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Today's Bee has a story about Merchant Marine veterans finally getting recognition for their service during World War II. This is an old tale in my family. My late uncle, Benny Duncan, served -- proudly -- in the Merchant Marine, and I grew up hearing his stories of trial, danger and triumph.
I also grew up knowing that his service wasn't recognized in the same fashion as that of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who wore the uniform of their country during the war. Merchant mariners, for instance, never received the G.I Bill benefits that uniformed veterans got and used to build the most remarkable economic engine the world has ever seen in the postwar period.
One irony is that Navy gunners assigned to protect the merchant vessels were often given medals and other honors for enduring the same tribulations as the merchant sailors, who largely went unrecognized.
Rep. George Radanovich has long supported legislation that would pay a small stipend to the 13,000 surviving merchant mariners or their widows. Rep. Jim Costa has joined that effort. My thanks to both.
And no thanks to the city of Fresno, which handed out parking tickets to many of the Merchant Marine honorees and their families who attended the ceremony yesterday at the downtown Legion of Valor Museum in the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Sheesh.
Good news -- my friend Cheryl e-mailed me this morning to tell me  that the fifth Harry Potter movie, "The Order of the Phoenix," will begin showing in U.S. theaters on July 11, two days earlier than originally planned. This will give fans a couple of extra days to digest the movie before the new -- and final -- book publishes on July 21.
Warner Bros., which is distributing the film, gave no explanation for the change.
We had a death in the family recently, the loss of our wonderful Pop.
There was a difficult time during his illness and after his passing that we really could have used some instructions from him about what we should do. Like most folks, we didn't want to have those tough discussions with each other ... so there were many questions about his preferences.
It would have been nice if he had some written instructions for us and, as someone who's just been through this ordeal twice, I pass on this little nudge to do this small thing for your families. Just one 3-ring binder marked "Estate" is a good beginning. Write in there what you want. We are all going sometime. It's hard to admit that, but it's true. We discovered a couple of resources to make it easier. In the Kaiser Permanente surgical waiting room, we found one resource:
The Bee published an editorial on the topic awhile back giving a few more places to turn.
Here are some important resources to help you plan ahead. The Central California End of Life Coalition, which includes representatives from Hinds Hospice and Saint Agnes Hospice, recommends a document called the "Five Wishes," which meets California's legal requirements. It can be ordered online at agingwithdignity.org.
Five Wishes helps people to write out their instructions in these important areas:
-- Which person you want to make health care decisions for you when you can't make them.
--The kind of medical treatment you want or don't want.
--How comfortable you want to be.
--How you want people to treat you.
--What you want your loved ones to know.
Most stationery stores have copies of basic advance directive forms and the Fresno County Bar Association has a list of lawyers who can prepare a simple document inexpensively.
The Sacramento Healthcare Decisions is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that maintains a remarkably useful and thorough Web site to learn about advance directives, how they work and how to download a draft to fill out. The Web site is
Also important is to consider in advance whether you desire to have your organs available for donation upon your death. (The circumstances for a viable donation are unique, usually involving a sudden traumatic injury to the head that cuts off blood and oxygen to the brain, causing death, while the organs remain oxygenated via a ventilator.)
Traditionally, the way to signal one's willingness to be a donor is by getting from the California Department of Motor Vehicles a special sticker to place on your drivers license. There is a new way -- starting today -- to sign up as an organ donor via the Internet. Donate Life California is the first state registry for all organ donors. Signing up takes a few minutes by visiting its Web site, donatelifecalifornia.org.
Again, please consider taking part. And please plan ahead, whatever your choices may be.
Kathy Kristof, a columnist in the Business section, also had advice.
Among the good Web sites that offer free health-care directives is the American Bar Association site, www.abanet.org. Search for "health care advance planning" and you will find end-of-life forms. A nonprofit group called Compassion and Choices also offers advance directives. Fill out the form at www.compassionindying.org and it will e-mail you a copy, or call (800) 247-7421.
Long's group also offers free health-care directives at www.betterendings.org, as well as a booklet called "Your Way," aimed at getting families to begin a discussion on end-of-life wishes.
While I was on vacation last week, The Bee ran an L.A. Times story by Larry Gordon about the astonishing amount of stuff college students leave behind when they depart their dorms at the end of the school year. It brought back a memory from the mid '70s.
In those days, shortly after I graduated from college and before I was ready to grow up, I had a series of odd (and I mean odd) jobs up and down the state. One was a brief gig with the Housing Office at UC Berkeley, and one of my chores was to clean out the garbage chutes at the campus's high-rise dorms, called "The Units."
Each of these complexes contained four buildings of eight stories, housing about 200 students each. They had garbage chutes on each floor that emptied into a basement. My job was to clean them out after the students had departed for the summer.
Gordon's story describes piles of appliances and electronics; there wasn't much of that back then. But the rest of it sounded familiar: clothing, linens, sundries, books, papers. In each dorm the end-of-year glut jammed the chutes, so I had to go to every floor and use a heavy broom handle to try to dislodge the garbage.
Two things struck me. I salvaged enough thrown-away baseball gloves to outfit a softball league -- which I did with some friends -- and found enough pornography to fill the Library of Congress. There were also hundreds of bottles of liquor and copious amounts of other recreational substances -- all of which I threw away, of course.
Gordon's story is a reminder that the specific nature of our garbage may change over the years, but not our propensity for creating it in massive quantities.
Valley Congressmen and state legislators are getting involved in the lingering dispute between some school board members and Superintendent Michael Hanson. On Friday, five lawmakers sent this letter to School Board President Carol Mills regarding the recent Grand Jury report on the district.
Republican commentator Michael Der Manouel Jr. offers his take on the letter here.
The letter from the Congressmen and legislators follows:
There are few issues as important to building a healthy and successful community as providing an academic environment where our children can learn. It is clear that a productive learning environment has significant benefits, both for the student and the community.
Our children look to their leaders to do their best to provide that environment. Despite the progress, we believe we can all agree that there is much work that needs to be done in light of the recent findings in the Grand Jury report regarding the Fresno Unified School Board.
Based on the history of difficulties the District management has had, it seems prudent to carefully and expeditiously review, consider and address the Grand Jury recommendations.
The Board's response to this citizen grand jury report should send a clear message that it is committed to being part of a cooperative effort to put our children first and put them in a position to excel. We offer our encouragement in reviewing and addressing the recommendations that will allow the Fresno Unified School District to shift its focus back to the education of our children.
The letter was signed by Rep. George Radanovich, Rep. Devin Nunes, Rep, Jim Costa, State Sen. Dave Cogdill and Assembly Minority Leader Michael N. Villines.
It's unusual for Valley legislators to write such a letter to the school board. Although the language is polite, the members of Congress and the Legislature seem concerned about the direction the school board majority is going.
On today's Opinion page, we have an editorial reminding people to remember those who died fighting for our country. We included a list of soldiers killed in the most recent conflict who have ties to the San Joaquin Valley. There is another name to add to that list. A 22-year-old soldier from Hanford died May 23 of wounds he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle while on patrol in Iraq, the Department of Defense reported late Sunday evening.
Cpl. Victor H. Toledo Pulido was one of two soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Benning, Ga., who were killed in the blast in Al Nahrawan, Iraq. No other details were available Sunday.
Also in today's paper, reporter Denny Boyles (my husband) wrote an article about the six soldiers from Clovis schools who have died fighting in Iraq.
OK, forget for just a moment all the controversy about Rosie O'Donnell leaving "The View." Oh, all right, let's go ahead and think about it for a minute. OK, my attention span exhausted. Next? How about a wild and outrageous and intelligent and provocative woman from the Valley in that chair? We grow lots of outspoken women here... Who do you like?
While you're noodling over that, did you hear that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, appeared Thursday on the show to observe National Foster Care Month? He was accompanied by his Congressional aide Estakio Beltran, a young man who was raised in the foster care system.
Cardoza has a special expertise in foster care issues, since he adopted two foster children seven years ago. that gives him some pretty substantive credibility as an advocate on behalf of adoption and foster children in the California Assembly and in Congress. He recognizes, however, it has its successes and failures. Cardoza wants additional oversight, government attention and funding for programs like the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). CASA volunteers are at work here in the Valley, investigating children's unique situations and advocate for the child's best interest.
Here's what "The View" had on its Web site about him: "There are over 500,000 kids currently in foster care, but once they turn 18 they are left to fend for themselves. Our final guest, Estakio Beltran, was shuffled around the system nearly 30 times, but has recently joined forces with Congressman Dennis Cardoza, one of the nation's strongest foster care advocates, to make sure that no other child has to ensure the same nightmare he did." .
If you're within reach of The Bee this holiday weekend, you are in for some excellent reading. Be sure to catch Valley Voices on Saturday. Dr. Bryan Martin, pastor of St. Patrick's Community Church in Fresno, challenges his heftier colleagues to lose weight. Chunky clergy, he says, set a poor health example for their congregations.
Nancy M. Richardson, a longtime children's advocate and a former Fresno Unified School District board member, wonders if any lessons have been learned from the testimony in the trials of the Genesis executives or the searing statements heard under oath about the death of little Savina Sanchez, 2 1/2 . Over the loud protests of her foster parents, Savina was returned to her mother, Darlene, who was recently found guilty of second-degree murder for slowly starving the child to death. The Genesis executives used money intended for needy children to finance an extravagant lifestyle. Adults first, children last. That's just wrong.
On Monday, Leonard Pitts writes an unforgettable column on his imperfect father, the soldier.
Enjoy the holiday.
Update:
Bill Carr of Visalia won our contest with a guess of 44 minutes, 44 seconds.
Mayor Alan Autry surprised most of the experts by holding his State of the City speech this afternoon to 44 minutes, nine seconds. Last year, he spoke 80 minutes, and the betting was that he'd be near that mark this time around. Maybe his knowledge of this contest caused him to tighten up his talk.
We are determining the results of our contest out of the 185 readers who offered guesses on the length of the mayor's speech. We will post the winner as soon as possible. The closest guess wins four tickets to Champions on Ice at the Save Mart Center on May 30.
Thanks to the 185 of you who participated in our contest to guess how long Mayor Alan Autry's State of the City speech will be this afternoon. The contest closed at noon. We'll notify the winner when the speech is done and we determine who is the closest to the exact time.
Bee columnist Bill McEwen is the official timekeeper. Your predictions ranged from 26 minutes to 105 minutes. The mayor spoke for 80 minutes last year.
Mayor Alan Autry is known for being long-winded in his State of the City speeches, and we're going to have some fun with it. The reader who comes the closest to predicting the length -- in minutes and seconds -- of the mayor's speech on Thursday, May 24, will win four tickets to Champions on Ice. The ice show will be on Wednesday, May 30, at the Save Mart Center. This event features Kimmie Meissner, Sasha Cohen and Victor Petrenko.
Here's a hint. Last year's speech by the mayor ran 80 minutes. It was longer than the president's State of the Union address and the governor's State of the State address combined.
Send your guesses to the comments section on this blog. We won't post them so we don't give others a competitive advantage by seeing previous predictions before submitting their guesses.
Read the contest rules below. Our lawyers said we must include them to make this legal.
No Purchase Necessary. Open to Fresno Bee Online Readers 18 years of age or older. Sweepstakes begins May 23, 2007 and ends at noon, May 24, 2007. To enter, log on to the Opinion Talk blog on Fresnobeehive.com/opinion and guess how many minutes the state of the city speech, given by Mayor Alan Autry will be. Your guess must be in minutes and seconds (e.g., 45:03 means 45 minutes, 3 seconds). The official time for purposes of this promotion will be listed on the Fresnobee.com website. The closest guess will win. In the event of a tie, a drawing will be held to determine the winner. Sponsored by The Fresno Bee , 1626 E St., Fresno, CA 93786. Winners posted on May 25. Employees of The Fresno Bee or their families and City Hall employees may not participate.
Here's one more example of how members of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors let their pettiness get in the way of helping people. The supervisors' rejection of funding for Camp El-O-Win, a former Girl Scouts camp, is just plain mean.
This is from our editorial today on the issue: "To start with, the county wasn't putting up the money so they can't claim it's a budget issue. The $250,000 came from a fund that the gambling tribes pay into, and the county's Indian Gaming Committee designated the money for the Friends of Camp El-O-Win. The group is trying to keep the former Girl Scouts camp from closing. But the testy supervisors concocted reasons to block the volunteer group from receiving the funding."
Here's the complete editorial.
Word around the county Hall of Records is that this is an offshoot of the feud between Supervisor Susan Anderson and Supervisor Henry Perea. Perea supports the money going to the Friends of Camp El-O-Win, so Anderson doesn't. The kids get caught in the middle.
This community likes to say this is a great place to raise kids. Maybe, but we like to use them as pawns.
I wonder what the odds are in Vegas on the American Idol finale. 
A poll on People.com shows that 66% of the people who voted think Jordin Sparks will win. I wonder what a Blake Lewis upset would pay.
UPDATE 9:39 a.m.: In our own poll on Fresnobee.com (scroll down the home page -- it's on the left-hand side), the vote is much closer. Jordin has 19%, Blake has 15%. But the real winner is "I really, really ... really don't care" with a whopping 65%!
Now a lot of people pretend to respect mothers, but Kaiser Permanente Hospital really puts that into action. No time for grocery shopping? Well, Kaiser brings the store to the office. Every Wednesday, there is a farmer's market right there on campus from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. so you can buy a week's worth of fresh fruits and vegetables for your family without ever leaving the workplace. How cool is that? (It is open to the public and vendor space for farmers is free, so if you're in the neighborhood or have things to sell, by all means check it out.)
Not only that, but right alongside the reserved parking spaces for physicians in the parking lot is a label for "Stork Parking," for mothers and mothers-to-be. When motherhood is urgently imminent, there is another space just for mothers in labor.
Those kindly looking animal lovers out there can really bare their fangs when they turn on each other -- bless their hearts. There's a lot of yelping, spitting and snarling going on right now about a piece of legislation called the Healthy Pets Act or AB1634, which aims to address the miserable state of pet control in California. The numbers around unwanted animals in this state will ruin your lunch.
In The Bee's Political Notebook Saturday, there's an item about the canine crowd attending a legislative hearing last week and at least 350 people crowded inside the hearing room and lined up outside as the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted on the issue. It passed 10-6.
Here's the editorial we wrote about it. And if you want to read more about the bizarre state of things here in the Valley, here's a story by Pablo Lopez in The Bee that gives you a first hand look at this situation. He focuses on one very effective officer who's trying to make a difference in Huron.
A whole lot of people are excited about stopping the need for staggering euthanasia, including virtually every humane society, animal rescue group, the Valley's own SPCA, the Cat House on the Kings, the HOPE Foundation, which sponsors a very effective spay and neutering clinic. I've never seen such a list of animal groups and I had no idea so many people could come together to support one idea. Take a look.
That's not to say everyone's delighted with it. Look at this list of opponents on the Web site. Not at all. You can see who's on this list -- mostly professionals who are breeders, showdog owners or who use animals in their work.
Think of Opinion Talk as one big dog park: Take off the leash and let your ideas run free.
Cue the theme song: "Who let the dogs out -- woof woof woof woof woof!"
As an editorial board, one question we've always raised when talking with potential city leaders in Clovis is the number of empty businesses along Shaw Avenue in Fresno's neighbor to the east. Some of it seems to be poor planning.
My husband and I saw another example yesterday when we were driving to Lowe's. There is a brand new Walgreens drugstore being built on the southwest corner of Shaw and Fowler avenues, right next to the three-story senior living complex. Only problem is there is already a Walgreens at that same intersection, on the southeast corner. I'm sure they intend to close the older store when the new one is ready, which will leave the older corner not only with an empty drugstore but also an empty grocery store, since a new tenant hasn't taken over the Albertson's site that closed last summer.
There a lot of things that Clovis does right, which is why Denny and I make it our home. But Shaw Avenue deserves better planning from city leaders.
Here's our latest Top 10 list. Add your own suggestions. . . Most of these ideas came from my colleagues.
Top 10 reasons that Fresno County's public works and planning offices are moving out of downtown
10. Convenient location for daily marching orders from developer.
9. Shorter drive to golf courses.
8. Giving sprawl a chance since hopscotch development hasn't worked out as well as planned.
7. Fancher Creek sounds more appealing than mayor's downtown "water feature."
6. Close to airport so Supervisor Perea and developer can quickly leave on junkets.
5. Fewer pesky homeless people asking for money.
4. Developer persuaded us that sprawl was good for the air.
3. City didn't offer supervisors any campaign contributions.
2. Can convert old planning space downtown into more jail cells.
1. It's Fresno County government; it doesn't have to make sense.
A special Memorial Day service will be held at Roeding Park at 9 a.m. Monday, May 28, to honor Japanese American soldiers who've lost their lives defending this country. The Nisei War Memorial, located in the northeast quadrant of the park, was established in 1951 to honor Nisei soldiers who fought in Europe and the Pacific while many of their family members were being held in relocation camps scattered around remote parts of the United States.
Korean and Vietnam war veterans who died fighting for their country had their names added later.
The saga of the Nisei soldiers in World War II is an uplifting coda to the sad story of incarceration of people, many of them citizens, solely because of their ethnicity. It's an important lesson, one that we should always remember, lest we run the risk of repeating the tragedy.
More information may be obtained by contacting Bobbi Hanada, governor of the Central California District Council of the Japanese American Citizens League, at BHanada@aol.com or (559) 960-0852.
It sure didn't take the Valley's air board long to get into the habit of postponing cleaner air. On the heels of pushing back the clean-up deadline by more than a decade, the board has now voted to soften a ban on open field burning.
The ban was part of a package of historic legislation passed a few years ago. Sponsored by state Sen. Dean Florez, the bills also included removing the agriculture industry's longtime exemption from the Clean Air Act.
Now the air board has relaxed the prohibition against ag burning, allowing an extra three years -- until 2010 -- before the practice is completely forbidden. The air board voted 9-1 to allow farmers to burn up to 20 acres per year, calling it an economic hardship to make them use waste chippers instead. Want to talk economic hardship? How about the $3 billion-plus Valley residents shell out annually in health care costs related to foul air?
Things may be changing, though. On the same day the board punted on ag burning, the state Senate approved legislation that would change the board's makeup. Four new members would be added, including two more representatives of Valley cities, to balance the preponderance of county supervisors on the board, and two people with medical and scientific experience in the effects of air pollution -- to balance the utter lack of such knowledge currently in place. It can't come too soon.
I just got a reminder from Children's Hospital Central California that nine Valley children have died in the last month from drowning. Now that the weather is so warm and we are headed for 100-degree temperatures, it's time to focus ourselves on how perilously attractive water can be to kids. The families who have suffered the loss of a child would be the first ones to encourage everyone who's around children to take every precaution.
Children's Hospital provides drowning prevention education to hundreds of Valley pre-schoolers every year and surely that saves many lives. But still, there are tragedies in our canals, lakes and pools. Children even drown in toilets and mop buckets.
Mary Jo Quintero, Children's Hospital nurse and Water Safety Program coordinator, give these tips to families:
Drownproof the family
-- Maintain constant visual contact with children in or near the water. This includes swimming pools and bathtubs.
-- Designate an adult to supervise the water area. The supervising adult should not partake in any distracting activities while watching children.
-- Prevent children from having direct access to a swimming pool.
-- Store buckets upside down.
-- Keep toilet lids shut and use toilet locks if you have an infant or toddler in the house.
-- Adults and kids over age 13 should learn CPR.
-- Do not use air-filled toys in place of life jackets or life preservers with children. These give a false sense of security and increase the risk of drowning.
Teach children about water safety
-- Enroll children in swimming lessons as soon as they are ready.
-- Teach children to always swim with a buddy.
-- Never allow children to chew gum or eat while swimming, diving or playing in the water.
What to do in case of an emergency relating to children and water
-- Look in the water first if a child is missing.
-- Call 9-1-1
-- Administer CPR if necessary.
I got an invitation today, along with a few thousand other journalists, to eat on $1 per meal and write about the experience.
The folks who want to draw attention to the continued erosion of Food Stamp benefits are trying to enlist members of the media to take on this experiment and write about it. This is a very worthwhile cause and I support the increasing of funds to help low-income people eat healthfully, but I'm tiring of this gimmick. Maybe it was an interesting twist when the governor of Oregon did it, but the insights are readily available from the thousands of people who use food stamps to get by every day. It's far more valuable to hear from them than me or Gov. Schwarzenegger.
How about it? Those of you who have experienced life on food stamps or who are now doing it, how do you make it work? What is a day like? What are your secrets for stretching the money? How do you afford healthful food for your family? What are the tough choices you have to make each day? Speak the truth.
We know you are out there. More than 26 million Americans use food stamps, among them 1,327,000 Californians. More than 65% of all all recipients are children . Let's ask them what they are eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Here's my sorry contribution during an especially stressful week, starting with last night:
Dinner: 1 bag of microwave popcorn, eaten in the car while running errands with teenager who dragged me around two malls after work, looked at shoes and pants in 7 stores before finally settling on his favorites. That's about $1.
Breakfast: Hamburger, fries, diet Coke from Burger King grabbed in the drive-thru on the way to work. That was about $6.
Lunch: Vegetable sandwich, potato chips and vegan lemonade (they like to press the point) at Au Lac, treated by a friend, so it was free. If I bought it, it would have come to about $9.
Maybe tomorrow will be better...
PS: I don't recommend my diet to anyone on any income. I'm sure you're all eating more healthfully than I am this week!
Whoa! Now we're getting serious. Craig Scharton has thrown down the glove, challenging Mayor Alan Autry to a debate on the merits and demerits of the mayor's plan for a downtown Kern St. River. Scharton posted his challenge on the MindHub digest, a forum run by the Creative Fresno group.
Craig envisions a "a friendly debate, in the good old-fashioned, American town hall-style of democratic rational repartee."
But I see it as a chance to do a remake of "High Noon" -- a showdown between good and evil in the dusty streets of downtown Fresno. Don't know which debater would be cast in the role of Will Kane, the stoically heroic marshal played by Gary Cooper. Take your pick, perhaps depending on your take on the river plan itself.
Besides, a movie remake would be a chance for another duel, this one between the wonderfully redundant city and county film commissions.
Here's Craig's full post suggesting the debate.
Dear Mayor,
I don't know if anyone told you this, before your recent post, but you are now an official hubber.
In light of my recent open letter to you and your good-hearted response, I thought that I might be able to interest you in a friendly debate, in the good old-fashioned, American town hall style of democratic rational repartee.
Maybe we could let the Downtown Association sell tickets and put the money toward art restoration on the mall or toward trees. Maybe we could get a good-natured moderator like John Wallace.
No name-calling, hitting below the belt or spittin'(I admit it, I occasionally dip snuff). I'd even be willing to consider a creative wager of some sort...maybe the loser has to read aloud chapter five of Jane Jacobs' "Death and Life of Great American Cities" on the free speech area on the Fulton Mall?
Game?
Craig Scharton
Anger over the governor's raid on transit funds in his revised budget has some transit officials mulling a lawsuit or even a ballot initiative to protect those funds. The governor wants to pull $1.3 billion from money dedicated to transit uses to use for other purposes. That's got some people steaming mad.
Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez said, "There's a bait and switch on transit funding here, too. You can't pose for the cover of Newsweek as the savior of global warming one day and then turn around and slash funding for public transit the next. You can't have a press conference urging commuters to take public transit after a highway collapses one day and then turn around and slash funding for public transit the next."
Part of the ire stems from the governor's sleight-of-hand with school buses. He wants to take $300 million from the public transit funds and spend it on school buses. His budget wizards define that as "public transit," though transporting school kids has always been regarded as a job for the schools and not transit agencies.
Do you get the blues every once in awhile, thinking today's youth are just lost? Well, stop that right now and put this story on The Bee's Academic All-Stars in your list of "favorites" on the computer. What a bunch of stellar citizens; not only smart but caring, giving, resilient. Not enough for you? Reporter Cyndee Fontana checks in on the 10-year class reunion of the group selected in 1996. Those young adults launched in the Valley are making a positive mark in the world already.
Still not enough good news for you? I got a message this morning from Children's Hospital Central California announcing that leadership students from Clovis East High School are throwing a sports-themed party for patients at Children's Hospital. They have planned a day packed with fun, games and laughs. It will be Thursday from 2-4 p.m. at the donor recognition area of the hospital.
You think today's kids don't care? Think again!
Fresno County is thinking about moving 500 employees out of downtown, in large part because the county says the city of Fresno won't provide sufficient parking. Does the entire responsibility for parking at county offices rest on the city's shoulders? The county seems to think so.
On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors took up a proposal to move its Public Works and Planning Department to the Fancher Creek development in southeast Fresno being doen by Ed Kashian.
Board Chairman Bob Waterston said past discussions with the city have been fruitless. "We've gone round and round with the city on parking, and they've never done anything for us," Waterston said. "What is it going to take for the city to get on board with this?"
It may be that the current discussion is just a bargaining ploy to get the city to pay for something the county isn't willing to do for itself. It may be that the county just got a better deal from Kashian. It may be that this is just more of the petty nonsense between local governments that passes for cooperation and collaborative behavior hereabouts. We'll see, I suppose.
If you're trying to attract students to your school district, stimulate the real estate values in the community and get more minority students motivated to go to college, it might pay to start at the end and work backward.
That's the premise of the Kalamazoo Promise, a donation that provides up to four years of free college tuition to graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools in Michigan. The Promise was announced in 2005. A story in the Detroit Free Press says that since the promise was announced by anonymous donors, about 400 families have moved into the district from 88 cities in Michigan and 32 other states.
The district's had to hire 40 new teachers to handle enrollment of 1,000 more children. Last year, 332 students used the money to attend 14 colleges and universities. The cost was $1.5 million. And the administrator says that much of the increase in students attending college comes from African-American males and other minority students. Already this year, 458 students have been granted scholarships. Fast Company magazine has named it one of its The Fast 50 -- a list of 50 profit-driven solutions for what ails the planet. The list is Fast Company magazine's annual readers' challenge, a worldwide search for ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Their goal is "to remind the world of all the good that's created when passionate people with big ideas and strong convictions are determined to make a difference." They refer to such initiatives as Kalamazoo's as "community capitalism."
All that sounds great, but there's just one hitch: the school district is still struggling with low academic achievement. That leaves the obvious question: What good is a free ride to college if you aren't prepared to succeed when you get there? Let's wait to see the data in four years. How many of those students actually will earn college degrees or use their college classes to prepare themselves for their professions?
If you are an admirer of the brilliant but obnoxious TV physician known as Dr. Gregory House, played by Hugh Laurie, you'll want to order a new T-shirt. It says "Everybody lies." It's one of House's favorite sayings, describing why it takes him so long sometimes to diagnose illnesses.
The T-shirts are being sold to benefit NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a cause supported by the show's cast and crew. Here's what they say about the shirts on their Web site: " 'Everybody Lies' is also message about stigma. Myths surround mental illness. In the context of the TV show, the phrase is a reference to the fact that people who are being diagnosed -- relative to any illness -- often withhold information because they are afraid, ashamed, embarrassed, or conflicted. That is a consequence of stigma, a familiar experience for many NAMI members. Too often, Hollywood has been indifferent to stigma concerns. This time, the producers and cast of a TV show stepped forward to help.
"Mental illness is stigmatized and misunderstood in our society, and we're trying to do something about that," said "House" executive producer Katie Jacobs. "We're very fortunate to be celebrating an extremely successful third season for 'House,' and we'd like to give something back to a cause we feel is both worthy and overlooked."
The T-shirts can be purchased on-line for $19.95 at www.housecharitytees.com
I was talking the other day to Dr. Karen Kraus, coordinator of child and adolescent training for the University of California at San Francisco, a refreshing woman who is a straight shooter and a truth-teller. She is more diplomatic than House. She doesn't say that "Everybody Lies." She calls the process of getting to the truth "perfecting the history."
Maria Elena Salinas, Noticero Univision anchor, whose nationally syndicated column is carried in The Bee, will be honored at the Latino Commencement Celebration at Fresno State Saturday evening at the Save Mart Center.  The Latino Class of 2007 will be recognized at the event that will begin at 5 p.m. There will be entertainment and the ceremony is scheduled to begin about 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Luz Gonzalez, dean of the College of Social Science, said "Salinas is being recognized for her strong stand on immigration reform, her advocacy of health care and educational access for Latinos and her unwavering commitment to educating our communities about the importance of political participation and empowerment."
Salinas' column runs weekly in The Bee's opinion section. You can read her columns online here.
This is the 31st annual Latino Commencement Celebration at Fresno State. The event is the largest in the nation in terms of attendance. Last year, 10,000 graduates, family members and guests attended the ceremony.
Here's the Fresno State schedule for all the commencement ceremonies. They begin Friday morning with the College of Engineering.
The commencement for the entire university will be 10 a.m. Saturday at the Save Mart Center. It will be the 96th commencement ceremony for Fresno State.
I'm always on the lookout for clever fund-raising ideas... Compared with other advanced nations, we pay fewer taxes, sure, but we have to do constant, unending fund-raising for charity to make up the difference. We're darn good at it, too, but it requires a constant flow of new ideas and creativity to keep it all going.
My friends and family I'm sure hate to see me coming; I always have my hand out for some cause or another. I usually skip the candy, cookie dough, magazine subscriptions and wrapping paper and just ask them to write a check. They're amazing -- they just ask me, "OK, how much do you need?" and they do it... I'm tellin' you, I have great buddies.
Fortunately, most people have more grace and energy than I do and they actually do something clever for the money. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Holmen, Wis., is selling stock in ... kids. Purchase two shares at $25 a share and you can attend a year-end "stockholders" meeting, where young people will serve dinner and talk about how they used the donated funds. The money sends kids to summer camps, conferences and bus trips. It's a cool idea, it teaches the children accountability and to be good stewards of the money.
I don't know they do this individually, but can you imagine a kid with certificates all over his bedroom wall with his shareholders' names on them? Now it would be cool just knowing that all those people were investing in his or her future success.
Here's more about it from the LaCrosse Tribune.
In Sunday's Vision section, we had a piece that Annabelle Gurwitch wrote for the Los Angeles Times about living through last week's wildfire in her Griffith Park neighborhood. 
"I've always wondered what I would take with me in the event of an emergency. Now I know. I packed our cat, our son's favorite stuffed animals, my grandmother's silver and a really expensive pair of shoes. No underwear, but our wedding invitation and some designer shampoo! What was I thinking?"
An actor from my favorite TV drama -- Steven W. Bailey, who plays Joe the bartender on "Grey's Anatomy" -- also had a couple of close brushes with disaster. After fleeing his home near Griffith Park with his family, he encountered another fire on Catalina Island.
"We were approaching the island, and we see the smoke," Bailey said. "And we actually, from pretty far away, I jokingly said to my wife, I was like, 'That cloud formation over there almost looks like there's a fire in Catalina.'"
This is going to be a dry year and a bad season for wild fires. On Saturday, I drove to Pismo with my daughter and mom. I don't remember the last time the grass-covered hills near Paso Robles were already so dry this early.
(Associated Press photo: Smoke from a wildfire rises over Avalon on the California resort island of Catalina on May 10. The 400-acre wildfire erupted on Thursday, forcing evacuations just as firefighters were mopping up a blaze at Los Angeles' sprawling Griffith Park.)
Some friends of ours took their Danish exchange student up to the lake for his first water-skiing experience recently, and wow, did he have fun. He actually got up -- good job, Hans! He got a face full of water, of course, before he got the hang of it -- but all in all, he had a great time.
This is an incredible time of year to live in in the Valley with all the river rafting, canoeing, speedboating, sailing, wind-surfing -- and for those of you who like doing those sports with the kids, listen up. I got a note today from the Department of Boating and Waterways that on Saturday, May 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sam's Club in Fresno, there will be the 8th Annual Life Jacket Trade-In.
The public is invited to bring in children's life jackets for inspection by the US Coast Guard Auxiliary or marine patrol officers. If a life jacket is found to be unserviceable, a new one of the appropriate size for the child will be given in exchange to ensure the child's safety while in or around the water. Children's life jackets will be available at each site while supplies last. (Only one new life jacket per family, please.)
The note encourages boating families to bring their questions to the experts. While the life jackets are being inspected, Safe Kids representatives, Boating and Waterways staff and Coast Guard Auxiliarists will be on hand to answer questions and provide information about life jacket use and boating and water safety.
The event is sponsored by the The Department of Boating and Waterways, in partnership with the Sacramento Safe Kids Coalition. Other partners are Radio Disney, Sam's Club, CBS Radio, and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, who come together annually to mark National Safe Kids Week and National Safe Boating Week. The focus is on preventing water-related accidents involving children -- always a worthwhile goal here.
For more information, www.BoatSmarter.com or www.cgaux.org or www.auxpa.org
Fresno's Kerry Yo Nakagawa is the associate producer of the movie "American Pastime," which is coming to the end of a very short run at the Criterion theater complex in the Sierra Vista Mall in Clovis. The Bee's Donald Munro called it "historically sensitive and thought-provoking," but allowed as how it's got "serious flaws."
This may be one of those times I don't care that a movie gets less-than-stellar reviews. I've been intrigued by the history of the Japanese-American internment during World War II for years, and I'm also a baseball fan. Those two interests are intertwined in this movie, as they have been for Nakagawa for many years.
Kerry is the driving force behind the Nisei Baseball Project, which seeks to preserve and honor the history of the Japanese-American ballplayers who organized teams and leagues inside the remote internment camps where they were held from 1942 until after the end of the war, ostensibly for their own safety. Some of the teams even barnstormed outside of the camps, playing against high-school and college teams.
The movie will play at the Clovis theater through May 17. It will be available on DVD after May 22. There's more info, including the movie's trailer, at the Nisei Baseball Project's Web site.
Of course, no one is buying it. But former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has to get points for originality for the excuse he delivered for saying a very dumb thing.
At the Republican presidential debate on May 3, Thompson said an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker. You're gay, you're gone. . . Whoops. Back-tracking time for old Tommy.
But don't blame him for what he said. He is now telling reporters that a "dead hearing aid, poor health and an urgent need to use the bathroom" caused some momentary confusion. According to wire service reports, Thompson also told reporters that he thought he was being asked whether there were enough laws to address workplace discrimination.
So the answer is fire gay workers? Hmm, Tommy. . . Does that make sense, even with a dead hearing aid? Maybe you need to keeping working on your answer. But we're giving you a 10 for trying to spin yourself out of this one.
Donald Munro mentions a couple of Fresno native Audra McDonald's reviews from her first Broadway musical in years -- "110 in the Shade."  Reader Lou Steck also brings our attention to Terry Teachout's writeup in today's Wall Street Journal. Teachout write that McDonald gives "the performance of a lifetime as Lizzie Curry."
"Ms. McDonald gives the most fully realized performance I've seen in a musical this season ... It goes without saying that she has the best voice on Broadway, but like Kristin Chenoweth she doesn't have to sing a note to grab your attention. Ms. McDonald is an actor who sings, not a singer who acts ..."
Just a week ago, Audra was back in town for the funeral of her father, longtime Fresno Unified educator Stan McDonald.
I was stunned to see the photo in The Bee Thursday of a defendant leaving court wearing flip flops.  I suppose I am old-fashioned, but when you show up for court, I think you should be wearing shoes. To me, it suggests to the judge that you're not taking the court appearance seriously.
The defendant is a woman accused of stealing more than $50,000 from the Fresno Convention and Visitors Bureau. Interestingly, her lawyer wore dress shoes. I wonder what she would have thought if her lawyer showed up for the court appearance wearing flip flops. (But it's the style, judge.)
To my surprise, my colleagues at the newspaper said I was completely out of touch, and they see no problem with wearing flip flops to court. It's the style. You can wear them to the White House, your grandmother's funeral or to the prom. Doesn't matter. Flip-flop wearers are cool. You're not.
So I was out-voted on this one. But I see casual dress in formal places as a lessening of standards, much in the same way that inappropriate language is now acceptable in public places.
I know. I'm now officially old. But I still oppose wearing flip flops in court and dropping F-bombs in front of the store clerk at the mall. But it's the style so I guess I'll have to get over it.
On the heels of the Famous Fresno Goldfish Hoax, I had to believe someone was kidding someone when I saw this story.
But apparently it's true: A Web site in Pasadena that covers local news and events has hired a couple of new "content-suppliers" from India. I don't mean they came here from India -- although one of them attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Berkeley. I mean they still live in India and will do their work for the Pasadena Now Web site by e-mail from the Asian subcontinent.
This will be interesting. One of the unquestioned tenets of journalism has always been that local journmalism must be done locally. These folks have now defined "local" as being within an 8,000 mile radius of home.
The city of Fresno was honored recently for a couple of programs designed to boost the city's economic development efforts. FresnoStartUp.com and the Municipal Restoration Zone were finalists in a competition sponsored by the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED).
The city of Santa Clarita's film office won the annual award. Other finalists were Selma, Long
Beach, Vista, Riverside and Santa Rosa.
CALED also honored Assembly Member Juan Arambula, Chair of the Assembly Committee for Jobs, the Economy, and Economic Development, for his efforts. It's only the second time in 26 years the "Legislator of the Year" award has been given out.
It's good to see such recognition, and even better to see people trying to build a healthier and more prosperous economy hereabouts. More and better jobs will reduce a whole range of problems, from crime to school performance to health care issues.
There seems to be one big component missing from our public-policy initiatives on obesity prevention, mental health and job training: mothers.
There's a pretty incredible force out there -- and if you doubt it, just consider the household of Carrie Guarino of Mariposa. Writing in the June edition of Family Fun magazine, Guarino tells the story of how she solved the snacking problem at her house -- and developed a budding entrepreneur, sharpened the kids' math skills and lifted her own mental health in the process. It all started with the kids nagging her too much for between-meal munchies.
The creative plan she concocted to deal with this was the family "snack shack." She gave each child a weekly snack allowance of $10 in play money. Jessica, 12, was the manager, responsible for stocking the shelves with foods the customers wanted. That would be her sister, Rachel, 9, and brother Thomas, 7. Jessica also was required to carry fruits and vegetables in her store. The snack shack is open once in midmorning and once in midafternoon. To help Rachel with her math skills, the snack prices have no round numbers, so she has to compute any time she makes a purchase. Health lessons emerged because the most nutritious choices were least expensive and junk foods like candy bars carried the highest prices and were limited. The children also learned about portion control, by reading the nutritional labels, because the snacks are sold by portion, not necessarily by the bag. If the children run out of money before the end of the week, veggies and dip are free.
OK, so here's a group of children learning math, how to count change, customer service, nutrition, portion control and good health without ever leaving their kitchen.
Now, let's make sure we include lots of moms in our long-range strategic planning for the workforce of the future.
The American Lung Association wants to entertain the boss of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and wants your help. The group is asking people to send short (30-second) videos illustrating the foul air in their communities to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.
The Lung Association's Web site offers the results of its recent State of the Air report, grading American communities on the quality of the air they breathe. Here's the site to check on your county. (Time-saving hint: If you live in the Valley, your county got an "F.")
For info on movie-making for the edification of the EPA's Johnson, go here. Keep those cards, letters and videos coming, people.
Mayor Alan Autry says he will get the river walk in downtown Fresno started by the time he leaves office. The idea is for the water feature to generate economic activity, tourists and housing in downtown Fresno. This project could cost substantially more than $20 million and the question, of course, is where that money will come from.
I say partner with Table Mountain Casino or another one of the local Indian casinos and get the river put into tribal trust. Under this partnership, the city and TMC could share the proceeds of slot machines attached to gondolas. Can you picture dozens of gondolas going down Fresno's river walk with Wheel of Fortune slot machines singing out to local gamblers?
Because the Table Mountain gondolas would be near Chukchansi Park, it would probably be a good idea to figure out how to allow gambling at the Grizzlies games.
This revenue stream has all sorts of possibilities.
The state Franchise Tax Board has released median income figures for California's 58 counties in 2005, and the Valley finds itself stuck in the lower half, to no one's surprise.
It's another reminder that we have a long way to go to promote economic development and the creation of more and higher-paying jobs for residents of the region.
Here's the list and rank of Valley counties:
Stanislaus, $54,465; 33rd
Kern, $52,817; 36th
Fresno, $51,438; 37th
Madera, $46,406; 48th
Kings, $45,794; 49th
Merced, $45,311; 50th
Tulare, $44.106; 52nd
Marin County notched the highest median income, at $107,856. Imperial County was last with $36,052.
Everybody's got a "best of" list including The Bee's gonzo advertising section called the People's Choice Awards 2007, which came out March 25... I cannot resist any kind of list. I find random people's tossed-out grocery lists fascinating sociology. My favorite lists, of course, are the Consumer Reports lists. I check in with them before I buy anything from cars (our Honda Pilot was rated very highly) to dishwasher soap (Wal-Mart's house brand was the best buy). For local stuff, however, these "best of" lists are completely practical when you're either completely clueless about a topic or cannot make up your mind. And that's an everyday occurrence for me.
My colleague in The Bee's art department, SW Parra, knows I'm coo-coo for lists so he told me about one of these lists that included some unusual categories on a Silicon Valley Web site called metroactive.com that just you don't see every day. And darned if he didn't suddenly have a hankering for Al Rico's tacos -- a little shop ... near the underpass .... next to the train tracks....
BEST TACO TRUCK UNDER AN OVERPASS NEXT TO TRAIN TRACKS
BEST MENU ITEM THAT COULD BE CONFUSED WITH TOXIC WASTE
BEST RESTAURANT TO PONDER JUST HOW SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT WE REALLY ARE, WITH A GLASS OF WINE IN HAND
BEST OTHERWORDLY DINING EXPERIENCE
BEST OVER-THE-TOP KOBE-STYLE BEEF BURGER
BEST OBSESSIVELY MADE BOWL OF RAMEN
BEST CHINESE FOOD THAT TASTES UNLIKE ANY CHINESE FOOD YOU'VE PROBABLY EVER HAD
BEST NEW ORLEANS DINING EXPERIENCE WITHOUT HAVING TO ENDURE STREET FLOODING AND LOOTING
BEST RESTAURANT TO PRETEND YOU'RE IN A DEEP SOUTH JUKE JOINT WHILE SHOOTING POOL AND EATING REALLY GOOD BARBECUE
BEST CAFE TO SAVOR THE FRUITS OF THE VENEZUELAN JUNGLE
BEST RESTAURANT TO EAT LIKE A HONG KONG HIGH ROLLER IN A JOHN WOO MOVIE
BEST RESTAURANT TO ENJOY GRILLED KOREAN FOOD WHILE DINING UNDER A GIANT STYROFOAM SCULPTURE
BEST PLACE TO PRETEND YOU'RE LOST IN A HO CHI MINH CITY STREET MARKET
OK, spill! What are your favorite lists?
On the heels of the Virginia Tech tragedy, this week's Vision section contained two writers' views on this question: Should universities allow students and faculty members to carry concealed weapons on campus?
Bradford Wiles, a graduate research assistant with the department of human development at Virginia Tech, writes that armed students or teachers could have mitigated killing spree on campus that day.
Wayne Madsen disagrees, saying that increasing the number of guns in the hands of civilians is the last thing America needs.
What do you think?
The Bee has plastic tubs all over the building labeled Letter Carriers Food Drive, so there should be more than the grocery sack full of non-perishable food the postal carriers have asked for on that day. In addition, a team of volunteers from our office is going to work at Poverello House sorting and distributing food. Maybe your office/packing house/school/factory/store would like to help the letter carriers with their food drive the same way at your address. All the food collected is going to be sent to Poverello House, which is going to share it with other organizations serving the needy.
The annual letter carriers food drive -- Stamp Out Hunger -- is Saturday and every family is asked to fill a grocery sack with non-perishable food and place it by your mailbox. We're going to do it at home and we're also pitching in a few things here at the office. Maybe you'd like to join in. The The National Association of Letter Carriers say this is the biggest one-day food drive in the country. I wouldn't doubt it.
Food drives are especially important around this time of year because the shelves of the food pantries have long ago been stripped of the donations that come in with the holiday spirit. The next few months can be as demanding as the winter months because the children are out of school. Though the unemployment rate goes down because of the agricultural harvest, there is still an issue for those who do not work in the fields. Thousands of children in the Valley get free or reduced-price meals. What happens to a poor family's food budget when school lets out in a few weeks?
If you don't have time to shop for food -- a check to Poverello House could work out just fine. Here is the address:
412 F St, Fresno, CA 93706.
It's Teacher Appreciation Week and here's our Sunday editorial on the teaching profession.
In addition, the NEA and the PTA sent this note about the largest teacher thank you card: "From May 7 through Dec. 28, individuals can send a thank you e-card by logging on to www.teacherthankyoucard.org or mail a thank you card to: The Nation's Largest Teacher Thank You Card, c/o NEA/PTA, P.O. Box 66458, Washington, D.C. 20035. The cards collected will be merged into a single oversized card that will travel to major cities and events in 2008."
I found great irony in two big San Joaquin Valley stories last week: immigration rallies and the Hershey chocolate factory in Stanislaus County moving to Mexico. I write about it in today's column. At the heart of our illegal immigration problem is cheap labor for agriculture, hotels and construction. Cheap labor is also what pushed Hershey to close its plant in Oakdale and move those jobs to Mexico.
We have footpaths in both direction on our southern border. If Mexico had a stronger economy and paid better wages, it would solve both problems. Wasn't that what NAFTA was supposed to do?
Funny, when my husband and I married on May 4, 2002, I never imagined we'd spend our five-year anniversary driving to Calistoga to run a 199-mile Relay. But that's where we're heading later today. We did The Relay last year too, and immediately knew it was something we wanted to do again. The course goes through Napa wine country, across the Golden Gate Bridge under a full moon into San Francisco and finishes up on the beach in Santa Cruz on Sunday afternoon. We'll be spending the next three days with 10 other runners that make up our team, spread between two vans as we make our way along the course.
At least this year, there are no mountain lion warnings along the course ... yet!
The Southern California Association of Governments has a new tack on fighting air pollution -- one we might want to emulate here. SCAG is asking President Bush and Gov. Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency in the region because air pollution causes some 5,400 premature deaths every year.
"When we have a hurricane or earthquake, they declare a state of emergency," said Hasan Ikhrata, SCAG's director of planning and policy, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The reaction from functionaries in Sacramento and Washington was predictable: "Hem. Haw. Ahhh ... That's not a decision for our department. And besides, we're already doing so much to clean up the air ... ."
One item on this morning's TV news nearly made me poke out my eye with a mascara brush. Jim McGreevey -- disgraced former governor of New Jersey, has been hired to teach a course in ethics at Kean University in New Jersey. That's right -- McGreevey, a guy with a sleazy background of deceit so pathetic that he had to resign his office and write an entire book to confess it all -- is teaching what? Are we so desperate for teachers of ethics in this country that this is a man who can be paid money to teach young people how to conduct their lives?
I am all for personal redemption, but all I could think of were the hundreds of exemplary people I've known in my life who would be far superior to McGreevey in teaching such a class.
My twisted sense of humor kicked in right away and all I could think of that I could make a fortune starting an Adult School from Hell with an-star faculty featuring McGreevey and people like this:
Don Imus' "Diplomacy" series
Howard Stern's "Etiquette for Young Gentlemen"
Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger team-teaching "Parenting 101"
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "Peace and conflict studies"
Richard Gere's "Intercultural communications"
Gail Marshall's "Iron-woman triathlon training"
How about you, got any candidates for my school?
"May is Clean Air Month" proclaims the latest newsletter from the Fresno-Madera Medical Society. There are a couple of interesting articles in the newsletter, which you can view here.
One of the pieces, by Kim Thompson, the group's air quality director, talks about the efforts local doctors are making to educate Valley residents about air quality issues we all face. Members of the local medical community have been on the front lines in the fight for better air, speaking with the authority of their expertise and the passion of their calling in the effort to raise awareness among their patients -- and all of us -- about the effects of the Valley's bad air on our collective health.
Thompson's article also notes the growing number of local doctors who are engaged in speaking to school classes and other groups on air and other health issues. That's a resource we can all profitably exploit.
I'm amused by all the cynicism out there that Dina Matos McGreevey could be deceived by her husband, former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey. These incredulous people are looking her in the face and saying, "How could you not know?" insinuating that she was either impossibly dense, unbelievably naive or an opportunist.
Are you kidding me? Women deliver full-term babies without knowing they were ever pregnant. We cannot always tell what's happening inside our own minds and bodies, let alone someone else's -- especially someone who intentionally is setting out to deceive us because admitting the truth would devastate his political future.
Wives and husbands are capable of incredible feats of deceit.
Spouses have secret lovers for decades. Spouses secretly abuse their children. Some men have entire second families without their wives knowing it. They kiss their wives goodbye in the morning and go off to commit serial murders. Could a man who's lost his moral compass, who's a ravenously ambitious politician with aspirations for the presidency, who's a serial cheater ... regularly have sex with men -- yet also make love to a beautiful woman who adores him?
Now, who's being naive?
The Bee's Bethany Clough brings us the sad tale of Koffeeheads, the north Fresno coffee house that has recently closed its doors. A lot of locally owned businesses lose out to large corporate chains, and it isn't just coffee houses routed by Starbucks, which many blame for Koffeheads' demise.
Many blame Wal-Mart for the closure of locally owned businesses and the subsequent shriveling of downtowns across America. Borders and Barnes & Noble are pilloried for knocking small independent bookstores out of the game.
Some independent businesses survive in these shark-infested waters. Most do it by finding some weak spot on the soft underbelly of the corporate giants, supplying something the mega-stores can't or won't. Some get by on sheer luck. Many don't.
But that's how capitalism works. The more efficient businesses drive out those that can't compete. And the debate is over before it begins, really. Americans have already voted in this election, with their money.
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