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If you need a poster boy for the most hateful man in America, one of the nominees surely would be Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.
Phelps is becoming notorious for taking a band of protesters to disrespect and disrupt the funerals of more than 100 soldiers. The pastor and his followers have decided that grieving families should be the ones to pay for his tirade against homosexuals. The thread of logic for this hatemongering tribe is hard to follow, but basically, the church members — mostly members of Phelps’ family — say American soldiers are evil because they died defending a country that tolerates homosexuality. So they’ve decided that picketing, demonstrating and chanting hateful slogans at military funerals is the way to persuade people that they are right.
Thankfully, this tactic has disgusted most everyone, even other Baptists. Phelps is also known for screaming “God hates fags” at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay man who was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. The perverse pastor still stages celebrations on the anniversary of Shepard’s death, to express joy at his “entry into hell.”
Some states are fed up with his antics and federal legislators have have introduced bills that would make these protests a felony. For example, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told Scripps-Howard Newspapers last week he plans to introduce a bill that would prohibit protests at national cemeteries for an hour before or after a service, and require protesters be 500 feet from the gravesite.
There is not a First Amendment issue here, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, because the bill only limits expression in cemeteries and they are not a public forum. However, some of the other bills introduced specifically to deal with Phelps are more concerning because they restrict speech in front of churches and public sidewalks.
However indecent the rhetoric, it is generally best to pound perverts like Phelps with more free speech, not less. For example, during the Shepard controversy, one of the most dramatic responses to Phelps and his group was known as Angel Action. During one of Phelps’ hate-spewing protests, his group was quietly surrounded by a dozen counter-demonstrators in flowing white angel costumes with 10-foot wingspans rising seven feet high. The angels turned their backs on Phelps, smiled and effectively blocked him from the view of passersby. It was a display so stunning it was featured in two movies, “The Laramie Project” and “The Matthew Shepard Story.”
A similar group has organized to protect the veterans families. A squad of peaceful, motorcycle-riding veterans known as the Patriot Guard now makes a show of force at the military funerals. They shield the grieving families with a wall of 3-by-5-foot American flags so that often they don’t see or hear the offensive picketers. They use the roar of their motorcycle engines to drown out the hateful chanting. In just five months, 16,000 cyclists have joined the effort, according to ABC News.
Clearly, Phelps and his band’s heartless antics are just a pathetic plea for attention from a group that preys on people who are in no mindset to defend themselves. They are best challenged by the chants of other people with something smarter to say. Sadly, probably neither group really meets the needs of the grieving families, who just want to be left alone.
I think Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is really serious about losing weight. He's shedding pounds and now he's blogging about it on his Web site called Start With Cruz. It seems he's in competition with me on both the diet and blogging fronts. We'll see how this turns out.
On Thursday, Bustamante even appeared with a contestant from the “The Biggest Loser” reality show to make his weight-loss point in San Marcos, according to the Associated Press. This could all be a publicity ploy for his campaign for insurance commissioner, but Bustamante seems like he's on a mission.
The lieutenant governor urged elementary school students to join his “Start with Cruz!” fitness campaign. “If I had done what you guys are doing today, I would not be fighting the weight problem I have today,” the AP reported Bustamante telling the students. “You’re an inspiration to both adults and kids in this community.”
Bustamante started his diet at 278 pounds in January, vowing to lose 50 pounds because he was worried about his health. He’s already shed 35 pounds. I'm impressed.
Here's my column on Bustamante going public with his battle against obesity.
He's doing so well that he'll probably end up on the TV talk show circuit: "Today on Oprah. . . the politician who was obsessed with thinness. Did he lose too much weight?"
For those folks following our cat tales, we are about to double our fun. We are adopting two kittens from a sweet litter of healthy babies raised by a host mother named Rebecca. One is an orange tabby baby girl and the second is a white baby boy. Both are being spayed today and we will pick them up tomorrow. We decided to take two instead of one because we're all away during the day, and we don't want them to be lonely. It's our first experience raising two kittens at once. Any perils we should know about?
Saturday is Valley Voices day on the Opinion pages, a day reserved for commentaries by local writers. This week, we've got three very diverse pieces. Tara M. Powers, a grad student at Fresno State, challenges the stereotype of college girls gone wild on spring break. They're more likely to be volunteering, working or catching up on homework than drinking and dancing topless on tables in Cancun. Jo Ellen Priest Misakian of Fresno Pacific University challenges us all to invest in our school libraries. They are shameful when compared with others in the nation. Jim Tucker has a written a charming piece on how Americans love to use baseball cliches. Jim is the host of one of my favorite shows, "Valley Press" on Channel 18. We watched a rerun last night of Jim interviewing Mas Masumoto, who writes in The Bee's Sunday Vision sections every month. It was a compelling show and a masterful interview by Jim. One of Mas' comments really hit home. He said it's very important that families have a writer to pass on the stories from generation to generation. If someone doesn't do that, the family lessons just die out.. I'm feeling a little guilty here, so maybe I'd better get busy on my family history.
Mas' next piece appears April 30. It's a tender story about his illiterate grandmother, who nevertheless kept a special drawer containing a bundle of letters she could not read. The illustrator is the amazing Doug Hansen, a former Bee graphic artist who now teaches several classes of fortunate students at Fresno State.
In response to an order from the Western Athletic Conference, Fresno State will be moving its raucous student section from behind the opposing team's bench in Bulldog Stadium. The conference says the move is meant to lessen the danger to visiting teams throughout the conference, according to The Bee's story Friday.
OK, I'll buy that. There have been some nasty incidents in recent years. That will subside, one presumes, when the students are exiled to a far corner of Bulldog Stadium.
Most colleges put the student section behind the home team's bench, but some time ago Bulldogs Coach Pat Hill decided he wanted the team on the west side of the field. That's the side where all those high-priced Red Waver seats are found.
Perhaps this is about reducing tensions and mellowing the crowd. But there's another explanation that makes more sense to me: The students have been paying $75 for season seats behind the opponents' bench. Now those seats will be sold to grown-ups for nearly $500 for the season. Enjoy your new seats, kids.
In the face of deep denial from the Bush administration, California has moved forward with regulations meant to cut the emissions of so-called "greenhouse gases," the principal villain in global warning. Now the Bush team wants to drive a stake through the heart of that effort.
California's rule -- being emulated by 10 other states -- would require automakers to cut 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions from their fleets by 2016. But here's what the White House said about that, in the preamble to a new light truck corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) rule: "Any regulation governing carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles relates to average fuel economy standards and is expressly preempted ... ." So much for states rights, not to mention clean air.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has proposed dismally weak new fuel economy standards. They will be phased in over four years, and raise the current requirement for light trucks from 22.7 miles per gallon all the way to a stunning 24 mpg by 2011. That would save 10 billion gallons of gasoline over two decades, "or roughly 25 days' worth of gas under current consumption trends," according to The New York Times.
Next they'll be telling all of us to just hold our collective breath.
The Fresno Jjammers head north a week from tomorrow, to start our 199-mile adventure in The Relay.
Our 12-person team (and two drivers) will spend the weekend running a 199-mile relay between Calistoga and Santa Cruz, promoting organ donation as a fundraiser for Organs 'R' Us ("ORU"). The transfer of the “baton” from runner to runner symbolizes the transfer of an organ from donor to recipient.
Last week we learned what our start time will be – the roads are not closed for this event, so start times are staggered, based on your team’s predicted pace. We might have called ourselves the Fresno Turtles instead of the Jjammers – we will be one of the slowest teams taking part, so we have an early start time. They obviously don’t want us dragging this thing out over an entire week.
Although this event is billed as "California's longest party," my partying mood dampened after our last team meeting last Sunday when, based on our 7 a.m. Saturday start time, we calculated our approximate finish time. I should be crossing the finish line in Santa Cruz between midnight and 2 a.m. MONDAY morning – hours after the official post-race party on the beach has wrapped up.
But it should still be a fun, bonding, character-building experience – or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.
POSTSCRIPT: As one of my team members commented, apparently someone at our last meeting shouldn't pursue a career in math. Upon further reflection of the numbers, we were in error in thinking that we would finish so late. Glad to hear it!
It's exhilarating to see the Valley's high school students suddenly realizing that government actually affects their everyday lives. One of the frustrating things about enticing young adults into voting and discussions of public policy is that so often they think politics has nothing to do with their lives. And of course, it does in ways they often don't even realize. Can they make a difference? Yes, of course! And now that many of their immediate families are threatened by the voices in Congress, they see very clearly that perhaps their voices [more importantly their votes] could be important.
Did you or someone in your family demonstrate in one of the marches this week? Why? I'd love to hear what pushed you, your friends or family members to take action.
Remember the 278-pound Cruz Bustamante? The one who finally looked in the mirror and vowed to lose 50 pounds because he was worried about his health? The critics scoffed, but he's almost there. The lieutenant governor has shed 35 pounds and threatens to blow past his 50-pound goal.
All this started in January when Bustamante looked at the scales and a big fat "278" screamed back at him. He even used the "O" word, calling himself obese. Bustamante, 53, went public with his battle, and urged others to join him in losing weight. He has plenty of company on this score. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and most of us are dieting most of the time.
Here's my column about Bustamante deciding to talk publicly about his battle to lose weight. His results so far are impressive. . . Now if I can only do the same thing.
The news story of this week has been protests, nationwide, over the immigration debate going on in Washington, D.C., right now.
We’ve covered it some on our opinion pages, with a couple of editorials and some columns from various perspectives.
In tomorrow's edition, we are giving extra space on the Op-Ed page to the flood of letters on the subject that have been coming in this week. And in one of Thursday’s editorials, we will address what has been the local A1 story the past couple of days – walkouts and protests by local high school students around the valley.
While we agree that civil disobedience, in any form, comes with potential consequences, it’s great to see so many young people engaged in a lively debate over an issue that means something to them. Don't we want our children to become actively involved in the democratic process?
The Peace Garden at California State University, Fresno, will have a major new addition unveiled on April 6. It's a life-sized statue of peace advocate and Nobel Prize winner Jane Addams, created by Claudia Nolan, a graduate student in sculpture at Fresno State. It will join statues of Mahatma Gandhi, César Chávez and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Addams statue, according to Fresno State spokesperson Shirley Melikian Armbruster, is the first Peace Garden memorial depicting a woman, the first designed and sculpted by a woman and the first produced by a Fresno State student. Also on the program, Armbruster said, is the world premiere performance of "Music for The Peace Garden," written by Dr. Robert Strizich, a music faculty member at Fresno State, and performed by the Guitar Quartet of Fresno State. The work includes a special movement written for Addams.
Ceremonies will include speeches by Dr. Paul Pribbenow, president of Rockford College in Illinois, Addams' alma mater; Dr. Regina Birchem, international president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, of which Addams was the first president; and Fresno State President Dr. John D. Welty.
Go to this Web site for more information on the Peace Garden.
When you put yourself to bed each night, do you still see a sliver of light under your teenager’s bedroom door?
If your teen is like many others, chances are he or she is staying up later than is recommended.
A new national study, reported in an article by Knight Ridder Newspapers, blames the many electronic gadgets that the average teen has in his or her bedroom for the trend.
Computers, cell phones, televisions and video games all keep those who should be asleep wide awake, said Jodi A. Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and coauthor of the study. As a result, more than a quarter of high school students fall asleep in school at least once a week.
Mary Carskadon, director of the E.P. Bradley Hospital Sleep center at Brown University and the other study author, said that an optimal night's sleep for teens is nine hours. But researchers found that almost half slept fewer than eight hours on school nights.
Teachers, are teens falling asleep in your classes? Teens, why do you stay up late when you should be getting your rest? And parents, how do we fix this problem? Take away the toys?
Many nice people have inquired about our search for our pet cat, Murko. He hasn't come home yet, and we haven't found him. We're just so sad about that. My husband went on an excursion Sunday night, calling for him (again) around the neighborhood. But no luck. Our sweet neighbor boys, Baker and Ollie, assured us they are still looking for Murko every day. Right now we're sticking to Baker and Ollie's story. They think Murko's on an exchange adventure with a hot chick and having a wonderful time. We hope so.
Until our pet decides to bring his companion home to meet us, we are just too lonely without our boy, so we're looking for a little brother or sister for him. We've been to the SPCA and discovered to our delight that there are host parents for animals! Isn't that just the coolest thing? If a mother cat or dog, for example, has a litter at the shelter, or if a mother and her babies are brought in, the SPCA sends the whole group to a host family until the babies are old enough to be adopted. When we were out at the shelter on Sunday, there was a little orange tabby we just fell in love with, but she was too young to be adopted. A host mother is picking the whole family up this week. The babies need to be about eight weeks old so they can be spayed or neutered before you take them.
Tonight, we're going to look at a litter with some orange tabbies. They are with a host mother and should be ready for adoption in a week or so. We're so excited! The shelter workers said there are a whole bunch of litters with host families, so if you're looking for a new kitten, think about getting one in the next few weeks. A population explosion is expected. Apparently, the shelter people are also looking for host parents. So, if baby animals are your calling, this might be the perfect volunteer work for you.
Stay tuned.
Few people probably follow breaking news from Iceland, but my husband and I pay close attention because we have an exchange daughter, Elin, who lives there. The Bee recently ran this short brief: "REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- The United States, which has long provided Iceland with its only military force, has decided to withdraw most of its service members and all of its fighter jets and helicopters from the country later this year, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday. Iceland's government, which had recently offered to pay some of the cost of its defense to try to keep U.S. forces here, said it regretted the decision. But Washington also said it would continue to honor its 1951 agreement with Iceland requiring the United States, under the auspices of NATO, to provide this country's defense."
Our Icelandic daughter, Elin, an exchange student at Bullard two years ago, reacted this way: "I think Icelanders don´t like the decision about taking the army away. It´s helping us so much in rescuing people. The Icelandic rescue unit only has two helicopters to rescue people and they have to spend a lot of money to buy more if the army goes away. I don´t like the fact that no army is here. We are so few and it will be so easy to take over Iceland if the U.S. army isn´t here. And I think that many terrorists could think of taking Iceland cause of its good location."
International politics is almost always personal for us because of our extended international family. We got news yesterday that Elin's coming back to Fresno for a visit in May, so we can resume our long and passionate talks about U.S. and Icelandic politics very soon. We cannot wait.
Tuesday's main editorial offers our position on immigration. This long-simmering issue has finally exploded just as Congress begins debating how best to protect our borders, meet the labor needs of employers who must rely on illegal workers and deal fairly with the 12 million people living in the United States illegally.
Opponents of tougher immigration laws rallied over the past few days and several local schools experienced student walkouts. The reaction to immigration reform underscores the problem in creating laws acceptable to the many factions weighing in on the issue.
We believe that changes are needed. We have said before that those changes should iinclude raising quotas for the legal flow of immigrants to provide needed workers and to reduce the backlog of immigration applicants. We don't believe erecting a border fence will solve the problem. Border security should be increased, though. There also should be a sensible guest worker program that allows undocumented immigrants to live and work in this country legally.
This is a divisive issue and there is no easy answer to the problem. There must be a balanced approach to any solution. Unfortunately, few have patience when it comes to immigration reform.
Hey, can't wait. "The Apprentice" is on tonight. I like this show because, like "Supernanny," it's a learning experience every week. Isn't it fun second-guessing people without any of the pressure that the contestants are under?
From the comfort of our family room sofa, in our PJs -- and even without any Harvard MBAs -- our family members consistently come up with better ideas than anybody on TV. If you ever watch "Millionaire" and "Jeopardy," it's so much easier at home. "Apprentice" can be a pretty brutal competition. In addition, Donald Trump and his cohorts seem to encourage cut-throat thinking to make it all the more edgy.
I get the distinct feeling most of the people in that boardroom would sell their brothers' vital organs on the open market if the price were right. Those people are really fun to watch from a distance, but I'm sure glad they are not my colleagues.
One of the people I would really like to see Donald Trump add to the judging panel is Michael Josephson, an expert on ethics and founder of the Character Counts.program.
Josephson is a fascinating guy, and I've seen him do some very entertaining and challenging confrontations of people in professional seminars. He was in Fresno last spring to do some work with Fresno State and its character education program. Josephson dislikes "The Apprentice" because he thinks the series inaccurately portrays the business world and "the type of manipulation and short-term thinking that breed success on these sorts of reality shows are liabilities -- not assets -- in the real world."
On his Web site last week, this is what Josephson had to say in his criticism of "The Apprentice": "Amorality is a myth. Everything we do has moral significance. And regardless of the context, our actions can and will be judged in relation to core ethical values. What`s more, these judgments will dramatically affect the formation of character and the way people treat us. People and companies perceived as honest, responsible and fair generate trust and loyalty, two crucial factors of real success. There`s nothing wrong with striving to get ahead or in wanting the prestige, status and comforts associated with business success. Yet, in the end, the purpose of our work is not just to make a living, but to make a life. And, when it`s all over, we will be judged not by what we have, but by what we have become."
I would never have guessed that, behind their political acumen, behind their wealth of institutional knowledge, my esteemed colleagues are musical deep at heart. The death of Buck Owens over the weekend sparked some unique vocal stylings in our editorial office area this morning.
At least two of my colleagues offered up their renditions of “Tiger by the Tail” and “Act Naturally.” (Aren't you just curious to know who?) I guess I better start practicing my own singing. Never know when I’ll be called upon for backup.
I remember watching “Hee-Haw” as a child in our home growing up in the early 1970s. I didn’t realize that co-host Buck Owens was one of Bakersfield’s musical heroes. That was years before our family migrated here to the central San Joaquin Valley in 1978.
In the wake of South Dakota's passage of a ban on abortions, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cecelia Fire Thunder, has suggested that the tribe might open a clinic that would provide abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. That could raise some interesting issues.
If a tribe can have a casino, why not a clinic that performs abortions? Various legal experts have said that a clinic on Indian land might not be subject to the state law, especially if doctors were Indians. South Dakota's Rapid City Journal offers a more complete account of the story.
According to the Journal, "Fire Thunder has worked as a licensed practical nurse, and she has helped set up community health clinics in Los Angeles. She said the tribe could set up its own clinic. 'If we choose to do this, we can.'"
And if the PIne Ridge Oglala Sioux can do it, why can't tribes all over the country?
We are finishing up the weekend pages this afternoon, and I promise you plenty of good material for your morning breakfast chats -- and spats. Saturday is Valley Voices Day in The Bee and this week we have one of my favorite features, Young Voices. This means a whole page of commentaries by our younger readers, usually high school students and 20-somethings.
This week Clare Godinho of Fresno City College talks about the warning the school got from the accreditation team. She says the school should seize this opportunity to shore up some weak spots. Amy K. Noel of Fresno State has a touching piece about her experience as a soccer coach to some little girls. It should make any high school or college student think about getting a team of her own. Senah Parvez, an Edison graduate who now attends Stanford University, says some of Fresno's health care disparities can be addressed if we all improved our "culture competence." By that she means more respect for one another's ethnic and religious traditions around health care.
Sunday's Vision section is full of good conversation starters. Jim Boren laments state election overkill, saying this droning "all-election all the time" marathon is draining the substance from our public policy debates. He says this should "disgust" voters.
David Mas Masumoto writes Part 2 of his letter to his daughter, Nikiko, who is studying at UC Berkeley. You may remember last month's letter, where he basically told her not to come home because he feared the Valley was not open minded enough to challenge his daughter. In Part 2, he makes a right turn and tells her that he hopes she will come home and make a difference in the Valley, to make it better. I am so fond of these pieces by Mas; they are letters to all of us.
We also have an interesting piece by Kathleen Parker on the topic of "Are Men Necessary?"... Increasingly, women are choosing to leave real men out of the family equation altogether, to the detriment of society, she says. Maureen Dowd is her usual sassy self, poking satirical fun at the Bush administration and wondering if they've been taking too much Ambien.
Be sure to take a look at Blogging Across America, our weekly excerpts from the blogoshphere. There is some fun and wacky stuff in there. I compile that feature every week, and I'd really like to hear from you about your favorite blogs, especially those with comments on public policy. Send me your favorite links -- maybe even your own.
Have a great weekend...
We publish almost 4,000 letters a year from readers and many of the names of the authors have become familiar to you. Although, you read their opinions, you generally don’t know much more about them than their names and hometowns.
But starting Sunday, we’re going to run a feature that introduces you to some of our letter writers in a bit more depth. We plan to run the feature once a week, although there will be times that we use the space for expanded special features. Pam Rowse, the administrative assistant for the opinion pages, is gathering the material about our letter writers.
On Sunday, meet Lucile Wheaton on the letters page of The Bee’s Vision section. She’s been a Bee reader since 1976. But there's much more that you'll want to know about Lucile. Check it out.
Early head’s up on my Sunday column:
No wonder we can’t solve California’s problems. We’re in perpetual political spin because of elections every year. All these elections mean that there’s no time — and no appetite — for substantive public policy discussions.
Consider that since 2002, California has held statewide elections every year thanks to the “off years” being filled with the Gray Davis recall election in 2003 and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election in 2005. That’s five straight years with elections, and six out of the last seven.
That’s why the much-needed infrastructure bond fell apart in Sacramento, even though the Democratic leadership in the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agree it’s needed. It’s hard work drafting the details of a massive state bond and then reaching bipartisan agreement. Our politicians would rather make election promises than produce something of substance.
I’ll expand on this subject in my column that runs Sunday in The Bee’s Vision section. Here's the link to my column archive.
We're writing an editorial for Sunday on the issue of water banking in Madera. It's a topic that's been in front of us before; two earlier efforts to start an underground storage site in the county failed, for a variety of reasons.
We like the idea of water banking as one solution to the Valley's crying need for new supplies. But it's a complex issue. Surface storage -- dams and reservoirs -- is preferred by many ag interests and their allies. It's opposed by many others, usually on the grounds of the high cost and the environmental impacts of manmade lakes. Some also believe that we haven't done nearly enough to conserve water, another way of increasing the supply.
Our own editorial board reflects all of those views, and more. Water is always a difficult question in California, and always has been. The hoary old quote attributed to Mark Twain still says it best, perhaps: In California, "whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over."
Did you think Fresno police went too far with their recent sting on drunk drivers?
An Associated Press article by Jim Vertuno tells of a new approach in Texas to crack down on drunks in bars:
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is sending undercover officers into bars to look for the exceedingly drunk, issuing citations or making arrests for public intoxication even if the patrons haven’t left the building.
The program is aimed at reducing drunken driving. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Texas had 1,264 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2004, the most in the nation.
The crackdown is aimed not only at those who are drunk, but at the bars and bartenders who continue to serve them. So far, it has resulted in about 2,200 arrests or citations around the state.
Bar patrons there reacted in much the same way as those here in Fresno:
“This almost seems like entrapment,” said Greg Turnbow, on a business trip from Nashville, Tenn. “If somebody’s in a bar causing trouble, they should be arrested.” But the crackdown struck him as “just too much.”
The Texas bar patrons may be approached if an officer spots them behaving erratically, such as having difficulty walking or standing. The officer will perform a field sobriety test similar to one for drunken drivers. A patron may also be asked to take a breath test.
Most people who take the breath test have a blood alcohol level of .17 or higher, said agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck. “These people who are being arrested are really drunk,” she said. “We’re not going up to random people.”
The Fresno Police Department recently retooled its sting efforts, taking the undercover officers out of the bars after a community outcry here. But maybe they can look to Texas’ example for ways to get back to the source of the problem.
There's a new list out featuring the 10 American cities with the most-polluted air and -- surprise surprise -- Fresno/Madera is on it. We're No. 3, in fact, surpassed in this unfortunate category only by Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Also on the list are Visalia/Porterville and Merced.
The list comes as part of an interesting story on forbes.com, which includes this passage: "'The emissions from cars and trucks have been a big problem for the past 40 years,' says Janice Nolen, ALA director of national policy. Some communities, according to Nolen, have thought that building more roads to reduce congestion would be a prime way to solve the problem, but in fact that hasn't solved anything. Some experts are now looking at alternatives to how communities themselves are built so that commutes and distances traveled by vehicles are shorter, making roads less congested."
That's worth remembering in the context of Measure C renewal.
Here's the Top (Bottom?) 10 list (rated only for ozone):
1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside
2. Bakersfield
3. Fresno/Madera
4. Visalia/Porterville
5. Merced
6. Houston
7. Sacramento
8. Dallas/Forth Worth
9. New York
10. Philadelphia
Source: American Lung Association (for 2005)
Is it only me that finds it strange that families of our soldiers fighting in Iraq are having to do fundraising to pay for body armor? Reading the story in today’s Bee about the subject got me thinking about the old saying from the ‘60s that went something like this: “Wouldn’t it be great if schools had all the money they needed and the Air Force had to hold bake sales to buy bombers?”
Well, apparently that's now the case. The Bee story discussed a Fresno father raising money for body armor for his son, a sergeant in the Army Special Forces, and other members of his unit.
I understand parents wanting to do all they can to protect their sons and daughters fighting in a far-away war. I'd do the same if I were in their shoes. But my question is that if this war is so fundamental to our national security, why won’t we as a nation provide state-of-the-art equipment to our soldiers?
The ridiculous cost of textbooks has always been a sore point with me. Publishers have it made. You can look hours in a shopping center bookstore before you find a $60 book, but they are commonplace in college bookstores. In addition, textbook publishers are fond of making minor changes in the books and the issuing new editions that make it impossible for students to make use of used books that cost a fraction of the new ones.
Sometimes the books required for classes collectively can cost nearly as much as tuition. When you go to resell the books, well, good luck with that.
A recent Seattle Times story talks about how some colleges are helping out their students by making it possible to rent books. That is a great option and the Valley, with its many colleges and and low-income students, would be a good place to try this out. In California, only one college does this, Taft. The National Association of College Stores has a guide to setting up such a system. Well, Fresno State, Fresno City, Reedley how about it? This plan seems like a nice little master's project for an entrepreneurial business-school student.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad wants to add about 4.5 miles of new siding along its tracks in northwest Fresno, and that has neighbors, environmentalists and rail consolidation advocates alike up in arms.
The neighbors and the environmentalists don't like the idea of trains idling, perhaps for hours, on the new siding as they wait for higher-priority trains to pass. The noise and the concomitant air pollution are their biggest objections.
Consolidation advocates worry that investing $10 million in such new tracks will delay -- or even derail -- prospects for one day moving the BNSF trains to new tracks along the existing Union Pacific alignment, west of BNSF's current tracks and out of the city's heart.
On March 28, Fresno City Council Member Brian Calhoun, who represents the northwest part of town, will offer a resolution to his council colleagues opposing the idea. The issue is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tom Bailey,
president of Fresno Area Residents for Rail Consolidation Inc., is asking for help. E-mail him at tom@movethetracks.org for more information.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn’t abandoned Highway 99, and that should be applauded by San Joaquin Valley residents. During an editorial board meeting at The Bee Tuesday afternoon, the governor said funding to upgrade Highway 99 must be in any state infrastructure bond he supports.
That’s good news for this working-class freeway that runs through the Valley. The governor even said that the $1 billion he’s earmarked for Highway 99 improvements is not negotiable -- even when he gets to the horse trading with the Democratic Legislature over a bond that could be on the November ballot. Finally, someone in power in Sacramento understands the critical nature of Highway 99.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about the school test scores and the California exit exam during his meeting with The Bee's Editorial Board this afternoon.
Asked if California is on the right track in focusing on testing to ensure the improvement of student performance in our public schools, the governor cited his own background growing up in Austria in affirming his support for the California exit exam.
Passing the exit exam, he said, is your ticket to the university and to getting good jobs.
Schwarzenegger also said we must do everything we can to help students pass these tests. The tests aren’t there to set students up to fail, he said. He has already supported a one-year waiver of the California exit exam requirements for special education students. But he wants special education students to ultimately have the support necessary so they will have the skills to pass the exit exam.
While Schwarzenegger said he has seen firsthand -- during his years chairing the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in the early 1990s-- the frustration faced by teachers and administrators dealing with mounting expectations, he said test scores provide a measurable way to monitor student progress.
"We need to see accountability" of student improvement, he said. "Not that test scores are the perfect way" to measure that. "But we have to see performance. Is there a better way? I couldn't tell you."
During an editorial board meeting with The Fresno Bee today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he won't fire Democratic activist Rob Reiner, a director and fellow actor, as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission. Reiner has taken a leave of absence from the First Five Commission after reports of questionable spending under his tenure. He 's pushing Proposition 82, the universal preschool initiative on the June ballot. The commission reportedly used $23 million in tax dollars for advertisements supporting universal preschool while Reiner was collecting signatures to get his preschool initiative on the ballot.
Schwarzenegger said there is only an "appearance" of a problem with Reiner, and he sees no reason to remove him at this point. The governor said it isn't right to dump Reiner without evidence of wrongdoing. The auditors are looking into the issue, the governor said, and Reiner is "innocent until proven guilty." Besides, Schwarzenegger said, he wouldn't do that to a friend.
In his visit with The Bee's editorial board today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to the issue of water storage, which was one of the rocks on which his effort to get an infrastructure bond on the June ballot foundered recently.
The water storage fight was between Democrats and their environmentalist allies who wouldn't countenance building new surface storage sites -- dams and reservoirs -- and Republicans who wouldn't accept and bond issue that didn't have money for new dams.
The governor invoked the famous quip of former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, describing the recent spat over water in the infrastructure bond negotiations as "kabuki," a highly stylized and rigidly choreographed set piece.
Schwarzenegger clearly believes a compromise is possible. Let's hope he can get past the ritual Sacramento role-playing to find it.
You know what I hate? When you’re trying to reach someone, anyone, on the phone at a company, but the automated phone hell doesn’t offer any options for human interaction.
If I weren’t already mad when I placed the call, I am by the time I get off the phone.
A recent article on Al's Morning Meeting, on Poynter Online, deals with this very subject.
One link is to the gethuman database, a listing of secret phone numbers and codes to get to a human when calling a company for customer service.
Don’t just suffer at the hands of automated telephone systems. Fight back – get human!
In the 1979 movie “Apocalypse Now,” Robert Duvall’s character Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
That quote reminds me of the smell of bus exhaust.
Soon, there’ll be a little less of that smell in the Valley air. A Bee article last week reported that California's oldest and most-polluting school bus fleet — which is in the San Joaquin Valley — has attracted millions of state dollars to buy modern replacements. The California Air Resources Board will spend $4.3 million for 31 new buses to replace some of the Valley's oldest buses, including two that date back to 1959.
One of my most vivid memories of my first trip to the Magic Kingdom, unfortunately, is the overwhelming smell of bus exhaust.
It was 1985, and I took part in Bullard High’s grad night trip to Disneyland, where seniors rode down to Anaheim on school buses and got to enjoy the park all night long with seniors from other California high schools.
At the end of the “evening,” (actually early the next morning) we all had to gather back in the parking lot near our school’s buses. It seemed like every bus in the lot – and there were lots of them – was idling, belching forth noxious fumes.
I say newer, cleaner buses can’t come too soon.
Great results from police department this weekend, despite the perfect storm: St. Patrick's Day falling on a Friday night. No deaths came from drunk driving. That's a real victory. Apparently this was accomplished through a combination of awareness, DUI checkpoints and the policing of the local bars most likely to be a problem.
A lot of people want to talk about this issue suddenly. That's progress. I notice a little tougher edge and a little less tolerance in the voices of the folks who sell liquor. Good for them. More good ideas on solving this problem are surfacing. I discovered one while reading about a group called Doctors for Designated Drivers They've found that some bars are so supportive of the designated driver idea that they provide free nonalcoholic drinks for all designated drivers. That's a very nice idea and a good incentive to be the responsible person. Another idea I liked is in South Carolina. There is an agency called the Designated Driver of America . In this area, you can call 1-888-IB-DRUNK toll free and someone will come to pick you up and take you home. The best part, is these drivers work only for donations.
What are your ideas? Let's compile them into a big list and make sure the police chief and the restaurant association members all see it.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to appear before our editorial board at noon on Tuesday. He's in Fresno for a number of events, including visiting a local school.
We plan to ask him about Highway 99, the proposed dam at Temperance Flat and other issues related to the big infrastructure bond that may get on the November ballot. We're also interested in his take on the performance of our public schools. We'll want to know his plans for reforming public pension programs in California -- many of which could go bankrupt over the next several years if they are not made financially sound. And then there's redistricting reform. What are the chances of a legislative solution that the governor would support?
We won't have time to ask all the questions we would like to pose, but we want to give you an opportunity to participate. What do you want to ask the governor? Let us know and we'll pass them on to him.
All the buzz lately over influence peddling in Washington, D.C., must have lobbyists worried sick, right? Any real reform could greatly reduce the impact they -- and their clients, corporate or otherwise -- have on legislation that affects us all.
Fortunately for the lobbyists, real reform is not what the Republican-controlled Congress has in mind. In fact, according to a Washington Post story in The Bee Sunday, the lobbyists have already figured out dodges to get around the laughably weak rule changes being debated in the House and Senate.
While the "reformers" dicker over restrictions on meals and trips, absolutely nothing is being contemplated to staunch the big-money flowing into fundraising, charitable contributions and money for "independent" campaign efforts that are usually thinly veiled vehicles for supporting candidates.
It's estimated that some $10 billion is spent each year to influence the people's representatives in Congress. That's not meal money. But is is the going rate for turning Congress into a wholly-owned subsidiary of special interests.
It's time for the public to offer suggestions on how to improve the Fulton Mall. . . We devoted our Sunday editorial to the subject, and we encourage you to let the Fresno City Council know what you think on the issue.
On Tuesday, the council voted 5-2 to ask the city staff and the public to come up with ways to improve the mall. The city is scheduled to make formal recommendations by Sept. 1 so you'd better get involved in the process immediately if you want your ideas considered.
The Fulton Mall opened as a much-heralded pedestrian retail area in 1964, but quickly lost its luster as shoppers began going to suburban shopping centers with their "acres of free parking." Some believe that the opening of Fresno Fashion Fair killed the mall. But if Fashion Fair hadn't come along, some other suburban center would have taken its place. The shopping trend had already moved the retail market to suburbia and the Fulton Mall, as innovative as it was at the time, was not going to stop this new way of Americans buying stuff.
Downtowns everywhere struggled, but then most of them found ways to remake their central cores. Unfortunately, Fresno has tried to find the combination, but has not been successful. However, it's approaching the tipping point that I believe will give us a new and dynamic downtown.
What do you think is needed?
Here are three ways to send your Fulton Mall ideas to the Fresno City Council:
E-mail: manager@fresno.gov
Call: Trai Her, 621-7780
Mail: City Manager
Fresno City Hall
2600 Fresno Street
Fresno, CA 93721-3600
I think the Police Department’s commitment to stop drunk driving in Fresno is beginning to work. I was at Fagan’s Irish Pub last night with friends and the place was packed with people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. It was great fun and with few exceptions, the crowd was well behaved. Everyone loved the music and most people were dressed in funny green stuff that they wouldn’t dare wear any other day. It was wonderful seeing so many people partying downtown after dark.
A couple of TV stations showed up and drinkers were telling them that they were consciously watching their consumption because of all the publicity over DUI stings. That’s good. This is way too big of a problem in Fresno. Here's the latest story on the issue. There were 37 DUI arrests Friday night and early Saturday morning.
One suggestion for bar owners: Don’t hassle non-drinkers. I came in with a cup of coffee because I don’t drink, and the bartender was a bit miffed. I would have been happy to buy coffee from him, but it apparently wasn’t available.
All in all, it was a great evening and I have a feeling that the community is making real progress on the DUI front. That should be a small comfort to the 20 families who lost loved ones in drunk driving wrecks the past 15 months in Fresno. Our editorial Friday listed the names of those who have been killed by drunk drivers.
My colleagues were discussing ways to drive traffic to our blog and I suggested an experiment. If I listed terms that are among the most searched on the Web, would that by itself bring people to our blog? I don't know, but at a recent gathering of editorial board members, everyone said give it a try. . . So in the interest of journalistic exploration, here goes:
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, Oprah Winfrey, Howard Stern, Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, prom dresses, prom hairstyles, taxes, IRS, poker, Texas Hold'em, music lyrics, lottery, baby names, horoscopes, tattoos, American Idol, CSI, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson, 50 Cent, Usher, Three 6 Mafia, R. Kelly, NCAA, NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, WWE, Ultimate Fighting Championship, digital cameras, iPod, xBox 360, Nike, PS3, V For Vendetta, celebrity news, chat, dating, loans, South Park, The Simpsons.
Remember, this is only a test to find out a bit more about how the Internet works. I hope you're not disappointed if you came to this blog hoping to find in-depth information on any of the topics listed in the previous paragraph. But we have plenty of other interesting postings on a variety of subjects. You might like what you find on our opinion blog.
I'll let readers know the results of this experiment soon. Thanks for searching.
It wouldn't be (fill in holiday here) without (fill in lost tradition here).
For some, St. Patrick’s Day brings to mind a tradition that can be hard to find these days – the shamrock shake at McDonald’s, gone for 10 years in some regions. Although this, umm, delicacy was never a favorite of mine, my husband pointed out a Web site devoted to a grassroots campaign to “Bring Back the Shamrock Shake.” Where would we all be without the Internet, I ask?
The Onion (nobody’s source for actual news, but entertaining nonetheless) published an “article” in March 1997 about how Sinn Fein leaders demand year-round shamrock shake availability.
I’m sure the shamrock shake isn’t the only time-honored tradition that has gone by the wayside. Can anyone else think of others?
The elimination of the U.S. team from the World Baseball Classic was a stunner. The American roster was dripping All-Stars and mega-salaried pros, yet fell to Mexico in the last game of second round of play -- and meekly, too: one run on only three hits. The lineup for the final round is now Korea, Japan, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
There will be many different reactions to the American defeat. Some will boil with jingoistic indignation, especially since the Cuban team -- them filthy Commies -- gets to keep playing.
Some will take a measure of glee from the fact that a bunch of pampered American superstars fell splat on their collective faces. This should be tempered by the fact that some of the other teams -- The Dominican Republic, in particular -- have lineups just as loaded with well-compensated major league stars.
I'm dealing with this outcome by rejoicing in the fact that an American game -- the quintessentially American game -- has gained such popularity that many other nations can now field first-rate teams. Now we have something like a real World Series. And as soon as it's over, we head into our annual long and satisfying haul to the traditional version in October.
Saturday is Valley Voices day on the Op-ed pages, a space reserved for commentaries by Valley residents. This week, there is a very nice commentary by Ellen Gruenbaum, a Fresno State professor, on the April 6 unveiling of a new statue of Jane Addams in the campus' Peace Garden.
The artist is a Fresno State student, Claudia Nolan, and she has created an an image that the professor says will "remind us of her commitment to peace, justice and lifting up the human spirit." It's an inspiring piece that ties together a reminder of Addams' great work with some outstanding contributions being made in our community right now.
Congress again is looking out for the interests of banks, credit card companies and credit reporting agencies -- and helping identity thieves along the way. On Thursday, the House Committee on Financial Services voted to weaken California’s landmark credit report freeze and security breach notice laws. Your Congressional representatives will try and tell you they are helping you. Baloney.
State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, reports that the House bill would gut the ID theft laws she got passed in California. The new bill would preempt California’s laws on the subject. It would only allow people to freeze their credit reports AFTER they’ve become an identity theft victim. It also only requires businesses to notify their customers when a security breach happens if the breach is “likely to result in substantial harm,” according to Bowen.
The freeze is the most important tool people have to protect themselves from becoming an identity theft victim,” said Bowen. She has authored several of California’s identity theft prevention laws, including SB 168, which created the first credit report freeze law in the nation in 2001.
Now the feds want to take it away because big business doesn’t like it. And they like identity theft?
Call your Congressman and senators and tell them to stop helping the identity thieves.
California has made progress because of Bowen's bills. But despite California’s overall downward trend, the state still holds four of the top ten slots and six of the top twenty slots in per capita identity theft-related complaints by metro area:
1) Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
2) Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
3) Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA (146 victims per 100,000) (dropped from #2 in 2004)
4) Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
5) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA (135 per 100,000) (rose from #6 in 2004)
6) Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
7) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (131 per 100,000) (rose from #9 in 2004)
8) Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, TX
9) San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA (121 per 100,000) (rose from #10 in 2004)
10) San Antonio, TX
14) Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA (114 per 100,000) (dropped from #13 in 2004)
18) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (103 per 100,000) (rose from #24 in 2004)
Read the entire FTC study.
One of the best things to come out of the bar-sting controversy is a higher profile for the drunk driving discussion. While we've been talking about this with folks, we've detoured onto the topic of "how much is too much."
Turns out it depends on a lot of things. Genetics, size and gender, for example, are the major factors that determine how drunk you get and how fast. Women get drunk faster than men because of body composition and size. But it also depends on what you're eating; what you're drinking and how much time has gone by. On The Web, there are blood alcohol calculators that give estimates. Try www.craigmedical.com/BAC_Calculator.htm. There is an easy one at www.bartending.com/bloodAlcohol.php and also a list of tips for controlling blood-alcohol level.
Boy, I sure feel safer these days. Civil war has clearly been averted in Iraq, and American troops will soon be headed home. Iran is about to get its comeuppance. American ports are now safe and secure. Congress is taking steps to free us all from those pesky food labels about mercury and all that stuff with the unpronounceable names.
And best of all, the Bush administration's courageous Federal Communications Commission is finally cracking down on all that filth on TV. The commissioners boldly slapped CBS with a $3.6 million fine for showing some teenagers groping one another on an episode of "Without a Trace," aired back in December 2004. This swift defense of civic virtue will no doubt lead CBS and other networks to re-focus on all-American themes such as mayhem, violent death and Medicare prescription benefits -- always with the good guys winning, just like in real life.
Note to conspiracy theorists: Be careful about reading too much into the fact that CBS was fined and the Fox network was not, even though administration-friendly Fox let noted social commentator Nicole Richie lay the "F" word on audiences back in 2003.
Does it ever seem like our society has become obsessed with lawsuits? I think so.
A co-worker pointed out this article in the Lodi news. Curtis Gokey, a Lodi city employee, backed a city dump truck into his private vehicle in December. Now Gokey wants the city to pay for the damages that he incurred.
This reminds me of the classic, oft-cited example of a California burglar who fell through a skylight while trying to break into a school and was paralyzed in the fall. He sued, charging that the school failed to warn him that the skylight was unsafe. He succeeded in winning an out-of-court settlement for $260,000 in an out-of-court settlement plus $1,200 a month for life, according to a 1985 article in the Los Angeles Times.
I tripped and broke a toe once on my employer’s property. Did I file a worker’s compensation claim? Did I sue? No. It was my fault – why would I?
What ever happened to personal responsibility?
Drunk driving is one of those complex social problems that is best handled with incremental solutions. Huge progress has been accomplished by MADD to re-educate the nation to the devastation caused by drunk drivers. Most people now see drunk drivers as criminals who should pay for their actions.
However, many people have not yet made the leap to preventing the problem. Somehow there is still a weird notion out there that it's all-American to pour down beers or martinis with friends in bars, with absolutely no thought to what happens next. That mindset still needs to change.
It's amazing to me that so many of the bar owners don't seem to accept their part in the equation. I was very disappointed by their comments in The Bee. One guy even had the guts to say police watching a guy getting blasted in a public bar is an invasion of privacy. This is how serious the disconnect is. Bar owners should get it first. Did they not hear the loud demands from people to catch drunks between the door of the bar and the door of the car? Guess what? That road leads right through those heavy carved doors and onto their padded bar stools. Stricter laws, tougher restrictions and higher fines will not be far behind. The bar owners should be getting in front of this and want to be the first people to welcome aggressive solutions. They'd better do it now, or be ready to pay lots of money to lawyers later for damage control. Every bar should have a Breathalyzer available. Mechanics have limo service available, most restaurants have delivery service so why can't bars get together to deliver a few people? They can probably easily devise a way to make money doing it. Other cities have found ways, we should too.
Anybody out there know of creative bar owners, bartenders or waiters who have found innovative solutions to manage this problem?
It was a great day to volunteer in Nancy Scholz’s sixth-grade class at Kirk Elementary School. The sun was shining and the children were attentive. It was 8 o'clock in the morning and I'm always surprised at how ready to learn these sixth-graders are as soon as they get to class. I remember rambunctious mornings when I was in sixth grade.
I’m helping in the fluency program and the students all did very well reading the story they were assigned. In the timed exercise, all read more words and much more accurately than when we first started in the fall. Some whizzed through the material, while others struggled a bit. But the progress they are making was rewarding.
Thank the teacher in Room 16. Ms. Scholz did all the work. I only parachute in for a short period of time one day a week. In fact, one student refers to me as "Mr. Wednesday" because that's the day I volunteer at Kirk. She gets a kick out of that nickname.
Kirk is a special place for Bee employees. We have sponsored the school, our neighbor in southwest Fresno, for several years and 26 of my colleagues also volunteer in Kirk classrooms. I'll periodically give you an update on Room 16 at Kirk School. It is representative of the education challenges that schools in Fresno face. But there also are many good things happening in our schools, and they need to be celebrated as well.
Wrangling over an infrastructure bond measure for California continues in Sacramento, with Republicans holding roads, highway, schools and parks money hostage in an effort to get funds for dams and reservoirs in various parts of the state. It's an old debate, in many ways, playing out in a well-practiced pattern of political gridlock.
Most of the talk about local money in the various versions of the bond focuses on Highway 99 and a new reservoir at Temperance Flats, upstream from Millerton Lake and Friant Dam. (An aside -- when did the decision to build Temperance Flats get made? I must have missed that story.)
Usually overlooked in all the bluster and blather is money designated for the San Joaquin River Parkway. At last review, the Assembly version had $20 million for the parkway conservancy and the Senate version had $40 million. Valley representatives must keep the parkway in mind as they battle over the so-called larger issues.
I have never expressed enough appreciation for the good work of the SPCA. Well, I appreciate it now that I am depending on it every day. The animal shelter has a log and a registration for missing pets and serves as a clearing house if you lose your furry family member.
You should see its bulletin board . It's so sad. There are pictures of children and the prettiest pets with plaintive pleas like MISSING and REWARD.
Our pet cat, Murko, hasn't come home for four days. We are distraught because it's nasty outside and he is one spoiled little kitty. This is a mystery because all the neighbors know him. The neighbor cats hang out together and get treats from each other's families.
We've cruised the neighborhood endlessly in the car, called for him every day. So far nothing. I talked to one of my colleagues and she said one of her cats came home after 9 days. So I'm trying to think positively. But I'm also going to keep checking the shelter and place an ad in The Bee's lost and found classifieds. Anybody have other ideas?
Though he always wiggles out of his collar, he does have a microchip. It was inserted when he was just a baby at the SPCA, where one of our exchange students adopted him for us as a gift. We are hoping Murko is safe, just out on a big adventure and will turn up soon. If you see a pretty orange cat hanging around the neighborhood near Alluvial and Marks, give us a call at 441-6321.
I found an item on the Internet this morning about Austin, Texas, and its downtown resurgence, which has been going on for many years now and is widely recognized by urban cognoscenti. The item was posted at CoolTown Studios, a cool urban Web site many of you are probably already familiar with.
The Austin item struck me, as others have, because I spent a significant fraction of my childhood there, back in the late '50s and very early '60s, before my family moved to Fresno. The University of Texas and the state government were about the only things in town, which profoundly affected Austin even then. It was the one truly progressive bastion in Texas -- OK, it's all relative -- and it still is, for the most part.
Now I often read about what a vibrant, lively downtown Austin has created. The university is still a major academic and research resource. The Texas state government is -- well, highly entertaining. (Just read Molly Ivins from time to time.) The city has become a major center of American music, and it has its own high-tech industry and community to rival Silicon Valley.
I didn't want to leave Austin when I was 10. I turned 11 just before starting the sixth grade at Thomas Elementary School in Fresno, a stranger and unhappy. That all changed very quickly, and I came to love this place, Fresno, and this Valley. But sometimes I get a little wistful, I guess, when I read about Austin and what is has made itself, and I wonder about Fresno, and hope ...
…selling special Kids Day editions of The Fresno Bee. The humans dressed as a penguin and banana, at Shaw and Temperance avenues, were just two of the nearly 4,000 volunteers out on street corners this morning to raise money for Children's Hospital Central California in Madera County.
I’ve done it in the past, but couldn’t this year because of my morning school-run carpool duties. But on the way to Reyburn, my daughter saw her sixth-grade teacher from last year, Penny Tilbury, selling the papers. And my son, Mikel, bought a copy from one of his Clovis High classmates.
If you haven’t gotten one yet, you might still have a chance before the volunteers wrap up this year’s sales. The special edition costs $1. Last year's event sold 320,123 copies and organizers expect to sell more this year.
Kids Day was launched by The Bee and KFSN, Channel 30 in 1988. It has raised about $2.2 million for the hospital.
Tuesday is Kids Day in the Valley, a day when your dollar buys a dream for a sick child at Children's Hospital Central California.
This day means a lot to me because my son, Scott, was whisked out of my arms moments after his birth and taken to Children's Hospital. He had a life-threatening lung problem that required intensive care and Children's staff were the best the Valley had to offer. His father and I were so afraid -- we were young, first-time parents and had no clue such terrible things could happen to a newborn baby.
We quickly learned that miraculous medicine was being practiced on the sickest little babies at Children's. We were fortunate to have the outstanding team put together by the late Dr. Jack Scott, a brilliant neonatalogist, and within a week, we were taking Scotty home, healthy and beautiful.
Children's Hospital is even more miraculous now because thousands of generous people have compassion for frightened parents and sick babies.
Folks Valleywide have been already participating in the Kids Day special fund-raiser by participating in golf tournaments, bowling tournaments -- a motorcycle ride is even coming up later. But the day wouldn't mean anything without good-hearted people with a dollar. Make sure you've got some cash with you tomorrow anytime you get in the car. Kids Day is awesome -- the 10-second fundraiser. It couldn't be easier.
You'll see volunteers everywhere tomorrow morning hawking newspapers on the streetcorners, medians and roadsides. Just drive by with a dollar, and they'll pass a newspaper full of coupons in your car window.You don't have to write a check, address an envelope or dress up in high heels. Just stick a dollar out the window and smile. How fun is that?
A lot of children will thank you -- and some very grateful young parents as well.
In Tuesday's Letters to the Editor, 17-year old Lindsey Yoshimoto writes, "What everyone needs is to find that one book that changes their world, and make it look like a whole other place. It is one’s own discovery of the book that truly makes the reader."
What a wise young woman. And anyone who calls him or herself a reader knows that Lindsey has nailed it -- books not only broaden your mind, they open your mind up to new worlds and experiences.
I know I'd have a hard time narrowing it down to just one book. Like my 12-year-old daughter Alyssa, I went through books like water when I was a child. Favorites from back then include "Harriet the Spy," "The Phantom Tollbooth," "Where the Red Fern Grows," The Hardy Boys, and on and on and on. Today's young people (and smart adults) have the Harry Potter series to enjoy. I continue to read those wonderful stories over and over.
What book changed the world for you? And how did it impact your life?
We’ve gone absolutely bonkers over weather in the San Joaquin Valley, even though my East Coast and Midwest friends think we’re a bit mad with our obsession over forecasts that might have a bit of rain in them. But in a region with not much weather, any change is a very big deal.
Local television stations do team reports and reporters file stories "live from the newsroom." (It’s only a few feet from the anchor desk, but they throw it to the newsroom like they're going live to Baghdad.) And we put these stories on the front page. But the truth is, Valley folks are starved for weather coverage, even if it’s not much to speak of compared with Minnesota’s cold and snow or Category 5 hurricanes in the Gulf.
This reminds me of the Steve Martin character in "L.A. Story," a 1991 film about a TV weatherman coping in a city with chronic good weather. Martin’s character makes fun of the weather segment he does: Comically reporting that it's always 70 degrees and sunny.
But people in the Valley care about their weather, and the media respond with in-depth coverage. Everyone wants a weather prediction, even if they are wrong.
I only hope it doesn’t rain on Kids Day Tuesday. We have papers to sell for Children’s Hospital of Central California. Now where’s that weather report?
Conversations about politics and social issues often end with one contestant asking the other: "Why don't you move to (fill in the name of an unattractive country) if you don't like it here?"
Now you can find out just where it is you ought to live, by taking a simple
test. I took it, and the results were pleasing. Give it a try. And don't take it too seriously. Really.
You know all those folks outside your favorite store trying to get you to sign a petition or register you to vote? They may not be so aggressive in the future if changes proposed in the Legislature are enacted.
State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, wants to ban most paid signature gatherers. The reason they go after you like a heat-seeking missile is that they get paid for every signature they gather -- sometimes as much as $10.
Here's my column on the issue. It takes a look at Bowen's bill and also gives the perspective of a paid signature gatherer.
There have been several recent problems around the state, including fraudulently signing up people for a different political party because that party was paying for registrations at the time. Bowen's bill only bans paying on a per-signature basis. Petition hawkers could still be paid a flat salary or by the hour.
I side with Bowen on this issue. There's too much incentive for fraud, and outlawing the practice of paying per signature would make a big difference.
Doug Hoagland's profile in today's Bee on departing Fresno City Attorney Hilda Cantu Montoy is as inspiring a story for young women as I have seen in months. She had plenty of excuses to underachieve or live as a victim the rest of her life.
Her childhood was imperfect, coping with poverty and an alcoholic father. But instead of becoming discouraged and self-destructive as so many people do, she took the best her family had to offer -- love, devotion, passion, education -- and just blew the rest away.
She took those basic ingredients and stirred in her own vision, insights, courage, loyalty, pride. All that together was enough to get her straight A's in high school, scholarships to Stanford University and a position as the highest paid city employee. In addition, a younger sister followed her to Stanford.
Now Montoy is the wife of a physician and the mother of three -- two sons who graduated from Harvard and a daughter who attends Stanford. I hope those who are tempted to focus on what lousy cards life has dealt them will follow Montoy's example: "I just never wanted to dwell on the bad." What a champion.
Starting Sunday, we have several features on the opinion pages about Sunshine Week.
During Sunshine Week, participating newspapers, magazines, online sites and radio and television broadcasters run editorials, columns and editorial cartoons that discuss about why open government is important to everyone, not just to journalists.
President John F. Kennedy said, "The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings."
Sunshine Week is an offshoot of Sunshine Sunday, which began in Florida in 2002. Led by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, Sunshine Sunday was developed in direct response to moves by the state legislature to severely restrict public information after the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Here are a couple of related links:
Californians Aware
California First Amendment Coalition
Freedom Forum First Amendment Center
I'll drink a toast (Evian with lime, please) to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer and his traffic bureau for their undercover stings in Fresno's bars. I love this idea. It's so obvious that it's brilliant.
The irony of people getting loaded in bars in full view of everyone and then just walking (sort of) out to their cars to go home has always struck me as bizarre. This nonsense about it being entrapment or somehow not fair sounds like excuses to drive drunk to me.
Drunk people should thank the police for giving them tickets before they make a life-changing mistake. It's a whole lot better than living with yourself and your injuries after a tragedy. This is an issue of choice that's simple for the average grownup: switch to Evian after two drinks or arrange a ride home with a sober driver.
I can't believe all the whining. In France, the limit is .05. If you get caught driving after drinking you should expect to pay the fine on the spot, plus the cops can take your car and your license faster than you can say, bon jour. The travel guides are blunt. Just don't do it.
I hope Fresno gets the same reputation. The cops are clever here -- don't mess with them because you never know where they'll pop up. I hope Chief Dyer won't bend to the outside pressure and keeps pouring on the heat. Perhaps he may want to tweak the process a little, but the thinking behind it is good. The grownups will be grateful the next morning. Maybe the word will get around that Fresno's no place for drunk driving -- just don't do it.
Now that the cops are cracking down on drunk drivers in north Fresno, everyone is worried about civil liberties. Where were these people when Congress was passing the Patriot Act so the government can snoop into your e-mail, listen in on your telephone calls and violate other basic liberties?
But use undercover officers to bust drunks driving out of bar parking lots and the public goes bananas. The reaction caused Police Chief Jerry Dyer to back away from the sting operation in bars.
Of course, no one seemed to care when the stings were at bars in minority neighborhoods. But now that they are occurring in fashionable areas, the so-called "good part of town," the police somehow are being unfair.
Sounds to me like a bunch of drunk drivers rationalizing their illegal behavior.
It was disappointing to hear about the impending changing of the guard at UC Merced. Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, the founding chancellor, has been the right leader at the right time for the new campus.
Our editorial board met with her last week, and she was ebullient, full of strategic plans and persuasive arguments for the establishment of a medical school in the Valley. An hour with her and nothing seems too daunting to try.
She was the ideal person to rally support for UC Merced. A more abrasive personality could have easily derailed this fragile project, which stepped on more toes than a 12-year-old dancer. It survived jealousies from inside and outside the UC system.
But she pressed on through setback after setback, an exemplary leader, at once optimistic, enthusiastic and realistic. I hope in her "new life" she will spend considerable time teaching young women administrators to follow her very effective example of leadership. The Valley could use 10 more just like her.
The "National Uniformity for Food Act" sounds pretty benign, but the bill in Congress has plenty of people riled just now. It's an effort by the food industry to soften or eliminate labeling rules that apply in the various states, most especially in California.
The principal target of the bill, in fact, is California's Proposition 65, passed in 1986. It was intended "to protect California citizens and the state's drinking water sources from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures to such chemicals," according to the
state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
The bill is supported by most Valley representatives, and one of the proponents is the Food Products Association, a Washington lobbying outfit run by our old friend, former Rep. Cal Dooley.
It's opposed by the attorneys general from 37 states as well a national umbrella group representing the departments of agriculture in the various states. The Bee's Mike Doyle wrote from Washington on the issue.
It's a bad idea that is likely to sail through the House of Representatives, since it lists as sponsors a majority of the House membership. Let's hope for better luck in the Senate.
College-bound high school seniors are wondering today whether they were among the 4,000 who took the SAT test last fall and were given wrong scores.
The New York Times and other media outlets are reporting that about 4,000 students who took the SAT in October were assigned scores that were much lower than they earned. Some got scores that were 100 points off. The test sponsor blamed the problem on technical errors in the scoring system. Small consolation to the students whose scores were bungled. See AP story.
What a mess. . . We’re in the middle of the college admissions process.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, is notifying college admissions offices, high school counselors and students whose scores were erroneously reported to colleges, according to the Times. That should be completed by the end of this week.
Too bad that some colleges have already made decisions based on the erroneous scores. It also could influence whether students get much-needed scholarships. For some young people, this could be a life-altering error.
It's official -- I'm a member of the Fresno Jjammers (that's not a typo -- it's some conglomeration of initials or something). I'm part of a 12-person team that is training to run a 199-mile relay next month between Calistoga and Santa Cruz.
Billed as "California's longest party," The Relay promotes organ donation through Organs 'R' Us ("ORU"). Teams consist of 12 members, each running three legs in rotation. The transfer of the baton from runner to runner symbolizes the transfer of an organ from donor to recipient.
My contribution to the running portion of this event will be 15.4 miles, over the course of the weekend. More important is the fund-raising done by teams and the publicity generated in the name of organ donation. Through walking and running, transplant recipients, candidates, family members, friends and donor families have generated $20 million of publicity promoting organ donation.
I run because I enjoy it and because I like staying in shape. But it's great to be part of something bigger, something more important than just the benefits I get from something I do for fun.
It appears that Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson is making good on his promise to move the dead wood out of the district's administrative staff. On Wednesday night, he's asking the school board to approve of his reassignment of principals who aren't cutting it at Fresno's many low-performing schools.
The message is clear: The schools are there for the children, not to give adults cushy jobs. Expect a huge backlash from this move by Hanson. School administrators aren't used to being held accountable, and Hanson's commitment to improving the district will ruffle some feathers. That's too bad.
If this district doesn't improve, it could get taken over by the state or federal government. Then things will get really uncomfortable for those who are coasting. Hanson is doing them a favor by acting now. He's surely doing the kids a favor.
Fresno's Roy Christopher did us all proud Sunday night for his work on the set of the Academy Awards. For the 17th time, Christopher designed the Oscars set.
During a speaking engagement at Fresno State last fall, he said it was inspired by Fresno’s majestic Tower Theatre. You can definitely see the similarities in the marquee and the box office. The design was spectacular. Of Christopher’s 35 Emmy nominations, 16 have been for his work on the Oscar telecast. He has won six Emmy Awards so far and, for sentimental reasons, I hope this set design will get him No. 7.
I will never accept the irony that exists between the Valley's title of the most productive agricultural region in the world and the dire hunger statistics in the Valley. Edie Jessup's description of this as the "height of injustice" is right on point. We must find a way to make sure that the people who make it possible for so much of the world to eat well get enough food to be healthy. It's a complicated issue, but this is one we should be able to figure out. We "do food" better than anywhere in the world. We grow it, often process it, distribute it, sell it. We should be able to make sure own Valley residents are at least well fed.
Shhh. Don't tell anyone -- I've become an "American Idol" junkie.
Up until recently, I worked nights, so this is the first season I've gotten to watch the series from the beginning instead of just catching an episode during a vacation week. But I can't believe how quickly, and completely, I've gotten sucked in.
Eleanor Hersey, an English professor at Fresno Pacific University, wrote a Valley Voices article for Saturday Opinion page about the growing popularity of “Elimination TV,” in which contestants, viewers or judges vote someone off the show each week.
I can't help but feel like I'm indulging in the television equivalent of Doritos. But it tastes so good, I just can't turn it off after one night.
The only way I can redeem myself is that this is something we enjoy as a family. Three generations of women -- me, my mom and my daughters (and sometimes my husband too, although I'm sure he'd deny it) -- in the living room after dinner, critiquing performances, rooting for our favorites and deciding which ones to vote for this week. Even my almost 3-year-old gets into it, dancing in front of the television if the song has a good beat.
I guess something that a family enjoys all together can't be all bad.
Maybe I’m a cynic, but I don’t think that Police Chief Jerry Dyer ever seriously considered running for sheriff. His retrenchment on the idea Monday afternoon suggests that I could be on to something.
So why would Dyer even consider telling people he wanted to be both police chief and county sheriff? Here are three possibilities:
-- It put the law enforcement consolidation discussion on the front burner.
-- It gave Dyer an opportunity to talk about something in the media besides the gang problem.
-- It offered a little spark to the boring Fresno County sheriff’s race.
Dyer issued a news release Monday saying he would not seek the sheriff’s post in this year’s election. He’ll remain police chief. But don't expect him to hibernate. Some believe Dyer might run for mayor in 2008 when Mayor Alan Autry steps down because of term limits.
And maybe Dyer -- if he happened to get elected mayor in two years -- would appoint himself police chief. Now that he has pushed the idea of combining jobs, he might pursue a mayor/police chief job to save money. And here's a really far-out idea. Dyer appoints Autry police chief. Autry has some "law enforcement" experience. He was Capt. Bubba Skinner on "The Heat of the Night" television show.
The announcement that Bakersfield Republican Rep. Bill Thomas won’t seek re-election has set off a scramble among Republicans for his South Valley Congressional seat. Thomas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Monday that he will leave Congress at the end of the current term. Here's the compete story.
The 22nd Congressional District is a Republican seat so Democrats need not apply. But a nasty GOP primary is expected to pit Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Thomas ally, against state Sen. Roy Ashburn. Kern County is so Republican that the only people they have to fight with are themselves, and the Thomas crowd doesn’t like Ashburn much. It has nothing to do with political philosophy. It's about who controls the party apparatus in Kern County.
Thomas, 64, represents a district that includes most of Kern and San Luis Obispo Counties and a tiny part of Los Angeles County. The former Bakersfield Community College government instructor went to Congress in 1979.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer has a lot of people worked up with his Super Cop suggestion that he should be police chief and Fresno County sheriff at the same time. There’s also a rumor going around that he’s contacted President Bush about the possibility of being FBI director.
Here’s my seat-of-the-pants analysis of the Dyer gambit: He’s tossing a grenade into the law enforcement consolidation discussion in Fresno County because no one really wants to combine services, no matter how much money it will save taxpayers and how much more efficient law enforcement would be in the county. If that’s Dyer’s real goal, I like the play.
But whether he could actually hold the two positions, don’t bet on it. If it’s legal -- and there are too many possible conflicts of interest to believe that it could be -- there’s a huge political hurdle standing in the way of Dyer persuading voters that he could hold both jobs.
By the way, Fresno Councilman Mike Dages had the best comment on the issue: "My first thought is that if he has enough time to do both jobs, then it must be management-heavy over at the Police Department. You have a lot of time on your hands if you think you can be a police chief and a sheriff at the same time." Story: http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/11891551p-12661270c.html
Saturday is Valley Voices day in The Bee and there are three nice pieces in this week's edition. One of the commentaries really made me laugh -- in a good way. Eleanor Hersey, an English professor at Fresno Pacific University, shares my dirty little secret.
We both get the biggest kick out of shows like "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars." She makes a very interesting point that fans of the show really like to see performers held to a high standard, even if the constructive criticism comes from the often crass voice of Simon Cowell. She says we are hungry for this honesty because there's too much grade inflation in schools and not enough demand for excellence.
This is not the first time I've heard that Americans applaud their children too easily. We had a visitor from the Slovak Republic a few years ago and we took her to a dance recital in Fresno.
It was a Big Deal in the Saroyan Theater. Little girls were all dolled up in the fanciest little dresses and prettiest tutus you ever saw. Well, some of the little ones didn't quite get it. One girl in a costume that probably totaled $100, saw herself on the big TV screens and didn't move a muscle through the whole number. She just stood there, pointing at her own image on TV. Others just kind of did their own thing and wandered around the stage.
The American audience roared. We all thought these little kids were just hysterical, maybe even the highlight of the day. Our Slovak friend was slightly amused, but highly disapproving. Young dancers would not be allowed to perform for an audience in their city until they had mastered their dances, however simple.
What do you think? Do we praise our children's efforts too much? Should demand more from them before we encourage them? Or are we on the right track, giving positive feedback for their baby steps and cheering them until they can run?
Dwindling supplies of salmon in the troubled Klamath River in Oregon could put a dent in the dining habits of seafood lovers, according to a story Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle. The agency that regulates the wild salmon fishing industry may decide to shut the fishing season off for a year to see if the salmon population improves.
The wild Pacific salmon, called king salmon or chinook, are preferred by epicures over Alaskan salmon and especially over farm-raised fish. One Bay Area chef is quoted as saying that "farmed salmon often are missing gills and have misshapen heads."
We're not talking salmon croquettes here.
If the supply is cut off or restricted, the prices will skyrocket, of course. That could lead to all manner of mischief: bootleg salmon, salmon knock-offs, a smoked salmon cartel rigging the market. It's enough to drive people back to canned tuna -- packed in water, of course.
Highway 99 -- our rutted washboard of a state roadway -- is much in the news lately, with California's elected leaders stumbling over themselves to assert their undying determination to do right by the Valley's principal transportation artery.
We'll address that phenomenon -- and have some fun talking about what name we should give the highway -- in an Opinion page package in Sunday's Vision section. Please check it out, and tell us what you think.
I have another pet peeve when it comes to road construction in Fresno. The city apparently does not require contractors to leave a road in the same condition they found it when they have to dig into it for a construction project. In a growing city, that happens often.
Case in point: Drive south on Cedar Avenue from Nees. As you approach Alluvial, you’ll see a construction site on the west side of the street. There are several places where workers have dug into Cedar. The patch job when they got through is terrible. Drving south you hit a series of bumps that makes your car shake violently. The patches are the size of speed bumps. For some reason, city inspectors have let them get away with this shoddy work.
It happens all over town. How much is the city costing taxpayers in car alignments and tire wear by allowing contractors to tear up a road and then slap a bit of asphalt over the hole? How much more work would it take to level off the patch?
It's an example of the city not paying attention to detail -- or giving people special treatment. This is just one more thing that gives Fresno a bad name. Where's the pride in our city?
City residents deserve better.
Need a little reassurance that Billy's bedtime story is a vital part of the day? According to an Associated Press story about a new study, the ability to handle complex reading is the major factor separating high school students who are ready for college reading from those who are not.
Get the whole family involved in the bedtime story fun with Fresno County Library's promotion called The Big Read, which starts Sunday. Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the book we'll all read and discuss for a month. That's a great choice because it's interesting on many levels, depending on your stage of life. Check out the Saturday Valley Voices page for a full explanation.
What’s with the lack of work on the Friant Road offramp on Freeway 41? This project has taken forever and it doesn't appear there's an end in sight. I really don't get it. They’re not building the space shuttle. They aren’t finding a cure for cancer. They are simply widening an offramp. . . or should I say they aren’t widening it because the construction zone just sits there! There must be an incentive for dragging this project out.
In case anyone in charge hasn't noticed, it’s unsafe. That should be reason enough for not sitting on this project. Northbound traffic on Freeway 41 often has to stop in the freeway lanes because cars can barely squeeze onto the offramp. Cars speeding on 41 toward the exit are fishtailing to a stop to avoid a multi-car pileup.
Does someone have to be injured -- or worse -- before this problem gets the attention of Caltrans?
The Friant construction project is a mess, and it seems no one cares. Are our local elected officials so busy bickering among themselves that they can't find time to pressure Caltrans for a solution?
On today's Opinion Page, we have an editorial about recommendations for restructuring school districts in Fresno County.
While the consultants that made the report didn't have any startling revelations about what should be done, maybe the fact that their findings, for the most part, mirrored what others have been saying for years should be done will allow things to finally move forward.
While Valley schools have made progress on standardized tests in recent months, that progress is tempered by the number of schools that still fall short under the federal No Child Left Behind accountability system.
Everyone agrees that Fresno County students face overwhelming obstacles in their quest for academic achievement -- high poverty and unemployment rates and a large number of students have limited English skills. What suggestions do you have for what we can do to help our community's children succeed?
The future of our region depends on it.
James Collier, the Web writer for Fresno Pacific University, e-mailed me this week about a woman from San Diego. She recently challenged a group by stating that no one she had met in the last three months could give 10 solid reasons for her to move here.
He took that challenge and invited his friends to give him their lists of favorite things. James has written a commentary for Saturday's Valley Voices page on this topic, and he'll offer his list.
In the meantime, what would be your list of 10 good reasons to move to Fresno? Having lived in both San Diego (loved it!) and Fresno, here are my first 10. Tomorrow I may have 10 more:
1. A great daily newspaper and Web site. (But then you knew that!)
2. Easy commutes.
3. Three times the house for the money -- you'll have enough for a swanky master bedroom, pool, spa and home theater room with your cash from SD.
4. Fresno State -- including all the faculty, the business school, the students, the drama, the sports, the Save Mart Center and the accompanying entertainment opportunities. It's sometimes wacky, but it's never dull.
5. Woodward Park -- especially the Shin Zen garden.
6. Fantastic array of churches.
7. Great diversity of people, foods and music.
8. An opportunity to make a difference! There is a vibrant group of people -- from children to young professionals -- working together to make the city better. San Diego probably just calls on one of its many billionaires to change things. We really have to work together to make things happen. That's inspiring.
9. Valley Children's Hospital
10. Easy proximity to... the Sierra, SF, the beach, skiing, Yosemite, Vegas...
Here's an urgent task for the Fresno City Council. With the opening of the Triple-A baseball season just around the corner, there's a problem at Grizzlies' Stadium that must be addressed.
The council should enact an ordinance, and quickly, that makes it a misdemeanor for an adult to catch a ball in the stands and not give it to a kid.
Most adults already understand the virtue of this simple act, but there are a wretched few who do not. We cannot tolerate their self-indulgent malfeasance in this regard any longer.
Who on the council will take up the banner for this cause? There is civic glory to be won -- not to mention the favor of perspicacious voters.
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