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OK, I'll admit right now that I have sometimes parked a noncompact car in a compact space. But only if I was desperate. It seems I have unwittingly annoyed someone who's keeping track of this. The Poynter Institute newsletter by Al Tompkins has this collection of photos. I will be much more careful from now on.
While we are maneuvering through shopping centers during this busy month, it seems that parking is on a lot of people's minds. Usually, I only get really annoyed if there is not enough parking for clientele and you have to take too long to find it. I am not as obsessed with door dings as I should be, but apparently there are people who are. Did you know there is actually a science to lessening your chances of getting whacked in the side by another car while you're parked? Look at this Web site http://www.parkingbydesign.com/. It's all in the geometry of the parking places, according to a story in the Seattle Times.
"It's all based on gambling, and you can reduce the risk," says Paul Davis, who created that Web site to help people improve their parking ability and avoid "door wounds."
"Remember that not all spots are created equal," says Davis, who lives in Southern California and won't even park in the Trader Joe's lot in his neighborhood.
He recommends using gravity to one's advantage by parking on the upward side of a slope, taking the spot opposite the driver's side, and parking next to concrete barriers to reduce the risk of damage. Something as simple as parking farther away from the entrance is one of the easiest and most overlooked parking strategies. Well, gosh. We don't have many hills so gravity is out of the question. Walk farther while schlepping 84 shopping bags and take your protractor to the mall? Yeah, right. I'll risk the ding.
Democrats swore up and down in the recent election campaign that one of the first things they would do if they took control of Congress would be to adopt all 41 of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Now, according to the Washington Post, they've said they won't undertake the most important of those recommendations -- an overhaul of Congress designed to improve oversight of security issues.
"Of all our recommendations, strengthening congressional oversight may be among the most difficult and important," the commission wrote. "So long as oversight is governed by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need."
But such an overhaul, enlarging the role of intelligence committees in the House and Senate, would come at the expense of powerful members of the armed services and defense appropriations panels in both houses. In other words, security is trumped by turf fights.
So instead of fulfilling their campaign pledge for reorganization, the Democrats want to study the idea some more. Let the backtracking begin...
Apparently peace has broken out in Pagosa Springs, Colo., where Lisa Jensen and Bill Trimarco had been ordered to pay a fine of $25 per day after they put up a wreath in the form of the peace symbol. Some residents called the wreath "divisive," and at least a few thought it might be some sort of satanic device.
Now, according to the New York Times, the fines have been dropped. In addition, the three-member board of the association that raised the fuss has resigned -- and two of them have turned off their telephones.
Peace symbols erupted all over town after the initial attempt at censorship, and the town itself is building a peace-symbol wreath to install in its bell tower. All's well that ends well.
Ha! I knew it. This consumer article on Ad Age's Web site says it's not just those science and math geniuses who are going to keep the U.S. tops in the world economy. It's me and my girlfriends shopping 'til we're dropping that give us our cutting edge. The reason? It does those brilliant inventors no good to think up great ideas if no one adventurous will buy the new products they invent. That's where we come in. Turns out American shoppers are always willing to try out something new and interesting, and that is one of the secrets to our strong economy. Speaking of new ideas, have you come across anything new, interesting or fun on your shopping trips? Share! The nation needs you!
OK, here's mine: It's a gift for a teenage girl and it's a belt that flashes a custom-programmable message on its buckle. It's even on sale for half price. Now how kooky and fun is that? I'm going to program the ones I ordered to send to Europe this way: "Someone in Fresno loves me." A Christmas gift and a Chamber of Commerce slogan all in one!
Public Utilities Commission Chairman John Hutson is trying to persuade Mayor Alan Autry and the Fresno City Council to build a nuclear power plant next to the city's wastewater treatment plant. Hutson says nuclear energy is safe and it would help meet the city's energy needs.
The idea may not be as far-fetched as some believe. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is looking at nuclear power plants to augment its energy supplies. A story in today's San Francisco Chrionicle points out that the idea has a big hurdle: "California law forbids building more nuclear plants within the state until the United States has a permanent site for storing radioactive waste." PG&E, however, is considering investing in nukes outside the state as a way to curb greenhouse gases, according to the Chron.
Here's the story.
PG&E also has several other alternative energy proposals, including solar power plants that would feature focused mirrors to heat water, generate steam and run electrical turbines, according to the Chron.
At a time of rapidly increasing demand on our energy supplies, we need to be looking at all avenues of supplying a U.S. population that doesn't want to cut back on energy use.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the San Joaquin Valley today to sign an executive order to continue a crucial partnership between the state and the region. That's a good thing, of course, but this post is about the way the governor used the latest technology to get his message out about the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.
Schwarzenegger used traditional means -- a news conference and a very public signing of the executive order at Fresno City College. But he also appeared on a Webcast. Anyone can go to a computer at anytime and watch the events live. It's on the governor's Web site. Here's the link. It's like being able to TIVO the news conference. There'a also a photo gallery of the events and a PDF file of the actual executive order. It's all you need if you're a political junkie or policy wonk -- or just a big fan of the governor.
The governor and his staff clearly know how to use the media -- all the media -- to put him in the most favorable light.
If I were teaching a class on politicians using the media, this event would be part of the first lecture.
But this is only part of a booming trend. A Los Angeles Times story says the 2008 election will have most politicians sending podcasts to potential voters, text messaging selected supporters, and raising money with the latest technology.
Democrat Howard Dean stunned other presidential candidates in the 2004 election by raising millions of dollars through the Internet. That opened the possibilities that technolgy had for reaching millions of people in campaigns. Now every candidate wants to be a tech geek.
Children will sometimes go to such lengths to accomplish a task. On this chilly morning, a child is standing along Temperance Avenue, just north of McKinley. Couldn't tell if it is a boy or a girl -- he or she had her hood up. A dog sits next to the child, and the child has a sign on his/her front and back that says "Found dog." That method of trying to reunite a pooch and its owner would never occur to me -- especially as cold as it is today.
My husband and I were enjoying the trailer on TV for the new movie called "The Nativity Story." We're temporarily hosting an exchange student from Brazil while we search for a host family for him, and we are thinking this will be a perfect Christmas movie night for our family and our friends, who have school-age children. Not so fast! It's rated PG. Is it just me or is it a little bit weird when the Christmas story cannot even get a G rating?
It's been five years since 9/11, and the FBI has only 33 -- out of 12,000 -- agents who have even a limited proficiency in Arabic. The bureau relies on translators and linguists for that skill, according to the Washington Post, but questions have been raised about how efficient and reliable that practice is.
The numbers are similar when it comes to Urdu, Farsi and other languages of the Middle East. And other government agencies, such as the CIA and the Bureau of Prisons, are in the same boat. Example:
Three terrorists held in a Colorado prison were able to send some 90 letters to comrades overseas before officials caught on.
Americans have always lagged when it comes to multilingualism, for reasons that run a gamut from indifference and sloth to our national superiority complex. That failure has always been a problem, and now it may be putting us in greater danger.
Whenever people start reminiscing over the good old days in education, I wonder if they realize what's going on in some outstanding classrooms today.
Here's a short biography of the Teacher of the Year, who is a high school journalism instructor. Before you look at the Web site for this high school newspaper, remember back to what your school paper looked like and gain an appreciation for the challenges facing today's students and teachers.
"While earning his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa, Alan Weintraut served as communications director for Project Renewal, an inner-city children's advocacy group in Davenport, Iowa. After working in communications with a Washington, D.C. labor union, Weintraut started a journalism and film program at Annandale High School in Northern Virginia. Since 1994, he has advised The A-Blast student newspaper and the Signal video yearbook. Weintraut's students follow the convergence journalism model, creating web pages, podcasts, newspapers, streaming video and multimedia DVDs in a fully loaded publications lab."
In recent years, Black Friday -- the Christmas shopping frenzy the day after Thanksgiving -- has been followed by Cyber Monday -- the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season. More and more each year, I find myself enjoying this kind of holiday shopping. No long lines, no parking hassles, no picked over merchandise. I don't find myself in the holiday spirit after experiencing any of the above.
If you plan well enough (do as I say, not as I do), you don't even have to stress about the present shipping in time. I've shopped online for gift cards, a toy kitchen for my daughter, movies (great for finding obscure titles) and an atomic wristwatch. How much of your shopping do you do via the Internet?
When Lisa Jensen put up a wreath in the shape of the peace sign, she may not have anticipated the upset it would cause the president of her homeowners association in Pagosa Springs. Colo. But Bob Kearns hates the thing and wants it to come down.
Kearns fired a five-member neighborhood panel that refused to back him in the dispute, and Jensen now faces a $25-a-day fine until she removes the offending symbol. Jensen isn't backing down, according to the Associated Press.
Kearns is quoted saying that "The peace sign has a lot of negativity associated with it. It's also an anti-Christ sign. That's how it started."
Ah, right. Satan loves peace; Jesus Christ hates it.
What's next in Pagosa Springs -- book burning?
Now comedian Michael Richards has appeared on Jesse Jackson's radio show, offering yet another apology for his racist comments last week at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Seems like he's trying too hard to persuade people he didn't mean what he said during the tirade. Here's an idea: Offer a sincere apology and then go into seclusion? Give us a chance to digest what he said and determine if we believe his story that the outburst was a mistake.
This series of apologies is getting to be like Cher's farewell tour -- never-ending and a bit tedious.
Richards, who played Kramer on "Seinfeld," told Jackson the remarks were fueled by anger, not bigotry, according to the Associated Press. Here's the AP story on latimes.com.
U.S. Magistrate Lawrence J. O'Neill's elevation to a federal court judge in Fresno has been held up by congressional politics. That not only isn't fair to O'Neill, who has all the qualities to make a great federal court judge, it also isn't fair to U.S. District Judges Oliver W. Wanger and Anthony Ishii, who carry the biggest federal caseloads in the country. They need O'Neill's help.
O'Neill's confirmation was supposed to be easy. This is how it was described in a Political Notebook item in today's Bee: Wanger said O'Neill was one of 14 "totally noncontroversial, bipartisan judicial nominations" who are now unlikely to get a confirmation vote before the end of the current Congress. Part of the gridlock centers on Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who is holding up the nomination of a Michigan judge because she attended a 2002 lesbian commitment ceremony. In response, Michigan's Democratic senators placed holds on the nominations of two conservative federal judges in the state. Now, while Fresno's two federal judges -- Wanger and fellow U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii -- struggle with the highest federal caseload in the nation, all judicial appointments in the nation's capital are in limbo.
This is just plain wrong. But doing the right thing in Congress is seldom what motivates the politicians. The delay in O'Neill's confirmation will hurt the administration of justice in the Eastern District of California. But that doesn't seem to matter to the people who represent us.
I never intended to head out to the malls on "Black Friday," but my early-morning venture to my auto dealership to get my car serviced was not well planned. The service department folks took Friday off, and I was on Blackstone at 7:30 a.m. with nothing to do. So I decided to check out a few stores that trumpeted big sales.
They were all crowded, but the shoppers were well-behaved and there were plenty of smiles on their faces. That may have changed by the afternoon. I headed home about 11 a.m. But my shopping experience was very pleasant and there were a lot of good deals out there.
I bought gifts for the Angel Tree children on my list. Angel Tree is a program of Prison Fellowship. You buy presents for children whose parents are in prison. Church volunteers deliver the gifts to the children and share the Gospel. The gifts are given in the imprisoned parent's name.
I picked two angels off the Christams tree at my church, New Hope Community Church in Clovis. The angels are for 8-year-old twins and they asked for art supplies. I found some very cool stuff, and now I'm trying to figure out how to wrap all of it. I'm not good at wrapping odd-sized gifts. . . actually, I'm not good at wrapping any gifts.
One thing you can count on is that when Mayor Alan Autry is on the losing side of a legal case, he will blame the judge, and not consider that the city may have been wrong in its actions. The judge is picking on the city, he contends, or the judge doesn't know the law. So Autry's blistering criticism of Federal Judge Oliver W. Wanger Wednesday was not surprising.
Wanger said the city's policy of immediately destroying the belongings of homeless people during sweeps of homeless settlements if they are not present to claim their property is a violation of their constitutional rights. Wanger, the veteran federal judge who is one of the most respected jurists in the region, doesn't know what he's talking about, says Autry.
The mayor, as we all know, got his legal training as Sgt. Bubba Skinner on the television series "In the Heat of the Night." Wanger's credentials aren't nearly as impressive. He got a B.S. from the University of Southern California and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.
This is what Autry said: about Wanger's ruling "This is yet another example of a judge making decisions based on limited, skewed and false information. These cavalier rulings continue to compromise not only the health of this community but the health of the homeless as well."
Here's The Bee's story on the case by John Ellis.
By the way, Wanger was appointed a federal judge in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. You know how those Republican presidents like to stack the federal bench with liberal judges who don't know what they are talking about.
Margaret Mims, an assistant sheriff for Fresno County, will succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January. The long vote count has ended and Mims edged out Cal Minor, the retired Highway Patrol captain. On Wednesday afternoon, the latest count out of the Fresno County Elections Office put Mims at 84,444 votes or 50.2% to 83,427 or 49.62% for Minor.
It took 15 days to finish the count because of the closeness of the race and the large number of absentee and provisional ballots to tally. Actually, the count isn't completed. . . There are 200 to 300 ballots still to count, but they will not change the results.
Fresno County will have its first woman sheriff.
If you're wondering how a fall party became public policy, here is an excerpt from a speech by one of our favorite Georges from history, George Washington.
George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayers to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of Almighty God... Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of people of this country... and for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us...And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations, beseeching Him to pardon our national and other transgressions..."
-- Given under my hand at the city of New York the 3rd day of October, AD 1789, President George Washington
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is absolutely right to take the next step against drunk drivers. They've made a lot of progress in deterrence through education and aggressive prosecutions, but momentum is stalled. We see that all the time in Fresno. We are fortunate to have one of the nation's most aggressive police departments on the issue of drunk driving, yet I am still amazed at how many people are caught every week. Our police have been featured in the national news, won awards and yet we seem to have an endless supply of drunk drivers flying through our checkpoints.
And they just don't get it, even when they are caught. The police department also runs court-hearing stings, where officers watch drunk driving offenders as they leave their hearings. Last sting, half - half - of these people who had their licenses suspended for drunk driving were arrogant enough to drive to the hearings. I don't know what to say. We write about these stings in the newspaper, and still they think they're smarter than everyone else.
Now, according to a New York Times story, MADD wants to make such defiance much more difficult. The group is campaigning for technology to help take out the next level of drunks. They are proposing using alcohol-detection devices in vehicles to solve the problem. They are pushing for every vehicle to be so equipped, as the long-term goal. First step of course should be to get that technology on the cars of convicted drunk drivers. MADD's first step is modeled in part on the approach taken in Canada beginning in 1991, where licenses were taken from drivers convicted of driving drunk but given back sooner if they agreed to the ignition interlock. The objective, said Andrew Murie, the chief executive of MADD Canada, is to "keep them in the licensing system, so you know who they are and where they are, keep them insured and stop them from drinking and driving."
"The interlock does all three of those things," Murie said. New Mexico also is having success with this idea. California's a leader - we should be next.
I have always said The Bee's readers are the nation's best writers. I stand by that assessment after spending a couple of hours reading the Thanksgiving memoirs of our readers. Thank you so much for writing them -- all of you. These letters will begin running in Wednesday's paper and they are so good that we've set aside an entire page for them on Thursday. Don't miss reading them -- they will make your day. Here is one sample from Wednesday's paper.
Last year, when I stuffed the turkey, I put a small Cornish game hen in with the stuffing.
When it came time for the turkey to come out of the oven, I asked my daughter (a 21-year-old) to spoon the stuffing out into a bowl. I thought my husband and I would die laughing (along with my mother and brother-in-law) as my daughter started crying out, "We killed a baby turkey." She did not catch on until we told her, and then she thought we were just saying it to make her feel better. The look on her face when we convinced her that turkeys lay eggs was priceless. -- Susan Davis, Reedley
Our Opinion pages colleague, Lisa Boyles, turned 40 recently, so those of us who are older than she is have been all been piling on the advice for life. I clipped an article for her from Marie Claire magazine that's titled "20 Things to Get Before You're 40."
Here's the first part of their list, with my comments:
1. Dead-serious piece of timeless clothing. They suggest a YSL tux for women at $3,560. Oh, please. Buy a dead-serious tux for your husband and just look at him. Now, that's timeless.
2. A look. "Figure it out and shop accordingly." Just one look? How boring is that?
3. A piece of art. They say it's time to start an actual art collection. Definitely -- but don't buy "names" but buy only what you love from artists who are good people.
4. A first edition. OK, but only if it's a book you truly adore.
5. Fancy luggage - a matched set. They recommend Gucci's Guccisima line at $3,350. What a colossal waste of money. Have you seen what the airlines do to your luggage? Matching? Well, OK, but why would you give them something expensive that they'll just drop two stories into a cargo bin 10 minutes after it leaves your hands?
Enlightened. Go see the Dalai Lama in India. For his schedule visit www.dalailama.com. That could be fun, but again, just one?
6. My No. 1 was last on Marie Claire's list, which is to get pregnant -- I would add with your husband and soulmate. Marie Claire didn't mention a partner in their list... a huge omission. Lisa's already got all of that covered anyway about four years ago with her great husband, reporter Denny Boyles of the newsroom, and some super kids. I like most of the things on the magazine list, but I would also add a house you love; and a great job that challenges you, working for a boss you admire, learn from and have fun working for (not to be confused with No. 1).
How about those of you before and after 40 -- give Lisa your advice on things to get before you're 40.
It's time to call a halt to the marketing gimmicks that cause riots when gamemakers release only a small number of games. These people know what they are doing. Sony is the latest to do this with the limited release of its PlayStation 3 game. I say sue the Sony officers and the electronics stores that go along with their little conspiracy.
In Fresno, the Best Buy store in North Fresno was ovverrun by customers when it was announced that only 34 games were available. Instead of havng an orderly process for selling these games, the Best Buy folks apparently thought it was cool to ignite mayhem. What are these people thinking?
Other stores around town did a much better job of releasing their allotments. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer was critical of Best Buy, saying "They have to do a better job of promoting this through a lottery system and not use a system that creates chaos." Dyer also said that the city may go after the store to recover costs of handling the incident. Great. . . and I say the District Attorney should file felony charges against store officials for causing a riot, and make Sony part of the action for being a co-conspirator.
The same kind of behavior at Fresno's Best Buy store also occurred across the country. This is from The Bee story of Saturday: "Demand for the devices, which cost up to $600, sparked scuffles and even shootings outside some stores In Fresno, Police Chief Jerry Dyer criticized the local Best Buy for creating conditions that led to a brief melee and two arrests."
It's time to hold the corporate officers making these decisions responsible for the results of their marketing schemes.
Margaret Mims stretched out her lead over Cal Minor in the race to be the next sheriff of Fresno County -- she leads by about 1,000 votes after the latest updated count on Friday -- but there are still ballots to be counted. Mims isn't claiming victory and Minor isn't conceding, although Mims has celebratory T-shirts ready to go, according to one source.
It doesn't appear the vote count will be final until Wednesday, so we keep holding our collective breaths.
We may not find out who our next sheriff is today after all. Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar said there were a lot more absentee and provisional ballots to count than he first thought, and he may not be done until next week. At 4 p.m., we will see the results of the 17,000 ballots that were counted since last week.
If Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims' lead grows substantially, there may be enough votes counted to call the race for her. But if Cal Minor, the retired California Highway Patrol captain, cuts into Mims' 740-lead, the winner will still be up in the air until next week. It's all about the math. Stay tuned.
The new sheriff will succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January
We've called for parents to get more involved in their children's schooling, as have many others. But one North Carolina woman took the notion and jumped right overboard with it.
Inez Horne's 15-year-old son called her from class the other day to let her know that he feared he was about to be attacked by another student. Horne, her two daughters and the boyfriend of one of the daugters sped to the school, barged into the son's classroom, and started in on a 16-year-old boy.
All four were arrested. It seems they didn't stop to check in at the office. It probably didn't help that they were armed with a knife and a box-cutter.
In Saturday's Valley Voices, a page for local columnists, Stacy Hammons, chair of the department of sociology at Fresno Pacific University, writes about Universal Children's Day, celebrated Monday by the United Nations. Liesl Garner, a wife, mother and business owner, writes about the book "Night" by Elie Weisel and what it means to her. Marissa Honda, the senior drum major for the Clovis West marching band and colorguard, writes about the fun of being part of the high school band.
In Sunday Vision:
* Our editorial commends Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for leading the Valley delegation in a clean-air effort.
* Thomas L. Friedman of the New York times says that China is reaching its environmental limits and if it doesn't radically change to "greener, more sustainable modes of design, transport, production and power generation, the Chinese miracle is going to turn into an eco-nightmare."
* Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post suggests that the new O.J. Simpson book, "If I Did It," could be just one in a series for the publisher, Judith Regan. Why not follow up, he says, with "If I Shot My Wife in the Head" by Robert Blake and "If I Molested All Those Kids" by Michael Jackson? Best not to buy the O.J. book and send a message.
* Betsy Hart, author of a parenting book, reacts to the news that helicopter parents are actually attending job interviews with their adult children.
* Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, says he's anxious to see the Democrats' great plan for fighting terrorists and reshaping foreign policy. He suspects they're more bark than bite.
* Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times says the Democrats should be on notice that they have two years to prove they are better than the other guys.
* Maureen Dowd, columnist for the New York Times, says a fight is brewing between the idealists and the realists.
* The Valley's Top 10 Thanksgiving recipes include Kevin Federline's sour grapes and Jerry Dyer's gang surprise.
* Meet our letter writers: Dolores Ashjian Armo, a retired teacher, describes herself as a moderate conservative.
Enjoy!
The Bee's human resources department just sent out notices that flu shots will be available to us Nov. 27. This is one smart innovation in the workplace. Inoculating employees without everyone having to make his or her separate doctor appointment at such a big expense is one way to keep health costs down and production up. Think of all the car trips, all the money, all the illness prevented from this one idea.
I'm very appreciative. Every big employer should offer such services to employees. Even if the employees shared the cost, it would easily pay off in the long run. If the equipment gets more portable with technology, wouldn't it be great to roll in a mammogram machine annually?
It's not just the Valley that's struggling over the issue of teaching students to avoid fistfights. Chicago also is addressing this problem in a serious way. According to a story this week in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago's reform efforts have helped to fuel a 13% drop in the number of students arrested in their public schools last year, the same year the district faced intense scrutiny from parents for "criminalizing" student misconduct such as fights and talking back to the staff.
The story says the decline was driven largely by a dramatic reduction in the number of students charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor for a fight that doesn't involve weapons, attacks on staff members or serious injury. School administrators have a lot of discretion in how they handle these conflicts, and their responses often determine whether a student is hauled off in handcuffs or disciplined on campus.
Tell your teen, neighbor, babysitter or grandchild! Our Editorial Board is putting its Teen Advisory Board for this year. It's an effort to connect with younger readers. We're planning our first meeting for early December.
If you know high-school aged teenagers (or if you are one) who would like to share their opinions with the editors of The Bee's opinion pages, we'd love to hear from them. Board members meet one evening a month from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The Bee (with free food!) to talk about ideas with the opinion page staff and other students from high schools throughout the Valley.
Teens who participate are expected to review The Bee's opinion pages regularly and then offer suggestions about content at the monthly meeting (did we mention free food?).
To sign up or to nominate a student for the board, call Pam Rowse at (559) 441-6680 or e-mail prowse@fresnobee.com with the student's name, address, phone, e-mail and school.
The story in the Bee's Business section this morning about the opening of Fiesta Foods' second store in Fresno is good news for foodies. The Southern California-based company's first store, on Tulare at First Street, is a wonder to behold.
A friend of mine took me there for the first time recently, for lunch. My first impression, walking through the automatic doors at what was once a Von's store, was the vast array of fresh tortillas being made, stacked and sold. It looked like they had 20 or 30 different varieties -- corn, flour, big, small, white, yellow, green (made with jalapenos), reddish-pink (made with tomato), and several I couldn't quickly identify. The odors are splendid.
The place is usually packed. Von's couldn't generate enough business at the location to satisfy corporate demands, but the Fiesta Foods folks have no such problem. The only downside to a visit, in fact, is the time it sometimes takes to find a parking spot.
I'm looking forward to checking out the new store as well, at Kings Canyon and Willow.
House Democrats rejected Rep. Nancy Pelosi's choice for majority leader today, and elected Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland to the post. Pelosi supported Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania. Hoyer won on a vote of 149-86.
Hoyer's election came after House Democrats made Pelosi the next speaker of the House. But just in case Pelosi got too uppity, they slammed her choice for the No. 2 position and gave it to Hoyer instead. Seems like the new speaker should be able to pick her second in command. But her party thought it would be more fun to embarrass her on this vote.
Valley House Democrats Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Jim Costa of Fresno supported Hoyer.
Fresno County elections officials say they'll have the remainder of the ballots counted in the sheriff's race by Friday, and plan a 4 p.m. release of the totals that day. Most observers believe that Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims will prevail over Cal Minor, the retired captain from the California Highway Patrol.
Mims' lead has grown from 155 votes to 740 as of the last count and there is little reason to think that Minor can reverse the trend when the last 10,000 votes are counted on Friday. But you never know until the final results are released.
The new sheriff will actually succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January. Pierce's successor will inherit all sorts of problems, including a budget deficit, a lack of jail space that has allowed some prisoners to be released early and terrible morale problems among the deputies and other department employees.
All in all, Pierce is leaving the next sheriff with quite a mess.
Last year we solicited letters for a special page on the memories people have of Thanksgivings past. It turned out very nicely, with a full page of stories, anecdotes, horror stories about turkeys gone bad and many poignant moments.
So we're at it again. Please share your experiences with our readers. Send submissions to
Letters to the editor
The Fresno Bee
P.O. Box 12504
Fresno, CA 93778-2504
Fax: (559) 441-6499
E-mail: letters@fresnobee.com
Please send them to us before Monday, Nov. 20, and be sure to include your name, address and phone number. Please limit letters to 150 words in length. All submissions may be edited and republished in any format, and become the property of The Bee. (That's our lawyers talking.)
Hope to hear from you, and soon.
I love it since they made the jury duty service easier. I'm free for another year!
I received my original summons a few months ago. Between getting through all of our pre-election recommendation interviews with candidates, working on the special Vision section for Measure C and the usual daily workload of our department, it just wasn't a good time. So I took advantage of the option that allows you to defer your service (once) to a later date within a year of the original summons date.
I picked this week because it was after the election and before a colleague's vacation next week. Friday I began checking the Fresno Superior Court Web site to see if I would have to report Monday morning. Success! "Your service will not be needed Monday. However, you will need to check this automated system again on Monday evening, anytime after 5:00 p.m. for further reporting information."
Same thing happened Monday afternoon. I did not get so lucky last night. The message on the Web site said my service might be needed this afternoon and that I would need to check back at 11:30 a.m. I also got a voicemail reminder from someone at the court, saying to be sure to check today if I would be needed or not.
At about 11:35, I saw the wonderful message: "You do not have to report for jury duty. Your service is satisfied for 1 year."
Sure, I put in some extra hours this week, trying to get ahead at work in case I did have to serve. But it is so nice that the court system has simplified the process so that people can check in via phone or computer, without having to lose a day of work or make special child-care arrangements. It makes it so much easier to fulfill that portion of our civic duty.
When Congress was considering the nation's first fuel economy law in 1974, a Ford executive said the bill "could result in a Ford product line consisting ... of all sub-Pinto-sized vehicles." Congress passed the law anyway, and that's why you never see any car on the road bigger than a Mini Cooper. (SUVs? What SUVs?)
The law now saves an estimated 2.8 million barrels of gasoline per day. That's impressive -- so impressive Congress hasn't raised the standards since. So when President Bush met with the bosses of America's Big Three automakers the other day, they discussed fuel efficiency standards, right? Nope. Not a word.
One estimate says Detroit could boost profits by $2 billion with better fuel efficiency. Instead, the industry "would miss out on $3.6 billion in profit in 2010 should their fleets meet only the minimum government fuel-economy standards and gasoline costs $3.10 a gallon, according to the study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute."
Meanwhile, those foolish Japanese continue to produce fuel-efficient vehicles. What idiots. All that's done is push Toyota past Ford into the No. 2 spot among world automakers -- and they're breathing down General Motors' corporate neck.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who will become Senate majority leader, has named California's two senators to key leadership posts for the next congressional session. Sen. Dianne Feinstein will chair the Senate Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal voting issues and Senate operations, and Sen. Barbara Boxer will chair the Environment and Public Works Committee. They are the first women to chair those committees.
California will do very well when Congress convenes in January. As we already know, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, will become speaker of the House. But the Associated Press also reports that Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, will become chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, will become chairman of the Government Reform Committee. That committee could be trouble for the White House. It will lead the Democrats' oversight investigations.
Yes, I know it's still fall outside, but for parents and friends of teenage girls, it's Christmas party time. The winter formals are coming up in no time, and lucky me, I have two wonderful teenage friends going to their first formal dances next month. I had already promised them a sightseeing trip to San Francisco weeks ago, so we decided to slip in a little taste of shopping in the big city while we were at it.
Shopping is pretty much a recreational sport for me, so I don't normally take it all that seriously. Well, I'm thinking about shopping in a new way lately. I've been reading a new book just out called "Shopping: why we love it and how retailers can create the ultimate customer experience." The operative word here is "experience." This is what's coming in our future, and as I read it, I see a real key to what could happen to draw more shoppers downtown. According to the author, Pamela N. Danziger, there is a shopping evolution. The '80s was the decade of the mall, the 90s saw the emergence of the discounters like Costco and Wal-Mart, the the 2000s came the luxury decade, where shoppers wanted luxurious goods but for cheaper prices (the discount outlet stores.) Now she, says the 2010s is the decade of the experience -- the environment is all important.
Well, I definitely get that. It's all those special events at our shopping malls and centers. It's the bookstores that encourage you to sit down, read and drink coffee. It's cookies and cider served thoughout downtown Clovis during the holidays. It's Nordstrom and its grand piano; it's Bass Pro with all the sports equipment you can try out. During our San Francisco shopping trip, it was Bloomingdale's, where the formal department had live models walking around, showing off the dresses and a deejay playing dance music to keep you in the mood. Now this was fun shopping. If they'd had some cute guys in tuxes to dance with, the girls could have just skipped the formal altogether! Shopping would have been the experience.
In Danziger's book, the writer raves about a furniture and accessories store called Nell Hill. It's in in a small town in Kansas, and some people drive 500 miles to shop there. It's located in downtown Atchison in a refurbished old bank building, and apparently it draws its clientele because it's full of great decorating ideas, energy and reasonable prices. It's like there's a party there all the time, constantly changing and overflowing with movement and creativity. Danziger says the owner, Mary Carol Garrity, delivers the kinds of products and shopping experinces that "thrill and delight." On the store's Web site the owner says, "If they are going to drive all the way from out of town to get here, then I'm going to make sure they're happy and see something they haven't seen before."
Wow. One focus group customer said it's "got a cozy feel, like you're shopping in a home." Wouldn't something like that play well in downtown Fresno? Yes, I think so -- kind of a collision between a department store, furniture store, an antique store and a florist shop. We have lots of old buildings, lots of old houses that would lend themselves to such themes. The owner has been so successful there that she now has spinoff stores. G. Diebolts has linens and bedding and Garrity's, which specializes in furniture and antiques. Check out that Web site www.nellhills.com. Maybe we should be trying to recruit Garrity, the owner, to come and brainstorm with us about downtown Fresno. Perhaps downtown should capitalize on the talents of its theatrical and artistic residents, specialize in "the shopping experience" and leave the big boxes out north to do what they do. We have plenty of talent here; adopt a great concept, and perhaps fewer people will be whining about having to drive "all the way downtown" to shop.
OK all you experts in retail, what do you think?
A front page story in the Bee today describes the outlines of a plan to insure all Americans being offered by the health insurance industry. It seems that a new opportunity to address this gnawing issue is at hand, after a decade or more of blather and neglect.
A couple of lines from the story: "...growing pressure from business and labor leaders feeling the pain of rising costs, could open the way for at least some progress," and " ... the business community seems interested in seizing the opportunity."
I've been puzzled why the business community hasn't been at the forefront of this debate. Many of the costs of health care in this country fall directly on business, large and small. More and more of them are eliminating or drastically cutting back health care for their employees, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage when they seek to hire the best people. so why aren't they pushing for change? Maybe that's about to begin.
Now that our favorite politician has won the attorney general's job, do you think he's gearing up the Brownies -- his followers from the '70s -- to run for governor in 2010? The former two-term governor always seems to be looking for another job. But maybe governor is out of the question for Jerry Brown. President may be more to his liking.
Here's an interesting story about Brown on insidebayarea.com.
In the weeks since the Clovis Chamber of Commerce announced its opposition to the extension of Measure C, I've heard friends and acquaintances mutter about "boycotting Clovis" and the like. That would have been unfair then -- city leaders and many others in Clovis were strong supporters of Measure C -- but now that we've seen an analysis of the countywide vote, in the Sunday Bee, such punitive actions make even less sense.
Turns out that voters in every single Clovis precinct gave Measure C greater than the two-thirds approval it needed for passage. Not only did the Clovis Chamber fail to persuade voters across the county, its stance on Measure C was rejected in its own back yard.
Clovis voters were a big part of the progressive and forward-thinking Measure C effort. Only the Clovis Chamber got left behind.
A lot of Democrats are complaining that a gerrymandered district protected Republican Congressman George Radanovich of Mariposa from defeat. They are probably correct that Democrat TJ Cox of Fresno would have had a much better chance against Radanovich if the 19th Congressional District were more competitive. But Democrats need to look in the mirror when it comes to redistricting reform.
The Democrats ran the campaign against the failed redistricting reform proposition in the 2005 special election and then Democratic leaders killed bills in the state Legislature earlier this year, despite claiming they wanted reform.
Cox ran in a district he never had a chance in because of his own party.The Democrats say that they'll try to fix redistricting in the Legislature this year. Don't count on it. They've been lying about that for years.
Here's my column of today discussing how a gerrymandered district saved Radanovich in Tuesday's election.
We got slammed with spam comments -- something like 10,000 -- on Election Day and the system took all comments, even the legitimate ones, into our junk file. That's why several of your election comments did not get posted as timely as they should have been. I have pulled those comments out and posted them on the blog.
We apologize for that glitch in the system. Darn spammers. We're offering a reward -- an autographed copy (by me) of my Britney Spears/Kevin Federline blog item of Tuesday -- for anyone bringing me the keyboard of the spammers messing with our blog.
Thanks for playing.
Editor's note: Because of the intense interest in the Fresno County sheriff's race, we have reposted this blog item so that it is near the top of the blog listing. The item was first published on Sept. 1.
On Tuesday, Cal Minor and Margaret Mims appeared before The Bee's Editorial Board to discuss their campaigns for Fresno County sheriff. They appeared separately. We taped both appearances. Here's the link if you'd like to hear what they said. Click on the information box to access each session.
These sessions reflect what occurs at a typical Editorial Board meeting. Each meeting ran about 45 minutes. Editorial Board members and Bee reporters asked questions about issues in the campaign, the candidates' backgrounds and their vision for the office.
Minor is a retired California Highway Patrol captain and Mims is an assistant sheriff in the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. They survived the June primary and the winner on Nov. 7 will become sheriff in January.
Danny Tarkanian, the son of former Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, failed in his attempt to be Nevada's next secretary of state. Tarkanian, a Republican, was defeated by Democrat Ross Miller, the son of former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.
"I don't have any regrets," Tarkanian told the Associated Press. "We worked as hard as we could. It just wasn't good enough. When I played basketball for my father, he said play as hard as you can and leave nothing on the court. Then, when it is over, hold your head high, and I am holding my head high now."
It was a good election for Nevada Democrats. This is how the AP characterized it: "Democrats broke a four-year Republican grip on Nevada's constitutional offices, capturing four of the five posts while losing only to the GOP's Brian Krolicki for lieutenant governor. Catherine Cortez Masto easily defeated Republican Don Chairez for attorney general, Ross Miller topped Republican Danny Tarkanian for secretary of state, Kate Marshall beat Republican Mark DeStefano for treasurer and Kim Wallin edged Republican Steve Martin for controller. "
The children of my colleague, Lisa Boyles, were in the office yesterday to celebrate Mom's 40th birthday. Her elder daughter, Alyssa, almost 13, was looking over copies of our upcoming pages, which were heavy on election reflection. Alyssa looked over the pages and said, "Do you know that Congress sets its own salaries?"
"Yes," I said.
Alyssa was incredulous at the absurdity of such a notion. "Who came up with THAT idea?"
In Saturday's Valley Voices, a page for local columnists, Jim Doyle, a freelance writer and veterans activist, writes about a memorial to the war dead in Tbilisi, Georgia. Jon F. Morse Sr., project director for Inspire Destiny Academy, a future charter school, says it's time to think about education in a new way. Bill Littlewood, board president of the Community Food Bank, reminds folks to keep donations to the hungry in their holiday charity plans.
In Sunday Vision:
* Our editorial commends Fresno County voters for looking at the big picture when backing initiatives in Tuesday's election. "The county's voters looked byond their own neighborhoods and individual communities and voted for the good of the entire county."
* Jim Boren, editor of The Bee's editorial pages, says the easy victory of Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, is a perfect example of why gerrymandering makes for complacent Congressmen.
* Victor Davis Hanson says the immigration debate needs a dose of truth-telling.
* Shashank Bengali, the Africa correspondent for McClathcy Newspapers, is based in Nairobi, Kenya. On an assignment last year, he helped a young orphan in Uganda by paying a year's school tuition. Is that ethical?
* Maureen Dowd, columnist for the New York Times, says "Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with, and he broke it. So now they're taking it back."
* Gauhar Abdygaliyeva, a Muslim student from Kazakhstan doing graduate work at George Washington University in Washington explains why Kazaks are not amused by the comedian Sasha Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat.
* Top 10 ways to settle the sheriff's race -- No. 10 is: The first to build a new jail wins.
* Meet our letter writers: Helen Pitton, a preschool literacy specialist, is a wife and mother of three and a member of the Green Party.
* Two views: Should the Democrats push for a sweift withdrawal of U. S. troops from Iraq? John B. Quigley, professor of law at Ohio State University, says yes. Lawrence J. Haas, a visiting senior fellow at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, says no.
Enjoy!
In the same week that Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown was elected attorney general, his city's baseball team, the Oakland Athletics, announced it was heading south to Fremont to relocate in a new stadium. I wonder how Oakland residents feel about their mayor now. . . The homicide rate is skyrocketing and now the baseball team is leaving town. Can the Raiders be far behind?
Seems like the mayor has some explaining to do before he splits for Sacramento.
This is how the Associated Press explained the Fremont stadium deal: "The Oakland Athletics have reached a deal with Cisco Systems Inc. to build a ballpark in southern Fremont, according to city officials who met with the team's owner. The agreement would create a 32,000- to 35,000-seat ballpark to be named Cisco Field on a 143-acre parcel held by the company. If the plan is approved by the city, the A's could begin playing there as soon as 2011."
On my morning commute yesterday, down Wishon/Fulton to The Bee building downtown, I ran into a blinking red light at Freeway 180, just south of Belmont. That's the middle element of a three-light cluster where 180 crosses Wishon/Fulton.
As I stopped, I noticed a Caltrans truck and two or three orange-vested guys tinkering with the stop light control box. Uh oh. A clear warning sign of an impending "upgrade."
In the past, it's been possible to hit all three lights on green in quick succession. Most civilized. But sure enough, this morning I had to stop at all three.
It's vivid demonstration of Rule No. 1 for Upgrades: "In order to be regarded as successful, an upgrade must render operations less efficient, be perfectly inexplicable and increase user frustration." Bingo.
Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims, long considered the underdog in the race for Fresno County sheriff against Cal Minor, the retired California Highway Patrol captain, appears to be pulling away in the long count of absentee ballots. This afternoon, the county elections office counted the batch of absentee ballots that arrived on election day and Mims' lead went from 155 votes to 740. The problem for Minor is that throughout the count, Mims has captured a greater share of absentees. There is no reason to think that Minor can reverse that trend as the remaining absentees and provisional ballots -- as many as 10,000 -- are counted over the next week.
One of the reasons that Mims has done better in absentees is that she targeted absentee voters, and Minor did not. That's a huge failure by Minor's campaign, and could cost him the election. Running an aggressive absentee program is a compulsory event in an era when more and more voters are casting absentee ballots. This mistake by the Minor campaign is monumental.
There are still about 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots to count, according to elections officials. It's conceiveable that Minor could make up the ground, although unlikely. His capture rate so far has been well below the percentage of ballots that he must win to close the widening gap. His campaign has to be hoping that somehow a huge chunk of his absentees were turned in at one of the polls, and the vote count will move in his favor.
One complicating factor is the large number of provisional ballots. Those are ballots cast by voters whose voting status was unclear when they showed up at the precincts. They could have been at the wrong precinct or for some reason weren't on the voter rolls. Minor's camp must hope that those voters favored him and their status is cleared up so their votes will count.
It should all be resolved by next Friday, which is the target for completing the vote count.
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Margaret Mims being Fresno County's first woman sheriff.
Isn't this friendly, all this sweet talk among politicians about working together, bipartisanship, finding common ground? You'd think it was easy. If it was easy, they would have been doing it all along. And they haven't.
I'm not convinced they even know how.
This is going to take some teaching and I suggest they take a hint from the Measure C committee and bring in the professional mediators. At Fresno State and Fresno Pacific University, we just happen to have experts on conflict resolution. I suggest our acrimonious squabblers in Sacramento and Washington put the university numbers on speed dial.
Coincidentally, a national consultant on collaboration, J. David Womeldorff, visited Fresno recently to conduct a workshop for a group of Valley executives set up by Deb Nankivell of the Fresno Business Council. The founder of the Bainbrige Leadership Center in Bainbridge, Wash., Womeldorff is the author of a thought-provoking little paperback book on relationships called "The Power of TED." A consultant for communitities nationwide, he outlined what he calls his seven agreements for creating powerful partnerships. He teaches these in multiple-day workshops, but here's an overview. His hints are organized into three categories: How you think, how you interact with each other and how you take action.
* Focus attention on what you are trying to create, rather than what you don't want or what problems you want to solve.
* Identify and challenge assumptions.
* Work together as colleagues. Tell the truth and don't hide your agendas. The foundation of collaboration is building and maintaining trust.
* Listen to one another openly and generously and listen for possibililites in other people's views.
* Focus the conversation on the purpose at hand.
* Harness dynamic tension to create baby steps that move the group closer to the outcomes.
* Hold one another accountable as you adopt new ways of working together. Compassionately confront old behaviors when they occur, while affirming one another and celebrate actions that reflect the aspirations.
Womeldorff will be teaching a workshop on collaboration in Fresno next year. To get on the mailing list, contact him at www.bainbridgeleadership.com.
... I was amused by this link my brother emailed me yesterday.
It's a collection of photos called Rumsfeld Fighting Technique. And my husband thinks that I talk with my hands!
Enjoy!
One of the true tests of grace is how one handles adversity. A friend passed on this letter from Democrat TJ Cox, who lost his bid for a Congressional seat Tuesday to Rep. George Radanovich. TJ has his priorities in order.
Friends,
We ran a campaign based on issues, not negative attacks. It's important to recognize that the values that bind us together as Americans are greater than the issues that divide us. Although we fell short in our goals at the ballot box, I think back to one of our volunteers, who didn't say much, quietly going about her endeavors. For months, she came to volunteer and work on our campaign. This campaign gave her hope for a better future for our country, our community, our children. I want to dedicate this campaign to that volunteer - Frances Sivak. A week ago, Frances was walking precincts with us on a Saturday, but then tragically died in a car accident on Sunday. I'm sure she's in heaven looking down on us and taking pride in what we have accomplished. I have no regrets, not one. I believe my campaign has not failed. Failure only happens when you don't try.
I am humbled and honored by the thousands of supporters who volunteered, contributed and stood up to make a difference.
I thank you.
Respectfully,
~ TJ
www.tjcox.com
Ah, the prescience of pundits:
Rush Limbaugh and Bush spokesman Tony Snow really hit the nail on the head on the air Monday, giving Limbaugh's faithful the straight skinny on how the election would turn out.
Limbaugh: I have been suspicious of polls for a long time in the sense that I believe news organizations use them to make news that reflects their editorial pages, and the same with the editorial opinion of broadcast network people, and like the Pew poll internals show massive shifts in 30 days of public opinion. One of the things that the Pew poll is that the Democrats have lost all white voters. They've lost women and they've lost ...
Tony Snow : They lost men. They've lost women. Absolutely right, and I'm glad you pointed that out.
Yep. They lost men. They lost women. All they won was control of the House of Representatives, and maybe the Senate, too.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could read the election returns as well as any on Tuesday night. The Republican defeat in races across the nation was blamed on the failed war in Iraq as much as anything else. On Wednesday morning, Rumsfeld agreed to resign after six years as defense secretary. He was largely seen as a symbol of terrible war strategy.
When Sen. Dianne Feinstein met with The Bee's Editorial Board last month, she called on President Bush to fire Rumsfeld,. "He is arrogant. He is stubborn. He doesn't listen to people," Feinstein said of Rumsfeld. She added that the president needed "a new team and maybe even new joint chiefs" of staff to chart a new direction in Iraq.
Here's an Associated Press Story on the Rumsfeld resignation:
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday.
Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld. The development occurred one day after midterm elections that cost Republicans control of the House, and possibly the Senate, as well. Surveys of voters at polling places said opposition to the war was a significant contributor to the Democratic victory.
President Bush was expected to announce Rumsfeld's departure and Gates' nomination at an afternoon news conference. Administration officials notified congressional officials in advance.
Last week, as he campaigned to save the Republican majority, Bush declared that Rumsfeld would remain at the Pentagon through the end of his term.
Rumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Ford.
Gates is the president of Texas A&M University and a close friend of the Bush family. He served as CIA director for Bush's father from 1991 until 1993.
Gates first joined the CIA in 1966 and served in the intelligence community for more than a quarter century, under six presidents.
His nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
Whatever confidence Bush retained in Rumsfeld, the Cabinet officer's support in Congress had eroded significantly. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker-in-waiting, said at her first post-election news conference that Bush should replace the top civilian leadership at the Pentagon.
And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had intervened in the past to shore up Rumsfeld, issued a statement saying, "Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way -- Republicans and Democrats -- to outline the path to success in Iraq."
With union-backed candidates slamming the slate of candidates pushed by a group called Voices of Excellence, the question now is whether the reform movement in the Fresno Unified School District will be stalled. It's no secret that the Fresno Teachers Association didn't like the direction the board was taking the district. The FTA got active in the election and had substantial help from other unions, including the Service Employees International Union.
The unions and the candidates they supported ran much better campaigns than the Voices for Excellence candidates, who were content to allow Voices to do most of the campaign work. The result was that challenger Cal Johnson defeated Board President Luisa Medina and challenger Michelle Arax Asadoorian defeated board member Pat Barr. The two other union-backed candidates, incumbents Valerie Davis and Tony Vang, easily won re-election.
The new board will have the same old problems in Fresno Unified: Figuring out how to develop a strategy that allows all children to learn. Too often, past boards have been more interested in serving adults in the school system and not the children. That has resulted in some of the worst student achievement in the state.
The focus of the school system must be on raising the educational bar. Superintendent Michael Hanson and his staff have been pursuing that mission. That cannot change, no matter who gets elected to the school board.
But the newcomers to the board, Arax Asadoorian and Johnson, are educators and they understand what's at stake if children aren't given an opportunity to learn. Arax Asadoorian is a Fresno Unified reading tutor and Johnson is a retired college administrator.
The Bee's Editorial Board supported the same candidates that the Voices for Excellence did. Our reasoning was they'd continue the reform efforts brought in during the past two elections. We hope the direction of the district does not change. The emphasis must be on improving student performance.
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