For most of the duration of the pandemic, Stanislaus County has been among the top five worst counties in the state for controlling Covid-19. As of October 25, it was 12th in infection rates at 77 per 100,000 residents. On the same day, the nearest county to the north, San Joaquin, registered 58 positive tests per 100,000; to the south, Merced County had 54. Nearby Alameda County had 40 cases […]
Stanislaus County Covid-19
Local Leaders to Essential Workers: “You are Expendable”
It was only a few months ago that Donald Trump thought he could ride a strong economy into a second term as President of the United States. Having avoided removal from office during an impeachment that Senator Mitch McConnell nullified before it started, Trump was confident he would cruise into the November election buoyed by a booming stock market and rising employment numbers. When news came in January that a […]
A Plan for Reopening Our Schools
Before he retired in 2019, Keith Law taught philosophy at Merced College. He has many decades’ experience in education. The current debate over how to begin the fall 2020 school year is stuck in a false dilemma between two equally bad options. Parents don’t want to send children to school if they risk infection for them and their families, not to mention the risks to teachers and staff. On the […]
Back to School? You First!
The San Joaquin Valley, from Stockton on south to Bakersfield, is a hot spot for the spread of the Coronavirus, the persistent killer that has raged through the nation almost exactly the way public health experts said it would. In what has become typical local reasoning, many of the Valley’s elected leaders have decided the rising infection numbers mean we should reopen our schools. Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow has […]