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The death of Molly Ivins today leaves me feeling sad and angry.  Sad for the loss of her wit and wisdom and angry that breast cancer has taken yet another wonderful woman from me.
Sassy and bold, Molly was a fighter to the end, beating back the cancer three times. Though she was so very ill when she wrote her last columns, it amazes me that she used what energy she had left to work for her nation's benefit. Her last column rallied people into the streets to end the war in Iraq: "Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'"
What first drew me to Molly was not her political insights, but her way with words. She wrote by ear -- with a Texas drawl. And at the time I discovered her, this was completely unheard of on the very formal Opinion pages. (She was also one of very few women on the Opinion pages.) One of her books was called "You Got To Dance With Them What Brung You," and she referred to government as "guvment;" business as "bidness." I admire bright, insightful, funny women with wit, and she was all that. She liked to call President Bush "Shrub."
I envy those who got to work with her personally. There's a very nice column on tomorrow's Other Opinions page written by her editor.
I thank you, Molly, for being fearless.
(Photo: Associated Press file)
Humberto Cruz's column in Monday's Business section was spot on regarding the difficulty of filing for rebates. I naively jumped into rebate hell a couple of years ago while buying a new computer and a lot of software to go with it. What a great deal I was getting with all these rebates, I thought (stupidly!) Some things were virtually free. Whee!
Well, I've never seen such ridiculous requirements. You had to actually get a knife and cut the numbers off the boxes the computers come in! Give me a break! All of them had different requirements and you would not believe the pile of receipts necessary. Then, of course, you want to keep copies of everything just in case something goes awry. And then there are deadlines. It goes on and on. The number of checks I actually got made the whole exercise not worth it. I think the companies are counting on that to make a hidden profit.
I'm a new person now. I will not leave the store without a clerk getting everything prepared to put the rebate in the mail. I bought a phone a few weeks ago and the salesman was touting the rebate. OK, I said, but you'll be working with me to fill out all this information, making my copies, giving me an envelope. I'll not leave this store without everything ready to go into the mailbox for the rebate. At first he bubbled up about that and said he couldn't do that... I was not going to allow that to happen. Excuse me, do you want to sell me this phone or not? You can't use your copy machine for company business? What's that about? Well, on second thought, he checked on that and came back with the copies and a couple of envelopes. With his expertise on filling these out and both of us working on it, it didn't take that long. Thanks. Now I just have to wait for what sounds like, from Humberto's experience, about 20 weeks for that rebate to show up.
I think the stores should give the customers rebates up front. Then they can fool around with the paperwork with the supplier to get reimbursed. They are in communication with those suppliers all the time anyway, plus they have a lot more leverage to get action because of their purchasing power.
Cruz said in his column that there is a store that actually charges to fill out those rebate form. Let's see now, you are enticing buyers with the rebate, then you want to charge them to collect it? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I wonder if the stores also make the followup calls and write the followup letters five months later to determine why the checks haven't shown up.
I like the store discount idea. I will opt for the store discount if there's an option. That way, you can make a clean getaway. What's your strategy? Anybody have a secret for success?
Two Valley congressmen have acted on different fronts in the ongoing effort to win official U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century.
George Radanovich, the Mariposa Republican, has once again offered a non-binding resolution to that effect, and this time there may be a chance for approval. Last year, Dennis Hastert, then Speaker of the House, pulled the rug out from under a similar resolution at the last minute, preventing it from reaching the House floor. The new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has supported such efforts in the past.
Fresno Democrat Jim Costa has sent a letter to President Bush asking him to withdraw his nomination of Richard Hoagland as ambassador to Armenia. In two previous appearances before Congress, Hoagland has hewed to the official State Department line, which is to ignore the calls for justice from Armenian Americans and others upset with the U.S. pandering to Turkey on the issue of gencoide recognition.
Text of Radanovich's press release and Costa's letter follows:
Radanvich's press release:
Congressman George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, today released the following statement on the introduction of a resolution officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
"My district in California is home to tens of thousands of Armenians who have worked tirelessly over the years to help me understand the importance of genocide recognition.
"1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were systematically murdered, and over 500,000 exiled by the Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923 to compose what was the first genocide of the 20th century. This year will mark the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide; 92 years without official recognition from the United States.
"As a leader in the free world, the United States should be at the forefront of combating human rights abuses around the world-one of the essential components in doing so is to recognize the abuses of the past.
"I have made official recognition of the Armenian Genocide a top priority since coming to Congress twelve years ago, and will continue to be a champion of the issue. Last Congress I introduced legislation with the exact same language as the resolution that was introduced today and I am proud to be the lead Republican in the 110th Congress.
"Adoption of this resolution would affirm a proud and groundbreaking chapter in U.S. history, and hopefully inspire other democracies around the world to follow similar suit. The time for official recognition of the Armenian Genocide is now."
Costa's letter:
January 29, 2007
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I write to express my disappointment with your re-nomination of Richard Hoagland to serve as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia. On behalf of the many constituents of Armenian decent who I am proud to represent, I respectfully urge the withdrawal of Mr. Hoagland's nomination.
As you are well aware, on April 24, 1915, 300 Armenian leaders, intellectuals and professionals were rounded up in Constantinople, deported and killed, under orders from the Young Turk government. This was the beginning of a Genocide, resulting in the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians.
A growing number of nations have officially recognized the tragedies in Armenia as the first genocide of the 20th Century. However, despite the well documented history of this event, the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the Genocide to this day, almost ninety years later. In a deliberate effort to suppress history, Article 301 of the Turkish penal code makes insulting "Turkishness" punishable by imprisonment. The article applies to individuals that even acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
On January 19, 2007, the world was witness to the danger of denial as the legacy of the Armenian Genocide continued. Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper who was tried and convicted under Article 301 for genocide recognition in his newspaper editorials, was shot dead in the broad daylight.
Mr. Hoagland's nomination has twice been place on hold by a Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to his unwillingness to acknowledge that the travesty Armenians faced at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 constituted genocide. As we mourn the loss of Hrant Dink, a great voice of the Armenian people, let us Americans put action behind the oft repeated claim, "Never Again" by nominating a candidate that respects Armenians past.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jim Costa
There are Indian casinos everywhere and a cardroom or two within a short drive. Gambling is fun for most of us, but should we worry about the impact of all those gaming facilities on those who can't control their gambling? A new study says there are nearly one million problem gamblers in California. Do you know any of them?
The gambling study was done by Rachel Volberg, president of Gemini Research Ltd., a Massachusetts firm, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Here's the U-T's story.
 The story about Barbaro being put down yesterday was such a sad ending for this brave athlete. I was touched by the comments of his surgeon, who said he spoke to him as he died. There are human beings who do not leave this world with such tenderness and consideration.
If you doubt it the affection for this horse, check out legacy.com.. There were 797 entries for remembrances for Barbaro when I checked it this morning. I don't think I've seen this site used in quite this way, but why not?
Though his death is so very sad, many good things were learned from his treatment, according to his devoted surgeon. Millions of dollars were also raised to improve veterinary care and scholarships for veterinarians are being established in Barbaro's name. There also is hope ahead, since that strong bloodline continues. Apparently, Barbaro has brothers who are showing promise.
(Photo: Associated Press file)
I've never seen such a crowded field for a presidential election -- and the actual election, November 2008, is still a year and a half away! Here's what comedian Argus Hamilton has to say: "Joe Biden will announce for president today following the entry by Mike Huckabee and Bill Richardson and Mitt Romney and Chris Dodd. The number keeps adding up. At the rate we're going, the election is going to be a 300 million-way tie."
(Editorial cartoon: John Branch/San Antonio Express-News)
Now, we're talking. The Poynter Institute, a journalists' think tank in Florida, recently tipped us off to the Web site of Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who posts his daily schedules online so you can see which lobbyists are taking up most of his time. There is even an archive, so you can see if there are trends.
I like. OK, here's an open challenge to all the Valley's officials to do the same. I also appreciate his "Today in the Senate" feature on the side, which really gives you a good explanation of what's going on in his schedule today, so you can respond quickly and by e-mail.
Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, who represents the 20th district of New York, does the same thing by publishing the Sunlight Report.
Here is her schedule for Jan. 27:
Meeting with the Medical Society of the State of New York.
Essex County Congress At Your Corner to hold neighborhood office hours.
Economic Development Roundtable meeting at the Olympic Center.
Briefing on ORDA's facilities and priorities.
Meeting with Essex County Supervisors.
This is a whole lot meatier and more relevant than the pandering too many officials do on their Web sites .
There was a chilling story in the paper Sunday about cell phones being banned from the Milwaukee public schools.
Thugs who wanted to fight in school were calling in family reinforcements by the carload onto campus with their cell phones.
The result is that now no one can take their cell phones onto campus. This topic always stirs up a hot debate among my colleagues because, as they correctly point out, we got along just fine for years at school without any cell phones.
True, but they have become such a convenience now I admit that I would hate to see them go. We will use them today to tell our son what time and where we will pick him up from school. We do this every day because we are never quite sure when we will be getting finished with work. He goes to the library to work on his homework until we get there, and then we call when we are in the parking lot. He made two calls this morning; one to a friend who was going to ride with us, but didn't show up. He called to check on the kid to make sure he had a ride to school. And second, he called that friend again to meet up together on campus before classes started.
It's not necessary, of course, but the phones make things more convenient. Of course, we all understand safety first; but I say press charges on all the fighters and keep the cell phones.
Here is the sad scene in Milwaukee, according to the Associated Press:
MILWAUKEE -- School brawls have gone high tech, with students using cell phones to call in reinforcements -- in one case requiring police and pepper spray to break up a fight that swelled to about 20 family members on school grounds.
The fracas earlier this month, in which six students and three adults were arrested, was the latest in a surge of cell phone-related fights and prompted Wisconsin's largest school district to ban cell phones in its 217 schools beginning Monday.
"We consider [cell phones] almost as weapons because when they call, we're the ones out in front and we don't know these people are coming," said Mike Heese, safety security assistant at Bradley Tech High School, where the fight happened.
Prosecutors also are taking a tougher stance. Adults who harm anyone at a school could face felony charges, said Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. Penalties in the past often were fines for disorderly conduct.
Milwaukee joins a growing number of school districts that prohibit or limit cell phones. But many bans, including those in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, were imposed because the phones cause distractions or are used to cheat.
Milwaukee Public Schools have had about one cell-phone-augmented fight a month in the last three years, but it seems to have worsened during the last year, said Peter Pochowski, the schools' director of safety and security.
Two years ago, a fighting student used his cell phone twice in a matter of weeks to summon two carloads of family members, Pochowski said.
Jamilynn Brushel, 18, a senior at Bradley Tech, said she would rather see stricter security guards and teachers, because students who want to fight will do so even without cell phones.
"They won't need people coming in," Brushel said. "They'll just get people who are already here."
The district will expel students who use cell phones to summon outsiders for a fight, Superintendent William Andrekopoulos said.
Others could be suspended, have their phone temporarily confiscated, or have a conference with the student or parents.
There will be exceptions to the ban for hardship cases, he said.
"I think people have to rise themselves up from a level of convenience to a level of safety," Andrekopoulos said. "I think that's where we're at in this country."
A couple of the letters to the editor in tomorrow's paper address a proposed bill that would make it a misdemeanor to spank a child under age 3.
"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger,'' said Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, who is proposing the bill, which is still being written. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?''
Both of the letter writers say Lieber's proposal is a foolish idea. One writer says "piercing an infant's ears fits the legal definition of assault better than a swat to deter a 2-year-old from touching a stove."
I have to agree with them -- about spanking and piercing an infant's ears. I was brought up in a home where our parents spanked us when necessary. I think a lot of what's wrong in society today might have been prevented if more parents thought like mine did. But that seems politically incorrect these days.
What is your opinion?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gutted funding for the much-anticipated high-speed rail line that would link the Valley with the Bay Area and Southern California. This could be the kiss of death for this badly needed project.
That's terribly frustrating. Ahnold has passed a lot of wind lately about making California a world leader again, much the way Pat Brown did in the late '50s and early '60s with bold and sweeping efforts such as new highways, water projects and a world-class higher education system. Schwarzenegger has sought to appropriate Brown's mantle as a visionary leader, but he misses one crucial point: What Brown did then was new. What this governor proposes to do is not.
And when faced with something actually new -- at least in this country; the rest of the developed world figured out the need for high-speed rail systems decades ago -- Schwarzenegger chokes. He want to cut funding for high-speed rail from the current $14 million to just $1.2 million in his latest budget. That's a far cry from the $100 million the project needs to begin purchasing right of way and continue engineering studies. He also wants to postpone -- indefinitely -- the already twice-postponed vote on a $9.95 billion bond measure that would fund the actual beginning of construction on high-speed rail.
Schwarzenegger has shown, definitively, that his "vision" is more about posturing than it is about progress. Instead of looking ahead to the future, he just wants to replicate the past. His foresight apparently extends all the way to the mid-20th century. Some "vision."
My column today on shoddy road repairs in the city of Fresno caused several people to email me with their examples of problem roads. Maybe we need to keep post a list of the worst streets in the city. Send me your nominations and we'll post them on Fresnobee.com.
One of my pet peeves is the city allowing contractors to cut into streets and then not requiring them to return the streets to the same smoothness when they are done. In some cases, the patched portions are mini speed bumps. That should not be allowed, but it seems that no on at City Hall is paying attention.
Looking at Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, I see that Jan. 28 is the anniversary of the Challenger disaster in 1985, which killed all seven astronauts aboard.
I was in my freshman year at U.C. Berkeley and had stopped by my friend, Mike Donnelly's dorm room, that day before my classes started. Maybe we were watching the launch live on TV when it happened, or maybe we just caught replays after it occurred that morning, I don't remember.
But I remember seeing the space shuttle explosion, 73 seconds into the flight, played over and over on his television. For me, too young to have lived through the Kennedy assassination, it was the first major news event I watched unfold with untold numbers of other television viewers.
A few hours later, televisions around campus continued to analyze what had happened. I remember watching news broadcasts from a pizza place (not Blondie's) near the campus as I ate lunch.
Last week's column on reality television was sent out by a couple of news services and it got good play judging by the emails that landed in my inbox on Saturday morning. It's interesting to me that these kind of topics generate the biggest reposnes from readers. A column I wrote on rude cell phones users got a similar response from around the country. But a column on an important public policy issues, health care reform, for example, will get only a fraction of the reaction from readers.
Here's a sampling of emails I got today from readers on reality television:
Dear Mr. Boren,
Today I enjoyed reading your article "That's Entertainment?" in the San Antonio Express-News. It struck a chord with me. This past week I was discussing with my wife (Cindy) the American Idol show and was puzzled how many see this show as "entertainment" and whether some contestants on the show have really been screened for their talent or just placed on the show for laughs. I am 51 years old. I realize my age group is not the targeted market for shows such as American Idol and radio pranks. Perhaps people my age are perceived as "now to old" and they do not know how to have a "good laugh". Whatever the case, all I know is, count me in; in the minority of those who can't wait until reality TV and radio pranks run their course. I realize things and people change but I do hope there are plenty of others out there (of all ages) who's basic notion of "good entertainment" is not based on Reality TV shows such as American Idol and radio pranks which end up hurting someone.
Regards,
Simon Castillo, Jr.
Dear Sir,
I find it amusing for you journalists to critique something that you have incomplete knowledge of...the contestants on American Idol SIGN a CONTRACT with the producers that they will be assailed for their imperfections (if any are evident)! So to criticize a show for something when the "victims" know what is in store for them is typical of your putting the cart-before-the-horse mentality. I am one of those that have watched it for going on six years and if anyone has watched one year of it...they KNOW what will be done to them.
That being said..I do agree with you concerning the radio show and the death of that poor woman. It shows complete disregard for the people by the dj's and the naiveté` of the contestants and their desire or obsession with getting $$$$$$/material stuff. Just like in FEAR FACTOR, some of those stunts are ridiculous...but the money is the driving force..
Millie R. Anderson
Portsmouth, VA. 23701
The Virginian-Pilot
(editorial page 01/27/07)
Just read your article "Will passion for reality wither?" in the Montgomery Advertiser. I was wondering how long I would have to wait before someone pointed out the ultimate stupidity on much of our nations airways. We are blessed with a great deal of musical talent in this country, but American Idol is not it! Thanks for pointing out the apparent lack of good taste in the average American with his failure to demand quality instead of quantity.
Joe Scanlan MD
Montgomery, Alabama
Jim:
My wife and I read your article concerning Reality TV in the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. Sadly, you're exactly right. It's painfully obvious that the current generation of TV programmers have very little to offer. Their reality TV programs will never be syndicated for re-run and in retrospect, I believe that it will be very obvious that the watchers of this pathetic sludge would be much better off to spend their time educating themselves or spending time helping their kids with their homework. In fact, there's many things that you could do for yourself and your family that would be better than suffocating your brain with these electronic waste products.
The good news is that TV now is offered with many channels and with the push of your finger you can avoid this crap.
Larry and Deborah Newcomb
Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948
You are not alone, I agree with you on the sad state of "entertainment". Keep writing about "garbage".
Thanks
Dear Jim Boren,
I just read your column on that's entertainment.
I agree with you, nothing but trash.I don't like to watch T.V. or American Idol.Those 3 bimbo's they have on the panel are bad. Did you see Paula drunk on T.V.
Really bad.
Thank you for writing about them.
George Almaraz
Evelyn Woods
There's something very wonderful going on at the Fresno Famous Web site, especially for Fresno old-timers -- a group that now emphatically includes me.
Back in February 2006, a fellow named Reggie Dunbar posted his "Lost Fresno" Top 10 list -- things that have vanished from our local lives over the years. His list included Lesterburger, the old White Front store, Perry Boys Smorgy and the Giant Slide on Blackstone Avenue.
In the ensuing year, more than 200 comments have been added to the original entry. It's an extraordinary compendium of Fresno That Once Was, and utterly delightful for those whose memory still functions, at least periodically.
I've already lost count of the memories the lists have resurrected in me: the Munchies hamburger joint on First north of McKinley -- I worked there the first summer it was open. Ann's Snow Cones, on Friant Road on the approaches to the dam. Harpain's Dairy. Various drive-in movies. Al Radka and his pleasantly loony commercials for Oberti olives, Lesterburger and Lamoure's Cleaners.
Penny Candy, The Wild Blue, the Outpost restaurant. Triple J drugstore, cruising Belmont Avenue, Webster Webfoot. It's all there, and much more. Splendid!
For Molly Ivins fans everywhere (and that would include me) keep good thoughts. According to an Associated Press story, she's back in the hospital again fighting a mighty battle against recurrent breast cancer.
From the Associated Press:
Ivins may be able to go home Monday, Betsy Moon said.
"That's the day the doctors said," Moon said. "We're not sure
what's going to happen, but she's very sick."
Ivins, 62, had taken a break from her syndicated column, which
appears in nearly 400 newspapers, but resumed writing earlier this
month.
Her most recent column appeared two weeks ago, when Ivins urged
readers to stand up against President Bush's plan to send more
troops to Iraq.
Ivins, a California native who grew up in Houston, got her third
cancer diagnosis more than a year ago. She has undergone
chemotherapy.
She was overwhelmed with advice and gifts after she wrote of her
initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1999. The outpouring kept her
from telling readers of recurrences in 2003 and 2005.
Ivins said last year she isn't giving in to cancer.
"Maybe this is false bravado," she said in the Austin
American-Statesman. "In some ways for me, this is like having a
manageable disease. It's like diabetes. It doesn't mean it's not
going to come get me in the end."
OK, so you think YOU'RE having a bad day with cranky customers and a crying baby? Well, the San Francisco Chronicle's editor, Phil Bronstein, is sharing some of the paper's voice mails by podcast. This should also serve as a teensy little bit of a warning to people in the mood to just rant on the phone. Don't drone on. Here's a classic.
If MySpace friends lists were voter rolls, things would be rosy for Democratic presidential candidates. That's the conclusion of Micah Sifry, writing at the Web site of the Personal Democracy Forum.
"To give you just one example," Sifry writes, "if you add up all the friends all the Republican candidates have on their MySpace pages, and compare it to all the friends the Ds have, the totals will amaze you: 4,007 to 51,471. If I take fringe candidates Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo out of that equation, the Republican total drops below 2,000."
Of course, listing oneself as a friend on MySpace and actually participating in the political process are two mighty different things. But Sifry has an interesting bit on why the Ds appear to be ahead on the Rs in cyberspace.
Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute has given me a new vocabulary word. In his column Wednesday, he describes a "tag cloud" as a program that can make it easy to see how often words or phrases emerge in speeches, for example. On this Web site, you can look at the most commonly used words in Bush's speech and compare it with presidential speeches stretching back to 1776.
"The tag cloud shows that last night, President Bush's most frequently used words were "Iraq," "terrorist," "economy" and "freedom."
George Washington's 1790 State of the Union speech emphasized the words "deliberations," "opinion," "blessings" and "Constitution." By 1791, he added the words "Indians" and "debt" to his vernacular.
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson's tag cloud is dominated by the word "debt."
In 1846, James Polk was stuck on the word "Mexico."
I have a feeling if you did one of these tag clouds on the Valley's teenage language, the big word in all caps will be LIKE. The kids who hang out at our house, like, can't say two words without, like, putting "like" in the sentence. Even the foreign students pick it up as a space filler similar to "um."
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17, advanced the stunning notion that habeas corpus -- the long-enshrined right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution.
That was news to Sen. Arlen Specter, R. Pa., among others, but it shouldn't come as that big a surprise. Gonzales has been the point man for the Bush administration's radical effort to assert imperial powers for the presidency.
Nor is this the first time that presidents have abused their power. The Arts & Letters Daily Web site has a link to an interesting New Yorker piece by Caleb Crain describing Andrew Jackson's imposition of martial law in New Orleans in the wake of the famous battle he won against the British in 1815.
Jackson's high-handedness set a tone for his subsequent presidency, and, according to Crain, established some dangerous precedents that still haunt us.
Was anyone watching "Dr. Phil" Monday when he sent off Alex, a very troubled 14-year-old girl who's having sex with men for money, to a Valley boarding school called Academy of the Sierras? It's located in Reedley, on the Kings River about 25 miles southeast of Fresno.
Here's a summary of the somewhat complicated plot that's being played out in the Dr. Phil House on TV:
Dr. Phil confronts Alex's aunt, Enza, and her mother, Kim, about how their venomous relationship is affecting Alex and leading her to turn to men for comfort. Enza apologizes for her inappropriate conversations with Alex. Jeanette overhears a discussion between Kim and Enza and, upset, informs Kim that she will find a new place to live. After confiscating Alex's cell phone, Kim is disgusted to hear a voicemail from an older man, trying to contact Alex for sex. Private investigator Harold Copus meets with Alex and gets information on the men she says she's been with. On their last day in the House, Dr. Phil breaks the news to Alex that she won't be returning home with her family, but will be headed to a therapeutic academy, to be in a healthy learning environment and learn how to take responsibility for herself. Alex breaks down in tears when she learns she's leaving immediately.
The Web site for Academy of the Sierras presents the school as a place to lose weight and become healthier, but it sounds like they are also willing to take on students with much more complex problems.
Here is Tracy Correa's Bee feature on the school, which ran a couple of years ago.
Terry Henry was 560 pounds when his family decided to send him to a rural boarding school to help him lose weight.
The 16-year-old's grandparents are footing the $5,500 monthly tuition because his parents cannot afford it. They're paying for him to live for 18 months at the school, about 3,000 miles from his home in Exeter, N.H.
For desperate families such as Terry's, the Academy of the Sierras is a last resort.
The school's 17 students, from as far as Florida and Ecuador, are here for one reason: They are overweight, and their families don't know what to do. After diets failed and summer weight-loss camps provided only temporary solutions, the year-round school offers a glimmer of hope.
About 25 miles southeast of Fresno, the school is said to be the nation's first boarding school for obese students. The for-profit school, nestled on 65 acres near the Kings River, opened in September.
The 30-member staff teaches students to replace poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles with good nutrition and physical activity.
Students, ages 12 to 20, eat healthy meals and exercise regularly, all under close supervision. College preparatory classes are part of the rigorous academic program.
Some students come from well-to-do families, while others, such as Terry's, have to scrape together tuition from relatives.
Ryan Craig, the academy's executive director, says the school is for those with significant weight problems: "We don't have anyone here less than 80 pounds overweight." The school requirement is at least 30 pounds overweight.
The cost is out of reach for many families. The academy has no students from the surrounding central San Joaquin Valley, even though the region's childhood obesity rate exceeds the statewide average of 26.5%.
Craig says the school is trying to help families tap into financial aid and has gotten some health insurers to cover the counseling portion of the program.
The school is a first for Healthy Living Academies, a division of Aspen Education Group, which runs summer weight-loss camps. Aspen has been in existence since the 1980s and operates 28 residential and outdoor programs in 11 states, most of them schools for troubled children.
The company bought the Reedley property -- once owned by Kings View Mental Health System -- almost two years ago and opened a school for emotionally disturbed children. The school had only a small number of students when the company switched gears, deciding the campus was the perfect site for a weight-loss boarding school.
If the academy is successful, the Cerritos-based company plans to operate more weight-loss schools nationwide.
Craig says he's convinced the concept will work. Enrollment has more than doubled since the school opened Sept. 7; 70 students are expected within a year. With some additional remodeling, the school could accommodate 130 students.
Most students are encouraged to stay at least a semester -- three to four months -- but are welcome to stay longer. Students return home occasionally, as most did over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Students such as Terry enter the program with high hopes, having battled weight issues for most of their lives.
"I was born a big baby -- 10 pounds, 6 ounces," says the dark-haired teenager whose face bears multiple piercings.
He is one of the largest at the academy, where students weigh from 200 to 600 pounds. He says there is a certain comfort and camaraderie in being with students who share the same struggle.
Structured days
The daily routine at the academy begins with a 2-mile walk at 7 a.m.
Students walk briskly past farmhouses and orchards. They have walked the same path almost daily since September. A few of the heavier students, who have difficulty with long walks because of leg chafing caused by their size, whiz by on bicycles -- visual blurs against the serene country backdrop.
After getting showered and dressed, they meet in the cafeteria for breakfast, then head off to classes. Classes end at 3:20 p.m. on weekdays, followed by dinner, more exercise and a 90-minute study hall for homework. Classes include advanced-placement calculus, economics, psychology and statistics.
The strict routine has been difficult for Natasha Ulch.
Natasha, 16, gained most of her weight while growing up in Canada. She has lived in Ecuador, where her father works for an oil company, for the past 4 1/2 years.
She views her stay at the academy as a California adventure, but the academic work has been a challenge, and she has not lost weight as fast as other students. It took her three weeks to lose 5 pounds.
But she has been through tough times before, like when she was at her heaviest and teased mercilessly at school. When she walked down the hall, students would say, "Oh, there's an earthquake."
A tough-talking girl with a double-pierced tongue, she usually would fire back with an expletive.
The comments affected her deeply. "I missed a half-year because of it."
Back in the cafeteria, the big news was the recent addition of bagels to the morning menu, which includes Egg Beaters, turkey bacon, fresh fruit and yogurt.
The academy's weight-loss program divides foods into "controlled foods" and "uncontrolled foods." Controlled foods typically include entrées and snacks and are limited.
Students are allowed to eat more uncontrolled foods, including fruit, yogurt and vegetables. The school offers foods that are high in protein and fiber but low in calories and fat. A display board in the cafeteria breaks down the calories, fat and protein of each food so students can track them in a daily log.
There are no vending machines. The only television set is in a workout room, and students are told they must be moving to watch it.
Exercise is a major part of the program, with staff members usually participating and encouraging students. Students wear pedometers and are encouraged to take 10,000 steps a day. There are weekend recreational trips -- two national parks are within driving distance.
Jon Peterson, a fitness trainer originally from Clovis, designs a personal workout program for each student. He works with students twice a week for about 50 minutes.
"We start out very slow," he says. "Most of what they gain the first few weeks is muscle control."
The workouts are modified for each student.
In many cases, Peterson says, he does not need to add weights to an exercise such as leg lifts: "Lifting their own body supplies the weight."
Over a recent breakfast, classmates discuss their progress and say Terry is in the lead in terms of pounds lost. They say this without animosity or jealousy, insisting they support and cheer on one another at the weekly weigh-ins.
Even so, 17-year-old Daniel Burger of Mesa, Ariz., looks enviously toward Terry. "We all know who has lost the most. It's not a contest, but everybody knows," he says.
Terry ducks his head and tries to appear unaffected, but he is unable to suppress a smile.
His weight loss has come quickly. He lost 19 pounds in his first week at the school. In all, he's lost 100.2 pounds.
Living with obesity has not been easy for him. He knows he stands out.
Wearing a T-shirt with the words "Big Daddy," Terry says he is used to stares, although he's not sure whether it's his piercings or his weight that attract attention. "People can't get past the looks on the outside."
Obesity epidemic
There is no shortage of students who could qualify for the school. Obesity rates for children continue to rise nationwide.
Since the early 1970s, the percentage of American children and adolescents defined as overweight has more than doubled to about 16%, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More children suffer from obesity's side effects, including type 2 diabetes -- once referred to as adult-onset diabetes.
Three out of four overweight teens remain heavy into adulthood, when health problems can worsen.
About $117 billion a year is spent treating obesity-related ailments such as diabetes and heart disease. Obesity is the nation's second-leading killer, behind tobacco.
None of this is lost on those who work at the academy, where the goal is to teach students to take control of their lives.
The school employs a staff aimed at steering students back to a healthy weight. Daniel Kirschenbaum, a professor at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, serves as clinical director. He has developed successful weight-loss programs for hospitals and is the author of "The 9 Truths About Weight Loss," a book aimed at providing a manageable program for controlling weight.
The school also aims to get students back on track academically. Many of the academy's students have been exposed to so much ridicule from classmates that they have dropped out of school.
Studies have shown a correlation between nutrition and how well students perform in school.
A report released in September by the national nonprofit organization Action for Healthy Kids shows that poor nutrition, inactivity and weight problems impair student achievement and cost school districts money from lost attendance.
Bill Potts-Datema, chairman of Action for Healthy Kids and director of Partnerships for Children's Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, says because obese students often face both health and academic challenges, there is a need for schools like the Academy of the Sierras.
"Kids have to be healthy to know how to learn, but they have to learn how to be healthy," he says.
Potts-Datema says obese students face obstacles most other children don't: "Students who are overweight are missing more school. They oftentimes are dealing with health issues that kids at a normal weight don't."
Mal Mahedy, 16, of Naples, Fla., says she had a difficult time in traditional school.
It was torture, says Mal, her brownish-blonde hair pinned in a ponytail. "I've been called every name in the book." The cruelty went beyond name-calling when students played a practical joke on her -- they Super-Glued the lock to her locker so she could not open it. She's convinced her appearance made her a target for the prank.
Her self-esteem crumbled, school absences increased, and her grades plummeted. She didn't want to go to school, and her family resorted to a private home tutor.
"My weight has affected my life severely," Mal says. "I didn't want to leave the house. ... I don't have self-esteem. I want to have self-esteem."
Mal is more upbeat at the academy, which she likes better than the weight-loss summer camps she has attended: "I've learned more in 1 1/2 weeks than five summers in weight-loss camps."
Overweight since she was 10, she has lost 64 pounds at the academy.
Life after school
Fresno doctor Gary Matson, a family practitioner who devotes half of his practice to treating obesity, likes the fact that the school is helping obese adolescents, but he worries about their being away from family. He also wonders what happens when students return home.
"It sounds like they have the right mix," he says. "But the only way we can do this is to make it routine."
Matson is particularly troubled by the increasing toll that obesity takes on younger children. In his practice, "we had a 13-year-old with elevated cholesterol and signs of early diabetes. This child was more than 300 pounds."
Treating obesity is complex, he says. It's about genetics, family eating habits and environment.
Academy officials say they are not teaching the kids to diet; they are teaching them to eat healthy and incorporate exercise into their lives.
"It's based on science, not fad," says Molly Carmel, the school's live-in therapist who struggled with her weight as a teen.
Therapy is a critical part of the program. Studies have suggested that the obese are five times more likely to suffer from depression.
Carmel meets with each student twice a week -- in a group and one-on-one. She goes over food logs with students and encourages them to talk about problems and emotions that might hinder success.
"We talk about what is different this time," she says.
"This time" resonates with most of the students. Many are alumni of weight-loss summer camps, where parents send them away for six to eight weeks to lose weight. Students say they lost weight at camp, only to regain it when they returned home.
David Ginsburg, assistant chief of the cancer prevention and nutrition division at the California Department of Health Services, says schools such as the Academy of the Sierras should be considered in more communities. However, he worries that the program is out of reach for low-income families.
The academy's $5,500 monthly tuition is on the high end for therapeutic boarding schools -- live-in schools that offer clinical counseling -- according to the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs. Therapeutic boarding schools cost about $3,700 to $5,500 a month, according to the association.
Most of the association's 129 member schools deal with emotionally disturbed children. The Academy of the Sierras is the association's only school specializing in obese children.
Ginsburg also worries that the program's teachings won't stick when students leave the campus.
Getting a handle on childhood obesity is not simple, he says. "Many of the reports that are coming out are talking about a multipronged approach. You are looking at school, community, industry and media."
He said parents are part of the equation.
School officials say they realize students could slip into old habits when they return to their families. Some did when they went home for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Craig says most students lost weight after spending a few days at home for the holiday, but some others gained.
School officials say they will work on reinforcement in hopes that the tools they provide follow students home. A six-month follow-up plan will allow school officials to keep in contact with students and their families by phone and e-mail.
Executive Director Craig says he knows it will be difficult for students to keep off the weight.
"They will never be like you and me," he says, explaining their lifelong struggle.
Matson, the Fresno weight management doctor, says his biggest concern is that students won't be able to keep up with the program once they return home.
"I worry who is going to get up and take that 2-mile walk with them."
The reporter can be reached at tcorrea@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6378.
Well, it seems Kevin Federline is not only an insult to Britney Spears and rap music, but fast food clerks as well.
AdAge.com is reporting that the the National Restaurant Association is upset with Nationwide Insurance's planned Super Bowl spot with the wannabe rapper.
" In a letter sent today to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen, the restaurant association's president-CEO, Steve C. Anderson, complains that the company's Super Bowl ad -- featuring Mr. Federline in various rap-video cliches, but in fact daydreaming while making fries at a fast-food restaurant as his manager yells at him to get to work -- denigrates restaurant workers.
"We hope that these reports are inaccurate and that Nationwide will not be airing an ad that would give the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant. An ad such as this would be a strong and a direct insult to the 12.8 million Americans who work in the restaurant industry," Mr. Anderson writes.
While we understand the perspective of the National Restaurant Association, please recognize this Super Bowl advertisement is a humorous take on one person's life," said Eric Hardgrove, a spokesman for Nationwide. "The intent of the ad isn't to offend or insult the many fine individuals who work in the restaurant industry. The focus of the ad is the element of surprise, not the setting of a fast-food restaurant."
Nationwide's Super Bowl ad, done by TM Advertising, Dallas, is part of the insurer's "Life Comes at You Campaign" and is the company's second entrance into the Super Bowl. A year ago Nationwide's ad featured Fabio.
Oopsie.
President Bush will be focusing on domestic issues during his State of the Union speech tonight, but the war in Iraq will loom large over the address. Bush reportedly will talk about reducing America's oil dependence (haven't we heard that before?) and making health care affordable (another talking point without substantive action on the part of the president).
So what's his health insurance plan? The anti-tax president (at least for big-salaried folks) wants to tax health insurance that we get from our employers as income. That's a big tax on the middle class, although a lesser burden on the wealthy. But then there would be a tax deduction for those with health insurance, suposedly offsetting the taxable income. But it never seems to work out that way for the middle class.
It's going to take some persuading to bring the public around to the president's plan. But maybe that's the idea: Keep the status quo by offering a plan that is DOA.
The president's handlers say he'll ask that Americans cut their usage of gasokline by 20% by 2017. Bush thinks that can be done by using more alternative fuels, including ethanol.
This is from an AP story: "The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that must be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen," said Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff.
It appears my old alma mater, Hoover High School, is about to see its first astronaut alum. Barbara Morgan -- she was Barbara Radding when we were classmates way back when -- is scheduled to go into space aboard the shuttle Endeavor sometime after June 28.
Barbara, many will recall, trained as the backup for Christa McAuliffe, the nation's first "teacher in space," who tragically lost her life, along with six fellow astronauts, when the Challenger shuttle exploded shortly after launch in 1986.
The upcoming Endeavor mission will visit the international space station to do some assembly work.
Barb told the Los Angeles Times' John Johnson Jr. that she's excited, despite the obvious risks. So is her family, apparently. She said her husband and their two children are "behind me all the way. They would like to bump me off and go in my place."
Barb went back to teaching elementary school in Idaho after the Challenger disaster, but resumed astronaut training when NASA resurrected the "educator astronauts" program in 1998. She graduated from Stanford after leaving Hoover, and she still has a legion of old friends and admirers around town who will be wishing her well.
While reading about the kidnapping of the Missouri boys, I couldn't help but remember the Merced boy, Steven Stayner, who suffered a similar fate many years ago. I hope that officials and family members will learn from Steven's experience and get these children and their families the psychiatric help they are most certainly going to need. Unfortunately, young Steven and his family didn't get the mental health treatment and they all had a difficult time. Here's a link that ties things together.
You'll remember that this family was again devastated when another son, Cary Stayner, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing four women in Yosemite National Park.
Clovis city officials are considering a different approach to draw new retailers there, according to an article in today's paper. They want residents to write letters to leaders of stores and restaurants they'd like to see in the area, urging them to establish locations in Clovis.
I like the sound of that. Much as I love living in Clovis, I can definitely think of gaps in available services, things that I absolutely have to drive to Fresno to find the selection I need.
I got a gift card to a Barnes & Noble for Christmas. But I haven't used it yet, wanting to wait until I have time to peruse the vast selection at the store at Nees and Blackstone, rather than be limited by the smaller selection at the former B.Dalton site on Shaw and Minnewawa closer to home, which is now owned by Barnes & Noble.
And there are definitely dining options I'd love to see in Clovis, Logan's, Dai Bai Dang and In-n-Out Burger topping my list.
What businesses would you like to see in Clovis? Or, if you live somewhere other than Clovis, what businesses are missing from your community? Is it worth your time to write a letter to try to draw them here?
Apparently this is not the time of year to plan connecting flights through Denver. My husband and son, Mikel -- who spent the weekend in Nebraska on a college visit -- had their trip there disrupted on Friday when the flight from Denver to Omaha was cancelled. We had hoped for a smoother return today, but we hoped for too much.
Denny called this afternoon to say their flight from Denver to Fresno had been cancelled. Next call, after standing in multiple "customer service" lines, it seemed like the soonest they might get home was 2 a.m. A couple hours later, a 10:50 p.m. departure seemed like it would get them home around midnight tonight.
Let's hope.
What's your worst travel horror story? I think mine was in my first year of college in 1985. Taking Amtrak back to Berkeley the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The train was overbooked, and the normally four-hour trip ended up taking six hours -- the first half of which I spent sitting on the floor because there were no seats to be had.
UPDATE: After another flight delay, my guys finally finally got into Fresno Yosemite International just before 2 a.m. Turns out the 2 a.m. guess was right on the nose after all. But at least they're home now.
Saturday's Valley Voices page features an essay by Chris A. Schneider, executive director of Central California Legal Services. He's warning folks about tax preparation services that market predatory "refund anticipating loans." Denise Sciandra has written a charming piece about the birthday preparations for her twin sister's 60th birthday. Sciandra is president of the Arne Nixon Center Advocates, the friend group for the Arne Nixon Center for the study of Children's Literature in the Madden Library at California State University Fresno. Dr. Linda Halderman, a general surgeon practicing in rural south Fresno County, calls our attention to the state rip-off of physicians here. A surgeon who takes out an appendix in Selma gets hundreds less than she would get for the same operation in Oakland. Ridiculous.
In Sunday's Vision section, there is a story about some young and creative gaming enthusiasts, who are bringing folks in communities together in some remarkably fun ways. Michael Hanson and Larry Moore square off on the Fresno Unified School District's focus on the Op-Ed page. Hanson is the superintendent of the Fresno Unfiied school District and Moore is president of the Fresno Teachers Association.
In editorials, we discuss the importance of protecting our elders from financial predators - sadly that includes their own children and grandchildren. In another piece, we raise the issue of bulimia and anorexia in the fashion industry. It took four dead girls from Brazil to get the industry to face its own obsession with thinness and attention to this problem is long overdue.
Columnist Maureen Dowd says President Bush has read his history books way too late to help the country; Jim Boren says he does not appreciate reality TV and their incessant pranks. Victor Davis Hanson points out the hypocrisy of some of the U.S.'s loud critics in the Mideast who nonetheless send their children to live here.
Joann K. Schilling is our letter writer of the week.
Enjoy!
There has been much talk lately in our pages and elsewhere about vocational education and the need to revive it. Now comes another perspective that's worth absorbing.
Charles Murray, the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote a three-part series published this week in the Wall Street Journal on the subject of " Intelligence in the Classroom." It's a brutally blunt assessment of what Murray regards as a principle flaw in our expectations about American education: "Today's simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon."
Murray argues, for example, that "There is no magic point at which a genuine college-level education becomes an option, but anything below an IQ of 110 is problematic. If you want to do well, you should have an IQ of 115 or higher. Put another way, it makes sense for only about 15% of the population, 25% if one stretches it, to get a college education."
And, "Combine those who are unqualified with those who are qualified but not interested, and some large proportion of students on today's college campuses--probably a majority of them--are looking for something that the four-year college was not designed to provide."
He offers an unvarnished look at a big problem in American higher education. Each part is linked separately on the Arts & Letters Daily Web site: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
That's a lot to digest, but Mr. Murray has contributed some useful insights, however hard they may be for some to swallow, about higher education's purpose in America.
There's another effort in the California Legislature to move the presidential primary -- this time from June to February to give the state more clout in the nominating process. Typically, the nominees for president in both major parties are decided by the time the California primary is held in June. So the nation's most populous state is irrelevant in the nominating process.
Here's a news release from Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office on the latest effort to change in nominating system.
SACRAMENTO - California voters would play a more significant role in selecting the presidential nominees of each political party under a measure introduced today at the Capitol to move the state's presidential primary from the traditional June election date to the first Tuesday in February.
SB 113 (Calderon) leaves the legislative and congressional primary races on the June ballot, but moves the presidential primary to the first Tuesday in February in any year evenly divisible by four, beginning in 2008, meaning that if SB 113 becomes law, California's 2008 presidential primary will be held on February 5. Under the State Constitution, any initiative measure that has qualified for the ballot more than 131 days before a statewide election would also appear on that February ballot.
Secretary of State Bowen made the following comments after the bill was introduced:
"California is the largest state in the union and its nearly 16 million registered voters should have a stronger voice in choosing the presidential nominees for each party. However, running a statewide election, even if it's only for a handful of contests, is no small undertaking, and holding three statewide elections in the span of ten months will present a challenge to local elections officials, poll workers, and voters.
"The most immediate challenge involves the voting systems that have been certified for use in California. I'm going to be conducting a top-to-bottom review of the systems used in this state and the federal government is looking at changes to the voting system certification process as well. If the top-to-bottom review finds that significant changes need to be made, it would be difficult to implement them in time for a February primary election that's less than 13 months away, but I'm certainly looking forward to a broader discussion on the issue."
A similar bill, AB 157 (Plescia), was introduced yesterday
"We are demanding the fall of prices or the fall of Calderón ... We are demanding food sovereignty. We are not going to eat at McDonald's or eat the crappy tortillas that Wal-Mart sells."
That's what one speaker at a rally by the Party of the Democratic Revolution had to say in Mexico City on Wednesday. According to Elizabeth DiNovella of The Progressive magazine's Blogressive Web site, many Mexicans are up in arms over a 10% rise in the price of tortillas in the past year. New President Felipe Calderón says he will boost imports of corn, but he doesn't want to restore subsidies to the industry that were dropped after NAFTA went into effect.
Tomasa de Jesús, a working-class housewife, told Novello "I'm here [at Wednesday's rally] because this government is creating anti-social policies that will starve us to death. The rich don't eat tortillas. But that's how we the poor survive. It is our principal sustenance," she said. "But the rich eat bread. They don't eat tortillas because they make them fat."
Read the whole story here.
We had a short debate in the editorial board meeting this morning about today's Bee story describing the folks suffering outside the Mexican consulate while waiting to process passports. It's hard for me to believe no one predicted an increased demand for services.
My blood pressure goes up anytime folks in government "service" don't even think so far ahead as to provide bathrooms for people who are using their services. Certainly those office workers have facilities. If they don't want to share with their constituents who are paying their salaries, then they should have made arrangements with the city for temporary restrooms. I thought pay toilets were a relic of the past. It's uncalled-for to charge $1 for restroom services, though I understand the problem of the copy business next door.
The point was raised, however, that people brought this hardship upon themselves. They should not have waited until the last minute to process their paperwork.
Maybe so, but just look at the April 15 deadline for taxes in the U.S. and you know that human nature is human nature. Meanwhile, I think the city and the nonprofits need to step in and partner with the consulate to mitigate this unnecesssary shivering until their appointment process kicks in.
At what point do children become picky about their playmates? In the sandbox? On the school playground? Are there things we can do to prevent them from developing prejudice?
I'm working on a future column on at what age children start to exhibit prejudice against people who are different from them, and what can be done to teach them to be more accepting of diversity. If you have an experience or a story to share dealing with this issue, I'd love to hear it.
You can email me at lboyles@fresnobee.com. Thanks!
You thought the "American Idol" cruelty on last night's TV show was nasty? You thought the troop surge was the most divisive issue of the day?
Forget it! It's popcorn. Turn a few marketing experts on each other and - dang -- the pop really hits the pan. The burning issue ticking off folks in the advertising biz lately appears to be the zombie popcorn sales.
It seems that the advertising agency Crispin, is trotting out videos of the late Orville Redenbacher in its new ad campaign. Some of the insiders are just ... incited...
Ken Sheaton of Ad Age writes his assessment : "Bring Out Your Dead: Crispin Resurrects Orville Redenbacher." The subhead is "How Not to Sell Popcorn 101."
"When Crispin first won the account, I joked privately that they'd dig Orville Redenbacher from the grave. Well, that seems to be exactly what the agency did, presenting an unsuspecting audience with an iPod-wearing, dead-eyed zombie. ... My emotions ranged from "this is amateurish-looking crap" to "holy jeebum crow, this scares the hell out of me" -- especially near the end, when the Orville zombie's shoulder start hitching and it looks as if he's about to hack up a hairball.
It's not just him. He also cites The Copyranter, writing at Gawker, weighing in with "the ad industry would 'reanimate dead Darfur babies if they could get away with, and it sold product.' And you thought Simon Cowell was brutal.
Bob Waterston, the new chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, said he wants to run the county like a business. Oh, please. If you want to run the county like a business, open county offices at night and on weekends like businesses do to serve their customers. Put information on the county Web site so residents can conduct county businesss 24/7 from their home computers. Have a 24-hour customer service phone line available like businesses do.
Some county offices don't even observe traditonal government hours of 8-5, and close to the public even earlier in the day. These offices are run for the convenience of the county and not the public.
Chairman Waterston, if you really want to run the county like a business, open county offices on nights and weekends so taxpayers who pay the bills don't have to take time off from work to conduct routine county business.
But we know that's not going to happen, so stop saying things like you're going to run the county like a business. It is a foolish statement.
Maybe our readers can offer other suggestions about how to make county government more convenient for the public.
I've been spending a lot of time reading articles from our archives about the nasty freezes of 1998 and 1990-91. It seems important to look back at what we did right and wrong in those months in the hope that we might learn something from that devastating experience. What do you remember from the Big Chills of 1998 and 1990-91? What advice would you give from that experience to make things work better this time?
It was good to read in today's Bee that many farmers wised up and bought insurance after that bad experience, but that won't help the thousands of employees who will be most affected by the crisis. The unemployment glitches from previous years are improved and temporary assistance is being provided so people aren't afraid that working will endanger their benefits. Lindsay, which was hammered by previous freezes, is moving to get job training money that would enable citrus workers to work on projects in city parks and alleys. That's a good way to keep the labor force in town and have the city improved in the meantime. Empowering the labor force with new job skills and reinforcing the community's infrastructure beats writing out unemployment checks to folks who would much prefer to be working.
There are headlines in the files like "Many Pantries Nearly Depleted" because of all the unemployed citrus workers who suddenly looked to food banks because there were no paychecks to feed their families. That's a reminder to make those donations now, because we will soon be looking at a disaster that could affect tens of thousands of people, as we wrote back in 1991. The welfare offices will be overrun and county budgets will be strained. In terms of economic damage, the last freeze ranked as the third worst disaster in the state's history, behind the San Francisco and Loma Prieta earthquakes. There are also ancillary businesses that you wouldn't even expect to be affected by the freeze, such as trucking and containers, irrigation equipment suppliers were very hard hit, cardboard box companies laid off people, grocery stores felt the pinch of families moving or cutting their budgets, clothing stores and restaurants saw drastic drops in receipts because their customers were suddenly unemployed.
Unemployment had to be extended, the waiting period for unemployment shortened, public utility companies were asked to provide assistance to people affected by the freeze. Insurance companies were hammered with claims far beyond the farms. California sustained $1 million in physical damages to public facilities and $80 million in claims were filed with insurance companies for physical damages in the private sector. Though the citrus industry has most of the attention, the strawberry, avocado and flower businesses also were affected. Sales tax revenue also dropped, which had many unintended consequences.
The stories of the time also reflected some difficulties in communicating to the urban legislators the severity of the problem. The city folks took awhile to get it. Most of the attention was focused on helping out the businesses that were affected and farm worker advocates had to speak out to remind people not to overlook the farmworkers in the relief process. We hope accommodations can be made so the immigrants are not punished in their citizenship process for asking for help during the freeze crisis.
Share your advice. What needs to be done to make things work better this time?
I don't know about your office, but it's sounding like a hospital ward around here. Half of our department is sneezing, coughing, taking antibiotics and antihistamines or just generally feeling crummy. It was nice to have a three-day weekend to loll around in bed watching "Top Chef" reruns and movies, sipping hot tea and eating my required sick food: red Jell-o, chicken noodle soup and chocolate pudding cups. I take my good health for granted and it really ticked me off to be stuck in bed all weekend while the kids got to be off snowboarding at Sierra Summit.
Well, actually, it was only partially a fun day for our exchange-student son, Tiago, who finally got to see snow for the first time. The initial meeting between the ice and the Brazilian sun guy was not so good. After spending the morning in snowboarding lessons, he went to practice with his friends. The next sound I heard was the phone ringing, the ski patrol telling me that Tiago had dislocated his shoulder and he would need to see a doctor at home. Ouch! As luck would have it, our friend Patty Larsen's exchange daughter was in the group and Patty works for a very nice orthopedic specialist, Dr. Simonian. He squeezed us in at the last minute, thank heavens, so we didn't have to go to the hospital ER. Turns out Tiago did a good job of snapping his own shoulder back into place, but there will be no more snow sports for him this season... Next stop: physical therapy. Ouch and double ouch.
Well, snow looks nice and soft and powdery but it can be treacherous... Guess we forgot to tell him about that part.. Um, well, he shouldn't feel bad. Did you see Gov. Schwarzenegger awarding the final Golden Globe Award last night? There he was, on crutches from his own skiing accident.
Sometimes you bite the snow and sometimes the snow bites you.
Many of us had to pay fines on overdue library books when we were younger. For some reason, getting books back on time often was a chore. The fine typically was a nickel a day and procrastinating for a week would cost you 35 cents. That was a big chunk of a 50-cent weekly allowance. And if you lost the book, you ended up having to pay for it, requiring a loan from your parents.
I bring this up because of the case of Robert Nuranen, who returned an overdue book to his hometown library in Hancock, Mich., after 47 years.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pacoima social studies teacher paid a late fee of $171.32 for the book, "Prince of Egypt." Here's the story. He found the book after going back to Hancock and cleaning out the family home.
OK. If you have overdue library books hanging aorund the house, return them right away -- even if it's several years past the due date. You'll feel better about yourself.
Each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day I'm reminded of the time -- June 2,1964 -- when the civil rights leader came to Fresno and spoke at Ratcliff Stadium. I was 12, and my father and I marched from Fresno High to the stadium with a large crowd -- The Bee put it at around 3,000.
Dr. King was in town to campaign against a state ballot initiative, sponsored by the California Real Estate Association, that sought to overturn the Rumford Fair Housing Act.
It was a lively event, with Mayor Wallace Henderson welcoming Dr. King, and folk songs from Gene Bluestein and Pete Everwine, Fresno State English professors. A handful of John Birch Society members handed out leaflets accusing Dr. King of being a Communist. They didn't find any takers.
I still have the program from the event, along with the armband that Rumford Act supporters wore: a pink band with a black circle containing an equals sign. I take those out of the files on this day every year, and remember the time.
It's odd, perhaps, but I can't recall a single word of Dr. King's speech. I have never forgotten, however, the power of his words.
 Patti Lippert, my friend and former colleague, is editor of The Clovis Independent. She told me this story about a conversation she had with her 5-year-old son, Luke Fennacy.
She phoned home Friday at lunchtime to check on things, and Luke, a Clovis kindergartner, answered. His birthday is coming up, and she asked him about that.
Luke started asking Patti about the king whose birthday is in January also, but he couldn't remember the king's name. "I didn't know what he was talking about," Patti said.
He went on, trying to explain to his mom who he was talking about: "There was a very important king who changed a very terrible law. White people were bad to black people, and he changed that law. But one person didn't listen to him, and he shot the king. It was very sad because the king was so nice."
Patti finally realized who Luke meant -- Martin Luther King Jr. "That's him," Luke said. "We learned all about that king at school. It's so sad, huh?"
(Illustration: Associated Press)
A sneak peek at the weekend:
On Saturday's Valley Voices page, Homer Gee Greene Jr. discusses the coming Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial; Laurence M. Hill writes a memoir of big events in his life and Cynthia Brickey says students need to earn their way to college prep courses or be sent to vocational classes.
On Sunday Vision, the Cox Newspapers foreign staff compiles a list of people in the world you should watch in 2007. Jim Boren says absentee ballots are making elections take way too long to count and Maureen Dowd says Iraq is just like a bad romance; Victor Davis Hanson says globalization has enriched the planet yet people don't understand why problems can't be solved as quickly as placing a cell phone call or conducting a Google search. Blogging Across America takes note of the controversy surrounding Jimmy Carter's new book.
The Sunday editorials say dams should be part of the state's water solution and criticizes Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to halt payments to children if their parents don't go to work. Our letter writer of the week is Sevag Tateosian, 25, a conservative Republican and law student at San Joaquin College of Law.
The Sunday Op-Ed page contains a pro-con discussion on the question: Should the U.S. drop its insistence that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist as a precondition for Mideast peace talks?
Enjoy!
Forget any of those old stereotypes you might be harboring about law enforcement being more brawn than brain. The story about the new officers that were recently promoted by Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says all have at least master's degrees and three either had doctorates or are close to completing a doctoral program. They are Captains Keith Foster and Patrick Farmer, who were promoted to deputy chief and lieutenants Michael Reid and David Belluomini, who were promoted to captain. This makes a statement not only about professionalism but about a love of learning and a determination to stay on top of new research in the field. Reid, who has a juris doctorate from San Joaquin College of Law, will soon receive a second doctorate in organization development.
This morning's column on the impact of the G.I. Bill struck a chord in a number of Bee readers. I've already had a half-dozen phone calls and a similar number of e-mails from people -- mostly G.I. Bill recipients or their spouses -- who enjoyed the piece.
That's gratifying, of course, but what I really hope will happen next is that we all determine to remind our leaders of the lesson the G.I. Bill taught this nation: Prudent spending on programs that create opportunities for Americans is not wasteful. Rather it is an investment that will pay for itself many times over in increased earning power for individuals and higher tax revenue for governments -- not to mention giving people a chance at richer and more rewarding lives.
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