Riding in honor of Chris Johnson/challenge to local firefighters
A few months ago, I sent a message to Ken Shockley, the Fresno Fire Department public information officer, asking if any firefighters would be interesting in honoring the memory of Chris Johnson by joining Team In Training for the summer season.
Full disclosure: I have been a Team In Training volunteer since 2006 and am a coach for the Central California cycling team.
Johnson, who was an engineer with Cal Fire, died in September of last year at the age of 32 after a year-long battle with leukemia. He worked at the firehouse at McCall and American Avenues and was much admired by fellow firefighters.
Jonathan Lusk, a Fresno fire captain, answered the call and will ride 100 miles around Lake Tahoe and Truckee as a member of the Central California TNT team. Riders from the team will raise about $150,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research and local patient services before they complete America's Most Beautiful Ride on June 1.
Lusk needs to raise $2,700 to qualify for the ride, but he wants to raise a total of $50,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as a way of honoring Johnson and his surviving family -- wife Rebecca and son C.J.
In addition to his cycling training, Lusk teamed with Fresno firefighter Fred Martinez and his son Max to produce an emotionally charged, six-minute video tribute to Johnson.
I challenge every firefighter in Central California to match my donation of $50 to Lusk's fund-raising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
When I made it out to the Calaveras Street block party early Saturday afternoon, the Fresno High jazz band was kicking out sweet sounds and scores of children were having fun at the Sciencemobile.
Organizer Rob Defrees had hoped to attract at least 1,000 people to his "road" and make it the biggest single-street block party in Fresno history. The crowd didn't reach four figures, but he declared the six-hour event -- a celebration of the street's efforts to oust drug-dealers and build community pride -- a success nonetheless.
"All the smiling faces and the people trying to make people feel brilliant made it worth it," said Defrees, manager of the El Capri apartment complex, just north of Divisadero.
"The U.S. Marines stayed to the bitter end even though they didn't get any customers that day. My surprise violinist was a 7-year-old boy. He brought tears to people's eyes with his performance."
The Fresno mayoral race has been a snoozer, with none of the candidates possessing the charisma of termed-out incumbent Alan Autry, or even Dan Whitehurst, the man he defeated in 2000.
But, with early voting underway and three weeks remaining before the June 3 primary, things are heating up, as Republican activists focus on bringing down Henry T. Perea, the presumptive front-runner in the nonpartisan race.
Susan Good has gone on the attack in her quest to unseat Larry Westerlund as the District 4 representative to the Fresno City Council.
Early in the campaign, Good emphasized her call to improve transparency at City Hall with a 22-point agenda she dubbed "Good Reforms." Now she's sending out a brochure that compares eight stands she says she would take against Westerlund's council record and stated positions.
"Compare for yourself," Good says in a headline above eight questions dealing with the council's self-approved pay raise, eminent domain, the $3 million purchase of land valued at $1.9 million for a proposed hotel and other issues.
Jeff Eben's mayoral platform is interesting in that it leans heavily on his Clovis roots and his experience as a Clovis Unified school administrator.
For example: His mailer includes a picture from his days as the principal at Clovis East and endorsements from local sports figures such as Fresno State coaches Pat Hill, Steve Cleveland, Mike Watney and John Baxter. Also endorsing Eben are former Oakland Raiders star quarterback Daryle Lamonica, former Fresno State basketball standout Tyrone Bradley, Clovis Unified Superintendent Terry Bradley and developer Scott Ellis.
But there's a glaring problem with the brochure: many of the people endorsing him reside in Clovis, not Fresno -- a fact that will enable opponents to keep painting Eben as a carpet-bagger.
If you missed the Fresno mayoral forum Wednesday night at Bankers Ballroom, click here for The Bee's podcast and here for The Bee story by City Hall reporter Denny Boyles.
Next Wednesday night, the City Council candidates will square off in another forum at the same location. You can submit questions for the forum at www.fresnofusion.com.
May 13 Update: After the Clark County Public Schools board interviewed Santiago Wood and John W. Thompson
for the position of interim/corrective superintendent, they removed themselves for consideration last month, according to the Clayton News Daily.
The newspaper also reported they pulled out after critical comments about Thompson's and Wood's abilities to lead the troubled Atlanta-area public school system were aired. Wood said the comments were intended to promote another candidate -- a charge denied by James Bostic, a liason to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who was sent by the governor to assist the district.
You'll never guess who is one of two finalists for a superintendent's position in Georgia.
Former Fresno Unified boss Santiago Wood, who was fired here in 2004.
He is competing with John W. Thompson to become the interim/corrective superintendent of Clark County Public Schools, a one-to-two-year position that entails turning around the troubled system.
The district is the fifth biggest in Georgia with about 52,000 students. Clark County is south of Atlanta.
Thompson, the former superintendent of Pittsburgh (Pa.) Public Schools, is asking for $275,000 a year, 24-hour security and $2 million for his consulting team, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wood told the newspaper that he would like $185,000 a year, a modest monthly expense allowance, a one-time $2,200 housing fee and moving expenses.
Wood lists many accomplishment during his tenure in Fresno. You can read the candidates' resumes here and the newspaper story here
Bee Editorial Page boss Jim Boren and I have teamed up on a weekly political podcast airing Monday afternoons on fresnobee.com.
You can hear our first effort by clicking here. or by going to the home page of fresnobee.com and clicking on the multimedia header.
Our goal is to provide information and analysis on local and state topics while occasionally venturing into national issues and political races as well. If we do our jobs right, you'll find that "Boren and McEwen on Politics" is as good as NPR's "It's All Politics."
And, yes, we are getting rid of the cheesy packaged photos of us on fresnobee.com and replacing it with a fresh shot of us in front of Fresno's City Hall.
We focus on the Fresno mayoral race in this week's podcast. Here are my odds for each of the 11 candidates making it out of the June primary and into the November runoff to replace Alan Autry, who terms out in January:
Henry T. Perea -- 6-to-5
Ashley Swearengin -- 9-5
Jerry Duncan -- 11-5
Jeff Eben -- 5-1
Tom Boyajian -- 10-1
Mike Dages -- 25-1
Doug Vagim -- 500-1
Henry Monreal -- 1,000-1
Jim Boswell -- 10,000-1
Ignacio Garibay -- 1,000,000-1
Barbara Hunt -- 10,000,000-1
You can read my take on the Jesse Morrow Mountain mining proposal here.
But Michael J. Donahue, a retired environmental supervisor for Caltrans, says my "thumbnail analysis" of the proposed aggregate quarry in eastern Fresno County "serves to give a one-sided view of the proposal and does the public, decision makers, project proponents and the Indian community a disservice."
Keith Bergthold, a brainy guy who is second in charge of Fresno's municipal planning and development department, has been talking to people throughout the San Joaquin Valley about the importance of collaborative regional planning.
By Bergthold's count, he has made 30 presentations to city, county and Council of Government boards during the past five months -- each time outlining growth scenarios for our region. I've seen his thought-provoking talk and now I'm sharing it with Bee readers.
It's long. Probably the longest blog item in fresnobee.com history. It has footnotes. It's not presented in the most reader-friendly-format. But it's worth wading through, and I am looking forward to your comments.
My Jan. 19 column -- "It's war on Prop. 93" -- struck a chord with readers, many of whom had been struggling to figure out if Proposition 93 is about term-limits reform or a scheme to keep state Democratic leaders Fabian Núñez and Don Perata in power.
You can read the column by clicking here, and you can do California a favor by voting no on 93. It's time to send the faux populists packing.
Click here to read more about Núñez and here for more on Perata.
Poor Bob Waterston can't make up his mind.
One day he's saying he won't run for re-election to his Fresno County Board of Supervisors' seat. A few months later, he's running down to the elections office and pulling papers.
Former Fresnan Victor Conte admits he was scared out of his gourd during the first 36 hours at his four-month federal sentence at the C.I. Taft Prison Camp near Bakersfield.
But, after that, he tells ESPN.com's Patrick Hruby, he was coaching fellow inmates and enjoying life in "a sports paradise" with a ton of athletic equipment -- but no guard towers or walls.
