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Now that Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer has decided not to run for Fresno's top political job, next year's mayoral race is wide open, and that may be its biggest problem. There are no candidates who can command the field or the voters' interest right now. But that will change as more candidates get into the race.
You may think it's still early, but it's not. Sure, the primary election is in June, but we're entering November and that means the holidays are almost upon us. The holiday season will put politics on hold until after Jan. 1, and the next thing you know we're being slammed by 30-second TV ads.
Running for the mayor of Fresno isn't as simple as putting your name on the ballot and waiting for the votes to roll in. This is the highest-profile local office, and that means it will be very competitive. No one -- at least no one in the current field -- is going to coast to victory. It will take a top-notch organization, lots of money and hard work to win.
Only someone with the rock-star quality of Dyer could carry the field without much effort. But Dyer is out and that puts next year's mayoral election up in the air -- at least for those of us who like handicapping such things.
So where does the campaign to succeed Alan Autry stand so far?
Councilman Henry T. Perea is on the verge of announcing his candidacy for mayor, and Council Members Jerry Duncan and Mike Dages, and former Council Member Tom Boyajian have already announced. The candidate who'll probably run as the outsider is Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Regional Jobs Initiative. She isn't in the race yet, but is expected to get in soon. She'd better if she's serious about winning.
There have been others mentioned as possible candidates, but they took a pass. They include former Mayor Jim Patterson, retired Fresno County Schools Superintendent Pete Mehas, Al Smith of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce and Steve Geil, president of the Fresno County Economic Development Corp.
So let's assess the chances of the candidates who appear to be running. Perea, Duncan and Swearengin are in the first tier. Dages and Boyajian haven't shown anything to indicate that they can get out of the second tier.
If a big name doesn't enter the race, Perea, Duncan and Swearengin will be battling in June for the two spots in the November runoff election. I'd give the edge to Perea and Swearengin, although that's assuming that the politically unproven Swearengin can transition to the world of politics. Duncan could surprise because he will be well-financed, and is a goal-oriented candidate who understands the importance of building a strong organization. He also represents District 6 in northeast Fresno. That part of the city has a much higher voter turnout than other parts of Fresno. Perea will benefit from the "Perea machine" of his organization and that of his father, Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea.
I have not heard of any "big-name" candidates who are interested in running, but you never know. Former Assembly Member Sarah Reyes has toyed with the idea. She'd be in the first tier, but would not immediately dominate the field in the way Dyer would. Former State Sen. Chuck Poochigian would have to move into the city to run, and that is complicated by his wife, Debbie, running for Fresno County supervisor in District 5.
One longshot candidate is Jeff Eben of Clovis. Autry appointed him deputy mayor in May. Eben also would have to move into Fresno to run.
 Guest blogger Nora Walker still is having computer problems so I'm posting her item today.
I sit here at our Bullard High School library computer e-mailing my blogs to Jim because, as some may know, my computer has a virus and won't turn on. I don't know how many times I have had to take my computer to a shop when something goes wrong.
Not having a computer really makes you realize how much of your life is consumed by the computer. Surfing the Web, e-mailing, blogging, even online dating.
I go home everyday and realize how much spare time I have now that I can't use my computer. . . Realizing how much time I spend on Myspace, talking to friends and planning things, e-mailing communications for meetings, and school assignments. Teachers don't want hand-written papers anymore. They want them typed.
As a senior in high school, everything I do to apply to college must be online.
I saw this movie over the summer about how this man was threatening the United States by taking over every federal department through computers. Makes you wonder if that could really happen -- how much of our lives are dependent on technology.
We never have to leave the house anymore. We can buy groceries, clothes, talk to friends, bank online, take classes, and date. There is even controversy over how we vote; paper chad or electronic? That is the question. Is technology really a benefit in our lives or has it just made things more complicated?
For those of you without school-aged children, Literacy Day is how schools today have watered down the Halloween that we all celebrated as children. Instead of dressing up as the more traditional scary frights, such as witches, vampires or ghouls, those who dress up can go as their favorite character from a book (nothing frightening please!).
My youngest daughter, Katie, is dressed as Dorothy, from the "Wizard of Oz." She has ruby red shoes -- and a little dog too!
But I fear that some of my favorite literary characters -- the cast of the Harry Potter tomes -- would be on the unacceptable list. Funny, but I don't think celebrating Halloween the old-fashioned way traumatized me growing up.
Do you think Literacy Days are a better way to celebrate the holiday, or just a way of going overboard on political correctness?
UPDATE: My husband just called with a report of some other costumes in Katie's preschool class -- several Disney characters, one other Dorothy AND A HARRY POTTER! Needless to say, I'm pleased.
I am mystified by letters such as the one from Jennifer Mills of Clovis in Tuesday's Bee. Thankfully, we got very few letters like hers, which used the word "pornographic" to describe a photo of Bee staff writer Tracy Correa in the Oct. 21 Bee. Tracy has breast cancer and she wrote a compelling first-person story about her journey through treatment. The image was used on Page A1 because it was a masterful portrait of Tracy's fear and worry. It also showed her face, chest and the part of her breasts that showed where the tattoos that were placed so the doctors know where to apply the radiation treatments that they hope will kill the cancer. In a powerful way, it showed Tracy's face -- an unforgettable expression of a woman clearly vulnerable and frightened.
I’m stunned at any kind of negative reaction to a journalistic photo essay by The Bee's award-winning staff members, photographer Heidi Huber and staff writer Tracy Correa. Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised at all by such weirdness because my husband used to be The Bee’s sports editor. He could count on a few strange people calling him on the phone -- using very loud voices -- anytime the sports section featured a woman athlete in a tight uniform worn by swimmers, runners or gymnasts. It was pretty sad.
Oddly, we never hear a peep from people like Ms. Mills when The Bee runs -- as it has recently -- pictures of Britney Spears, Demi Moore, Jennifer Hudson, Helen Mirren, Virginia Madsen, Cheryl Burke, Lisa Rinna, Tyra Banks or models in swimsuits, underwear, evening gowns. They showed far more skin in those pictures. Isn't it ironic there were no letters to the editor complaining about them?
However, Heidi's images of Tracy tell a dramatic and life-affirming story of one woman's ultimately victorious journey over a life-threatening disease. How that sends the minds of some letter-writers to a sexual place rather than an empathetic place is pretty disturbing to me.
The message I get from these people is that it’s just fine for folks to see women’s breasts so long as they are being used for entertainment. But it's somehow wrong to show authentic emotion in a medical and instructive context?
I congratulate Heidi for capturing Tracy's courage on paper. The women following her difficult path will surely now know they are not alone.
To see the multimedia presentation of stories and photos and Tracy telling what happened in her own words, click here.
To read Jennifer Mills' letter, click here.
I have a friend, Floyd Van Weelden of Fallbrook, who has had to leave his home due to the Southern California fires, and he’s been writing the most amazing e-mails to us about their experience. In a startling stroke of providence, his home was spared while most of the neighbors all around him were wiped out.
Floyd and his wife, Polly, are still evacuated but are able to go in and retrieve possessions. He agreed to let me share his e-mails with you. I’ve listed them with the most recent ones first. I was touched and inspired by the heartfelt efforts of people of all ages -- people who live far from the disaster -- who have stepped forward to help.
Dear Friends,
Hundreds and hundreds of emails have been in my inbox for which I thank everyone. Right now we are spending the time with our church friends, the Howards, and since John works from home he has connected me to his wireless so I can work as well. Polly is in their ktichen trying to save our food from the freezer and refrigerator...cooking it and freezing it. Schools are still closed here until Wed.
This morning was the first time anyone was let into our mobile ranch park. John and Linda went with us as they were not sure our emotions would be able to deal with what we saw. Our home was the first in a line of seven that we were saved. Our pastor came by and said a volunteer fireman had told him at church yesterday that they made their stand at our home as I had three connected hoses for water (and he admitted they ate a few oranges). It was clear from our home that a stand had been made there. No way we can ever thank those wonderful firemen. The bigger units were in the fires nearer San Diego and so the volunteer groups were in our park,
Long story short we have no power, gas, or water (we have water but they tell us not to even touch it as it might be contaminated). Thus we have no way to stay in our home. The Howards helped us gather some clothes to wash, clean up the fridge and the freezer and pack their Yukon with everything we needed. Since we can get back, we will try to go back each day and do a little work. The National Guard are guarding the park and you cannot get in without a proof of residence.
The scene at our home is that all the roses, shrubbery, and two trees in front of our house are fairly scorched. The passion fruit vine that was crawling up a trellis in our front is completed burned. Our front picture window is broken, probably from heat. However, we have no ash in the house and just a faint smell of smoke. The back yard is kind of a mess and our pond is still alive with fish...but they need some aeration soon. Being Mr. Organization, seeing everything thrown every which way is hard on me. Since the houses across the street are burned, this is truly a miracle.
Friday we were not allowed in so we just drove into San Diego amidst the smoke, got on a plane to MN. Our grandsons did not figure out until yesterday when we left that we planned to come purely to see their band performance. They were so happy to see us on Friday they just hugged us. We spent all of Sat at the Metrodome watching some of the finest kids around do some amazing band performances in the MN State marching band competition and the Upper Midwest championship. Rosemount has a spectacular performance (of course) and won the MN title, the Upper Midwest title and the week before had won third in the entire Midwest. So though we felt like refugees at some level, being with our family, helped so mucn.
Last night our wonderful AFS friends, Ted and Mollie Thomas put us up on Carlsbad and offered their home as long as we needed it. Again, it was respite with people we care about that helped us. A young man in the security line at the airport offered us a place to stay in his home in Hanford, CA, quite a miles north...he even gave us his business card. We have had four offers from strangers to stay with them.
Now that the initial shock is off, we just wait and go each day and get a few things done to make our house habitable again. We understand that our Pastor Mike gave a totally moving sermon yesterday that we will listen to. He came into our kitchen today while we were clearing the fridge and gave us a all a big hug. Four families in our church lost their homes and many more are evacuated like we.
I do not have a phone right now, but I will be working on email. If anyone has SKYPE, I am available that way. I will be doing the sending report in an hour or so.
Again, thank you so much for your concern. Justin, Troy, and Stefan are carrying on for me and can handle most things that I have no access to right now. We are emotionally drained, but honestly, looking at what we saw today is not something we would like to do again. Our neighbor Gisele (she is from Germany) lost her home She said this looked exactly how it looked when she fled Germany after an air attack. Her comment, " These are just things. I can replace them. I still have my family and my friends."
Our daughter-in-law just called and our grandkids (oldest 9) put up a lemonade stand with a sign that says, 'Help for Fallbrook Fire" and have already made $25. Now they are going to bake brownies to sell.. Zach Mulert, a returnee and teacher at La Jolla Country Day, wrote me an email this morning stating since his students knew me from presenting there that they would be able to relate to Fallbrook and could do something financially and physically to help.
This too will pass...for us we have credit cards we can pay off and people to help us. Our hearts go out to those who have nothing to fall back on.
California's parole agents are not taking the night off on Halloween. They'll be cruising neighborhoods to make sure sex offenders are not decorating for the holiday, staying home with lights out and away from children.
According to a press release: "Our agents will be out in force, checking on sex offenders, to ensure that they stay behind locked doors, in dark houses, with absolutely no contact with ‘trick or treaters’ on Halloween night," said Tom Hoffman, CDCR Director of Parole. "Our goal is to make sure that children have a carefree night free of any potential contact with sex offenders."
CDCR imposes its most stringent parole conditions on sex offenders, including mandatory curfews and treatment, and limitations on their behavior and where they live to prevent contact with potential victims. Even so, sex offenders are held to even stricter limits on their behavior on Halloween night, when children are on the streets and going door-to-door, sometimes through unfamiliar neighborhoods.
Among the Special Conditions of Parole imposed on sex offenders for Halloween night:
· A 5p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew during which parolees must remain indoors;
· All exterior lights of their homes must be turned off so that it looks as if no one is home, which takes away any opportunity for children to be tempted to ring the door bell;
· No offering of Halloween candy and no Halloween decorations are allowed;
· During the curfew, sex offender parolees can only open the door to respond to law enforcement, such as parole agents who are patrolling their caseload to ensure compliance.
All CDCR parole agents will be enforcing these conditions on their caseloads individually. In some regions, such as Sacramento and Fresno, CDCR agents will conduct what has become an October tradition. During "Operation Boo," agents and police will work together to knock on the doors of sex offenders who are on parole or probation to ensure they comply with all the special restrictions.
Did you get caught in the flooding rain last night? Tell us what happened.
Just before I started home from work last night, my husband called to warn me that our street was flooded. It was almost up to the porch and cars were stalled in the street. Yikes. I tried to get in anyway, but CalTrans, news and Flood Control District trucks were all parked at the end of our street. Not a good sign.
So I wound up having to go to my mom's house for dinner while waited for the water to drain down. By 10 p.m., my husband called to say I could come home. My mother in law is visiting from Milwaukee and usually she just laughs at our piddly little rainstorms. But she said she had never seen so much water come down in such a short time.
It's the first time I haven't been able to get in the house and my husband couldn't get out due to extreme weather. What a creepy feeling. This was just a minor scare, of course, but I think I'll keep some kind of emergency overnight kit in the car from now on. I asked my husband to check on our flood insurance this morning. We were inches away from having water in our house and the sight of those cars stalled on our street made a big impression on me.
Our neighbors really were in a world of hurt. They are having their floors redone, so yesterday they had stacked all of their furniture outside to prepare for the workmen today. The weather had been so nice our friends were even planning to sleep outside last night. Then the rains came and last I heard, it was not a pretty picture. Their beds were soaked. Not good.
What happened to you?
 I don't get what it is about winning some huge sports event that causes fans to think that's an excuse for rowdy, and sometimes violent, celebration.
An article on our Web site says police in riot gear cleared several large crowds gathered around Fenway Park early Monday after the Red Sox won their second World Series title in four years. Police said they made 37 arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct.
You know it's going to be a difficult week when you wind up in a smackdown with your colleagues two minutes into your workday.
We had no sooner settled into our chairs in the conference room than we were arguing over trick-or-treat. Don Mayhew's story on Halloween etiquette says trick or treating is not for teens. I say, "Boooo!" I think it's fine for teens to go trick or treating for candy. In fact, it's fun to see them getting all dressed up, and I love to see them at the door.
Now my colleagues, um, respectfully disagree. They say tricks are for kids. What do you think?
This year, we are going to have a teenage visitor from Iceland for a few days -- including Halloween -- and one of the things I am most looking forward to is helping her with a costume so some kids can take her out that night to experience this uniquely American tradition. (I have a whole box full of costumes from previous students!) Visitors from other countries love the idea that in this scaarrry world, Americans can go knocking on the doors of strangers and they'll welcome you, compliment your costume, wish you Happy Halloween and give you candy. Some people even decorate their yards and houses. How cool is that? None of their countries have anything like it.
I say there is no age limit on fun. That's not to say I support people of any age who engage in vandalism -- don't be silly -- but we shouldn't paint all teens with a broad brush. The vandals, typically, are not into trick or treating. They are usually just running around in their cars making trouble.
Read Don Mayhew's story here.
A minor conontroversy has bubbled up involving remarks that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made to the British edition of GQ magazine. In the interview, he said marijuana is not a drug, but a "leaf." His staff immediately said the governor was being funny in the interview.
This is from an AP story about the magazine article:
Schwarzenegger told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though the former bodybuilder and Hollywood star has acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron."
"That is not a drug. It's a leaf," he told GQ. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."
Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, said the governor made the comments in a lighthearted context, noting that his interviewer was Piers Morgan, one of the judges on "America's Got Talent." Morgan is a former British newspaper editor.
It must have been a very slow news day.
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff lashed out at Federal Emergency Management Agency for its latest misstep. This time FEMA officials held a phony news conference to make it appear that the disaster agency did a great job during the Southern California wildfires. FEMA employees played the part of reporters, who asked softball questions of their FEMA bosses.
So Chertoff is angry. But that doesn't solve the basic problem. FEMA is a mess and every time there's a disaster, something goes wrong with the agency's response. Maybe we should change the name to BFIDA: Big Fat Incompetent Disaster Agency. At least it would be living up to its name.
The Los Angeles Times also reports on the latest FEMA crisis. Here's the Times' story.
Here's a later story from CNN.
With all the turmoil at California State University, Fresno, caused by problems in athletics, the huge successes on the acadmic side and the unprecedented connections the university has with the community have been overlooked by critics of Fresno State President John Welty. That got me thinking about Fresno State really having two presidents, at least in the public's mind, and I wrote about that concept in today's column.
Here are the key points in the commentary that you can find online here and in print in today's Vision section of The Bee.
There must be a co-presidency at Fresno State. How else can a rational person reconcile the two sides to John Welty's 16-year tenure at Fresno State? Throw out the athletic program and Welty is the best president the campus has ever seen. Throw out the academic side, and Welty is looking for a job.
Fresno State and Welty are again under intense criticism because they are defending their third gender-equity suit this year. The first will cost Fresno State $4.52 million for the firing of volleyball coach Lindy Vivas and the second turned into a $3.5 million settlement for Diane Milutinovich, the former associate athletic director who was reassigned against her will. Now fired women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein has her case before a Fresno County Superior Court jury. Will she deal the university its third straight mulit-million-dollar loss?
Our editorial today supporting the city of Fresno's attempt to create a municipal utility district says the Fresno City Council will take the issue up on Tuesday. However, Mayor Alan Autry's staff pulled the item from the council agenda because of problems in the proposal. The city administration made that decision after our Sunday opinion section went to press on Friday morning. The Vision section is printed early and inserted into the Sunday paper.
While The Bee's editorial board supports the concept of a municipal utilities district, if the financial assumptions in Autry's proposal are flawed, that could change our opinion on the feasibility of putting city utilities under a separate district. It doesn't make sense to make a change if it doesn't pencil out. Fresno voters would ultimately have to approve the creation of the district.
Folks who have lived in the Valley for a while will remember the popular Fresno Bee columnist Woody Laughnan. He retired several years ago after writing in The Bee for decades. He was a character and a splendid storyteller. Those talents are still sharp, as you'll discover tomorrow. Don't miss the Valley Voices page in Saturday's Bee, where Woody tells the poignant story of the death of his wife, Pat.
Get your Kleenex and don't miss it. It's a story that makes me miss his writing so much. He is a novelist now, so it's possible to get his books on Amazon.
I am so grateful to Woody, for sharing this important passage with us all. My heart is with him; I am so very sorry for his loss.
Today's letter to the editor from Erlinda Mejia addresses the subject of paying for foster care. Her letter refers to a commentary in the Oct. 21 Vision section, where a former foster mother questions the motives of people who say foster parents should be more fairly compensated. To read Mejia's letter, click here.
There are two issues here. One is taking children away from loving and competent parents who could keep their children if they had some financial help or parental coaching. That should not happen, and social services should stand on their heads to help those parents keep the children or give them very liberal visitation while the kids live in a stable family.
The second issue is putting children in foster care because their parents are violent and incompetent. That is another issue. Children need to be removed from dangerous or emotionally damaging situations, of course, and the people who are good enough to take on the huge responsibility of someone else's wounded child should, at mimimum, be given the financial resources to provide very well for that child.
This whole discussion about paying foster families says a lot to me about how conflicted we are about money. It is interesting that so many people consider money to be a bad thing.
The writer of the Sunday commentary, Mary Callahan, said she felt guilty accepting money for caring for her foster children because she told them she loved them. That logic does not follow for me at all because, clearly, we do not have the same viewpoint on money. There is no amount of money that can make someone love or hate another person. Teachers often love some of their children at the end of a school year, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be paid.
The money given to foster parents is needed to compensate that child for having incompetent birth parents. Poor parenting is a huge disadvantage in life that children do not deserve. The more money available to that open-hearted and stable foster family, the more resources can be poured into that child's well-being. The extra money could mean that the parents can work fewer hours to give extra care to that needy little one. It could mean the child gets guitar lessons, cheerleading costumes, soccer cleats, a trip to the beach, math tutoring, a gym membership, tickets to Disneyland, French lessons, a home with a yard, a pet dog, ballet shoes. For those children to overcome traumatic ordeals, they need something very positive to compensate for that.
There is a shortage of foster homes right now. I'm sure there are more people who would be willing to help children if they could afford to do it well. Callahan believes her child would think less of their relationship if he knew there was money involved. I find it abusive to tell a child that you were paid to love him. Besides, that's a lie. She was paid money to help make a better life for him. She decided to love him or not on her own.
Do we have too many children in foster care? Probably. That's an important question for state social services to investigate.
But when foster care is needed, the compensation should be good. Then we would have more foster families to choose from. And that would allow the authorities to make better matches -- to take only the cream of the crop. Those precious, wounded children deserve that.
 In our editorial today, we address the unfairness of the length of time inmates can spend on death row, often dying of natural causes or by suicide before they are executed. That's to be expected when the average wait for execution in the state is 17.2 years, twice the national figure. But it is unacceptable.
This leaves victims' families feeling cheated out of any sense of justice or closure.
The latest case is the death earlier this week of convicted murderer Billy Ray Hamilton (pictured above left), who died of natural causes on death row, where he has been since his conviction in 1982. Hamilton fired a sawed-off shotgun to kill three young people -- Douglas White, 18, Josephine Rocha, 17, and Bryon Schletewitz, 27 -- inside Fran's Market in Fresno in 1980.
"Goodness sake!" said Roy White, father of Douglas. "He should have been shot outside the market. I'm glad he suffered."
Arthur Alarcon, a veteran judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles who wrote an article for the Southern California Law Review article, told The Los Angeles Times that neglect by politicians and the failure of the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to put more money into the process are at the root of the dysfunction.
"The delays in reviewing capital cases will continue to grow in California to the point where the United States Supreme Court may some day hold that such imprisonment is, in and of itself, cruel and unusual punishment," Alarcon told the Times.
A legal challenge to the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection has put California executions on hold for the past 19 months. Clarence Ray Allen, the mastermind behind the Fran's Market murders, was the last prisoner executed in California, on Jan. 17, 2006.
As the enormity of the damage caused by the Southern California fires began to be understood in the Golden State, California's elected officials started announcing to the public that they would use their authority to ensure that insurance companies did not duck their responsibilities to the state's homeowners.
The only reason they would do that is the insurance companies have a history of not paying off when there are major disasters. Consider the message the elected officials are sending. . . There hasn't been one peep out of the insurance companies about not paying claims, but it is assumed that this industry would not do what they are in business to do. Now that's a lousy reputation preceding you.
First, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican, said he would immediately enact emergency regulations so homeowners affected by the Southern California fires are not be prevented by insurance companies from obtaining or renewing their homeowne insurance policies. Then State Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat, said he would author a bill that would protect homeowners from the insurance companies in future disasters.
The insurance companies haven't yet denied a claim or turned down a homeowner's insurance renewal, but they already are under attack for what everyone expects they will do.
Holly Crawford of the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services just sent me this photo of the Harris fire. Wow. The photo was sent to EMS folks by a San Diego resident.
Here's his description of the photo:
"The attached photo was taken early morning of October 23 from the hill just above the building I work in. Distance is about 1/2 mile to the closest finger. Intersection reference is Sweetwater Springs Blvd. and Jamacha Blvd. (91978 area). (close to SR 94 and SR 54 intersection.) Luckily the wind lifted or 1,000 more homes would have been lost."
 This name is being referenced a lot in news stories about the San Diego fires. Holly Crawford. She's the spokeswoman for the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services. We knew her as Holly Porter in Fresno (she got married this summer in San Diego). In Fresno, Holly worked for the Community Food Bank and the California Health Collaborative.
Since the San Diego fires broke out, Holly hasn't had much sleep, feeding news organizations updates on the fires. The San Diego Office of Emergency Services' Web site has excellent information of the fire: http://www.sdcountyemergency.com.
The site is being updated regularly.
One of the things that Holly has been explaining to reporters is San Diego County's Reverse 911 system. In this disaster, it automatically called residents to notify them to evacuate. There are three such systems in the San Diego area.
This is from a Los Angeles Times story: "An automated phone system operated by the city of San Diego has put warning or evacuation calls out to 85,792 households since the current wildfires erupted. A separate system operated by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department has placed calls to 337,000 households; a third system operated by San Diego County reached 171,919 households or businesses."
That's more than a half-million calls placed directly to homes and businesses. Very impressive operation at a time when residents in the path of the fires need solid evacuation information.
I asked Holly if she needed anything to help her get through the long days. "Send Starbucks," she said.
I am always fascinated with what people take out of the house in the face of fire. I've talked to a couple of friends who are evacuated from the San Diego area.
* "I grabbed the family photos, baby formula,
diapers, bottled water etc" I grabbed our two most precious possessions ...one in each arm -- nothing else seemed important.
* Another friend grabbed his laptop and pictures.
* My brother's house burned in the Oakland fires. His wife took their diplomas, some insurance papers, family pictures, some original artwork, the car and the dog.
Yesterday, I blogged about a woman called the Flylady who helps people get organized. Here is her list for things to take in case of evacuation:
FlyLady's 11 Points to Preparedness for Evacuation
"We can FLY in the face of Danger and Emergency if we are prepared. Don't wait till you are being asked to evacuate. Everyone thinks that it could not happen to them. Well it could and it is up to you to make sure you are prepared. Don't wait! DO IT NOW!!" -- FlyLady
PEOPLE: Have a plan for getting out of the house and make sure everyone knows it. Have an emergency bag of food and water for your family. Include wholesome snacks and treats for the children: dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, crackers and granola bars.
PETS: Keep pet carriers and leashes readily available to lead pets to safety. Also take pet food with you.
PICTURES: Keep negatives or CDs of pictures in a lock box or at a family member's home. Have picture albums in one place ready to grab and go at a moments notice.
PAPERS: Have all your important papers in a lock box at a bank and only keep copies at the house. This keeps you from panicking. If you have them at home then put them in a folder that you can easily grab if you have to move fast. Color code it so you can find it!
PRESCRIPTIONS: Take your medications with you. Don't forget the ones that have to be refrigerated like insulin. Have small ice chest and cold packs readily accessible to pack and go. If you have babies; remember their formula or medications.
PURSES and PETROL: This is where you keep your identification, credit cards and cash. Keep a stash of cash for emergencies and grab it. You may not be able to use an ATM in the event of a power outage. Make sure your car always has a half a tank of gas.
PROPER CLOTHES and COMFORT ITEMS: According to the weather conditions; gather up a change of clothes along with outer clothing: coats, rain gear, boots, gloves and hats. If you have babies remember diapers. Remember to grab your children's favorite blanket, stuffed animal or toy. A game or a deck of cards could keep them occupied and calm too.
PLANNER/CALENDAR/CONTROL JOURNAL: These documents have all the information you will need from phone numbers, insurance numbers and important dates. They are small and filled with things you don't have to try to remember.
PERSONAL PROTECTION: Many of us still have that time of the month. Be sure and grab a box of your preferred protection. It may be hard to find if you have been evacuated. Stress can cause our bodies to do strange things too. So be prepared. Take medication for cramps too.
PHONES and RADIOS: Many of us have cell phones now. Always keep them charged up and have a charger in the car or an extra battery. They may not work in the event of power outages, but then they might. Know which local radio station has emergency bulletins. Keep your battery powered radio tuned to that local station and have plenty of batteries for it.
PATIENCE: This is one of the most important things to pack. Keep it inside of you so that you have a clear calm head. Having your P's to Preparedness list guiding you will keep you patient. In the event of an evacuation there will be lots of displaced people. Being patient will make things less stressful. Your children need to see you calm and collected. This will help keep them calm too.
My husband and I had to pack for potential evacuation this past year (luckily we never actually had to evacuate). Although I had a list of my "important stuff" and knew where everything was, we were unprepared for how long it actually took to gather our belongings and load it into our car. It took a couple of hours!!
Please, walk through FlyLady's 11 Points to Preparedness for Evacuation. Touch each item you would want to bring. Are your important papers, photos, prescriptions, in one place? Do you have an emergency bag for your family members? Like a fire drill, practice an evacuation drill. You never know how much time you will really have.
The Valley got some good news on the water front this week, when the House passed a bill by Rep. George Radanovich that authorizes -- and partially funds -- a giant water banking project in Madera County. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has introduced a companion bill in the Senate; if it passes as well, and President Bush signs the bill, the Madera Irrigation District would get $22 million in federal dough to help build the $90 million project.
Here's our editorial today on the subject.
Water banking is a no-brainer. When we have wet years -- if we ever have wet years again -- water would be stored underground for later pumping in dry years. The proposed water bank at Madera Ranch would store as much as 250,000 acre feet of water at capacity. With population growing and demand for water increasing, and with the uncertainties of climate change ahead, we need to begin every sort of measure to add water supplies to the Valley and the state.
Guest blogger Nora Walker still is having computer problems so I'm posting her item today. This is what Nora has to say about Hillary Clinton's visit to Fresno yesterday:
I attended the rally for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with my mother. I had never gone to a political rally before and was, as my generation says, uber excited. My mother and I got down to Fresno High around 6:30 a.m. and waited in line so we could get close. I was prepared with the usual. Pen, paper, and a camera like all the other eager supporters.
Fresno High had its time to shine with the jazz band, chamber choir, cheerleaders, and Principle Bob Reyes, all of whom did a wonderful job.
When Hillary finally arrived at around 9:45, we were anxious. The crowd had been handed signs that proclaimed Hillary for President and Clinton Country. (I kept both as souvenirs).
Listening to her speak was such a thrill. As a young American woman on the brink of adulthood, who can vote in the 2008 presidential election, and will soon have to go out and live in the "real world," this was one of those "moments." They are the moments in life where you think you can do anything; you have a realm of possibilities before you and nothing and no one can stop you; you are invincible.
As girls we are told that we can do anything we want. We are equal to men. We can do anything they can. Yes, there are women who are lawyers, doctors, legislators, and others who hold political office and have jobs in what was once a predominately male workforce. But how many of these women do you know, could you imagine yourself in their shoes?
Seeing Hillary standing on that stage not 8 feet away from me, was so empowering that I could see myself standing in hers. When you think about it and really bring it in to focus, women were given the right to vote in 1920, and in 2007 we now have a woman running for president.
How amazing. Seeing her in person and hearing her speak, really opened my eyes. You can watch her on T.V and listen to her on the news but you dont get the same feeling, the same empowerment, the thrill, the excitement.
Hillary Clinton symbolizes to me that through hard work and determination women can achieve their dreams.
 Albus Dumbledore is gay. No, not the actor who plays the character in the movies. The fictional character himself, author J.K. Rowling revealed late last week while taking questions from fans at Carnegie Hall.
This news doesn't alarm or upset me. It was never mentioned in any of the books -- it was just something Rowling knew "very early on" about this key character in the children's books series.
Writers often know much more of the back story about their stories and characters than ever makes it into the final book. These details help them to understand their characters' motivations. The first hint of the idea for the story about an orphaned boy wizard came to Rowling in 1990, so for the past 17 years Rowling's world has intersected with the world she wrote about.
I think of Dumbledore's being gay like I think of my friends who are gay -- being gay is just one aspect of a person's entire makeup.
Melissa Anelli, Webmaster of the fan site The Leaky Cauldron said this: "Jo Rowling calling any Harry Potter character gay would make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality. By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, she's reinforcing the idea that a person's gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed."
Mary Lou Aguirre wrote a nice column today in the Life section on former Fresnan Pam Young's ingenious system for getting kids to keep their rooms clean. Pam has a talent for making everything fun, even cleaning the Legos out of the carpet.
Pam and I have known each other for more than 25 years, since she and her sister, Peggy, first started her amazingly successful "Side-Tracked Home Executives" system. Their book launched a whole industry by the Slob Sisters. There are all kinds of books, planners, CDs, DVDs and software for sale. Perhaps you are familiar with one of her devotees, the Flylady, who gets millions of hits on her Web site every year.
Pam and Peggy were actually the precursors to those TV series like "Clean Sweep" and "Mission Organization," where organizers go in and redesign someone's cluttered home or office. (You may remember Pam and Peggy redid Greg and Marlene Stephens' house in Fresno.) The difference between these shows and Pam and Peggy is that the sisters realized that if you don't teach disorganized people how to change their daily habits, those offices or garages will be a mess again in two weeks.
Besides the House Fairy for kids, Pam told me about a new project that's about adults. If you're like most Americans, with a house or desk less organized than it should be, less money piled up in a savings account than we would like and more credit cards than we really need, Pam says it's not our fault. It's the fault of our inner brat, splurging on unnecessary stuff and not sticking to routines that keep things and moneyunder control. She discovered this the hard way -- when she got further into credit card debt than she wanted to be. Pam had a publisher who was interested in having her collatorate on a book on organizing finances. Pam's nothing if not completely down-to-earth, and she knew she could not pass herself off to her audience as an expert on money until she got her own act together.
So, she read all the books by the popular gurus and decided the advice was just common sense and they were all pretty much saying the same thing. Pay yourself first, make a budget and stick to it, pay off your credit cards every month, and blah blah. Well, duh. And what is fun about that? Nothing.
The answer is really deeper, she decided, and her playful imagination went to work. The finances are being messed up by an inner brat who makes poor decisions. She named her inner brat Nelly, after that mean girl in the series "Little House on the Prairie." You can call yours anything you want -- like maybe Eddie, after Eddie Haskell in "Leave it to Beaver," or Darth Vader if you're a Star Wars fan -- some villain you can have fun with. She started sorting out Nelly in her thought patterns, "You don't want to cook dinner today. Let's eat out. You deserve that." You know how it works. Before you know it, those $80 restaurant dinners add up.
So now she's got this Web site called www.thebratfactor.com and it's all about taming that brat who's messing up your house and office and charging things you don't need. The motto on the business card is, "If it isn't fun, it won't get done!"
If you struggle or know others who do. Check it out.
To read Mary Lou's column, click here.
To see The Brat Factor Web site, click here.
To see the Flylady Web site, click here.
To see the Side-Tracked Home Executives Web site, click here.
The state is taking on the federal Environmental Protection Agency, filing a lawsuit because of EPA's foot dragging on an important air quality issue. That's good news, as we said in an editorial today.
California asked for the waiver in 2005. The EPA and the White House have been lobbying against the greenhouse gas initiative that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched a while back, mostly at the behest of their friends in the auto industry. California is allowed to write stricter rules than the feds on air quality, but must get a waiver from EPA to do so. EPA has never denied such a waiver, but it's taking forever to consider this one. Hence, the lawsuit.
The Bush administration has been no friend of the environment, so this isn't much of a surprise. But it sure would be nice to have an EPA that actually sought to protect the environment instead of treating it like just another marketable commodity.
John Zelezny, a media law attorney, says those who illegally download music and movies can try to paint themselves as victims of corporate greed, but they are actually the the greedy ones -- stealing copyrighted material that isn't their property. They might as well walk into an unlocked Apple store and make off with a Mac Pro computer. They might as well use someone else's credit card and buy a Bose Wave Music System online. They are stealing other people's stuff and that makes them crooks.
To justify illegal file-sharing is to ignore our property laws. A federal jury in Minnesota got it right when Jammie Thomas was held liable for $222,000 in damages for illegally downloading copyrighted recordings.
Zelezny also wrote about this issue for The Bee's opinion pages in June. He warned then that recording industry executives were going to come down on people who steal their copyrighted material, and the law was on their side.
I'm not sure why so many people think that if material is on the Internet, it's free to take. Do you think the Minnesota case will deter the crooks, or will they continue to steal copyrighted material?
Don't miss Tracy Correa's first-person story called "Diagnosis: Cancer" from Sunday's Bee. It's a riveting story full of lessons for all of us on the importance of being an active advocate for our own health care. We cannot just sit back and let the professionals take care of us. They are human beings; some will make mistakes, as they did in Tracy's case. See the story and photos by clicking here.
We had a couple of executives from Saint Agnes Hospital in for an editorial board meeting last week. They had the same message. Don't be afraid to ask questions, get second opinions and even to challenge their cleanliness. They have a lot of time pressure on them, they get in a hurry. Ask outright even about basic things: Did you wash your hands?
It's time for the city of Fresno to get tough on the owners of downtown buildings that stand empty and decaying while the struggle to revitalize downtown gathers steam. That's the conclusion of our editorial Sunday.
Several large and historically important buildings right on the Fulton Mall sit in stagnation while their owners wait for prices to rise. These major buildings are crucial to downtown's rebirth. They stand as very visible signs of downtown's health, and currently that picture is not so good.
Building owners who won't get moving on refurbishing and reuse, or sell the buildings to someone who will, should be in the crosshairs of eminent domain proceedings. Rather than using eminent domain on small business people who have stuck it out in downtown through all the bleak years, the city ought to be going after the big guys. Drop the hammer.
It's a difference in student performance that most educators don't want to openly discuss, but the disparity in test scores among racial groups is alarming. I discuss this issue in today's column. This is a disturbing trend for public education: There's an "achievement gap" in which white students score higher than minority students no matter what their economic circumstances are.
So student performance isn't just about poverty. The California Department of Education says standardized test scores vary on the basis of race, even when taking into account the economic circumstances of students. Poor white students score better than poor Hispanic and African-American students, according to the California Department of Education.
And this is what really startles the professionals: White students who grow up in poverty score about the same as Hispanic and African-American students who are not economically disadvantaged. So the poor white students are doing as well on standardized tests as the minority students who grow up in upper-income homes. It's time to find out why and make sure that all of California's children have a chance to learn in our public schools.
Finally, someone in charge is dealing with this issue. State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell is holding a summit next month in Sacramento to probe the reasons for the achievement gap, and find out what can be done about it.
Doug Hansen, a former Bee artist who now teaches at California State University, Fresno, was at The Bee yesterday giving a watercolor workshop to our art department. While he was here, he dropped off some postcards publicizing an exhibition of his exquisite watercolor illustrations, which are featured in the new book, “Heirlooms – Letters from a Peach Farmer” by David Mas Masumoto.
Bee readers are fortunate to see the work of Doug and Mas almost every month in Vision. Read Mas' September essay by clicking here. They are taking a break in October, and come back in November. See some examples of Doug's previous work by clicking here.
The art exhibition, Nov. 1-28, includes a reception from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Lyles Gallery at Fresno State. The artist and author will be there and paintings and books will be available for puchase. There is free parking in Lot C during the reception. The Lyles Gallery is in the Speech Arts Building. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. daily and an hour before curtain on performance days. Performance days for “Doubt” are Nov. 2-4 and 6-10. The gallery is closed for Thanksgiving break Nov. 21-23 and parking is enforced during regular gallery hours.
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen reports that voters continue to reject affiliation with a poltiical party, with the ranks of independents on a steady rise. In California, independents sign their registration forms under a category called "decline to state." This trend toward DTS voters should be a loud message to party leaders in California, although they seem to think they are doing just fine. Not surprisingly, the parties are blind to the fact they are losing members.
This is another indication that the major parties in the Golden State are run by those on the political extreme. Here's a Bee editorial on the subject.
Democrats now are at 6,599,660 voters or 42.5 % of the California electorate, and Republicans are at 5,254,795 voters or 33.84% of the electorate. Both parties are down in registration from four years ago. However, those who decline to state a party affiliation are up by more than three percentage points. These independents are now at 2,980,622 or 19.2%.
Bowen also reports that of the state's 58 counties, 36 have a Republican plurality of registered voters and 21 have a Democratic plurality. Alpine County reports an equal number of registered Democrats and Republicans, according to Bowen.
Here's more from Bowen's registration statement:
Of the 58 counties in California, 36 counties have a Republican plurality and 21 have a Democratic plurality of registered voters. Alpine County has reported an equal number of registered Democrats and Republicans.
When compared to the same period during the presidential primary election season four years ago, voter registration has been generally flat. The number of registered voters has increased by 89,706 over the past four years, but new registrations are not keeping pace with population growth. As a result, the percentage of people eligible to register to vote who are actually registered to vote has fallen from about 71% to just under 68%.
By law, voter registration updates must occur 154, 60, and 15 days before each primary election, and 60 days and 15 days before each general election. There is one off-year update reporting registered voter totals as of February 10. Fewer people were on the voter rolls last month than in March 2007, when the last Report of Registration was released.
“The drop is partly attributable to better tracking and removal of so-called ‘deadwood’ from the rolls,” said Secretary Bowen, the state’s chief elections official. “However, in a growing state like California, any leveling off of voter registration is troubling. The early primary in California, and the excitement surrounding the first presidential election since 1952 in which no incumbent president or vice president is running, should drive those registration numbers up over the next three months.”
The complete September 4, 2007 Report of Registration is on the Secretary of State’s website at: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_u.htm. Hard copies are available to the media upon request through the Secretary of State’s Communications Office at (916) 653-6575.
The last day to register to vote in the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election is January 22, and the last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is January 29.
Support for the Armenian genocide resolution now being considered in the House of Representatives is bleeding away. That may be predictable, but it's still very disappointing. What looked a short while ago like a slam dunk is anything but now. The defectors include a number of the bill's original co-sponsors.
Our editorial today points out an ironic twist in the matter. The House is backing away from taking a stand in favor of justice and truth, on account of fears that doing so might upset a close ally, Turkey. The Turks are absolutely bonkers on the notion of admitting what happened to 1.5 million Armenian victims of the genocide in the years 1915 through 1923.
And the Turks are important to the U.S. effort in Iraq. Huge amounts of personnel and materiel move to Iraq through Turkey, and the threat of cutting off that access is chilling to the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department.
So chilling that they're willing to back off rather than offend Turkey with the truth.
The irony is that this comes at precisely the moment President Bush and Congress were honoring the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, which has been in the less-than-gentle grip of China for decades. The Chinese are inflamed by that action, but that didn't stop Bush and Congress from grabbing a photo-op with the spiritual icon in Washington.
Are we to conclude from this that angering Turkey is a more dangerous course of action that angering a world power, China? That's a very curious application of geopolitics.
On today's Opinion pages, we talk about the need to recruit an exceptional person to lead Fresno Metro Ministry now that the Rev. Walt Parry is planning to retire. This is one of Fresno's most influential nonprofits, tightly focused on public policy issues that address the needs of the poor. If you know people who are great at bringing diverse interests to the table and guiding them to accomplish great things together, convince them to consider the interim executive director position. Don't just look at people in nonprofits or clergy. This is a perfect time to infuse a fresh point of view into Fresno’s nonprofit community.
Read today’s editorial about Walt Parry by clicking here.
Last night as we made our weekly visit to the Clovis library, a new exhibit in one of the glass display case caught my eye -- an assortment of decorative bells. But it was the sign beneath it that grabbed my attention. "Did you mean to donate your bells too when you dropped off several boxes of books as a donation to the library?"
I checked with the librarians, and they said someone recently brought in several boxes of books. As they were unpacking the books, they came across the bell collection -- kind of an unusual donation for a library to receive. So they put them on display in an effort to make sure it wasn't an accident.
If you know of someone whose bell collection was boxed up and lost, they might find their treasure at the Clovis branch of the library. The phone number is (559) 299-9531.
The Sacramento Bee has a story today about how busy state workers are keeping themselves — editing entries on Wikipedia. In some cases, passages that reflected poorly on legislative leaders and others have been deleted.
One example: San Francisco state Sen. Leland Yee's 1992 booking on suspicion of shoplifting in Hawaii was removed. Another: Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's entry was sanitized by deleting a summary of his conflicts with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It didn't stop there. State employees made some 1,100 alteration to Wikipedia entries, including raunchy additions to articles about porn stars and a homophobic joke inserted in the passage about women's tennis legend Billie Jean King, who is lesbian.
Guest blogger Nora Walker is having computer problems so I'm posting her item today. This is what Nora has to say about Chinatown's tunnels:
My mother's birthday was this past week and she was sent a present from her friend in the Bay Area. Inside this book she received was a newspaper clipping from the local paper up there about Fresno. It was an extensive article about the revitalization of our downtown.
This article was specific to the work going on in our old Chinatown. The piece pointed out that in the process of cleaning up Chinatown, they found underground tunnels running under the old stores and under the other parts of the city.
I love history and I found this article particularly interesting, especially when I can learn something about my hometown. The tunnels they found were bricked and legitimate tunnels. These weren't something that was just thrown together.
Now historians think that they have been around from before Fresno was a town, when it was just a stop on the railroad line. They imagine they were used for either secret meetings or during the Prohibition era used for illegal drinking and gambling. The tunnels could be accessed through basement doors of Chinatown businesses.
They interviewed one man whose grandfather owned a business back then and he can remember going into the tunnels as a boy and going to meetings that he wasn't allowed to speak about. Stories like these need to be recorded and kept so Fresno doesn't lose them, like we have already lost our colorful history in downtown.
We cannot ignore this key piece of our history. This should be an intricate part of our revitalization plan.
Are you worried about all those millions in tax dollars going to pay off lawsuits at Fresno State? It shouldn't happen. Fresno State needs to raise money in some way other than using tax dollars to pay this off. It's nice that we can laugh through our tears on these cases, when competent leadership from the university could allow us to use this money for a much better cause -- educating students, for example. One of our readers, Curtis Thornton, came up with these ideas.
Top 10 fundraisers John Welty is having to raise money to pay for the discrimination settlements.
10. Sell raffle tickets to shave off Coach Pat Hill's Fu-Man-Chu.
9. Car wash starring Welty and male AD employees in short shorts.
8, "10k fun run" -- to save my job!
7. Yard sale to get rid of all that dirty laundry etc.
6. Sell a calendar featuring the old "TimeOut."
5. Bulldog bake sale.
4. Charge "alcohol consumption fee" for luxury boxes at Bulldog Stadium.
3. Welty will stand at a busy intersection with a piece of cardboard that
says "Will work for settlement money, "GOD-BLESS."
2. Convert Save Mart Center into haunted house.
1. Sell tickets at home football games to "whack" the new "TimeOut."
The editorial board weighed in earlier on the Vivas verdict. Here were our ideas for
ways Fresno State can raise money to pay Lindy Vivas verdict:
10. Make Chestnut Avenue a toll road -- if it's ever reopened.
9. Turn Smittcamp Alumni House into card room.
8. Have John Welty open lemonade stand at Shaw and Cedar avenues.
7. Turn University House in Fig Garden into strip club.
6. Open gender-equity institute at Campus Pointe -- with drive-through lane.
5. Sell copies of "I Did It My Way" by Welty -- with autographed copies half price.
4. Athletic Department can sell medicinal marijuana.
3. Start charging for academic papers prepared for athletes.
2. Auction Athletic Department's collection of fine samurai swords on E-bay.
1. Put Scott Johnson in a dunk tank.
Rush Limbaugh has put his ineffable stamp on the debate over the Armenian genocide resolution in Congress. In his morning update segment on KMJ radio today he characterized the resolution as just another attempt by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic lackeys to sabotage the Iraq war effort by angering Turkey, a key ally in the Middle East.
(In case you forgot, Turkey is the key ally that denied passage to American forces in the invasion of Iraq and is now poised to help stabilize the region by invading Kurdish regions of northern Iraq. The Kurds, of course, are another key U.S ally.)
Limbaugh must be talking about that running dog of a Democratic stooge, George Radanovich, and all the other Republicans who are co-sponsors of the genocide resolution. Ah, that Rush -- right on top of things, as usual.
I agree with Steven J. Graham's letter in Saturday's Bee that one of the problems with California's mess in the Legislature boils down to our gerrymandered state. Until we tackle redistricting reform and allow the voters to choose the candidates, rather than letting the candidates choose the voters, we will be frustrated.
If you read Dan Walters' column today, there is yet another reason to make redistricting reform. Candidates are raising bundles of money for their elections, as if there were a real contest. Of course, there isn't. Then, when the candidates win easily, as they routinely do these days, there is a lot of money left over. That’s mischief waiting to happen. So now we have our elected officials living like kings, traveling the world and entertaining their buddies for free, using those leftover funds to pay their cronies and relatives big salaries for jobs related to their imaginary campaign organizations. All this behavior is merely the fruit of the poison tree.
Read Graham's letter by clicking here.Read Walters' column by clicking here.
The governor has signed a bill -- SB 719 -- that will expand the governing board of the Valley's air district. It's good news for those of us who breathe.
The measure will add two appointed members -- a doctor with expertise in the health impacts of out bad air, and a scientist. Both must live in the eight county San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. The board will be further expanded with the addition of two more representatives from large cities. The current makeup of the board is eight county supervisors and three rotating seats shared by all the cities, large and small, in the district.
The move was needed because the current structure means a board too closely allied to the status quo. The Valley has seen important improvements in air quality, but our air is still among the dirtiest in the nation. The improvements we've seen have too often come because outside groups have sued the district to force its hand.
The change doesn't guarantee, by itself, more rapid progress, but at least the air district board will be hearing from experts and representatives of the largest population centers more often. That can't hurt.
The richest tribes want more money, while smaller tribes, horse-racing interests and others wanting to block lucrative gambling contracts are trying to get referendums on February ballot. In my column today, I talk about the clash among those getting rich -- and poor -- off gambling in California.
The compacts approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would expand gambling in the state by 30%, adding 17,000 slot machines to the inventory of four Southern California tribes. To get an idea of how many slots we're talking about, consider that the largest casinos in Las Vegas have in the range of 3,000 slot machines. These are the tribes that will benefit from the compacts: the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.
We'll never solve the nation's immigration problems by allowing the debate over solutions to be dominated by those on the extremes of both the left and the right. Compromise is the key, but so far compromise legislation has been picked apart by the fringes on both ends of the political spectrum.
The Fresno Bee argues in an editorial today that it's time for action. Here are three things that must be in a reform package: Stronger border security; a fair guest-worker program that provides industries a reliable labor pool; an opportunity for those already here to earn legal residency if they meet strict requirements.
Here's more from the editorial: "Without a comprehensive solution, immigration policy is left to sway in the winds of the politics of the moment: the latest enforcement strategy by the administration or court ruling on immigrant rights. Then we hear the talk show hosts shouting their simplistic solutions: Just enforce the law or build a fence, and railing against "amnesty." Meanwhile, a de facto amnesty occurs: Nothing is done and thousands more immigrants pour across borders, legally and otherwise."
One of our frequent correspondents to Opinion Talk says he doesn't think that just putting on a ribbon really accomplishes anything. Here is an opportunity to go beyond pink ribbons and raise money for a very good cause. It's called "The Pink Show," and it's tonight from 5-8:30 p.m. at Chris Sorensen's Studio and Gallery, 2223 S. Van Ness in downtown Fresno. It's free to get in, and you’ll find an art show and sale, silent auction, wine tasting, drawing for a pink appliance and other raffle prizes. For $20, you can get an 18 by 24 commemorative art poster by Bebe Long, whose work I just love.
Another of my favorite people exhibiting her artwork is the wonderful Karlene Ryan, who has a selfless ministry working with grieving parents. All the proceeds from this event will benefit The Debbi Soligian Breast Education Awareness Fund. Debbi was a gorgeous and glorious woman, a treasured friend and an artist at The Bee for 17 years. She died at age 40 of breast cancer. I have her artwork hanging in three rooms of my house and in my office, so I think of her every single day.
Here are some of the other artists in the show: Margaret Hudson, Dora Mora, Linda Lloyd Pitts, Richard Silva, Cris Loyd, Anita Stoll, Bob Gifford, Bill Radondo, Amy Kohl, Kathy Gillis, Nick Chapman, Aimee Ostergaard, Stacey Williams, Larissa Long, Brad Polzin, Rattanan Moerdyk, Marcos Dorodo, Diane Abbott, Ron Covert, Wilkie Kwok, Keith Seaman, Michael Ramirez, George Fetick, Cynthia Chapman Manuszak.
 I have many pet peeves, but one that keeps getting in my craw this year is the claim that Al Gore won an Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth." He did not win -- the two Oscars that the documentary received went to Melissa Etheridge for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song and director Davis Guggenheim for Best Documentary.
I know, Al Gore was up there on the stage next to Guggenheim holding the little gold man. I saw him too. But he is not listed anywhere that I can find as a winner.
In the days following the Academy Awards, I refused to use any of the jokes by comedians that referred to Gore winning an Oscar because it just wasn't true.
I don't say that to diminish what Gore has done to raise awareness of global warming. According to an NPR article, the film grew out of a slideshow presentation about the problem of global warming that the former vice president has given over the years. His companion book of the same name was released around the same time as the movie and has been on the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list since June 2006. His efforts go far beyond simply narrating a movie.
But he didn't win the Oscar.
And now that he's gone and won the Nobel Peace Prize, I'm going to have to get riled up about this all over again.
Mom was right -- again. It's good to write those thank-you notes. Now we hear that it just might make a difference in your college entrance.
Clever thank-you notes have become the latest way to get make a good impression on the university of your dreams. A story in yesterday's New York Times calls thank-you notes the new frontier for students who are courting admissions officers.
The story tells about one note that came with personalized M & Ms candies to match Lehigh University’s school colors. Of course, the applicant’s name was inscribed on the candy. She thanked officials for her interview, adding, “Keep me on the tip of your tongue when reviewing applications.” (That young woman needs to be studying public relations.)
Apparently, universities are getting more thank-you notes than ever, sometimes dozens in a day. And the folks at the schools say they appreciate them.
The kids I talk to don't understand why a written (not e-mailed) note is necessary, when they've said thanks in person. Of course, it's not necessary. It's just nice, it shows you've been properly brought up and sets you apart from people who are too lazy to do it. And besides, you get to write on that cool paper. Choosing notecard paper is half the fun.
Read the full story by clicking here.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has passed the controversial resolution calling on the U.S. government to officially acknowledge that the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century was, in fact, genocide. We editorialized on the subject today.
Government officials and private citizens alike in Turkey went ballistic. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington. The White House and the State Department did the collective hand-wringing thing. All perfectly predictable.
Critics of the non-binding resolution say it will hurt relations with Turkey, an important ally in the volatile Middle East. Perhaps. But it's also the right thing to do. The historical facts of the genocide are indisputable. Turkey would be much better off -- and stand a much better chance of getting into the European Union, which it very much desires -- if it acknowledged a dreadful period in its past and began to move on.
But clearly, it's as hard for countries to do that as it is for individuals.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer, who had let the rumors run about his possible candidacy for mayor next year, on Thursday issued a news release that says he will not be a candidate to succeed Mayor Alan Autry. Dyer had been coy about his plans in recent weeks and I wrote about it in an Opinion Talk blog posting Wednesday.
This is from today's Fresnobee.com update on the issue: "Dyer said he wants to continue to focus on law enforcement, including his role as president of the California Police Chiefs Association starting next year, according to a news release."
Dyer had ample opportunity recently to end the speculation about his candidacy, but chose not to do so. The latest chance was Friday during an interview by Valley Press host Jim Tucker on his show on Valley Public Television. After the chief ducked the question, I posted the blog item about him being conflicted on the issue. On Thursday, Dyer responded in the news release issued by his office.
Dyer is immensely popular and would have immediately moved into the favorite's role had he decided to run for mayor. Now the race is wide open. The announced candidates for mayor are current City Council Members Jerry Duncan and Mike Dages, and former Council Member Tom Boyajian. Other possible candidates include Council Member Henry T. Perea and Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Regional Jobs Initiative.
Autry is finishing his second term and can't run again because of term limits.
Update: This is The Bee's Friday story on the chief's announcement.
Here is the text of the chief's news conference:
CHIEF DYER MAYORAL ANNOUNCEMENT
I would like to thank the hundreds of people over the last several months who have encouraged me to run for Mayor of the City of Fresno as well as those who have encouraged me to remain as police chief. The compliments are well received and are a reflection of the incredible work done by my officers and staff at the Fresno Police Department.
The next few years promise to be challenging times for law enforcement and it is imperative that strong leadership be in place to address these challenges locally and throughout the state.
As such, I plan on continuing in my role as police chief into the next administration and fulfilling my role as the President of the California Police Chiefs Association in 2008; giving the Valley a true voice as I set the agenda for one of the most influential and recognized law enforcement associations in the nation. I will continue do all I can to keep our community safe, to influence the future of policing at the state and national level and to ensure each of the Mayoral and Council candidates fully understands the importance of making the safety of our citizens a top priority.
There is much work left to be done in terms of public safety and I look forward to working with the next Mayor and Council to ensure this work is accomplished.
Please contact my Public Information Officer Jeff Cardinale at 621-2486 or 978-9687 (cell) with any media inquiries.
 Questioning begins today for potential jurors in a case pitting former women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein against Fresno State for the trial of her sexual discrimination lawsuit against the university.
Today's paper includes an editorial cartoon by Bee artist SW Parra, giving his take on the university's handling of Title IX, the 1972 legislation banning discrimination based on gender in institutions receiving federal money.
An Oct. 7 article by George Hostetter said that lawyers for Johnson-Klein say they plan to make such claims of gender inequity a key part of their case. Similar claims also are expected to be part of a discrimination lawsuit filed by former associate athletic director Diane Milutinovich, whose trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 19.
Gender-equity issues were pivotal in the recent trial of a discrimination lawsuit filed by former Bulldogs volleyball coach Lindy Vivas. A jury found the university had discriminated against Vivas in part for her gender-equity advocacy, and awarded her $5.85 million. The university is seeking a new trial.
Most of us baby boomers were the beneficiaries of cheap higher education, funded by the taxpayers under the premise that we'd return that investment many times by getting productive jobs, paying lots of taxes and helping make California a great state. But somewhere along the line, we failed the next generation by getting greedy and not wanting to pay for higher education for succeeding generations.
No wonder the great Golden State is no longer great. Fees and tuition at community colleges, the California State University system and the University of California have steadily risen, locking out more and more students. That means they won't get the high-paying jobs that they should have, won't be paying taxes and then we'll complain that government services aren't what they once were in California.
Now we have Treasurer Bill Lockyer actually suggesting that all state support of the UC system should be eliminated, saving $7 billion a year, What a really, really, really dumb idea.
State spending on prisons is on a steep rise and state spending on higher education is on a steep decline. Lockyer and those who think like him don't seem to see the connection.
 Last Friday in the final few seconds of Valley Press on the local PBS station, program host Jim Tucker switched the topic from gang prevention to whether Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer will run for mayor next year. Dyer didn't answer the question, and instead ran out the clock like he was an NFL quarterback protecting a lead as the time ticked away.
All Tucker could get out of Dyer was that the Channel 18 show wasn't the appropriate forum to talk about his political plans. That may have been a victory of sorts for the chief, but it left the rest of us speculating about Dyer's intentions.
If he isn't going to run next year, he could have quickly put the rumors to rest by telling Tucker he is not a candidate for mayor. Simple, straightforward, done.
But he didn't and we now must assume that Dyer likes the talk of him being a possible candidate to succeed Mayor Alan Autry. Depending on who you talk to, Dyer has offered different responses in recent weeks to the question of whether he is running for mayor. Even Autry says Dyer is confusing people by giving "three answers" to the big question: Yes, no and maybe.
If Dyer decided to run for mayor, he would be a big early favorite. Some think he is so popular that he could win the race in the June primary, even with a crowded field. Dyer is like a rock star at public events in Fresno, with residents gushing over him.
The chief has charisma that the other candidates can only dream of. It doesn't hurt that he is very comfortable when the cameras are rolling. The running joke around The Bee newsroom is that a podium magically springs up at major crime scenes and in a blink of the eye Dyer is addressing the media. The guy's good.
Dyer's coyness about his political plans may come from him being truly conflicted about running for mayor. Another view is that he probably would have to take a leave of absence to run and the longer he delays an announcement, the longer he can collect a paycheck. The chief isn't letting us in on the secret -- at least right now.
The only certain thing is that Dyer has the power to clear the air about his political plans. He hasn't and that must mean something.
I have compassion for people who try to get kids to eat breakfast. When we have kids in the house, one of the first things I give them is a stack of research off the Web on the power of breakfast to improve school performance. Most teenagers I’ve met have little interest in eating in the morning, and it’s a really push to get something down them. It’s a problem for the schools, too, when kids come to school with empty tanks. Take a look at Tuesday’s editorial by clicking here.
I have a simple theory: Whatever it takes. We get our teenagers any breakfast food they like -- things that they can eat in the car if necessary, put in a zip-loc to eat later at the break. Smoothies are my secret weapon. You can pile the nutrition in there – bananas, berries, fruit juice, nuts, milk, protein powder, oatmeal, flaxseed. (Never let them see what’s going in the blender!) They can be made in just about any flavor and the kids can sip them while getting ready or drink it down on the way to school in commuter cups.
The impact of breakfast on school performance is well known among educators. That’s why there’s a lot of government money set aside for schools to institute breakfast programs, particularly valuable for children from low-income households. It gives kids more energy in the morning, helps them focus, makes them less irritable. What’s not to like? I was amused by one official who said the big problem was they couldn’t get the kids to go into the cafeteria to eat. Let’s think a minute – OK, so go outside the cafeteria. Put snacks on the buses. Sliced oranges and energy drinks can be iced in tubs on the playground -- it works for the soccer coaches. Set up a smoothie bar with a luau theme and create a little party atmosphere. (Even little girls like umbrellas in their drinks.) This should not be that hard. Another administrator thought the teachers would complain because it takes away from the teaching time. It seems a whole lot smarter to invest a few minutes in feeding the kids in exchange for fewer classroom management issues later in the day. I’m not a teacher, but somehow I think that would be a wash timewise.
So, anybody got any ideas for getting kids to eat breakfast? Sounds like the schools need some ideas for their breakfast programs. Let’s put together your top 10 list. Share!
 Dear Abby, dispenser of advice since 1956, is on the record saying she supports same-sex marriage.
Jeanne Phillips, who took over the column when the original "Abby," her mother, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's five years ago, is being honored this week by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national advocacy group that provides support for gay people and their families. According to an Associated Press article, the original Abby, Phillips' mother, Pauline, helped put PFLAG on the map in 1984 when she first referred a distraught parent to the organization.
In other news from the war against homophobia, "Grey’s Anatomy" actor T.R. Knight has recorded a public service announcement in an attempt to encourage other gay people to ‘come out.’
Knight, who came out last year after a former co-star used an anti-gay slur during an on-set altercation, has teamed up with The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to shoot a public service announcement in recognition of National Coming Out Day Thursday. The 20-second spot shows Knight telling audiences how important it is to respect their gay family and friends.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1987 Gay and Lesbian March on Washington and the unfurling of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall.
The governor and the Legislature can't get together on a bond to begin addressing California's growing water crisis. That probably means two competing ballot measures next year, with a strong possibility that voters will reject both, and leave us with an insupportable status quo. Here's our editorial on the issue published today.
The governor and Republicans in the Legislature insist that new dams be a part of the solution. Democrats who control the Legislature say the emphasis should be on conservation and underground storage. The Bee thinks all of them are right, and that all three of those measures should be part of a comprehensive water plan.
But in Sacramento we get gridlock. That's hardly a surprise. The state is becoming increasingly ungovernable. The Golden State has lost its luster, and generations to come are not likely to remember today's so-called "leaders" -- or the rest of us, who elected them -- very fondly.
OK, now we're talking. The Journalism Center on Children and Families just sent me an e-mail about Winnie Hu of the New York Times, who's reporting in today's paper that next month, the Union City school district will give out 300 iPods at its schools as part of a $130,000 experiment in one of New Jersey's poorest urban school systems. I like these ideas for pilot programs -- they’re creative, innovative and exciting to kids. This is a program worth watching in the Valley, since teaching English is job one for us. Passing out iPods loaded up with music to use during English class could be a fun tool to engage the students, especially low-income students who are not likely to have the money for such luxuries.
From the Journalism Center’s summary:
The portable digital players are viewed as a way to help bilingual students with limited English ability sharpen their vocabulary and grammar by singing along to popular songs. A handful of other districts in the state, including the ones in Perth Amboy and South Brunswick, have started their own iPod programs in the last year, and the project has drawn the attention of educators from Westchester County to Monrovia, Calif. The spread of iPods into classrooms comes at a time when many school districts across the country have outlawed the portable players from their buildings — along with cellphones and DVD players — because they pose a distraction, or worse, to students. In some cases, students have been caught cheating on tests by loading answers, mathematical formulas and notes onto their iPods.
Take a look at the full story by clicking here
But some schools are trying to co-opt the devices for educational purposes. Pedro Noguera, a sociology professor at New York University who studies urban schools, said that more districts were using new technologies like iPods to connect with students. For instance, he said, teachers have designed video games around history lessons and assigned students to re-enact novels and plays on YouTube."You know the No. 1 complaint about school is that it’s boring because the traditional way it’s taught relies on passive learning," Mr. Noguera said. "It's not interactive enough."
The Big Fresno Fair is really getting some nice reviews this year. It is good to see the fair officials thinking bigger, better, greener, cleaner every year. Check out our editorial on the topic by clicking here. One of my colleagues suggests it's approaching a Disneyland-type experience. That's saying a whole lot for a county fair, but I believe high aspirations work. I'm usually a traditionalist, heading straight for the art and home arts buildings, shish kebab sandwiches and cinnamon rolls, though I posed for a picture with the python one year on a double-dog dare from my exchange students.
I haven't made it out there yet this year, so give me your top two -- or top 10 if you're a real fan -- things that I should do/eat/see at the fair.
 Fresno Bee artist SW Parra has drawn his first editorial cartoon on the mayor's race, and by my way of thinking, that has kicked off the campaign to succeed Alan Autry next year. Sure, Bee columnists have weighed in on the upcoming campaign for months and some candidates have even formally announced. But when the editorial cartoonists start making fun of the candidates, then it's game on.
Parra's cartoon in today's Bee suggests the mayor's campaign is much like the carnival midway at the Big Fresno Fair. I can figure out some of the candidates Parra has drawn and I'm guessing on others. Can you name the candidates in the cartoon?
By the way, Council Members Mike Dages, Jerry Duncan and Tom Boyajian have announced their campaigns for mayor. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, Council Member Henry T. Perea and Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Regional Jobs Initiative, are toying with the idea of running. There probably will be others.
The primary election is next June and the runoff for mayor is next November if no candidate gets a majority of votes in the primary.
The rampaging American market for hot sauces and other fiery concoctions may have less to do with a growing cosmopolitan affinity for wild new flavors than it has to do with the aging of the Baby Boom generation. A Boston Globe story suggests that as boomers age, and their taste buds diminish, they seek hotter and hotter goodies simply so they can taste them at all.
It makes a certain sense, though I can't speak from personal experience. I've always been a pepper belly, from a family of pepper bellies. I do know that in recent years, I've been buying the large restaurant-size bottles of Tabasco sauce and other condiments, and having to replace them more often.
The Globe story quotes scientists who suggest that it isn't just about hot stuff, either. Sharper, more flavorful cheeses and sweeter sweets are also growing in popularity.
It all fits. There's never been a generation born with a greater sense of entitlement than mine (unless it's one of the subsequent generations). We want what we want, we want it now, and we expect the marketplace to provide it. Pass the chipotle salsa, please.
In Sunday's Vision section, columnist Susan Reimer disses the think pink campaign washing over October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She believes all these commercial tie-ins with breast cancer fund-raising trivializes the significance of a disease women dread. I respectfully disagree. I find this masterful marketing, and I marvel at America’s willingness to come together around a single issue. The only thing that bothers me is that so much of the money is being earmarked for research and I hope there is a fair balance for access. The best research in the world won’t help if women cannot pay for all this great treatment. I hope enough money is going to provide care for women without health insurance.
In California, an organization called Every Woman Counts provides free breast exams and mammograms for low-income, uninsured or underinsured women age 40 and older who qualify. Call (800) 511-2300 today to see if you qualify. This is not well publicized, so spread the word.
If you need more information for yourself or a loved one, contact the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Central Valley Affiliate, 5730 N. First St., Suite 105; Fresno, CA 93710; 229-4255; e-mail, info@komen-fresno.org. or the American Cancer Society at 2222 W. Shaw Ave., Suite 201, Fresno, CA 93711; 451-0722
Downtown Fresno was on display recently, when visitors were invited to take the Billion Dollar Tour. The bus tour highlighted the investment -- actually about $1.6 billion -- that's taken place in Fresno in recent years. About 900 people showed up, and they got an eyeful of new construction and renovation.
Fresno's downtown has never been as bad as some would have us believe. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone from the north end of town tell me how downtown is riddled with crime, dead bodies, prostitutes, gang members and drug addicts. Then they brag about how they haven't been downtown in (fill in the number) years.
I know better. I work downtown. I write about downtown (most recently this column Sunday on the bus tour). Downtown needs plenty of help, it's true. But a great deal is going on, with more to come. See it for yourself.
The Valley has seen some improvements in air quality in recent years, as awareness of the problem and some new regulatory efforts have kicked in. But, as we say in an editorial Sunday, the hard part is still ahead of us.
The Valley's violations of federal air standards have fallen in frequency by about 50% in the past five years. That's great news, but we still rank at or near the top nationally for bad air.
The biggest single contributor to dirty air is still the millions of vehicles we drive. Getting Californians -- or Americans, for that matter -- out of their cars is a huge task. And even if people were ready to cut the cord with the private vehicle, there aren't sufficient alternatives to take its place. It may take a catastrophe, or combination of catastrophes -- such as devastating economic losses from a combination of dirty air and hideously expensive fuel -- to get us to use buses, trains, bicycles and foot power.
My column last week pushing the Fresno Unified School District to begin moving on reconstructing the swimming pools and running tracks at Fresno High School and Bullard High School is beginning to get some action. The district's ad hoc advisory committee on facilities met last week and members are on much the same track that I suggested: Do the no-brainer stuff first and at the same time put together a master plan for long-term projects.
I also proposed that the city of Fresno get involved in the facilities debate, including matching district dollars with dollars in the construction projects. The swimming pools and running tracks, for example, could be used by the community during non-school hours. We don't have enough parks in Fresno and it makes sense to use school grounds as part of the city's green space.
Officials in Mayor Alan Autry's office said they have been trying to partner with the school district, but their initial efforts were rebuffed. Superintendent Michael Hanson said he is not sure what they are talking about, but would be thrilled to have the city participate with the district in restoring the facilities and making them available for public use.
After my column ran last week, city officials asked to meet with the district's facilities committee to discuss partnering with the school system.
A letter writer in today's Bee, Harold Seymour, referred to my column and said this is the perfect opportunity to fix school facilities. Seymour said he is part of the facilities improvement group at Bullard High School.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox was in California's San Joaquin Valley telling business leaders that the United States and Mexico must work together to strengthen both nations' economies. He said immigrant workers help the U.S., and many Americans don't realize the positive impact they make.
"We are friends, neighbors and partners, the United States and Mexico," Fox said. He told a business conference in Visalia on Friday that America's economy and society are strengthened by immigrant workers, according to The Fresno Bee's Jeff St. John. Fox also said immigrant workers "have within themselves the spirit, the values of the founding fathers of this nation."
Fox spoke at the BizTalk '07 event at the Visalia Convention Center. More than 800 people heard the former Mexican president give his take on a variety of issues.
"We must construct together a bright future ... not building walls, but building bridges, building friendships," he said.
Mexico spends about $20 billion a year on goods and services from the United States, according to Fox.
His wife, Marta Sahagun de Fox, who also appeared with the former president, said children of illegal immigrants should be offered health care, education and other services as a matter of human rights, according to The Bee story.
Here's The Bee Editorial Board's position on immigration reform.
The Legislature is in a special session now to discuss water and health care. There's not much movement on health care and now it appears that water issues also will not be resolved any time soon.
The biggest hurdle is philosophical. Environmentalists and many Democrats say they will not support dam construction and business interests and many Republicans say a water package without dams will not get the support it needs.
So there we are -- stuck between two hardened positions, and that will kill any possibility of a resolution of this issue. The Fresno Bee's editorial board believes in compromise on water. We advocate three parts to any water solution: Conservation, underground storage and surface storage (dams).
Today's editorial sizes up the politics of the issue as it now stands. Earlier in the week, we also laid out our compromise solution on water in an editorial.
We write a lot about water because we're running out of it and the Legislature seems incapable of acting, even during this growing crisis.
You want to light up the nightlife in downtown Fresno? Toronto's trying to do the same thing by launching an immense dance club that has eight bars, holds 2,800 people and covers four floors. The newspaper says Toronto's never seen anything like this. Take a look at these hot new digs, by clicking here. Circa is the city's latest risky addition to the master plan for the entertainment district! What do you think? Would this please that fickle club-dancing crowd? And for how long?
I think a scaled-down version would be an interesting addition to the choices in Fresno but only if there was a floor for the 15-18 crowd; another section for the 18-and over nondrinking crowd and another floor for the over-21 and drinking crowd.
 A news brief in today's paper only whetted my appetite:
Girl swims in China river with hands, feet bound
A father tied his 10-year-old daughter's hands and feet and watched her swim in a chilly southern China river for three hours in a task he said Thursday would help the girl achieve her dream of swimming across the English Channel.
Huang Li swam more than a mile in the Xiang River on Tuesday, traveling with the current, her father said. The girl swam by moving like a dolphin and would sometimes paddle with her bound hands.
While our online version of the story provided more details, I still don't get this.
I think in our country someone would have called the police or child protective services to report a case of child abuse. Or do normal perceptions of child abuse -- and basic common sense -- go out the window when a child is being trained to compete athletically?
A Duluth, Minn., jury sent a message to people who download music: If you break the law when you do it, it could cost you big money.The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay $222,000 for downloading and sharing music online that she didn't pay for.
This has been an issue that has been bubbling out there for awhile, but most donwloaders didn't take copyright laws seriously. Will they now?
John Zelezny, a media law attorney, wrote this commentary for our Vision section in June predicting just what happened in Minnesota.
The latest case was the first lawsuit brought by the record companies in an attempt to block illegal file sharing, which has substantially cut into their profits. Technology allows people to easily download music to their computers. Why should they buy it?
It violates copyright laws, of course, but that legal hurdle hasn't stopped people from illegally downloading music. The attorney for the woman, a single mother, says she will have her paycheck garnished for the rest of her life for to pay the judgment.
The music industry says more prosecutions are coming. Are you next?
So do you think this was a fair verdict? Are the music companies being greedy or just trying to protect a business that is going south because of technology?
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters will be the keynote speaker at a program discussing "Politics and the Digital Age." Walters will speak at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Roger Tatarian Symposium in the Satellite Student Union at California State University, Fresno. The sessions are open to the public.
The program will begin at 9 a.m. when Fresno State President John Welty welcomes participants to this year's Tatarian Symposium. A panel discussion on "New Media and the Digital Age" will run from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. I'm part of the panel, which also wil include Fresno State professors David Schecter and Sally Tannenbaum and Christine Park of ABC 30 Action News. Dr. Diane Blair, an associate professor at Fresno State, will be the panel's moderator.
If you're interested in California government and politics, don't miss Walters' speech. He has been in the journalism business for 47 years and is the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to explaining how politics and public policy intersect in the Golden State. Local angle: Dan was once the editor of the Hanford Sentinel. His column now appears in more than 50 newspapers.
Roger Tatarian, who died in 1995, was one of the most respected journalists in this country. He covered news events around the world and ultimately became editor in chief of United Press International. He retired in 1972 and began teaching journalism at Fresno State. He later wrote a column for The Bee and I was fortunate to be mentored by Roger during the years that he wrote his weekly commentaries. We would have coffee each work day morning in The Bee's cafeteria, and he would offer advice and read drafts of my political stories. Sometimes he would ask me to read his column and give my take on his commentary for that week. Roger was a wonderful writer and knew how to connect with readers. My advice usually was, "I really like this column, Roger."
After Roger died, the annual symposium was created in his name. The Roger Tatarian Endowed Chair in Journalism was also established at the university.
The Tatarian Symposium is a great event. Check it out.
 Fifty years ago, the Russians kicked off the space race by sending the first man-made satellite into orbit around Earth. According to an article on NPR, "Sputnik's launch prompted massive American investment in education and technology that eventually landed a man on the moon."
A BBC.com article explains why Sputnik's launch sped up U.S. efforts to establish a presence in outer space:
"In 1957, the prevailing logic was that if the Soviets could launch Sputnik, they could probably launch nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United Sates."
I wasn't around for Sputnik's launch, but I was alive when the U.S. space program first put a man on the moon in 1969. But I'm still not old enough to have any memories from that historic moment.
If you remember either the Sputnik launch or the moon landing, what are your memories? And do you think it's still important for us to continue space exploration today?
(Photo: Associated Press file)
Finding useful compromises in California's endless water wars has always been a tough proposition. But several events are colliding to make such a compromise more important now than it's ever been. That's the subject of our editorial today.
Between climate change and the specter of more or less permanent drought, a growing population and increased demands for water and a federal judge shutting down pumping in the critical Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the pressure on California's massive and complex water system has never been greater.
The Bee has always held that a combination of surface storage (new dams), increased use of underground storage (water banking) and a dramatic boost in conservation and efficient reuse of water is the overall answer for the long term. But powerful forces are arrayed against each of those solutions, and compromise seems very distant. But it's essential, or we face the prospect of the Golden State literally drying up.
While discussing American culture with a group of foreign exchange students this weekend, a few said they were uncomfortable with all this hugging we do, especially when they are swooped up by people they barely know. (A strange transformation happens during the exchange year -- they will all love this custom by the time they leave in June!)
Judging by the news this week, they are not the only ones who don't like casual hugs. Two middle schools, Fossil Hill in Texas and at Percy Julian Middle School In Oak Park, Ill., both have bans on hugging. According to the Associated Press, Principal Victoria Sharts banned hugging among the suburban Chicago school's 860 students anywhere inside the building. She said students were forming "hug lines" that made them late for classes and crowded the hallways. "Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls," Sharts said.
My husband, Rich, and I took 21 foreign students to Camp Sierra near Big Creek for an overnight camping trip last weekend. That was such fun. They call this camp the "Best-Kept Secret in California." That might be true. (Until now!) I love it there. It's a beautiful change of scenery, reasonably priced and a chance to spend time with our friends who are also volunteers, and, of course, to enjoy all the teenagers.
We take the students away from Fresno a couple of times every year to talk about their experiences so far in America and to prepare them for what's ahead. It is always interesting to hear their take on American life after just 2 months here. Some of the answers were hilarious. For example, one girl was amazed that our pets are treated like people -- like members of the family, in fact. She was stunned that her host family talks to the dog -- even asks her questions. (I have no problem with that!) Others told stories of having to watch where they put food because the pets will jump on the kitchen counters, the kitchen table or get their candy out of sacks in the bedroom! Any food left unattended is in danger of pet maruaders in many households.
The Bush administration, like administrations before it, may duck this issue because of the strategic importance of Turkey, but the House of Representatives is about to tell the truth by passing a resolution that says there was a genocide committed on the Armenian people in the first part of the 20th century.
Here is The Fresno Bee's editorial urging the House to moved ahead on this issue. Here it is in a nutshell: There was an Armenian genocide and to deny it is to deny the facts.
And these are the facts: A genocide occurred between 1915 and 1923 when the Ottoman Empire systematically killed 1.5 million Armenians.
 I watched a really good movie over the weekend with my mom and youngest daughter. "Akeelah and the Bee" is about an 11-year-old girl from a lower-income school in south Los Angeles who makes it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
I enjoy movies like that, underdog overcoming the odds, especially when it involves teachers. Imagine rooting for an academic achievement the way we root for athletic accomplishments! As we were watching the movie, every time the spelling judge would say "That is correct," Katie would squeal and clap her hands.
What's your favorite inspirational movie?
The state's air board is getting much more aggressive, which is good news for those of us who breathe. Now we hope the San Joaquin Valley air district will do the same. That's the focus of our editorial today.
The Valley air district has been constrained by a governing board that is more secure with the status quo than with bold moves to clean up the air. The board is dominated by supervisors from the eight counties in the district. Their main preoccupation seems to be protecting the economic interests of the ag and business industries that they represent.
But there's another economic interest here: the $3 billion plus that dirty air costs Valley residents each year in added health costs.
The best news in the current fight for clean air would be to hear the governor has signed Senate Bill 719, which would add urban representatives to the air board, along with scientific and medical experts from the Valley. The district needs shaking up, and that might do the trick.
Unless you want to find yourself on "Supernanny" in a few years, America's pediatricians say don't let the children watch TV more than two hours a day.
The latest edition of the pediatricians' professional journal reports on a study that recommends no TV for children under 2 and no more than two hours of daily media exposure over 2. Or else -- you can expect to hassle with behavior, sleep and attention problems, fewer social skills.
Having a TV in the child's room also is a bad idea. In the study, 41% of children had a television in their bedroom at age 5.5. Having a television in the bedroom was associated with sleep problems and less emotional reactivity at age 5.5.
If you are already in the habit of allowing too much TV for the children -- it's not too late to change. The study said that early exposure to television for more than two hours a day, which decreased over time, did not cause behavior or social problems.
UC Berkeley won the latest round in the Battle of the Stadium Tree-sitters yesterday, when a judge ordered the arborial protestors to come down or face jail time and fines. Here'[s the San Francisco Chronicle's story.
The university is planning upgrades on the classic Memorial Stadium, at the east end of the campus. The stadium itself needs some serious seismic retrofit, and the university wants to add a high-tech athletic performance center -- we used to call them training rooms -- to house a number of varsity sports on campus.
In order to do that, several dozen oak trees would have to be cut down, and that's why the tree-huggers have occupied them. The trees aren't old growth. They were planted when the stadium was built in the 1920s.
Some Cal alumni are angry because they believe the protest has simply fueled age-old jokes about the People's Republic of Berserkeley, and the like. I don't agree. I think this story is quintessentially Berkeley. Where else would environmental protesters living in trees get to gaze over the stadium's rim and watch the No. 3 football team in the nation play?
Here's an idea that ought to be strangled in the crib: The state treasurer has suggested that one way to ease California's chronic budget shortages is to cut off all state support for the University of California. Here's the story.
That such a notion even surfaces is a measure of how far we've fallen from the days when the state's leaders and voters understood that investing in higher education was the engine that drove the Golden State's economy.
They understood that each dollar spent on educating the state's young people would be returned many times over to the state treasury, in increased taxes paid by graduates whose incomes rose because of their education, and in revenue from the wealth created by graduates whose education in a world-class university enabled them to spawn all manner of entrepreneurial enterprises.
Now our focus is so narrow as to make us blind. There is a difference between "spending" and "investment." We once understood that. No longer.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer says he's just throwing ideas out there. Well, take this one and throw it away.
 All you need to know about Britney Spears as a mother is that a judge believes that her two children are better off with Kevin Federline, the deadbeat from Fresno.
It's right here in this news story.
A judge in Los Angeles today ruled that Britney must turn over her two children to her former husband. My reaction is poor kids -- Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, They don't deserve the mess they've been born into.
There is no truth to the rumor that I'm posting this item as a cheap trick to drive traffic to our Opinion Talk blog. If I were doing that I'd also mention Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and the other celebrity names that are the most searched on Google. Oh, and this is not about Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Alba, Pamela Anderson, Jessica Simpson, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, Oprah Winfrey, Ryan Seacrest or Howard Stern.
If you have high school students, don't miss David Mas Masumoto's incredible essay titled "Giving Thanks." It appeared in Sunday's Vision section, and it is a keeper. In it, he describes the gourmet dinner his family prepared for the best teachers in his daughter's life. They scheduled this occasion during her senior year. Every family should consider following his example; every high school should distribute the link. I wish I'd thought of it myself.
Read the full story here.
 The military junta in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, seems to have effectively shut down pro-democracy protests. But what is the real story as far as how many protestors were killed?
The government is continuing to confirm only 10 deaths. But other unconfirmed reports say the casualties are much higher, possibly in the thousands.
Here's what an Associated Press article on the San Francisco Chronicle Web site has to say:
"One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. Buddhist monks floating face down in rivers.
After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing."
In our age of nonstop news reports and images coming from cell phones all over the world, it's hard to conceive a government effectively shutting down the flow of information. But in Myanmar, that's just what has happened.
This will bear watching in the days to come.
(Associated Press photo: Protesters' sandals are scattered on the ground as Myanmar soldiers look on after firing automatic weapons into a crowd in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday. Soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of anti-government demonstrators Thursday as tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's main city braved a crackdown that has drawn international appeals for restraint by the ruling military junta.)
That was an interesting post from mayoral candidate Tom Boyajian on Mindhub this morning. The former District 1 City Council representative is apparently trying to reach out to the folks who frequent the Mindhub site, which is operated by Creative Fresno.
Give the candidate points for reaching out to a potentially useful group. The Mindhubbers are a lively and eclectic bunch, with lots of energy and ideas for making Fresno a better place. That's fertile ground for a politician who can speak their language.
But Tom has a ways to go in this effort, judging from his post:
"how do i get started with this? i read directions but im unclear."
First lesson: Assume that anything you put up on the Internet will be read by every computer user on the face of the planet.
The best comment I heard during my reporting on the sad shape of Fresno's schools came from Charles Manock, a member of the citizens committee looking into facilities needs in Fresno Unified: "How your schools go is how your city goes. The schools are your curb appeal. They are your investment in your neighborhoods."
I devoted my Sunday column to the building needs in Fresno Unified. It's time to upgrade Fresno's schools -- not just in academics, but also the classrooms, athletic facilities and theaters of the school system.
It appears that the district's leadership is on board, although it will be expensive to catch up.
There's a new commitment to upgrade the facilities in Fresno's schools. Finally we have an administration and school board that says poor test scores and shabby schools are no longer acceptable.
But good intentions won't write the checks that run into the millions of dollars for deferred maintenance and outdated schools.
Glaring examples are the swimming pools and running tracks at Fresno and Bullard high schools. A community group from Bullard says it will take at least $7 million for a new pool, all-weather track, lighting and other improvements to athletic fields. Fresno and Bullard give us a glimpse at the facilities backlog that is in almost every school.
So what do athletic facilities have to do with a district that is struggling to improve student achievement? Plenty, according to the teachers and principals who are working to improve academic performance in Fresno schools.
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