To hear the Modesto Irrigation District tell it, selling 2,000,000 gallons per day of Tuolumne River Water will have no significant impacts on the river. Stanislaus County Supervisor and Westside farmer Jim DeMartini finds such a claim hard to believe. “I just had my water allotment reduced by fifty percent,” said DeMartini recently. “I get my water from the Turlock Irrigation District (TID) and TID gets its water from the […]
Politics
From Franklin to Flint, the Library Unites America
Readers of the late John Michael Flint’s Modesto Bee Community Columns were continually impressed with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. Few could have guessed he was mostly self-taught. Flint claimed that when the movie, “Animal House,” was released it was so like his one and only year at college that he researched the script’s origins, convinced it was based on his own experience. Though his short acquaintance with […]
Did Garrad Marsh Show Jose Hernandez the Way?
Jeff Denham supporters couldn’t’ suppress their glee when Chad Condit announced his candidacy for the 19th Congressional District a few days ago. Prior to Condit’s announcement, Denham faced a challenge from former astronaut Jose Hernandez, a candidate who offered a clear and unequivocal alternative to the ultra-conservative Denham. Now, Condit has muddied the waters. “It’s very bad news for the (Democrat’s) anointed candidate,” crowed Denham campaign consultant Dave Gilliard. “Jeff […]
Fred Herman on Jose Hernandez in Modesto: Next Stop Congress?
Still elated after Garrad Marsh’s decisive victory in the Modesto Mayor’s race, Fred Herman is looking forward to another big win for Valley citizens. Remember Richard Pombo? People thought he couldn’t lose, but he did. Now, once invulnerable Jeff Denham faces serious competition from a former astronaut with deep Valley roots—Jose Hernandez (pictured left). Here’s Fred on Hernandez’s recent visit to Modesto. To cynics who suggest that all politicians are motivated only […]
Voters Say Yes to Vision and Integrity: Marsh is Mayor
Tuesday, February 7, Modesto voters repudiated the fictitious claims of Brad Hawn and his supporters by electing Garrad Marsh Mayor of Modesto. Marsh rolled to victory both on the strength of his platform—grow up, not out—and his own honor and integrity. When his opponents tried to label him a cynical and hypocritical developer, Modesto voters wouldn’t have it. Marsh’s long but low-profile dedication to smart growth, his quiet record of […]
The Perverted Poltical Calculus of the Asphalt Empire
Peggy Mensinger’s late 1980’s warning of a developer takeover of Modesto city government was realized in the 1990’s during the Dick Lang administration. That was when the City Council lowered fees on Village I developers and watched them abandon the original Village I plan with barely a murmur of protest. Since that time, the Asphalt Empire has employed most of the traditional tactics of dirty politics to maintain its hold […]
Tim Fisher Steps Up, Bee Bows Out on Fictitious Campaign Mailers
Led by former Modesto City Councilman Tim Fisher (pictured left), valley citizens stepped up to the challenge of debunking Brad Hawn’s fictitious campaign mailers this week with a flurry of letters to the editor that appeared on the Bee’s editorial pages. Fisher is an especially authoritative source because he not only served on the City Council in the mid ‘90’s, he was also on the Modesto Planning Commission in the […]
Brad Hawn's Bogus Campaign Mailers
Anyone even remotely familiar with the Village I scandal had to be stunned upon receiving Brad Hawn’s campaign mailers this week. Village I was scandalous for two reasons: One, although they promised a pedestrian-friendly planned community, developers reneged on the deal; two, Village I featured a fees shortfall approaching forty million dollars. Hawn’s mailers accuse Garrad Marsh of being a Village I developer, implying he somehow illicitly profited from Village […]
Buck Naked Mayors Gang Up on Denny Jackman
Stanislaus County’s nine mayors ganged up on Denny Jackman last Sunday. In a classic example of writing by committee, the Modesto Bee OP/ED piece of Sunday, January 8, was full of self-congratulatory pieties and vacuous platitudes but did nothing to address Jackman’s well-founded claims of dereliction of duty in planning for smart growth and farmland protection. Instead, the mayors decried, “finger pointing” and proudly touted, “a series of maps that […]
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 […]