Every American citizen should read the Mueller Report, Part II. While Part I covers Russian interference into a presidential election, Part II centers on the behavior of the nation’s leaders subsequent to the interference, including the President of the United States. High school teachers, college professors, law enforcement officers, military personnel, attorneys, judges, elected local, state and federal officials, and business leaders throughout the nation in particular have a special […]
Edging toward homelessness: “A human catastrophe of historic dimensions…”
In a sweeping survey of housing needs in the San Joaquin Valley, the California Housing Partnership and the California Coalition for Rural Housing have concluded that the Valley needs 137,254 more affordable homes. Among the most troubling findings was that many hard-working Valley citizens live on the edge of homelessness because housing costs consume up to 70% of their incomes. Minimum wage earners are especially burdened. Of the eight Valley […]
Homeless: It’s going to get worse
Every year, the community Continuum of Care (COC) does a Point-in-Time (PIT) count of homeless people throughout California. Thus far this year, 9 of the 13 most populous regions have reported. Of those 9, 8 regions counted more homeless people than last year. Conducted last January, the Stanislaus County count set a record of 1,923 people; the previous high of 1,800 people was in 2009, during the Great Recession. Still, […]
State Water Board Rips the Irrigation District
So far, it’s been a rough year for the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID), and it’s not even half over. First, OID lost again in its case against the Oakdale Groundwater Association (OGA) when the Fresno Appellate Court denied its appeal and awarded OGA court costs and attorneys’ fees. That decision cost OID upwards of $330,000, in addition to the money it shelled out to its own attorneys. Next, OID lost […]
Acts of Human Kindness: A Rescue at MOES
Ordinarily, Modesto Police Sergeant Mike Hammond has more pressing things to do than rescue cats. But Friday, May 2, Hammond was the only uniformed person in sight when a persistent cat lover kept urging him to do something about a treed cat near the entrance gate to the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES), near Modesto’s Beard Brook Park. Hammond looked at the cat, some thirty feet up a sturdy oak […]
Josh Harder’s Bay Area Friends
April 26, the Modesto Bee ran a story about an event Josh Harder held for Bay Area supporters of he and TJ Cox. One reader wrote he could see no difference between support from the Bay Area and support from Russia. That seems to be the view of many Valley citizens. If only John Flint were around to comment. Ed. The late John Michael Flint used to say nothing could […]
David Bernhardt Wants your Water
Trump appointee Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt may already have set new standards for an administration where turnover and scandals have become norms. Bernhardt’s predecessor, Ryan Zinke, left office in December after a “resign or be fired” edict from the White House, which viewed his real estate deals with Halliburton too much even for a government where conflicts of interest are just business as usual. Given Zinke’s problems and ouster, […]
Homeless: 20+ years on the streets
Kenneth “Pops” Yarber became homeless in 1995, not long after a brain aneurysm put him in a wheelchair. Suddenly, he was forty years old and on disability. Not long afterward, the bank foreclosed on his house on 4th Street in Modesto, and he began bouncing from the streets to short stays with friends and relatives. A few years later, Pops was convicted of passing bad checks and using stolen credit […]
Homeless: Are Shelters Obsolete?
The rise in numbers of homeless shelters in the United States coincided with deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the late 1970s. During the same decade, runaway inflation—especially rising costs of living—left some members of the economy unable to keep up. The result was more homelessness. Over the years, socio-economic factors have continued to contribute to a rise in homelessness and consequent demand for more homeless shelters. Today, it’s clear […]
Water and the River: Upping the Ante
Those who attended last Tuesday’s afternoon session of the Federal Energy Regulation Comission (FERC) at Modesto’s Doubletree Hotel listened to people who use and love the Tuolumne River explain why their needs should be represented in decisions about relicensing Don Pedro Dam’s hydroelectric project, which is powered by the Tuolumne River. The chief issue for everyone was the state’s proposal to increase flows along all the major rivers of the […]