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, […]
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, […]
$100,000 Donation from Pot Dispensary in Modesto Mayor’s Race
Modesto City Councilmember Kristi Ah You said Thursday that the $100,000 donation to her campaign for mayor came about, “Because I was the only one who listened and tried to help,” during a dispute between the Modesto Police Department, City Hall, and a co-owner of Phenos Cannabis Dispensary on McHenry Avenue in Modesto. The contribution is listed under the name of Angilbert Sarkis, of Oakdale, Co-owner, Phenos. Ah You said […]
Josh Harder: The Congressman Unmasked
“The Postal Service is enshrined in our Constitution. It’s what brings America together; it’s the connective fabric of America.” We caught Josh Harder without a mask yesterday, but we had to use a zoom lens. Harder has been wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing for months. Monday, he was outside and more than six feet from the nearest person when he took off his mask for a short […]
Homeless: Amputee Alan Davis is Safe Inside
Alan Davis, the wheelchair-bound double amputee who has haunted the streets of Modesto for the last few years is safe inside — at least for now. Homeless outreach worker Randy Limburg found Davis near 9th and J Streets in downtown Modesto early in July, badly soiled and ravenously hungry. It wasn’t long after Davis’s friend and advocate Frank Ploof had found him across town and taken him for a shower […]
Local Leaders to Essential Workers: “You are Expendable”
It was only a few months ago that Donald Trump thought he could ride a strong economy into a second term as President of the United States. Having avoided removal from office during an impeachment that Senator Mitch McConnell nullified before it started, Trump was confident he would cruise into the November election buoyed by a booming stock market and rising employment numbers. When news came in January that a […]
Back to School? You First!
The San Joaquin Valley, from Stockton on south to Bakersfield, is a hot spot for the spread of the Coronavirus, the persistent killer that has raged through the nation almost exactly the way public health experts said it would. In what has become typical local reasoning, many of the Valley’s elected leaders have decided the rising infection numbers mean we should reopen our schools. Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow has […]
The Wisdom of Patterson’s Pioneering PhD: Dr. Pearl Alice Marsh
With a Master’s Degree in Public Health and a PhD in Political Science, Pearl Alice Marsh is one of our most learned Valley citizens. A pioneer and trailblazer all her life, she was the first African-American female to achieve a PhD in Berkeley’s Political Science Department. She is retired in the city of Patterson after a decades-long service in the United States Congress in Washington D.C. Her father was a […]
Sue Zwahlen Announces for Mayor of Modesto
Sue Zwahlen, who ran a strong campaign for congress in California Congressional District 10 in 2018, has announced she will run for Mayor of Modesto. Zwahlen enters a crowded contest that includes incumbent Ted Brandvold, Rick Countryman of Big Valley Grace Church, Naramsen Goriel, Modesto City Councilmembers Doug Ridenour and Kristi Ah You, and Bert Lippert, Building Safety Coordinator for the City of Modesto. Zwahlen’s extensive experience as an Emergency […]