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Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
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Modesto City Council

What “Business Friendly” Means in Modesto

June 20, 2017 By Bruce Frohman 1 Comment

Bruce Frohman

The Modesto Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Realtors are powerful interest groups in Modesto. They fiercely represent a privileged group of members of their organizations. For the average citizen, quality of life in Modesto is adversely affected because of their requirement that all elected officials be “business friendly.” As they tried to steer Modesto towards a better quality of life for all citizens, former mayors Peggy Mensinger and Carmen […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: City Manager Jim Holgersson, Modesto City Council

Does the Modesto City Council Really Listen?

April 3, 2016 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Bruce Frohman

The greatest honor of my life was the four years I served on the Modesto City Council, from 1999 to 2003. During my term on the council, I vowed I would do my best to put personal prejudices aside and represent the will of the citizens who elected me.  As one of my colleagues liked to remind me, I was naïve and idealistic. While I agreed with his assertion, I hoped that […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Bruce Frohman, Modesto City Council

Logic Behind Votes to Add Wood Colony to Sphere Of Influence

January 31, 2014 By Eric Caine 2 Comments

News item: The Modesto Bee reported in its Thursday edition that the Modesto City Council voted 5-2 in favor of adding Wood Colony to its General Plan map. Councilmembers Zoslocki and Lopez voted against the addition. In politics, everything has a logical explanation. Oftentimes, the logic  seems impossible to follow. Undoubtedly, to some, the Tuesday night decision looks  crazy. Let’s look for some logic. At the end of a 7 hour meeting, Mayor Garrad Marsh stated […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Bill Zoslocki, Dave Lopez, Garrad Marsh, Jenny Kenoyer, Modesto City Council, Wood Colony

Why Certain City Council Members Want A New General Plan

January 30, 2014 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

At the January 28, 2014 Modesto City Council meeting, Councilmembers Dave Cogdill Jr., Bill Zoslocki, and Dave Lopez voted to begin a comprehensive rewrite of the Modesto General Plan. A majority of the City Council voted down the proposal due to the high cost, but what exactly were the three proponents after? Councilmember Cogdill stated that the Modesto General Plan was out of date because it had not been updated “since 1995” and because […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Bill Zoslocki, Dave Cogdill Jr., Dave Lopez, Modesto City Council, Modesto General Plan, Modesto Village One

Modesto Primed To Outsource Police Services To County Sheriff, by Bruce Frohman

September 25, 2013 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Riverbank and Patterson: A number of years ago, prior to election to the Riverbank City Council of a family member of a locally owned grocery store chain, the city provided police services to its citizens. Riverbank had its own police department. In the grocery business, an expanding population is good for business. Coincident to the grocer’s election, the City of Riverbank experienced a residential housing boom. The housing boom was fed by infrastructure subsidies provided by Riverbank taxpayers. To enable greater subsidies […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Modesto City Council, Modesto Measure X, Modesto public safety

Lopez vs Monteith: Analysis by Bruce Frohman

June 26, 2013 By Eric Caine 2 Comments

The Modesto Bee reported last week that Modesto City Councilman Dave Lopez intends to unseat Stanislaus County Supervisor Dick Monteith next election. Monteith told the Bee that he has no plan to retire. However, the 80+ year old incumbent could decide at a later date to retire rather than seek reelection. If Monteith announces his retirement early enough, other candidates will probably join the competition.  Historically, when an incumbent does not run for reelection, more candidates seek office. However, Supervisor Monteith […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Balvino Irizarry, Dave Lopez, Dick Monteith, Modesto City Council, Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors election

Modesto City Council: Economic Development or Disaster?

June 11, 2013 By Eric Caine 2 Comments

Last Wednesday’s meeting of the Modesto Economic Development Committee highlighted a twenty-five year schism among Modesto leaders that is as much an effect of separate realities as it is of anything else. On the one hand we have those who think we are losing prime farmland at far too great a rate. They believe we must establish firm urban boundaries now or too soon suffer the fates of Los Angeles […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Denny Jackman, George Petrulakis, Modesto City Council, Modesto Economic Development Committe, Modesto Residential Urban Limits

City Council: Joe Muratore’s Revealing Moment

April 28, 2013 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Bruce Frohman’s insider’s view of the Modesto City Council (below) offers a sobering look at local politics. Last Tuesday’s Council meeting confirmed Frohman’s claims—developers rule—but there were at least two episodes that shed even more light on the City’s current and future political realities. The first revealing moment came just after Councilmember John Gunderson moved to put Denny Jackman’s Residential Urban Limit proposal on the November ballot. During the comment […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Bill Zoslocki, Denny Jackman, Joe Muratore, Modesto City Council, Modesto Residential Urban Limits, Modesto Village I

Home Builders Control City Council, Harm Local Economy, by Bruce Frohman

April 27, 2013 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Nobody at City Hall will ever admit it, but home builders control Modesto’s government. Campaign contributions help elect shills to the City Council. The shills take instruction from those who helped them get elected.  Some have even gotten text messages during Council meetings. Former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino has battled special interest groups for years, but the groups’ abundance of money and ambitious citizens willing to work for them is never ending.  The reason is simple. There’s financial gain […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Bruce Frohman, Modesto City Council, Modesto developers

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Off The Wire

?This is where society fails to have an answer?: Poll reveals Bay Area residents? frustration with street homelessness
“This is where society fails to have an answer”: Poll reveals Bay Area residents? frustration with street homelessness
Data includes support for possible measures, including a court system with the power to order people into mental health treatment.
www.mercurynews.com
?Monster Fracks? Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
“Monster Fracks” Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
A Times analysis shows that increasingly complex oil and gas wells now require astonishing volumes of water to fracture the bedrock and release fossil fuels, threatening America’s fragile aquifers.
www.nytimes.com
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has 'paralyzed' California cities
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has ‘paralyzed’ California cities
The Democratic governor’s intervention lays down a mark in a legal dispute with potentially profound implications for one of California’s most pressing issues.
www.politico.com
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
www.propublica.org
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How bad is hunger in California? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but now is being reduced.
calmatters.org
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population….
www.mercurynews.com
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
After decades of minimal action, Congress passed the largest and most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. Will we make the most of this opportunity?
www.audubon.org
How the fentanyl crisis' fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
The epidemic’s staggering scale and infiltration of communities is laid bare in a new study.
www.bbc.com
Can licensed tent villages ease California's homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
www.latimes.com
Mississippi has problems, but it's handling homelessness better than L.A.
Mississippi has problems, but it’s handling homelessness better than L.A.
The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.
www.latimes.com
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
The demonstrators raised “Heil Hitler” salutes and waved flags with swastikas.
www.thedailybeast.com
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Gov. Gavin Newsom?s experiment to push Californians with mental illness off the streets and into treatment, CARE Court, starts soon.
calmatters.org

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

Email us at:
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The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

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