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The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
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Tom Portwood

Riding the “S”: On the Bus with Tom Portwood

January 24, 2023 By Tom Portwood 19 Comments

Modesto Arch and bus

An icy wind buffeted mushrooming rainclouds in early January as two men sat in wheelchairs by a bus stop on Oakdale Road in Modesto, waiting for the 32 bus. It was running late, all the buses that afternoon likely slowed by the atmospheric river that had swept across the northern San Joaquin Valley that same day. One of the men was clothed in jeans and bright yellow pajama tops. He […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Modesto public transit

Looking for Holiday Gifts? Try Empathy

November 27, 2022 By Tom Portwood 5 Comments

Kristin Headrick eyes

I was sitting out front by my apartment the other day, putting a book down as dusk began to gather when I saw my neighbor Sally turn the far corner on the other side of the pond, walking with her floppy-eared fluffy white dog, gripping her walker as she struggled for breath, a cannula attached to her nose, an oxygen container resting on the seat of her walker. We waved […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Homelessness and Poverty in Stanislaus County, Homelessness in Modesto, Tom Portwood

Gary Thomas: The Making of a Poet and Teacher

October 29, 2022 By Tom Portwood 1 Comment

Gary Thomas poet

The arrows I knew when I was eight Were made by my father from leftover flooring, Extra tongue-and-groove scantlings, dense planks Of oak and maple, and as he sawed them thin And whittled them round and smooth, I breathed in The redolence of the grains and his labor… Thus with tenderness and love does Turlock poet Gary Thomas portray his late father at work in the opening lines of “Ox […]

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: All the Connecting Lights by Gary Thomas, Gary Thomas poet

Linda Scheller’s Wind and Children: Heartbeats from the Classroom

August 20, 2022 By Tom Portwood Leave a Comment

Each school day for thirty-six years, the children walked into now- retired Ceres teacher Linda Scheller’s fifth-grade classroom, eager to learn but “often burdened by grinding poverty and difficult family situations at home.” “A lot of my students’ families were very, very poor,” Ms. Scheller recounted recently when interviewed about her powerful new collection of poetry, Wind and Children  (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, www.MainStreetRag.com), which focuses on her lengthy […]

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: Linda Scheller, Wind and Children

A Foot in Two Worlds and a Dream Fulfilled

June 27, 2022 By Tom Portwood 2 Comments

Coastline, Sao Jorge Island, Azores

For Modesto Realtor Lourdes Bento, it all began by a faraway sea, where time itself seemed suspended in a chuva – a fine mist – of happy childhood memories. Ms. Bento remembers the summers, watching her maternal grandfather, her Vovó, whom she adored, and the quiet sunny days she shared with him as he taught her all he knew about fishing. She remembers that he grew his own tobacco and […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Lourdes Bento

Linda Knoll: a Champion for the Arts and Education

April 21, 2022 By Tom Portwood 2 Comments

Dahlia Garden by Linda Knoll

Whether creating a beautiful homage to the great marine biologist and conservationist   Rachel Carson, or painting a loving, whimsical memorial to her cats, Modesto artist and arts advocate Linda Knoll’s canvases are always vividly colorful and arresting. But Ms. Knoll is not only an extraordinarily talented artist; she’s a gifted arts educator as well who has headed the Central California Art Association’s (CCAA) arts outreach program to Valley schools for […]

Filed Under: Arts

Dr. Richard Anderson’s Life Lessons in Citizenship

March 19, 2022 By Tom Portwood 9 Comments

Richard Anderson filming during Covid

One of the Valley’s great community leaders, Dr. Richard Anderson took an often-adventurous path in life prior to arriving as a Professor of Microbiology at Modesto Junior College in 1989. Along the way, he experienced things that helped to shape the dedicated and caring activist he is today. Not surprisingly, he has always worked fiercely as an advocate for a wide array of worthy causes – from fighting for social […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Dr. Richard Anderson Modesto, Lynn Hansen, Lynn Hansen Modesto Junior College, Modesto Homeless Documentary Project

Kate Trompetter: Dedicated Advocate for Social Change

December 30, 2021 By Tom Portwood 8 Comments

Kate Trompetter

Community advocate and Organizational and Systems Coach Kate Trompetter was ten years old when her mother gifted her with one of the more important lessons she could ever receive. “I’ve shared this story many times, but it continues to inform my life,” Ms. Trompetter recently recalled. “I had read this story in the newspaper of a child who had been born HIV-positive and this child’s family needed money. So I […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Kate Trompetter

Michael Baldwin Senior: Bringing Cops and Community Together

September 17, 2021 By Tom Portwood 4 Comments

Valley State Prison

In the late 1980s, I worked in the mayor’s office in Houston, Texas.  One of my colleagues was a police officer named Alan who worked on the mayor’s security detail. Alan and I occasionally worked together on events or projects, and in listening to him over numerous lunchtimes, I began to understand the sacrifices police officers make to protect us. Alan was as community-minded as anyone I’ve ever known. He […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: MBS Consultants, Michael Baldwin Senior

Gillian Wegener – Award-Winning Poet, Community Leader

January 19, 2021 By Tom Portwood 6 Comments

Gillian Wegener

Gillian Wegener was twice the recipient of the Dorothy Rosenberg Poetry Award (2006, 2007), and was honored as one of Stanislaus County’s Outstanding Women in 2015. She served as the City of Modesto’s Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2016. In these troubled, chaotic, and tragic times, the power of poetry to mend wounds or express our deepest feelings is there to be tapped by all, though poetry is often left […]

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: Gillian Wegener, Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center

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Off The Wire

Gimme Shelter: Mayor Karen Bass on homelessness and the California housing crisis
Gimme Shelter: Mayor Karen Bass on homelessness and the California housing crisis
Liam Dillon and Ben Oreskes of the L.A. Times interview Mayor Karen Bass about homelessness and housing problems in California.
calmatters.org
Judge Luttig Has a Warning for America
Judge Luttig Has a Warning for America
Our democracy is “under vicious, unsustainable, and unendurable attack” from within…
morningshots.thebulwark.com
Rupert Murdoch has fuelled polarisation of society, Barack Obama says
Rupert Murdoch has fuelled polarisation of society, Barack Obama says
Former US president tells Sydney audience that media coverage has helped exacerbate divisions and that we no longer have a “shared story”
www.theguardian.com
California faces catastrophic flood dangers ? and a need to invest billions in protection
California faces catastrophic flood dangers and a need to invest billions in protection
A new state plan for the Central Valley calls for spending as much as $30 billion over 30 years to prepare for the dangers.
www.latimes.com
Oakland will get millions for the ?inhumane? crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it?s not enough
Oakland will get millions for the “inhumane” crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it’s not enough
Gavin Newsom’s administration has awarded Oakland a $4.7 million grant to come up with…
www.sfchronicle.com
Alaska?s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Mary Peltola won her election by campaigning on a platform to save the state’s prized fisheries. A powerful fishing lobby is standing in her way.
www.politico.com
Jimmy Carter's final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
Jimmy Carter’s final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
One of former President Carter’s biggest hopes is wiping out an infectious parasitic disease that’s plagued humans for millennia. How close is he?
www.latimes.com
Climate Extremes Threaten California?s Central Valley Songbirds - Eos
Climate Extremes Threaten California’s Central Valley Songbirds – Eos
A “nestbox highway” in California’s Central Valley is guiding songbirds to safe nesting sites and giving scientists a peek at fledgling success in a changing climate.
eos.org
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Republican David Eastman suggested the death of child abuse victims could be a “cost savings” to wider society.
www.newsweek.com
Editorial: Newsom's drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Editorial: Newsom’s drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Gov. Gavin Newsom has effectively ended environmental regulations protecting California rivers and migratory fish by extending drought-year waivers.
www.latimes.com
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
As of Thursday, just two of the more than 70 residents of McPherson Square had been placed in permanent D.C. housing.
www.washingtonpost.com
More Building Won?t Make Housing Affordable
More Building Won’t Make Housing Affordable
America’s housing crisis has reached unfathomable proportions. But new construction isn’t enough to solve it.
newrepublic.com

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PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
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PO Box 156
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Email us at:
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