Eric Caine | The Valley Citizen

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Eric Caine formerly taught in the Humanities Department at Merced College. He was an original Community Columnist at the Modesto Bee, and wrote for The Bee for over twelve years.

Austin Grant, Freedom Park, Modesto CA, 2024

Politics

Rules of Thumb for Local Elections in the San Joaquin Valley

Eric Caine -

October 19, 2024

The conventional wisdom for city and county elections in the San Joaquin Valley has always maintained these elections are “non-partisan.” That is a convenient fiction. Elections are always partisan to an extent, otherwise why have two or more candidates? There was a time in what now seems a fairy-tale past when moderates from both our […]

Adam Gray and John Duarte, Modesto, September 2022

Congressman Duarte can run, but he Can’t Hide

Eric Caine -

October 16, 2024

California Congressman John Duarte insists that he’s a moderate Republican willing to go against the doctrinaire commands of his party. Nonetheless, Duarte knows any candidate for office in today’s Party of Trump (PoT) who steps even a millimeter over the line of Trumpist dogma risks the fiery fury of der wannabe Fuehrer. Independence in today’s […]

Illegal Immigration in the San Joaquin Valley

Eric Caine -

October 13, 2024

Over the twelve years from 2010 until 2022, California’s total immigrant population increased about 3%. The portion of undocumented immigrants in that total declined from 28% in 2007 to 18% in 2021. That’s compared to a 14% (or 1.2 million) increase from 2000 to 2010, and a 37% (or 2.4 million) rise in the 1990s. […]

Politics

San Joaquin Valley Election: Your Vote and Mine

Eric Caine -

October 6, 2024

Flannery O’Connor’s short story, Good Country People, features a Bible salesman who steals a woman’s artificial leg, leaving her stranded in a hay loft in the family barn. That’s just the bare plotline. Like any of O’Connor’s stories in the broad Southern Gothic tradition, it has multiple layers of irony, elements of the gruesome and […]

Lynelle Loeb Solomon with homeless in Roosevelt Park, Modest, CA 2023

History

Why Homeless People Don’t Want Help, Part III: A Long and Winding Road to Nowhere

Eric Caine -

September 24, 2024

“I spent 90 minutes on my phone trying to get some help,” said the homeless man. “After 90 minutes of bouncing to a different person or group, I was told to call the first place I called. There’s no real help anywhere.” The man, call him Mike, is not alone when it comes to frustrating […]

Homeless man near 9th Street Bridge, Modesto, Ca

History

Why Homeless People don’t Want Help: Part II

Eric Caine -

September 18, 2024

Help for homeless people must always be understood within the context of a huge deficit. As we’ve noted in Part I, in every category that might be construed as providing help for homeless people, there’s a severe shortage. There are shortages of housing, shortages of treatment facilities, shortages of personnel, and shortages of political will. […]

History

Why Homeless People don’t Want Help: Part I

Eric Caine -

September 12, 2024

The first thing to understand about help for homeless people is that, for the vast majority, there isn’t any. This is a reality easily established. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, “As of the January 2023 point-in-time count, the total number of people experiencing homelessness was estimated to be 181,399, and the state had […]

History

Cities and Counties Should Call Newsom’s Bluff on Homeless Camps

Eric Caine -

August 20, 2024

Reactions to Governor Gavin Newsom’s July 25th orders to clear homeless camps covered a range from defiance in Los Angeles to promises of fines and jail time for homeless campers in Fresno. What did not happen was a sudden appearance of housing, shelters, or services for the over 180,000 California residents with no place to […]

Irrigation District and Board Member Win on Anti-SLAPP Suit

Eric Caine -

August 15, 2024

Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Member Janice Keating’s suit against the District and fellow Board Member Robert Frobose suffered what could be a mortal blow Thursday, August 15, when Stanislaus Superior Court Judge John R Mayne ruled against her claims of gender bias and sexual harassment. From the very beginning, Keating’s claims against Frobose depended […]

Marie Alvarado-Gil’s Curious Political Calculus

Eric Caine -

August 10, 2024

There’s nothing dishonorable about changing one’s mind or political affiliation. In fact, a willingness to change often implies an evidence-based intelligence. When a prominent national figure like J.D.Vance, formerly known as James Donald Bowman, went from referring to Donald Trump as a possible Hitler to becoming his running mate, it’s always possible his motivations were […]

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