommended by the Editorial Board, made the mayoral run-off and was a close second to Henry T. Perea. The Lincoln Club's preferred candidate, Jerry Duncan, finished a badly beaten third.
The Lincoln Club stayed out of the two contested Fresno County supervisorial races, while the Editorial Board saw one of its recommended candidates, Susan Anderson, prevail in District 2. The board's other recommended candidate, Nathan Magsig, lost to Debbie Poochigian in District 5.
Jim Kelley, who wasn't recommended by either entity, led with 38% of the vote for a Superior Court judgeship and will face the Editorial Board's favorite, Douglas Treisman, in a run-off. The Lincoln Club's preferred pick, Glenn LoStracco, finished fourth in a four-candidate field.
Finally, on the two competing statewide eminent domain propositions, voters passed Proposition 99, which was recommended by the Editorial Board. Proposition 98, backed by the Lincoln Club and preferred by landlords because it would've phased out rent-control, was defeated.
All in all, you'd have to say that the Editorial Board had a better night with its recommendations than the Lincoln Club, which describes itself as "a political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans to all levels of local, state and national government."
Disclosure: I am not a member of The Bee's Editorial Board, although I sometimes sit in on the board's interviews with candidates. The Bee's newsroom and Editorial Board are separate entities.
Good night.
Or should I say, good morning?
Thanks to all the blog readers who posted their observations.
The returns produced good news for Susan Anderson in her sixth straight election
Susan Anderson survived her toughest political battle Tuesday night, fending off Brian Calhoun and Paul Dictos in the primary and sidestepping a November run-off election.
With 99% of Fresno County District 2 precincts reporting, she had captured about 53% of the vote.
It was her closest call in a political career that began in 1990, when she defeated former Fresno Mayor Dale Doig to win the country clerk's job.
Anderson captured 84% of the vote in the general election that year after Doig withdrew from the race because of difficulty raising campaign funds.
No one opposed Anderson in 1994 and four years later, she garnered about 73% of the vote while defeating Doug Vagim.
In 2000, Anderson moved onto to the Board of Supervisors, claiming a 68% share to trounce then-Fresno City Council Member Ken Steitz, who was plagued by questions about whether he really lived in the district.
Anderson ran unopposed in 2004, continuing a string of easy victories.
Winning a third term to the board and a sixth-consecutive term as a county office-holder was more difficult.
Calhoun has an established support base in northwest Fresno, which he represents on the City Council, and
criticized Anderson for failing to fix the county's well-documented financial problems.
Dictos, a candidate for a variety of local elected positions through the years, also campaigned hard on a platform of bringing financial acumen and prudence to the board.
But Anderson's name recognition, loyal support base and reputation for steady leadership helped her avoid a costly run-off and kept her undefeated.
Debbie Poochigian, left, says her maturity helped her defeat Nathan Magsig
Earlier tonight, The Bee's county reporter, Kerri Ginis, was unable to reach Debbie Poochigian, who was locked up in a nasty race with Nathan Magsig for the District 5 seat being vacated by Bob Waterston.
Poochigian -- who was leading Magsig by 8 percentage points with 92% of precincts reporting at about 10:45 p.m -- finally was reached on a cell phone at her party at Pardini's – although the cell phone wasn’t her own.
“It’s great,” Poochigian said. “We just really tried to put out the issues. As I was walking door to door talking to voters, they wanted someone with common sense, someone with maturity, who wasn’t beholden to anyone.”
Meanwhile, Magsig was ready to concede. He said he’s moving on and will continue his work on the Clovis City Council.
Magsig said he left a congratulatory voicemail on Poochigian’s cell phone.
Which Poochigian will hear when she returns home and checks her cell phone.
Fresno County supervisor candidate Debbie Poochigian greets Charanjit S. Batth at an Election Night party at Pardini's. With 60% of the precincts reporting, Poochigian led opponent Nathan Magsig, 53% to 47%. (Photo by Darrell Wong / The Fresno Bee)
Ashley Swearengin shouts and throws her hand in the air as early returns were announced in the race for Fresno mayor. (Photo by Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee)
With 43% of precincts reporting, Henry T. Perea and Ashley Swearengin hold a strong edge in the race to make the two-person runoff for Fresno mayor. Perea is pulling 27.43% of the vote and Swearengin 26.38%. The next three: Jerry Duncan 11.25%, Tom Boyajian 10.23%, Jeff Eben 10.02%.
It's time to focus on the state Senate and Assembly.
Returns from the California Secretary of State's office show state Sen. Jeff Denham of Atwater easily fending off the recall engineered by Senate Pro-Tem Don Perata.
Perata, a Democrat, pulled the plug on the recall in early May, but it remained on the ballot and Denham, a Republican, continued to actively campaign to retain his seat.
Of about 46,000 ballots counted in the district at 10 p.m., the recall was failing by a 3-to-1 margin.
Figures for the 34th Assembly District Republican primary showed Tulare County Supervisor Connie Conway leading challengers Bob Smith and Becky Maze.
Maze is attempting to succeed her termed-out husband, Bill, for the seat.
The winner of the Republican primary is all but assured of defeating the Democratic nominee, Desmond Farrelly, in the heavily Republican district.
The Henry T. Perea for mayor party is rocking at the Public House, a pub in Granite Park at Cedar and Dakota avenues. The pub is located in District 4, not Perea's District 7.
Perea's has his cell phone on voice mail, so we've yet to hear from him.
But we can say that former District 1 City Council candidates Scott Miller and Alan Schroeder are attending. Both were beaten by Blong Xiong, who is now the council president.
Schroeder is Perea's college fraternity brother.
Perea's father, Henry R. Perea, the Fresno County supervisor, is networking with party-goers, of course.
Two well-known figures associated with San Joaquin Valley's air-quality fight are there, as well. Jaime Holt is the Valley air board's spokeswoman, and Kevin Hall has been a longtime air-quality advocate and political organizer.
Dora Westerlund, wife of Larry Westerlund, along with their nephew, Brian Kasparian, talk to the Fresno City Council member via online video. Larry Westerlund is at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, where he is deployed with the Naval Reserve. His family and supporters gathered at the Old Spaghetti Factory to watch election results. (Photo by Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee)
Fresno County Supervisor Susan Anderson takes a phone call at her campaign headquarters as she waits for results in the race to hold her seat against Fresno City Council Member Brian Calhoun (Photo by Darrell Wong / The Fresno Bee)
This report comes from Kerri Ginis, who covers the Fresno County Board of Supervisors for The Bee:
Fresno County District 5 candidate Nathan Magsig is watching the early election returns with dozens of his supporters at DiCicco’s in Old Town Clovis.
Early returns show that he is slightly trailing his opponent community activist and businesswoman Debbie Poochigian.
But unlike Magsig, who answered his cell phone, Poochigian could not be reached for any reaction. That’s because she said on Monday that she would be “unavailable” on election night.
Poochigian said she would be at Pardini’s in Fresno, but she wasn’t planning to bring her cell phone. She also said she didn’t know how she could be reached for comment.
She finally suggested calling her campaign manager’s cell phone. A call to that number went to voice mail.
A reader asked for the complete results thus far in the Fresno mayoral race. We still haven't moved past that initial spurt of absentee votes, but here it is, with 17.6% of the polls reporting.
Ashley Swearengin 26.84%, Henry T. Perea, 26.34%, Jerry Duncan 12.0%, Jeff Eben 10.64%, Tom Boyajian 9.68%, Mike Dages 6.61%, Barbara Ann Hunt 2.42%, Doug Vagim 2.37%, Henry Monreal 1.62%, Jim Boswell, 1.02%, Ignacio Garibay 0.43%.
Former Fresno County Supervisor Doug Vagim, who campaigned for mayor on a platform of fiscal responsibility, has pulled ahead of City Hall gadfly Barbara Hunt and into seventh place among the 11 candidates. Hunt didn't have a platform and didn't mount a campaign, except to show up at mayoral forums. But she was the first person listed on the mayoral ballot, which by itself, produces votes.
Vagim now has 543 votes, and Hunt has 517.
I know the night is young, but Doug Vagim can't be happy with how the mayoral balloting is going.
Vagim didn't figure to beat out Ashley Swearengin or Henry T. Perea, but the former Fresno County supervisor likely never imagined trailing City Hall gadfly Barbara Hunt.
The last time Hunt ran for mayor, she received 8 votes.
This time, she's undoubtedly benefiting from being the first name on the mayoral ballot. The placement was determined by a statewide drawing held to determine the ballot order for local and state elections.
With about 18% of the vote counted, Hunt has 459 votes to Vagim's 449.
In the race you care about: Swearengin is leading Perea by 94 votes, and if the early trend holds up, they'll meet in the general election. Each has about 26% of the vote.
With 18% of the vote in, Ashley Swearengin and Henry T. Perea lead the Fresno mayoral pack with about 26% each.
Nathan Magsig's and Debbie Poochigian's rough-and-tumble race for Fresno County supervisorial is carrying over in the early returns, with less than five percentage points separating the two and 12.9% of the vote in.
A thank-you to all the tipsters calling or e-mailing to say that Fresno supervisorial candidate Brian Calhoun is still serving coffee at his street-corner klatches.
You might recall that after Calhoun, a Fresno City Council member, began a campaign to stop panhandlers from hanging out on Fresno street medians, I asked county health officials whether he needed a permit to hand out free coffee on the street.
I asked because I believe that a politician panhandling on the streets for votes should be held to the same standard as other panhandlers.
The officials said a permit was needed and told Calhoun's City Council aide the same.
Though he still keeps a pot on a table, Calhoun told me and the audience at a Farm Bureau supervisorial candidates forum that there's no coffee in it because of the permit requirement.
"It's virtual coffee," Calhoun said.
And another example of a politician relying on smoke and mirrors.
Fresno City Council Member Larry Westerlund is waiting for the results in the District Four race - at Fort Jackson, S.C., where he's preparing for a deployment to Iraq.
Westerlund has been staying in touch with friends and family who are gathered tonight at Old Spaghetti Factory on Shaw Avenue, using Skype, an Internet-based phone and video system. They can see fuzzy images of one another.
"It's great to see everyone but it's tough too," Westerlund said in a short conversation with The Bee. "You want to share the experience with everybody."
Westerlund is facing Susan Good, district director for state Sen. Dean Florez, in the race for the east-central Fresno district.
He expects his deployment with the Naval Reserve to last a year.
The contest to determine George Bush's successor is overshadowing the Fresno mayoral race.
So it figured that Sen. Barack Obama would sew up the Democratic nomination the same day that Fresnans went to the polls to winnow the field of candidates to succeed Alan Autry.
As I write this, Obama is addressing the nation via television from St. Paul, Minn., which just happens to be where the Republicans will hold their national convention in September.
And . . . Republican nominee John McCain formally will kick off his fall presidential campaign.
Once a year, every Fresnan -- or Fresnian as the state lottery folks like to say -- gets to pile discards in front of the house. Then city sanitation crews come around and haul away whatever the scavengers haven't piled into their vans and pickups.
Right now, the Big Pickup is happening on Barton Avenue between Gettysburg and Shaw in northeast Fresno. And so is the today's election.
You can guess what's coming.
The "Polling Place" sign for the Barton neighborhood precinct is affixed to an old wooden dresser standing in front of the home where voting is going on.
It's a five-alarm snoozefest at fire station precinct
Diana Marcum reports:
Clovis Fire Station No. 3 hosts a double precinct, with a total of 2,000 registered voters. About 30% of those people use mail-in ballots. Still, the polling place had seen 70 voters by 4:30 p.m.
“With elections in February, June and November … one, two, three … people are a little burned out on this voting thing,” said John Dibenedetto, a six-time poll worker. “A lot of people are waiting on November, getting ready for the firestorm. It's going to be a heated historical controversial election. All this national news swirling today, people aren't looking so much at the local elections.”
Based on what colleagues tell me, I'll feel like the Maytag repairman when I show up.
The Maytag repairman?
Some readers might be too young to remember the television commercial for the appliance manufacturer. The idea was that the Maytag repairman was the loneliest guy in town because the company's washers and dryers were extremely reliable.
Anyway, voter turner appears to be living up to woeful expectations of 25% to 30% -- or may end up even lower.
It's a bit puzzling in that Fresno area media -- old and new -- are providing unprecedented access to information about the candidates and the issues through the Internet.
But, in other ways, the turnout isn't surprising.
California, beginning with the gubernatorial recall of Gray Davis, simply has had too many elections the past few years. And it appears that our local races are overshadowed by the intense interest in the presidential campaign.
The mayoral campaign has lacked controversy, with front-runners Henry T. Perea and Ashley Swearengin running strong, competent, politically safe campaigns.
Throw in the end of the school year, the start of summer, the price of gas, and people can easily rationalize their decisions not to vote.
Teen poll worker has lots of time for text-messaging
Diana Marcum reports:
Bronson Buskett, a 16-year-old Clovis poll worker, plans to use his $150 from the day's efforts to buy guitar stuff.
Bronson said he spent about four-fifths of his poll-worker time text-messaging friends with his cel phone. He said that was because four-fifths of the registered voters didn't show up.
There was only one moment of excitement, he said: "This old guy threw a doughnut ... well, a piece of a doughnut ... when his name was on the rolls. He had to use a provisional ballot."
Visalia City Council Member Don Landers has a well-known pet peeve, and it's one he's never been shy to talk about: red lights at intersections.
In a report this week to the City Council, Public Works Director Andrew Benelli talked about the city's plans to spend about $305,000 over the next four years to change all of the city's traffic signals from incandescent bulbs to energy-saving LEDs, or light-emitting diodes.
Signals at many intersections have already been partially converted. "We already did all the red lights, now we're going to do the yellow and green lights," Benelli told the City Council.
Landers couldn't help himself: "Somehow I always knew your priority was the red lights," he said with a grin.
The LEDs not only use less electricity than their older incandescent predecessors, but also last longer, reducing maintenance costs, Benelli said.
Signal synchronization -- timing traffic signals so drivers going at a moderate speed can sail smoothly along major streets without being stalled by a red light -- has for years been a concern for Landers, who frequently complained about traffic on his daily work drives on Demaree Street and other thoroughfares before retiring from the Tulare County Sheriff's Department earlier this year.
Benelli also warmed Landers' heart by reporting on plans to spend about $600,000 over the next six years to synchronize traffic signals along key streets throughout the city -- a move that should speed traffic flow, reduce the time that motorists have to wait at intersections, save fuel and reduce air pollution from idling cars.
We know Landers likes the idea; now let's hear what you think. Does $900,000 sound like a lot of money to spend to change bulbs and synchronize the lights, or is it worth the cost to save energy, smooth the commute and reduce your gas use?
One of my election-day blogging traditions is to track how The Bee's and the Fresno County Lincoln Club's recommendations fare at the ballot box.
Keeping tabs should be easy today because The Bee's Editorial Board -- which has a reputation for leaning to the left -- agrees with the proudly conservative Lincoln Club on the Fresno City Council races.
Both organizations are recommending Republicans Andreas Borgeas (District 2), Larry Westerlund (District 4) and Lee Brand (District 6) for the nonpartisan City Council positions.
Tracking also is simplified by the fact that the Lincoln Club didn't recommend in the two contested Fresno County supervisorial races.
In the down and dirty District 5 race, neither Debbie Poochigian nor Nathan Magsig garnered a supermajority of Lincoln Club board member votes needed for the group's kiss of approval. That was to be expected. The last thing the Lincoln Club wants to do is to take sides in a race pitting conservative Republicans against each other.
And in the District 2 supervisorial race pitting moderate Republican incumbent Susan B. Anderson against terming-out Fresno City Council Member Brian Calhoun, who declines to state his party affiliation, and accountant Paul Dictos, a conservative Republican, the Lincoln Club stayed out of the fray.
The reason?
According to club president Mike Der Manouel Jr., the group didn't think it could have an impact on the District 2 race and preferred to spend its dollars hammering away at mayoral candidate Henry T. Perea.
The Bee Editorial Board, for the record, recommended Magsig and Anderson.
As for the mayoral race, The Bee recommends Ashley Swearengin, a moderate Republican, and the Lincoln Club backs Jerry Duncan, a conservative Republican who has run an almost invisible campaign. Look for the club, however, to put its money behind Swearengin if she and Perea make it out of the primary.
In the lone judge race, The Lincoln Club is backing lawyer Glenn LoStracco, the only Republican in the four-candidate field, while The Bee recommends Douglas Treisman, a deputy district attorney and a Democrat.
On the competing eminent domain propositions, The Bee gives a thumbs-up to Prop. 99, and the Lincoln
Club prefers Prop. 98. Thanks to reader Mike D. for pointing out that my original post had their recommendations reversed!
We'll see how things shake out tonight.
Disclosure: I am not a member of The Bee's Editorial Board, although I sometimes sit in on the board's interviews with candidates. The Bee's newsroom and Editorial Board are separate entities.
When Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar went to his polling place this morning, poll workers outnumbered voters by 8-1 (Salazar was the only voter).
Salazar sounded gloomy while saying he expects that will be a common scenario at other polling places today.
"The election is going fine, but in terms of voter turn-out, not so good," he said. He told a reporter looking for voter reaction: "Good luck finding some."
Salazar summed up the cause in two words: voter fatigue.
"Hopefully the legislature will make note of the consequences of having three statewide elections in a nine-month period," he said.
A voter makes his selection at the Sons of Italy Hall, where balloting was moved outside following an electrical fire earlier Tuesday. (Photo by Heidi Huber / The Fresno Bee)
4:35 p.m.: Here is more detailed information about the Sons of Italy polling-site fire, courtesy of reporter Tim Bragg:
A small fire Tuesday afternoon briefly disrupted voting at one Tulare County polling location in Visalia.
The electricity at the Sons of Italy Hall in Visalia went out just before 3 p.m., after smoke and flames were seen coming from the building's main electrical panel.
Poll workers and voters evacuated the building immediately, said Al Guzman, a field inspector for the Tulare County elections department. Visalia firefighters assisted the poll workers in taking the election equipment and tables outside.
Guzman said elections officials planned to have voters cast their ballots outside under a patio in front of the building until the polls closed at 8 p.m., as the summer months meant it would stay light later in the evening. Guzman said the county could bring in fans or lights if needed.
County officials said about 1,200 registered voters are in the precincts that are assigned to the polling place at the Sons of Italy Hall. But he said turnout was very light Tuesday.
The fire was confined to the electrical panel and did not spread into the rest of the building, said Visalia fire Capt. Miguel Oseguera.
4 p.m.: Tulare County's election office says the voting precinct at the Sons of Italy is open for business despite a fire at the site earlier today.
Poll workers are set up at the front of the building at 4211 W Goshen Ave. in Visalia and will be there until all polls close at 8 p.m., reports Paul Sampietro, elections division manager.
Bob Ludekens of Visalia has been involved in Boy Scouts virtually his whole life as a scout, scout leader and volunteer. He’s so much a Boy Scout that he’s even pictured in a Norman Rockwell painting.
Ludekens vividly remembers the day in August 1946 when he and four fellow scouts, wearing uniforms and hiking gear, posed for the artist, who had came to Alhambra where Ludekens grew up. Rockwell was doing the preliminary sketchwork for a painting to be on the 1947 scout calendar.
“He just kept sketching us and moving us around,” Ludekens said. “He’d sketch our arms and faces. He have us flex our legs and arms.”
The result was the painting “All Together,” depicting six enthusiastic scouts — and one dog — summiting a rock outcropping.
On Wednesday at noon, a copy of the painting will be dedicated at the Bob and Carole Ludekens Scout Service Center in Visalia, and placed on permanent display.
During the Depression, Rockwell was contracted to do a painting for the Boy Scouts, which was put on the cover of Scouting magazine. The response was so positive that it helped boost Rockwell’s career, and he subsequently did several paintings for the scouts for free. The one that Ludekens is in — he’s pointing into the distance — is one of about 20 such works. They’re now hanging in the Boy Scouts of America museum in Irving, Texas.
Once, Ludekens said, he attended a scouting event back east where the Rockwell originals were put on display, including “All Together.” He astonished everyone by identifying by name all the scouts in the painting, and explaining how it came to be.
That day long ago, he told them, several scouts from two troops had been asked to show up at a church after school, but only four did, so they had to recruit a fifth. Ludekens is still in touch with three of them — Ron Bramson of Monterey, Richard Sale of Los Angeles and George Stead of Washington state. They’ve all signed their names under the print to be displayed Wednesday. Missing is David Nesbitt, spelling uncertain.
They wore their homemade backpacks for Rockwell, which he included in the painting.
But the pragmatic vice president of Mure Corp., a property development and management firm in Whittier, admits that after spending countless hours and thousands of dollars removing graffiti from the buildings managed by his company, he was at the end of his rope.
That was until he decided to take matters into his own hands.
With his brother and father, Railsback developed a unique graffiti deterrent using the ScareCrow motion-activated sprinkler by Contech Electronics. Since putting in the system nine months ago, his company's buildings -- which were previously vandalized at least twice a week -- have only been hit three times.
Railsback installed the first system in August 2007. He said the building was tagged the second night after the installation but the vandal did not get the job done.
"It was a partial tag - only a few letters," Railsback said. "The ground was wet from the system being triggered. We laughed long and hard thinking about the tagger getting soaked without knowing where it came from."
Railsback says he plans to install ScareCrows at all his company's graffiti problem areas. He mounted the ScareCrows, which have been used by gardeners as an animal deterrent for 12 years, 15 feet high on the buildings, spaced approximately 20 feet apart. He plumbed them into the internal water supply for each building and pointed them straight down.
I'm blogging on today's local elections this afternoon and throughout the night.
First up: Will it be Ashley Swearengin vs. Henry T. Perea in the Fresno mayoral runoff? Or is there a chance that the pollsters and pundits (including me) are wrong?
Answer: Remember the New Hampshire Democratic primary back in January?
Some polls, including respected outfits Gallup and CNN, forecast a big victory for Sen. Barack Obama, who was coming off a smashing victory in Iowa. Political analysts swept up in Obama fever pronounced him unstoppable and forecast big trouble for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
New Hampshire, however, produced the first of several comebacks for Clinton, as she garnered nearly 40% of the vote to beat Obama and John Edwards.
How did the polls and many in the media get it wrong?
They couldn't keep up with the swirling sentiments of voters, many of whom didn't make up their minds until the last minute.
This long-winded intro brings us to the Fresno mayoral race. Available polling indicates that Perea and Swearengin will make the run-off, swamping the nine other candidates.
But a poll is only as good as its sampling, execution and timing -- and the honesty of its respondents.
All of the local polls I've seen on the mayoral race have claimed an accuracy of plus-or-minus 4.2% to 5%.
That tells me that it's highly unlikely -- but not impossible -- for Tom Boyajian or Jeff Eben to qualify for the mayoral showdown ahead of either Swearengin or Perea.
The only certainty: If you want your voice heard, you need to get to the polls before they close tonight at 8 o'clock.
It takes money to make money, but these days real estate agents are having to dig deeper into their pockets to lure clients to their listings.
Heidi Huebner and Beth Brown of Coldwell Banker Shaver Lake Real Estate hired a strech Hummer limo to take 40 clients to see 13 luxury homes in the Shaver Lake area. The would-be buyers munched on tasty treats, enjoyed a special lunch and spent the day viewing houses ranging in price from $700,000 to $3.8 million.
Huebner, a real estate agent for two years, said she and Brown found sponsors to help defray the cost, but still shelled out some of their own money to help pay for the tour. But the cost was worth it, she said, to expose the attributes of Shaver Lake to others.
Huebner said the tour showed people that Shaver Lake has more than just cabins, as this photo confirms. "It was a fun day to get out in the mountains and see what Shaver had to offer," she said, adding that they hope to do a similar
promotion next fall. Next time, they may arrange boat rides on the lake.
No houses were sold during the event and Huebner said she didn't really expect to. "It puts our names out to quite a few people," she said. "You have to get your name out and show product."
The resources available for homeowners caught, or likely to be caught, with soaring payments from mortgages that are resetting or caught in a financial vise because of falling home values can benefit from an all encompassing workshop set for June 14 at the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center.
The event, which goes from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., is free. It is designed for families who are in trouble, could be facing problems down the road or who just want more information. Credit counselors and other loan and financing experts will be on hand.
The Fresno Redevelopment Agency is sponsoring the event in conjunction with other agencies. If you need help, this is the place to be. Be sure to bring your loan documents.
The Brookings Institute put out a report saying Bakersfield is No. 1 in the country for something related to energy usage.
And it's not a negative thing.
Brookings, a nonprofit public policy organization in Washington, D.C., says Bakersfield residents emitted less carbon in 2005 from their household energy use than residents in any other major city in the country. There were 100 cities surveyed.
That's an academic way of saying folks in the Bakersfield metropolitan area are responsible for less carbon dioxide in the air for the energy they use at home. The energy is for things like air conditioning, dish washers, water heaters and refrigerators.
Fresno is tied for sixth with San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, according to the Brookings.
But let's turn to the transportation side of the so-called carbon footprint. For carbon emissions coming from highway transportation -- cars, pickups, SUVs and other vehicles -- Fresno ranked 71st, and Bakersfield was dead last at 100th.
Combining the two indexes -- residential and transportation -- Fresno is a respectable 22nd in the country overall. Bakersfield is 53rd.
All of which leaves one good question. Why did California do so well on residential energy usage (10 of the top 12 were in this state)?
Mark Muro, director of the metropolitan policy program for Brookings, explains California has mild weather compared to many other places. And the state has more modern building codes, along with cleaner sources of energy.
I got some extra help answering the question about the lone chimney on Auberry Road.
Here's what happened: One Sunday after church, I asked my husband, Dean, "What are you doing the rest of the day?"
"Taking my wife on a date," he said.
I was just lobbying for a trip to Target, but a date sounded like a lot more fun, even when you've been married 38 years. Our first stop was the gas station and I began to wonder. Then we drove to Wahoo's for fish tacos. OK, this was better.
Back in the car, my husband said, "It's a nice day for a drive," and we headed for the foothills.
But I knew something was up. Then it hit me: "You're driving me to see the chimney," I said.
He just smiled. He knew I'd been trying to find time to drive up Auberry Road for weeks.
We soon found it in a dusty field beside Granville's Ventana Hills subdivision. My husband took a picture of me sitting on the hearth, which he later installed as wallpaper on our home computer.
Sometimes you have to go see a place to find the answer. After seeing the lone chimney, I was able to describe what it looked like in my column. I got the story of the chimney from Jeff Roberts of Granville Homes, but this question is also a good example of how the rest of the story can come later. After the column ran on Dec. 24, Martha Hawthorne called to tell me her great-grandfather, the late Thomas J. Ward, built the lone chimney and fireplace.
Will top-of-the-ticket spot help Fresno mayoral hopeful?
Does being first on the ballot matter?
Tomorrow’s Fresno mayoral election could be a good barometer.
Barbara Hunt has the coveted position among the 11 mayoral hopefuls, thanks to the luck of the draw. But the businesswoman and regular attendee at Fresno City Council meetings has raised no money for her campaign and is widely considered a longshot.
When she ran for mayor in 2004 as a write-in candidate, she got eight votes.
If history is any indication, she should do better this time around.
“It will win her some votes, sure,” Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at University of Southern California, said of Hunt’s top-of-the-ballot location. “It gives you a little edge.”
In the 2000 presidential race, a study by an Ohio State University professor found that George W. Bush won 9% more votes in California locales where he was listed first on the ballot than where his name was not first among those seeking the office.
Such statewide races rotate the name at the top, meaning Bush was not always the first name on the ballot. But in tomorrow’s mayoral race, Hunt will be at the top all across the city.
Jeffe says the question is not if she’ll receive more votes because of her ballot location, but how many more.
Mike Briggs, a one-time Republican Assembly member who is now a political consultant, is in trouble with some in his own political party — again.
Briggs is listed as treasurer of a recently formed political action committee known as “Friends of the Valley PAC.”
Over the weekend, the PAC sent out an attack mailer against Debbie Poochigian, who is seeking the 5th District seat on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, which is currently held by Bob Waterston.
The ad hits not only Debbie Poochigian, but her husband Chuck as well. Chuck Poochigian was a longtime and much beloved politician who served in both the state Senate and Assembly.
At the same time, Briggs also had a hand in a mail piece praising Poochigian’s opponent, Clovis Council Member Nathan Magsig.
Nothing wrong so far, as both Magsig and Poochigian are Republicans — though one might question the wisdom of attacking the highly respected Chuck Poochigian. And this certainly isn’t the first time internecine warfare has hit the local GOP.
But, campaign disclosure statements show, the attack ad against the Poochigians was funded by a $10,000 donation from the Service Employees International Union Local 521 Independent Expenditure Committee to Friends of the Valley PAC.
Some local Republicans are infuriated, and are again calling Briggs a traitor, this time for working with labor unions.
This is the same Briggs who twice cast votes to approve Democratic Party-backed budgets while in the Assembly. And then, after leaving the Assembly, he turned around and landed an $8,250-a-month gig doing consulting work for Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, a Los Angeles Democrat.
In a book recently named one of the best business books of the year, employees complained that they are afraid to speak up, there are different rules for different people and management doesn't listen.
The book, "30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do About It," is a finalist for the Book of the Year Award by ForeWord Magazine and was published by AMACOM.
Authored by Dr. Bruce Katcher, pscyhologist, the book discusses common employee complaints and offers specific solutions. One chapter is titled "We feel like slaves." The book is based on studies conducted in 65 organizations.
So far this year, builders have received 262 building permits for new homes. By this time last year, the number was 422 permits -- and that was down from 584 permits through May 2006.
Is this whole construction climate affecting you? Are you finding it difficult to find a new home to buy, or having trouble trying to sell an existing home? Are you a worker in the construction trades who's feeling the pinch as building remains slow? Let us know.
New homes still represent the lion's share of the construction industry in Visalia, so it continues to drive down the overall building numbers in the city so far this year despite an increase in commercial and industrial construction and sending ripples throughout the larger South Valley economy.
Edison foes get their game faces on for power-line fight
Opponents of a proposed high-power line across central Tulare County are getting their game faces on for an expected fight before the state Public Utilities Commission.
Dubbing themselves Protect Agriculture, Communities and the Environment, or PACE, the coalition of farmers, residents and elected officials are lining up against Southern California Edison's San Joaquin Cross-Valley Loop transmission project.
"We don't object to Edison's need for additional lines and to improve its service to Tulare County," PACE steering committee chairman George McEwen of Exeter said in a recent statement. "We just want them to choose the most logical and least disruptive location. ..."
The big question is, how do you feel about this? Does it matter to you?
The PACE folks are pretty vocal about their feelings, and Edison's not shy about sharing their thoughts either. But the bill -- estimated at about $60 million for Edison's preferred route, and perhaps $90 million or more for the route PACE wants to see approved -- will be footed by customers throughout the entire Southern California Edison system. And the electricity running through these lines will serve much of Tulare and Kings counties.
Edison filed its application with the PUC last week; the utility's preferred 19-mile route would string the lines over 108 steel poles and 14 lattice towers between the foothills near Lemon Cove and an Edison substation in southeast Visalia. The route is generally south of the Highway 198 corridor, running north of the city of Exeter and slicing over an industrial area of the city of Farmersville.
Farmers are concerned about their ability to continue to use the land under the lines, while residents fear the project will lower their property values, ruin their views of the countryside create electromagnetic effects.
Local leaders worry about the towers polluting the scenic "viewshed" heading toward the foothills and Sequoia National Park from the Valley floor as well as the economic impact on Farmersville's future industrial plans.
It'll be interesting to see what develops at a pair of PACE strategy meetings in the coming week or so -- one in both English and Spanish at 6:30 p.m. June 7 at the Bethel Spanish Assembly church in Farmersville, the other at 7 p.m. June 12 at the Exeter Memorial Building in Exeter.
Teresa Ferguson Photography is searching for its identity...and it's willing to pay up to $30,000 for a slogan and logo.
The Visalia-based business is sponsoring a contest that will award $15,000 for a first-place slogan and $15,000 for a first-place logo. Other cash and photo packages will be awarded for second-ninth places.
One lucky charity In Tulare County will be the recipient of a free design and marketing campaign for a year by Direct Media Inc. of Visalia.
As the economy slides, local charities have been suffering from a drop in donations, said Caleb Adams, media director. So DMI decided to sponsor its First Annual Desing for Charity contest.
"Every day, our team works with for-profit comapnies... providing marketing direction and ideas," said DMI owner Karen Tellalian. "Through this project, we'll be able to devote some of our time specifically for a non-profit."
To enter, a charity needs to submit a simple proposal application, which will be available through DMI in Visalia. The agency will accept applications until 5 p.m. June 30, and will announce the winner on July 1. For one year, the DMI team will commit a portion of its time each month to help with the branding, design and writing for a local charity.
For more information, contact DMI at (559) 739-1747,
Word on the Street: new barbers, ice cream shops and more
Word on the Street, a weekly feature of the business section spotlighting new local businesses and other news tidbits, was published today.
In this week’s Word: a new, but old-fashioned style barbershop opens in the Tower district; Fashion Fair security guards zip around on Segway scooters; the former owner of J. Ho’s restaurant plans an ice cream shop on Olive Avenue; International Paper Co. moves into a giant warehouse in Visalia and East Bay Tire opens its brand new retail, service and distribution center in Fresno.
