Steve Ringhoff combines an attorney’s regard for law with a journalist’s need to know as he investigates local news, most especially stories involving suspicious circumstances […]
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Doug Ridenour: Councilman Runs for Mayor
First term City Councilmember Doug Ridenour has announced that he is running for Mayor of Modesto in 2020, when his present term on the council expires. The city was required by a new law to delay elections for one year to make its Election Day match other elections; if he prevails in the next election, Mr. Ridenour will have served on the council five full years when he takes office […]
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Homeless: “You’re not going to like this.”
Julia Orlando came to town Friday. Orlando is the Director of Bergen County’s Housing, Health, and Human Services Center. She achieved nationwide fame in 2017, when the New Jersey County became the first officially recognized county in the United States to end chronic homelessness, defined as including people “who have experienced homelessness for at least one year or repeatedly while struggling with a disabling condition.” With decades of experience developing […]
Josh Harder—Still Running at Warp Speed
About this time last year, insiders in California Congressional District 10 (CA-10) were predicting another win for Jeff Denham, the seemingly invincible incumbent with an eight year term of office and the overwhelming support of local farmers and business people. Denham’s win seemed so inevitable that even some of the district’s most influential Democrats were starting to show up at his fundraisers. Congressman Denham may have been leading, but his […]
WALL STREETIN’ McCLATCHY: Will debt bury the Bee?
Steve Ringhoff’s Modesto Explained presents local investigative journalism on a range of subjects. Here, Steve offers an insider’s look at the McClatchy corporation’s precarious debt load and what it might mean to the future of its newspapers. Reprinted with permission. Do the 19 or so descendants of the founders of The McClatchy Company—whose media empire includes The Modesto Bee—feel the hot breath of a hedge fund wolf on the backs […]
Homeless: Alan Davis Gets a Shower
Frank Ploof, who coordinates services at the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES), probably wasn’t thinking about fate or destiny as he was pushing Alan Davis uphill last Wednesday, but he could have been. Ploof was pushing Davis toward a rendezvous with his own brainchild. At least that’s the story according to Dean Dodd, the high-energy force behind the Cleansing Hope Shower Shuttle, a rolling marvel of a brilliantly-executed but simple […]