We’re no longer stunned or dismayed. We’ve become so habituated to California’s vast sprawl of homelessness that encampments along the freeways, bodies on the sidewalks. […]
Main Content
Featured Story
Trinitas Bankruptcy: We should have Listened
Trinitas Partners recent declaration of bankruptcy is likely just the beginning of widespread economic devastation throughout the San Joaquin Valley. No one saw it coming more clearly than the pseudonymous author of On the Public Record (OtPR), who wrote nine years ago, “This economic model, in which powerful outsiders come in, displace the natives and destroy local natural resources (the aquifers) to provide cheap unprocessed goods to a foreign country is pure colonial […]
More Stories
Trinitas Partners Farming Declares Bankruptcy
State Rejects Groundwater Plan for Modesto Subbasin
What the Armchair Experts get Wrong about Homelessness
On Politics — The Valley Citizen’s Endorsements
Homeless: Cave Dwellers in Modesto
Frank Ploof: Practicing Humanity among the Homeless
Congressman Tom McClintock: Worst Representative Ever?
SHARE: Making a Difference for People in Need
Inside the Global Hospital: With Thanks
Homeless: Pastor Dan’s Modesto Ministry of Food and Prayer
Recent
Trinitas Partners Farming Declares Bankruptcy
Trinitas Partners, the Bay Area investment firm that bought cattle land in Stanislaus County’s eastern foothills over a decade ago and then converted it to almond orchards, has declared bankruptcy. Trinitas made headlines when it was annexed into Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) and jumped ahead of local farmers who protested that its out-of-town owners were not serious farmers, but speculators who had their eyes on OID’s abundance of surface water. […]
State Rejects Groundwater Plan for Modesto Subbasin
The late Vance Kennedy was appalled when he learned tens of thousands of groundwater-dependent acres had been planted with almond orchards in the foothills on Stanislaus County’s east side. “That groundwater is our savings bank,” said Kennedy, then a resident of the City of Modesto. “That’s our reserve in case of an extended drought.” Kennedy, an award-winning hydrologist and geologist during his career at the U.S. Geological Survey, thought the […]
What the Armchair Experts get Wrong about Homelessness
Rachel Sheffield’s widely published OP/ED piece on homelessness earlier this month offers a prime example of misunderstanding the problem. A research fellow for Heritage Foundation, Sheffield recycles the old “treatment first” tactic that has impeded efforts to manage homelessness for decades. Sheffield is correct when she argues that current versions of “housing first” tactics have failed to reduce homelessness in California; however, her explanation of why it has failed is […]
On Politics — The Valley Citizen’s Endorsements
This election year marks a crucial moment in world history. America’s attempt to create a nation based on our original motto — e pluribus unum — is under siege. While it’s easy to understand nationwide dissatisfaction with both political parties, we shouldn’t ignore that one of those parties has endorsed totalitarianism and is engaged in a slow motion coup that could upend our long effort toward equal opportunity and justice […]