Bob Woodward’s new tell-all book, Rage, reveals specific evidence that Donald Trump knew about the severity of Covid-19 (C-19) before it ravaged our nation, killing nearly […]
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Byrd Still Best for MID Board
Suzy Powell-Roos, a three-time Olympian and perhaps the most globally successful local athlete in recent memory, gives the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) a “B” or “B+” for its performance over the last two years. It’s the same grade assigned by incumbent board member Larry Byrd, whom Powell-Roos is challenging. With an overall good grade for the board, Powell-Roos would ordinarily need a galvanizing issue or issues to unseat an incumbent, […]
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Reviewing the Races for Modesto City Council, Districts 1 and 3
We’ll be providing recaps and review on the Modesto Bee local political forums, beginning here with reviews of the taped interviews for Modesto City Council Districts 1 and 3. Though city and county elected offices are theoretically non-partisan, nothing has made the contrary more evident than the Covid pandemic, when wearing or rejecting a facemask has become a political statement. And so it is that recent Modesto Bee candidates’ forums […]
Johnny Hernandez: Tejano Legend on Music, Picking Cotton, and the Pachuco Within
October 10 will mark the 25th year since Johnny Hernandez crawled out of a sweat lodge near Organ, New Mexico, free of the drugs and alcohol that had tormented him almost as long as he could remember. “Drinking was part of the ‘machismo’ idea I grew up of with, along with fighting,” said Hernandez recently. “And drugs were part of being a musician. They were always free, and still are, […]
Will McClatchy/Bee Sale to Vulture Hedge Fund Disturb the Force?
Steve Ringhoff is a freelance writer. View more of his work at A Little Long Form Journalism. Did you “sense” it, like Obi Wan recognizing the great disturbance in the force, as McClatchy, that family owned newspaper chain whose 30 newsrooms included the Modesto Bee, changed hands Friday? There was no big ceremony like a symbolic handover of a huge key as has been pictured in thousands of newspaper photos over […]
Birders Agog When (Neo)Tropic Comes to Stanislaus County
Few things excite birders more than seeing a new bird for their “Life List.” It’s even more exciting when the new bird is also a “first” for a given region, often the birder’s home county. When the bird is exceptionally rare and out of range, the excitement builds even more, so when Ralph Baker found a bird that normally occurs in the tropics and southern United States from Texas east, […]