When Israel Gonzales first heard there would be help moving to a new location, he was hopeful. “I don’t want to live in the park,” he says, “it’s not safe. There are too many bad people.” But two weeks after news of the condemned building at 624 9th Street in Modesto shocked city officials enough to allocate relocation money for tenants of the vermin-infested structure, Israel Gonzales still has nowhere […]
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DJ Jaffe Skewers County’s Laura’s Law Study
People who routinely deal with Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI) friends and family overwhelmingly favor Laura’s Law, which makes it possible for a judge to order professional assistance for mentally ill people who otherwise wouldn’t accept help. Many studies have shown that Laura’s Law is both cost-effective and successful in reducing the harm caused when mentally ill people refuse assistance. Given the preponderance of such studies, Stanislaus County’s decision to hire […]
Ninth Street apartments: “Worst I’ve ever seen,” says attorney
“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members—the last, the least, the littlest.” Cardinal Roger Mahony, 1998 With fifteen years’ experience representing tenants’ rights, Joseph Tobener has seen a lot of dilapidated buildings and apartments, including the warehouse that was the location for Oakland’s notorious “Ghost Ship” fire. But when he saw the horrid conditions at the recently condemned 624 Ninth Street location, […]
Republicans in the Valley: The Red Menace
“Yet, hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race – small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor […]
Taxes, Card Tricks, and Black Magic
Though it seemed out of character, Republican support for last year’s Stanislaus County road tax, Measure L, was actually a natural evolutionary stage in a tax revolt that began in California forty years ago and has wreaked social and environmental havoc ever since. Launched by Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann in 1977 through the initiative process, Proposition 13 heralded the anti-tax revolt and Reagan Revolution that still dominate federal, state, […]
Republican Bill? A lot more than $68,461 for Ann Coulter
Modesto gadfly Emerson Drake’s gifts for political theater were never more apparent than when he presented a bill for $68,461 to Jim DeMartini at the June 13 meeting of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors. Drake was protesting using tax dollars to pay for security when the Republican Central Committee (DeMartini is committee chairman) sponsored a fundraiser featuring Ann Coulter. Lost in the whirlwind of debate and controversy over the […]
Will Denham Challengers Learn from Eggman’s Mistakes?
Ever since taking office years ago, Congressman Jeff Denham has done a poor job of representing his district. Yet, he was able to win reelection over challenger Michael Eggman in the last two elections, mostly because Eggman made critical mistakes. Will the next Democratic Party candidate make the same mistakes? The biggest mistake Michael Eggman made in running for Congress was his strict adherence to the Democratic Party platform. The platform works […]
Open Letter to Jeff Denham
Dear Congressman Denham: I received your questionnaire. Thank you for the opportunity to share my views on issues critical to our quality of life here in the San Joaquin Valley. As you know, we are one of the most multicultural regions in the United States and immigration is a key local issue. I’m glad you’ve inquired about it. I favor a pathway to citizenship for working immigrants. Like many others, […]
Mentally Ill: Modesto’s Tragedy is a Nation’s Tragedy
Modesto lost a piece of its heart last month. News that Hanibal Yadegar’s wife Evin had been shot in Ripon by a Stanislaus County Deputy Sheriff drove pangs of anguish deep into the core of a community that years ago learned to love the Yadegars and their downtown restaurant. If the Gallo Theater for the Arts is Modesto’s beating heart, Hanibal and Evin Yadegars’ Barkin’ Dog Grill is its heart’s […]
Overflow Crowd for Laura’s Law
“It’s the dollars that get them,” said Douglas Dunn to an overflow crowd at Modesto’s Jana Lynn Room on North Ninth Street Wednesday night. Dunn was explaining how he and other citizen activists convinced Contra Costa County Supervisors to enact Laura’s Law, a policy that enables families to require assistance for mentally ill relatives through a court order. Nearly one-hundred people had come to hear Dunn and Randall Hagar, Director […]