Former Modesto City Councilman Bruce Frohman didn’t give up leadership when he left the Council. He’s always been a beacon of civic awareness. Here, Frohman sounds an urgent alarm over yet another toxic waste site in Modesto. Every time a rock is flipped over in Modesto, another toxic waste site is sitting there like a scorpion, ready to inflict pain and suffering. While serving on the Modesto City Council from 1999 […]
Occupy Modesto? Yes, Says Fred Herman
Fred Herman has been a core member of the local Progressive Movement for more decades than anyone can count. Here, Fred offers an insider’s look at Occupy Modesto. Occupy Wall Street? Sure? Occupy the nation’s capital? Absolutely. Occupy college campuses? Yes, but beware of pepper spray, billy clubs and tear gas. Occupy Modesto? The very idea once provoked giggles. Still, a small, ever-growing group of Modesto area patriots concerned with […]
Special Report: Columbia Journalism Review Claims Need for News in Modesto Far Exceeds Supply
A recent report by the Columbia Journalism Review focused on news in Modesto. It is a must read, especially those sections by former Modestans, including former Modesto Junior College Professor Laura Paull. The report sparked a great deal of commentary, all of it of keen interest to Valley citizens. Our take follows. Many Modesto Bee employees and former employees cried “foul” when the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) released a report that […]
Brad Hawn's Wedge Politics: A Mirror of the Man?
There’s a telling moment during the Modesto Bee interview with mayoral candidates Garrad Marsh and Brad Hawn. It comes when Bee publisher Eric Johnston asks Hawn whether he wrote his pension reform initiatives himself or had help from a campaign consultant. Hawn’s reaction is a study in waffling. He ultimately admits many things at once: his wife helped him, lots of people helped him, he wrote them himself. He never does […]
Target Bird: Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wood warblers are among nature’s most spectacular creations, but often go unnoticed because of their retiring natures, dense leafy habitats and constant movement. Because they can vary a lot in plumage depending on their gender and the time of the year, wood warblers can also be challenging to identify. The strategy here is fundamentally the same as described in How to Really Learn the Birds. We’ll focus on a common […]
Modesto Voters Will Have a Mail Order Mayor
Like planets following orbits ordained by gravity, Modesto elections followed the path of conventional wisdom as the November 8 turnout was a typically low twenty-two percent, incumbents won, another family dynasty was born, and mayoral candidates faced a runoff. Despite running in the newly-drawn District 3 for the first time, incumbent Dave Lopez prevailed over Todd Aaronson. Stephanie Burnside easily defeated scrappy challenger Jenny Kennoyer. Dave Cogdill Jr. brought yet […]
Businessman? Maybe I'd Rather Have a Politician
When voters learned of the financial problems of Todd Aaronson, Dave Lopez and Carmen Sabatino, the old familiar cry went up: “If he can’t manage his own money, how can we expect him to manage ours?” Like many truisms, the adage about personal financial prudence adding up to political acumen is about as reliable as an urban legend. Remember our last MBA president? Hint: He’s a multi-millionaire, once owned a baseball […]
Can Garrad Marsh Reverse Modesto's Retrograde Motion?
The conventional wisdom is that candidates for Mayor of Modesto face inevitable runoffs. That’s why insiders are saying there’s no way either Garrad Marsh or Brad Hawn, the odds-on favorites in a crowded field, will get fifty percent of Tuesday’s vote. Failing to take a stand on the Mayor’s race, the Modesto Bee has written, “we hope to see a runoff between Garrad Marsh and Brad Hawn.” While runoffs may […]
Water, Water Everywhere, Part II: The Big Thirst
In what is likely a sign of the times, farmers in Brawley are selling water for more than they can make growing a crop. Closer to home, the Modesto Irrigation District, amid the din of protesting farmers, is contemplating selling water to San Francisco, a city whose big thirst broke John Muir’s heart when it succeeded in damming (and damning) the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The City of Patterson, which has […]
Bee Walks, Citizen Talks on Modesto Mayor's Race
Leave it to the Modesto Bee to whiff on the biggest political decision in years. Yes, when it came time to step up and take a stand, the Bee took a walk. That’s what happened when The Only Game in Town wouldn’t make the call on the Modesto Mayor’s race. With three strong candidates, two of them developer-friendly, the Bee passed. Modesto’s newspaper of record then recommended a solidly pro-developer […]