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The Fresno's mayor's race has begun with the formal announcements of several candidates, and others are just waiting to get into the race to succeed Alan Autry. You'll hear many promises from the candidates, so we're giving you a list of questions you should demand that the candidates answer. They're listed in this editorial in today's paper.
Council Members Jerry Duncan and Mike Dages and former Council Member Tom Boyajian are already in the race. Other possible candidates are Council Member Henry T. Perea and Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Regional Jobs Initiative. Police Chief Jerry Dyer has been toying with the possibility of running.
The primary election is next June and there will be a November runoff election if no candidate gets a majority in the primary.
 The last community meeting on Wednesday was the most depressing of them all. Held in the Clovis West Cafeteria, there were about 20 people, 7 of which spoke and reiterated what people at the previous meetings stated. It was boring, dull, and oppresive.
The River Park issue has been exhausted and the next step is the task force for the City of Fresno. Although I have been invited to be on the task force, I feel that this is nothing but a political move. Mr. Perea informed me that he didn't want the task force to meet more than a few times. Though there are 13 people on the task force and only 5 of them are teens.
This is a TEEN task force, right? Not an adult task force. Right? I'm not sure where he found the teens on the task force. One is from Fresno State, one from University High, one who is a close family friend and one who did nothing in this campaign and then myself. This task force is one I have hope for, but I'm not quite sure it will work.
I try to be optimistic about these things, but have lived in Fresno long enough to know that "task forces" and other such committees end up becoming either corrupt or of no use. Neither of which I hope happens to this one. I like to try and see the glass half full on this, but I am having trouble.
At the same time this could turn into something wonderful and we could really make a difference for the community. We could create something for the teens in Fresno to do and create a healthier environment.
I am seeing the glass half empty.
Today's editorial on UC Merced's plans to set up a live video network linking Valley patients to specialists in big cities is a testament to alignment. The university has a long-range goal of establishing a medical school. That will take years of effort to accomplish. While all that talking, fund-raising and negotiating is taking place, the university has secured nearly $1 million in grant money for teleconferencing equipment. This not only serves Valley residents immediately, but it also will help in the campaign to establish a med school in two ways:
* Creating a successful telemedicine network could help persuade state officials to vote for a medical school at UC Merced because the Valley's legislators can see that this is something that addresses the needs of their constituents.
* If a medical school is approved, the telemedicine network also would allow students assigned to Valley clinics to stay connected to the Merced campus.
Ultimately that is a lesson for all Valley communities in making big dreams happen. The leaders make steady, savvy, incremental progress that keeps moving them ever closer to the prize. We will get that medical school.
It looks like the long-awaited renovation of the Old Administration Building at Fresno City College is about to get under way in earnest. The State Center Community College District has written a letter to campus neighbors -- I'm one of them -- alerting us to a "flurry of activity" that will begin in October. Here's the district's Web page on the project.
Bring it on. Saving the historic OAB was a long and hard struggle over a couple of decades. It will be delightful to see the building resorted to academic and other uses, which is expected to happen in a couple of years.
We've written extensively on the effort to save the OAB over the years, including our first-ever "audio editorial" that went up on our Web site a few months ago. Check it out here.
 Neither ancient history nor current events is important enough to hold former Sen. Fred Thompson's attention, not encouraging signs in a candidate for president of the United States.
Once hailed as a potential bright spot in a lackluster field of Republican candidates, Thompson's sparkle is quickly tarnishing, just weeks after he finally announced his candidacy. Maybe he should have spent more time researching some issues -- any issues -- before deciding to jump in.
Today's paper reports that Thompson said he was unaware that a federal judge had ruled last week that lethal injection procedures in his home state of Tennessee were unconstitutional or that the U.S. Supreme Court this week had agreed to consider a Kentucky case about whether lethal injection violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Earlier this month while in Florida, Thompson couldn't tell reporters his position on Terri Schiavo, and whether or not the comatose woman should have been taken off life support, claiming not to remember enough about the case that divided many. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
Two years ago? Oh, yeah. That's ancient.
Conservative columnist George Will wrote last week about Thompson's inauspicious entry into the race:
Sean Hannity, who is no Torquemada conducting inquisitions of conservatives, asked Thompson: "When you look at the other current crop of candidates -- Republicans -- where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?" Thompson replied: "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the details of their positions."
Tell you what, Fred. Stick to the script and keep your day job. And stay away from those clever trick questions.
If you want to see your household income go up substantially, teach all the women in the house to be tougher negotiators at work. "Good Morning America's" Web site has a story from their workplace expert, Tory Johnson, that says one explanation for the wage gap between men and women may be that men have learned to negotiate better. That's good news, because it's a skill that can be learned.
GMA teamed up with Carnegie Mellon economist Linda Babcock to create a bargaining behavior lab, and the negotiating styles of men and women were starkly different. It's fascinating to watch this video. Men, they say, see negotiating over money as a sport, where women consider it more like going to the dentist. The women in the study consistently settled for less cash. The men? Well, forget that. Most of them demanded more money without hesitation. You can see the full story by clicking here.
OK, Valley adult schools superintendents, are you paying attention? Let's hire some ace teachers to train negotiating skills to women. Do you think Donald and Ivanka Trump are available?
Meanwhile, I think I'll try this negotiating thing out: Can I have a raise? How about a company car? An extra week of vacation? Well, how about one of those retractable Sharpie pens and a package of pink Post-it notes? Yes! Wow, guys, how am I doing here? Am I a natural or what?
Charles "Chep" Hurth III is an obscure city attorney in a tiny Missouri town. He's also the point man for the Republican effort to change the way California's electoral votes are apportioned to presidential candidates, a move that some say could swing the 2008 election to the GOP.
Hurth wasn't so obscure a decade ago, as Carla Marinucci reports in today's San Francisco Chronicle. He was in national headlines after a young woman dragged him into court, charging that he bit her on the butt in a bar.
Marinucci writes: "Hurth, then a third-year law student at St. Louis University, was taken to court by a young woman who said he grabbed her in a bar and bit her on the buttocks so hard she required medical attention -- then laughed and high-fived his friends.
"Hurth testified that he had told her she should take it as a compliment.
"The female attorney sued him and took something else instead -- a jury's award of $27,500 for damages."
Hurth is the registered agent for Take Initiative America, a tax-exempt group apparently formed specifically to place the so-called Presidential Election Reform Act on California's June ballot. The group donated $175,000 to fund the effort.
The Electoral College system needs changing, no doubt. Better yet, we should junk it in favor of a straightforward popular vote for president. But this cheesy attempt to rejigger the outcome only in California -- and not in any Republican-dominated states -- is a transparent fraud. About what you'd expect from people who think it's OK to bite a stranger in the butt.
We had an editorial board meeting with Fresno City Council Member Jerry Duncan today, shortly after he had declared his candidacy for mayor. Among the topics he addressed briefly was homelessness, which is the subject of one of today's editorials. To read it, click here.
The city staff has come up with a plan for a village of sheds at Poverello House, which will give the homeless a sheltered bed with blankets where they can sleep at night, plus portable restrooms, trash cans, security and a place to lock up their possessions. Duncan said he hasn't made up his mind on how to vote on that idea yet, but he wants to make sure he sees the word "temporary" many times in the documents.
Long-term, he says, he thinks it's best for the homeless to be moved out of the downtown area, because they are a barrier to economic development. He thinks it's not necessary for the homeless to be downtown; what's important is that the services they need are nearby. He'd like to see a task force pull together a 10-year plan for ending homelessness in the area.
Even with the school year well under way for more than a month, cars aren't necessarily slowing down in school zones.
The other day as I slowed down while driving west past Temperance-Kutner Elementary School on Olive Avenue, two cars went around me into the lane for oncoming traffic, speeding past the school. This would be a good place for law enforcement -- is that Fresno County Sheriff jurisdiction? -- to focus some patrols.
Downtown Fresno's renaissance will be on display Saturday during the Billion Dollar Tour. The event is sponsored by the Fresno Economic Development Corp. in an effort to showcase an astonishing amount of new construction and renovation in recent years. We wrote about the tour in an editorial today. Here's the earlier news story, and a link to the EDC's Web site with more info.
Too many people are blissfully ignorant of the big changes under way in downtown Fresno. I hear all the time from people who brag about the fact they haven't been downtown in ages. That rarely keeps them from having an opinion about it, though. Me, I stay away from the north end of town. I'm scared of all those murderous teen gangs roaming River Park.
Marlin Dick, who grew up in Fowler and is now living in Lebanon, is an occasional columnist for The Bee's op/ed page. In his latest commentary, Dick argues that we shouldn't be surprised when a largely privatized war leads to waste and corruption.
He writes of a "deadly triangle" that consists of "A rise in defense spending, a bigger share of the pie for private firms, and astounding levels of waste and mismanagement -- 'privatization' is supposed to replace the bad old public sector, but in the Bush era, the private sector has become synonymous with bloated inefficiency."
Of all the issues to be uptight over, it shouldn't be whether a columnist is interested in the work of Fresno Unified's facilities committee. It's such a boring topic that the district should be happy someone wants to write about it.
On Tuesday morning, I was doing some background reporting for a Sunday column on the growing maintenance problems at district schools, and thought I should see some of the facilities for myself. I started with the Fresno High swimming pool, which has been the subject of much public debate because of its poor condition.
This was not a big deal. I just wanted to see the pool before I wrote about it. It's Journalism 101. I called the school notifying Principal Bob Reyes that I wanted to see the pool. I also called Dan Fitzpatrick, who chairs the district's facilities committee. Dan and I checked in at the office and then Reyes escorted us to the pool. Simple, or so I thought.
I learned later that my request to see the pool set off a panic at the district office. Emails and phone calls were buzzing around the school system. There was a call from the principal to the district's communications office. Then emails to the superintendent notifying him that I was -- gasp -- looking at the swimming pool. Then school board members were notified just in case they wanted to micro-manage this crisis.
I know. You're wondering why there aren't more important things for them to do than to go to Def-Con 4 because I wanted to see the Fresno High pool. But apparently they have a lot of idle hands in Fresno Unified.
By the way, I also have an appointment to see the Bullard High pool and track on Wednesday morning. I figure this blog posting will save the district from emailing that information to the downtown office and board members.
As an added treat for Opinion Talk readers, I'm posting the district's email about my trip to Fresno High. You won't read this anywhere else -- unless you are part of the district's super-secret crisis management team. Here's the top secret email:
From: Susan L. Bedi
Subject: Fresno High
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:11:55 +0000
** High Priority **
The Superintendent requested the following be shared:
Fresno High Principal Bob Reyes called me to check if the Communication's Office had approved Jim Boren and Dan Fitzpatrick to come to Fresno High to see their pool.
I explained that Dan was on the Adhoc committee for Facilities and that we did not know that he was coming to Fresno High with Jim Boren. Recommendation for Bob was to take them to the pool and answer their questions, but not to enter into a conversation as to why Fresno High deserves a pool over anyone else.
Jim Boren asked Bob how old the pool was, and if there is anything else Fresno High needs in regards to facilities. Bob responded most of the schools with older pools would want a new pool, talked about a 2nd gym, athletic facilities upgrades, etc. Jim saw that the plaster was cracked and Fitzpatrack interjected that is why students cut their feet. Major Rogers (water polo coach) was out at the pool and saw Boren. He went over to Boren and introduced himself. Boren recognized his name as someone who writes letters to the editor. Rogers had a short conversation about the polo team.
Fitzpatrick indicated he was taken Boren to other schools as well.
School has started and with that football season. The excitement, the anticipation, the cheering and screaming, and the fans when the stadium lights turn on and your players run onto the field.
As a loyal Knight, I love Bullard football. I agree with Coach Arax: "When the football program is strong the school is strong." Today at school, when talking to fellow students, I learned that after our victory over Clovis East there had been theft in the Clovis East locker room.
This is sad no matter what team you root for, that kind of conduct should not occur. Then to hear that a Clovis East parent wrote a letter to Sports and belittled and degraded not just Bullard, but Jody Sharp our athletic director, Bullard football, Bullard High School and Bullard students. Now that's a lot of name calling in one letter. I came home and looked up this letter to see what all this was about.
Patty Manghera stated that Coach Sharp was upset that "this crime overshadowed an important football win." Yes, it is unfortunate that this has overshadowed an important win for us, and any student or parent alike would be disappointed at the turn of events, I don't care what school you attend.
Ms. Manghera continues with, "At Bullard, they are taught winning is more important than caring for fellow community members." I am sorry, but this is completely untrue and outrageous. How dare a parent say this about another school. I take this as a personal insult. Not only is she putting down every student at Bullard but every teacher and administrator as well -- the same teachers and administrators who strive to instill in us a sense of community and pride. We have many groups on campus that do outstanding works for the community, many of which go unnoticed. We don't feel a need to preach to every one our good works. As a little girl, a wise man told me, "A good deed is no longer a good deed if you tell someone about it."
Yes, there will be another football game next week, next month and next year but no one will ever forget this win. In Clovis their athletes may be taught to "win with grace and lose with dignity," but this obviously has not been passed on to the parents.
This game was won by hard work and pure determination; do not attempt to take that away from the Bullard Knights. Do not question our integrity.
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Here's the question of the day: Would you fly to Sacramento from Fresno, instead of driving or taking the train, if direct flights became available? Fresno airport authorities are trying to persuade airlines to start round-trip service between Fresno and the state capital.
The problem is that while it may only be a 30-minute flight to Sacramento, it gets much longer when you add in the hassles of flying. That starts with at least an hour to go through check-in and security before you even get on a plane. The drive to Sacramento is three hours so how much time are you really gaining, especially considering the possibility of flight delays?
Even with current gas prices, driving is much cheaper than flying. The estimated round-trip fare between Fresno and Sacramento would be $200.
So would you fly to Sacramento from Fresno? I'm leaning toward driving -- unless someone else is buying my plane ticket.
In today's letters to the editor, Virginia Amicarelli of Clovis expresses her frustration with the customer service phone line designed by AT&T. Who hasn't been entangled in some hideous phone tree trying desperately to climb out? You can read her letter by clicking here.
Well, maybe AT&T should take a lesson in communications from PG&E. Last week, I called the customer-service line, hoping to speak to a real person about setting up a service call. The recorded voice said that all the representatives were helping other customers. Typical. Then, she told me it would be about four minutes of waiting. I appreciated that bit of information, and as holding goes, it wasn't so bad. I settled in, planning to clean out the e-mail on my Outlook basket. Within seconds, the recording said that, rather than waiting on hold, PG&E would call me back. Then I was prompted to punch in my phone number.
Amazing! Small victories! I really appreciated that little tweak in the system, so good on the PG&E programmer who came up with this. By the way, I was called back as promised, but I was on the phone with another caller when PG&E tried to get through. Not a problem. A little while later, the automatic dialer called again, and a nice live person helped me tend to business.
Several sources are suggesting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the state Legislature are very close to a deal on a universal health care program for California. The devil is definitely in the details with health care, but one encouraging aspect of the current negotiations is how little effort most interest groups have made to derail it.
Republicans have been marginalized on the issue. The Washington Post quotes Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, the Clovis Republican, calling the emerging deal "a one-way road to disaster. The state's GOP is content to let the governor and the Democrats take their case for whatever plan is produced to the voters.
One thing that has puzzled me for years in this debate is the absence of big employers pushing for changes. I've always thought it was in the best interests of corporations big and small to have universal health care, since it would remove often huge burdens of the companies themselves. Universal health care in this country would make American companies more competitive in global markets. Now it looks like at least some executives agree.
The San Francisco Chronicle quotes Safeway's Steve Burd, head of a group called the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, this way: "This is consuming so much of the gross domestic product that it runs the risk of us being uncompetitive." Hurd also told the Chron there's been a "sea change" among employers because of rising health care costs.
Better late than never.
Having a tough time getting the kids to read? There is a wealth of wisdom in a series of articles in Teacher magazine by Donalyn Miller, an intermediate school teacher in Texas, who is known as "the book whisperer." She says she has yet to meet a child she couldn't turn into a reader. Wow, good for her. The sixth graders in her class read on average between 50 and 60 books a year. One of her students last year read 300 books.
All of her students last year passed the reading portion of the Texas assessment test. She has a library for the children containing more than 2,000 volumes that even former students come to visit. In this series, she gives her secrets, talks about encouraging boys to read and gives a list of "Thirteen Books You Have to Read Before You Turn Thirteen," which was compiled by a student.
Check out the whole series by clicking here.
 An Associated Press article on fresnobee.com reports that thousands of people jammed two blocks of 47th Street across from the United Nations to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York. The speakers, most of them politicians and officials from Jewish organizations, proclaimed their support for Israel and criticized the Iranian leader for his remarks questioning the Holocaust.
"We're here today to send a message that there is never a reason to give a hatemonger an open stage," New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
Yes, there is. It's a component of the First Amendment of our Constitution, and it even applies to speech we disagree with.
(Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images: People protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outside Columbia University in New York where he was invited to speak. Ahmadinejad is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.)
I offer my thoughts on the issues and problems that the next mayor will face in today's column in the Vision section of The Bee. I know I'm sounding grouchy, but I'm tired of big promises and small results from Fresno's leaders. I hope the next mayor has the ability to get things done.
The speculation is increasing for a possible mayoral bid by Police Chief Jerry Dyer, who has toyed with the idea of running for the past year or so. If he runs, he will be the favorite. If he wins, he would be able to pick his successor as police chief (through the city manager, of course). But Dyer has been in and out of this race so many times (at least in the pundits' minds) that the latest rumor may not hold up until Monday.
Council Members Henry T. Perea, Jerry Duncan and Mike Dages say they are running. Duncan is supposed to formally announce on Wednesday. Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative, is also rumored as a possible candidate. There's also a surprise name making the rounds -- Pete Mehas. The former Fresno County Schools superintendent is considering coming out of retirement to run.
With Mayor Alan Autry unable to seek a third term because of term limits and former Mayor Jim Patterson taking himself out of the race, the campaign for mayor is wide open. But if Dyer gets in, it closes down quickly. Most of the previously mentioned names would not run because of Dyer's perceived strength as a vote-getter.
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the prison guards union is the only union in state government that has refused to settle. Twenty other bargaining units have contracts, but the prison guards refuse to compromise. It has to be their way or no way.
Now the guards union has walked out of mediation -- not exactly an indication the guards want to settle. Guards spokesman Lance Corcoran called the mediation process "idiotic" and "stupid," according to this editorial in today's Bee. Union President Mike Jimenez of Fresno said the state can "shove it." That's you and me, folks.
Wouldn't it be nice if the guards union treated the people who pay their salaries with a little more respect?
 On the city of Fresno Web site, there is a commute calculator, where you can figure out how much your daily commute costs you if you drive alone to work. I put in the numbers for my 23-mile round-trip, driving my Prius, which gets much better gas mileage than our other vehicle, and came up with a daily cost of $14.73, or $3,713 per year.
College students have complained for years about the high cost of textbooks they must buy for their classes. They're right: Textbooks are a rip-off. The publishers have a captive market, and they issue new editions every year or two, with higher prices, on the pretext of keeping the books "current."
It's more about "currency" than "current." These guys ought to be prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Students go to great lengths to save money. I once heard that some had discovered that buying the books from Amazon's United Kingdom Web site was cheaper than using Amazon's American site. Used book stores flourish because of this scam, but even their prices can go through the roof, and sometimes used copies simply aren't available.
State Sen. Elaine Corbett, D-San Leandro, has a bill that might make some modest improvements in the system. The bill would require publishers who make pitches to faculty for their books to disclose their wholesale and retail costs, make an estimate of how long the book will stay current and state how much they've jacked up the price of new editions over old ones. The San Bernardino Sun has a good story on the subject.
The legislation, Senate Bill 832, is on the governor's desk. He ought to sign it.
Some professors -- the ones who write the textbooks -- are in on the racket. Many others are upset, because they find that students who can't afford the textbooks don't do as well in classes.
The price of college textbooks has increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation in the past decade, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Many students -- or their parents -- now spend more than $1,000 a year for books. It's time for some changes.
Maybe it's not too late for Mayor Alan Autry to get the downtown lake in place before he leaves office. My friend, Jerry English, alerted me this week to the work of muralist Eric Grohe, who has done some some pretty gorgeous work in this country, according to his Web site.
Here's one example of what he did to a ho-hum hospital exterior in Ohio.
Now look at what he did to an ugly parking garage.
Now, in this one he created not only a lake, but a waterfall, too.
Eric Grohe can make Lake Autry happen in no time! Maybe we should get this guy to come to Fresno and be done with it. Why not just paint the lake on the side of the old Gottschalk's building? We can add anything we want to the picture - condos, beautiful and diverse rich people, a streetcar full of riders, a light rail train packed with passengers, dance clubs, boutiques, Ikea, Fry's Electronics, Nordstrom. Heck, Bass Pro! Just paint the darn buildings into the picture and call it a done deal!
You know, it takes too long to make progress in this town, and this might be the answer to our frustrations. Could this be the final remedy for those ugly and embarrassing jail buildings that the county plopped square in the middle of our downtown and then was too cheap to paint? We can have Grohe draw in pictures of nice gentlemen in ties learning in school, helping the elderly, playing with their sons on the swing sets, learning banking and earning graduate degrees, driving hybrid cars, getting pilots' licenses, leading the PTA meetings, dancing with their wives, roller blading with their daughters, water skiing.
Mister Mayor, grab your paintbrush and let's get to work.
"Internet promoters make much use of the word 'interactive,' as if it's a phenomenon that emerged only with the creation of the World Wide Web. In fact, American newspapers have been interactive since before this nation was born, in a low-tech way, and nowhere is that more evident than on the pages we reserve for letters to the editor."
That's how my column in today's Bee begins. Letters to the editor have always been important to newspapers. We get a lot of them at The Bee -- nearly 10,000 each year. We cherish the debates they spark, and try to get as lively a page of letters into print each day as we can.
We're abetted in that task by hundreds of local writers who bombard us with their thoughts, their crochets, their visions every day. Now that's "interactive."
A packetful of sugar helps the writing assignment go down.
If the kids are already moaning and groaning about those term papers, compositions and college entrance essays filling their assignment books, take a tip from my favorite writing coach, Roy Peter Clark from the Poynter Instititute. In a column on the Poynter Web site, he describes a lunch he had recently with a couple of professional writers.
To describe the organization of a recent story he wrote, Clark says,
"Tom reached across the lunch table and grabbed three packets of "Fresh Naps," a brand of moist towelette, and two pink packs of sweetener. He spread them across the table in this color pattern: WHITE PINK WHITE PINK WHITE. Each packet represented an imagined section of the story -- the white ones a main narrative string, the pink ones a developing subplot. As we talked about the story, Tom moved the pieces like a Three-Card Monte dealer, describing some possible connections and transitions. Tom returned the packets to their places, but I confiscated them. Never miss a chance to claim a writing tool. Who knows? Maybe they'll wind up in a journalism museum at Indiana University, along with Ernie Pyle's typewriter."
Clark gives a couple of other examples of famous writers -- like Gay Talese -- who literally blocked out writing projects with big squares, a visual teaching tool that just might help the kids construct a solid essay out of many little pieces of information. It might even help the adults finish up that Valley Voices column they've been procrastinating on, hmmm?
The mediation process broke down Wednesday, and now the Fresno Unified School District and the Fresno Teachers Association will move to the next step in the process -- fact-finding. The contract talks have dragged on for 17 months. Unfortunately, this isn't about the children.
The impasse seems to be turning into outgoing FTA President Larry Moore's last hurrah. The Bee's editorial board believes the union's 4,000 members should tell Moore to settle. They would get 5.5% raises and their students would get the full attention of their teachers.
The teachers don't have an incentive to settle because the district has agreed to pay retroactive pay back to July 2006. If Superintendent Michael Hanson wants to force the union's hand, he should tell the FTA that if it doesn't take the district offer by Oct. 1, retro pay is off the table, and the teachers would only get paid from the date the contract is signed. Losing more than a year of back pay might be just the incentive needed to get a settlement.
I attended tonight's River Park Curfew Community Meeting, and once again came away disappointed. There were fewer attendees than the last meeting, 32 to be exact. The same statements were made by the same people. But there was one nice little twist at the end. Talk of the "Task Force".
They introduced two members of the task force one parent and the only named teen, Kelsy Castillo. After the introductions Luis, Councilman Henry T Perea's assistant, rose to say that if the public had any questions that they could speak with him after the meeting was over.
Kelsy, myself and another teen who also lead a boycott of River Park, Tyler Wilson, rose to speak with Luis. When asked by another teen why Tyler and myself were not on the task force seeing as both of us were the first to come out and take action, his response was "Well you're on a list."
A list. I'm on a list. I'm being waitlisted? Are you kidding? Where is the logic in that?
Luis proceeded to tell us that they had been given a list of teens by the Rios Company who were involved and then from the list and the calls that they were receiving they were choosing the youth who would sit on the task force. When Jane Alvorado (Executive Director of Youth Leadership Institute(YLI)) asked Luis why myself and Tyler had not been called. His answer was this: "Our office is getting calls everyday by teens who are saying that they 'spearheaded' the boycott of River Park."
Well here is my suggestion: Why doesn't his office do some research and look up articles and news reports on the subject and see who is mentioned. Then they can see who really spearheaded the movement.
Also, I take offense that this "Task Force" is being publicized as a youth group to benefit youth. This Task Force has only 5 teens and 11 adults. 11 adults? That's more than twice the number of youth. Wait. I thought this was youth task force. I'm confused.
Jane Alvorado was never contacted and she runs a youth-based organization. John Minkler who has founded a series of youth-based organizations was never contacted. If this is something that is said to be youth based and youth led and benefits youth, there should be more young people than adults.
Call me crazy. I have sat on enough councils to know that it can appear to be a youth council, but it's really adults leading the teens around by the hand and telling us what to do. I would hate for the City of Fresno to do that to a group of upstanding and involved youth.
Why not make it 60/40. The adults can give suggestions and commentary, but let us do most of the work. Luis told us that they were looking for teens that had different opinions. Like teens not opposed to the idea of a curfew. I can only count one teen I've encountered that agrees with the curfew.
I think Councilman Perea and his crew need to take a step back and really look at what they are doing. Is this really a task force for the good of the community or political stepping stone. How long does Councilman Perea have left in office? Is he going to be here to see it through?
The other thing that bothers me is that because Councilman Perea is young, he likes to say that he is for the youth. But as long as he can tack his name to it, then he will do it.
I'm disappointed to see an idea that really could have done some good has fallen prey to the vultures of Fresno politics. Especially something for youth.
Eleven Fresno County schools serving 4,436 students are not offering their low-income students a healthy school breakfast, despite having access to money for that very purpose, according to a new report from California Food Policy Advocates, which is a San Francisco organization that promotes nutrition among low-income families.
The Valley's education leaders should not allow that to continue.
Six of those schools are categorized as having "severe need," because the size of their low-income student enrollment. "All students, regardless of their location or their family income, should be able to start the day well-nourished and ready to learn," said Kumar Chandran, author of the report. "Schools with large populations of low-income children, such as these 'severe need' schools, have a special responsibility to offer breakfast."
The people who specialize in fighting hunger say the number of poor children who eat lunch at school should be about the same as those who eat breakfast, but locally and statewide, we are far from it. . In Fresno County, 42.5 students eat a school breakfast of every 100 children eating lunch - making it 49th of the state's 56 counties. Our schools serve low-income children 42,750 school breakfasts each day, yet 92,549 low income children get lunch at school each day.
For once, this is not a money issue for the schools. Because the state receives federal reimbursement for each breakfast served, Fresno County would earn up to $12,411,933 in federal reimbursement. "Given the many benefits of breakfast, we must not turn away these valuable resources," said Mr. Chandran.
The report carries advice on how to fix the situaiton. "There are actions we all can and should take to feed hungry minds in California - responsibility is shared by us all," said Chandran.
Downtown Fresno has changed a great deal in recent years, which may have gone unnoticed by all those folks who fled to the north of the city and brag about how they haven't set foot in downtown for 10 (20, 30) years.
Now there's a chance to see some of those changes, and it's free. Fresno County's Economic Development Corporation has scheduled a "Billion Dollar Bus Tour" of downtown for Sept. 29, a Saturday. Fresno Area Express buses will pick up passengers at several downtown locations and ferry them around -- for free -- to see the billion-dollars-plus construction that has been completed, is under way or is ready to break ground in downtown.
Visitors will have a chance to get on and off the buses at regular intervals if they want to check out something up close. The (free) event starts at 9 a.m., an the last bus will load up at 1 p.m. Check it out -- especially if you haven't seen downtown Fresno in a while. And it's free.
It seems that Fresno's 4,000 teachers would want the contract settled with the Fresno Unified School District. After all, the teachers are being offered a 5.5% salary increases and their health benefits will still only cost them between $30 and $70 a month. Not bad in this economic climate.
In an editorial last week, we point out the real reason for this stalemate -- a power struggle between Fresno Teachers Association President Larry Moore and the district. It's time to get beyond this pettiness and resolve the conflict.
The other unions in the district have already taken the same deal offered the teachers. It's time to focus on the classroom and not district politics. Moore lost a lot of support when he threatened to take the district's teachers out on strike if the union didn't get its way.
Oh, please. . . the 4,000 teachers are going on strike for an additional half-percent raise? It's not going to happen.
 An Associated Press article notes a milestone birthday for the punctuation that give emotion to our e-mails:
Twenty-five years ago, three keystrokes a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis were first used as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, the university said.
The article goes on to say:
"Language experts say the smiley face and other so-called emoticons, or emotional icons, have given people a concise way of expressing sentiments in e-mail and other electronic messages that otherwise would be difficult to detect."
An article in Wikipedia has the practice of using symbols as a shortand for words or to convey feelings going back even farther. According to that site, the National Telegraphic Review and Operators Guide in April 1857 documented the use of the number 73 in Morse code to express "love and kisses."
But it certainly has caught on like wildfire in the years since e-mail, online message groups and instant messages have gained popularity.
(Associated Press photo: Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman used three keystrokes -- a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis -- to create a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.)
Home sick today, I was in my room when my mother called to me from the family room. She said "Nora, you have got to watch this video." By the end of the two minute and 23 second ameteur video I was in tears.
What was the video you may ask; something about the war, some killing spree or some other equally heinous crime? No, no and no. I watched a young man approach the open microphone at a "self-proclaimed town hall meeting" for Sen. John Kerry, being held at the University of Florida Gainesville campus, and ask a question, "Is it true you were in the same secret society as George Bush in college?"
Police came up and proceeded to apprehend the young man and try to lead him out of the building. All the while people are clapping for him and cheering him on. Andrew Meyer is asking the police what he did and why they are arresting him. It is only at this point the audience becomes alarmed at the scene unfolding before them.
It does not seem fair that there are 6 police officers "escorting" one young man especially when he starts to give in and tries to state that if they would let him go he would walk out of the building.
You hear Meyer yell, "Don't taser me 'bro!"
I start to cry as you can hear Meyer scream in pain as they are sending 5,000 volts of electricity into this young mans body.
This is a very disturbing act performed by police officers. What did this young man do? Ask a question, isn't that protected in our First Amendment rights, last time I checked it was. In the duration of this video you never hear the officers read him his Miranda rights, which is another right they decided to violate. Another disturbing observation is the faculty member standing at the back of the room extending his hand as to say, 'I want no part in this.'
I sit here horrified and saddend by what society has come to. Is it no longer that we can stand up and ask our electedofficials a question about their past? What does this teach our young people? That they should be afraid to ask questions and that they should become apathetic Americans.
Our Constitution is being swept under the rug along with other values that founded this country all in the name of fear and fear of terrorism. We have forgotten what our Founding Fathers did to secure our rights; we have forgotten the sacrifice and the struggle they endured to fight for what they felt was rightfully ours. As a democracy is the road we are traveling a dangerous one?
Click here to learn more and watch the video
Student fees are going up at California State University campuses. Faculty are being given a 4.7% pay increase. CSU has turned down a proposal to give pay raises of 3.6% to non-teaching staff such as groundskeepers, custodians and health care workers.
Yep, you can hear the sounds of belts being tightened at all 23 campuses.
Which explains why Chancellor Charles Reed, his four chief deputies and 23 campus presidents will get pay raises averaging 11.8% this year, thanks to the trustees of the CSU system. It gets better: This raise is part of a plan to hike executive pay some 46% over the next four years. It's all in Jim Doyle's story today in the San Francisco Chronicle.
It seems the poor executives have fallen way behind their counterparts across the nation. Poor Charles Reed really needs the $421,500 salary he'll draw after the pay hike. After all, he's got to put groceries in that state-provided home he has in Long Beach. And he'd better be setting aside a nest egg, since his $30,000-a-year retirement bonus just won't stretch very far.
Closer to home, it's clear that Fresno State President John Welty deserves a hefty increase. Just look at the deft fashion in which he's handled those pesky Title IX disputes on his campus.
Did you see the story in today's Bee that says a third of men don't wash their hands after using the bathroom? Come on, guys. Now, that's gross. Hillary Clinton even thinks so. She was talking health care policy this morning on TV and she ended it by saying she might make hand-washing part of her health care plan. That part was just kiddin' around with Diane Sawyer, of course, but the woman has a point.
Maybe we need to look to the elder societies for wisdom about this. We had dessert with the most delightful Japanese visitors last week. And we laughed together about the whole hand-shaking vs bowing thing. I think those ancient cultures knew something long ago that we are just now facing up to. I'll bet they've been laughing at us all these years, saying "Ewww" behind our backs.
Have you noticed that some of the nicer Asian restaurants often begin the meal by offering those warm, wet washcloths to clean your hands before eating? Uhmm. Hmmm. Now we know why.
There were a couple of American teenagers in our group Saturday night. They didn't know about the hand-washing study, but they did know about a teacher in their high school who insisted on shaking hands with all his students every day as they entered his classroom. They gave him credit for the nice thought, but the kids dreaded it because he always had these sweaty hands. One girl admitted that she made a point of waiting around the corner until the bell rang and ran into the class at the last possible second to avoid his clammy paws.
We're still getting letters in reaction to Fresno Teachers Association President Larry Moore threatening a strike and union leadership calling school board members "rats" for not supporting the union line in negotiations with the Fresno Unified School District. Here's one today that questions the credibility of the union cartoonist who originally made the "rat" reference. Here's another suggesting a "no confidence" vote for the FTA.
The Bee's editorial board members had their say on the issue in this editorial and Bee metro columnist Bill McEwen was highly critical of Moore in this piece.
The FTA and the district return to mediation Wednesday. It's time to get the contract settled so the focus can return to the classroom. This political posturing is counter-productive.
The fast food giants are feeling the hot breath of consumer backlash on public health breathing down their chubby necks, so one by one, they are they are buying into the Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.
According to Ad Age magazine, the latest company to jump in is Burger King, which is introducing its new product, which is raw apples that are cut to look like french fries. They are served in the traditional fries box, it calls a Frypod.
Also on the way are new kids' meals. This fall, Burger King will begin testing a kids' meal that swaps fried, crown-shaped chicken tenders for flame-broiled ones, and Mott's apple sauce with the organic, no-sugar-added variety. It will also include Hershey's 1% fat chocolate milk instead of a soda. The new products are expected to be in Burger King locations nationwide by late 2008.
In addition to the new product, the chain agreed to limit its advertising to children under 12. The company will push to young kids only meals that have fewer than 560 calories and only meals that derive less than 30% of their calories from fat. The marketer spent $285 million in advertising last year.
Gosh, guys, now that wasn't so hard, was it? Now if we can just get them to break into the exciting world of vegetables -- maybe cucumber or jicama fries will be next?
 What do you think of President Bush's choice of a nominee for attorney general? Here's what the latest article on Fresnobee.com says:
President Bush, seeking to avoid a possible confirmation fight over a fiercely partisan candidate, chose retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey Monday to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Democrats said Bush made a wise choice and raised no immediate objections.
In Sunday's Vision section, two writers squared off on what kind of person Bush should look for to fill Gonzales' shoes. Richard A. Viguerie, the author of "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause," said that rather than appease the Democrats, the president should use this appointment to restore his relevancy and revive the Republican coalition by deliberately picking an ideological fight with the Democrats.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the toughest part of the job may be regaining the public's trust after four years of partisanship and political abuses.
The problem of illegal immigration won't go away by ignoring the issue, which is the current congressional strategy. The estimated 12 million illegal residents here will soon swell to 20 million or 30 million if nothing is done. Conservatives who thought they'd won by killing immigration reform in the U.S. Senate this summer may turn out to be the big losers. "Just arrest them" isn't an immigration policy.
In fact, doing nothing is de facto amnesty, and that's something the conservatives vehemently oppose. But that's what we are left with now that nothing is being done in Congress.
It's time that Congress get serious about this problem. Here is The Bee's editorial urging congressional action on immigration reform.
The Bee marks Constitution Day with an editorial today. The holiday was created in 2004, and requires that schools that receive federal funding set this day aside each year for special efforts to teach about the nation's organic document.
It's a pity we don't spend time very day reading, talking and thinking about the Constitution. It's the foundation of our freedoms, and the most important political document ever crafted anywhere.
But, as we point out in the editorial, it's not nearly as well understood by Americans as it should be: " ...most Americans can't name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Freedom of speech was named by 64% of those surveyed, but freedom of religion (19%), press and assembly (each 16%) and petition (3%) were largely missed."
That inattention and neglect is one reason ideologues have done so much damage to the Constitution -- what we don't understand, we cannot cherish and protect.
The legislative session ended last week and not much was accomplished, which I point out in my Sunday column. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called a special session to deal with two issues -- health care reform and water storage -- but is there any reason to believe the Legislature will act on these two complex and controversial issues?
Unless lawmakers decide that they want to find a way to deal with these issues, the Legislature will remain a do-nothing body. That's why I have called for the Legislature to be abolished, replaced with something a bit more workable.
I think a one-house legislature would be preferable, since the Assembly and Senate like to point fingers at each other. If we only had one house -- a unicameral legislature -- the lawmakers would be more accountable. If something passed, it would go straight to the governor. Currently, a bill may pass one house and then get picked apart in the other.
The special interests love the current system because they have two chances to kill a bill that might cut into their taxpayer-financed goodies. But something must change. What we have now isn't working.
Police unions around the country are urging their members to sue to get paid for the time it takes to get dressed before they go on their shifts. Their lawyers have fancied this up, calling it "donning and doffing" uniforms and protective/safety gear. But it's really very simple for the rest of us: We call it "Greed."
We decided to make fun of the 71 Fresno County sheriff's deputies who have sued the county in the local case by coming out with the Top 10 reasons they should get paid for getting dressed.
Here's No 10 on our Top 10 list: It's stressful looking in mirror and wondering if your gun makes your butt look fat.
The other nine are just as sarcastic. We had fund, but here's the bottom line: The Fresno County Board of Supervisors better fight this suit all the way. If they give in now, they might as well give the keys to the county treasury to the public employee unions. Then there really won't be money to actually protect public safety in the county.
I attended a delightful party last night at the Fresno Art Museum launching David Mas Masumoto's new book: "Heirlooms, Letters From A Peach Farmer." Bee readers know Mas well. His columns about farming and life in the San Joaquin Valley run in our Vision section one Sunday a month. Doug Hansen adds to the wonderful presentation by capturing column images with his compelling art. You may recognize much of the book because many of the pieces ran first in The Bee. Mas' previous book, "Letters to the Valley," also was based on columns in The Bee.
"Heirlooms" is a collection of essays that tell of what Mas calls the "other California," which is our Valley that sometimes gets lost between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Mas calls letters a "hug with words." As a native of this Valley, I have always appreciated how Mas uses life on his Del Rey farm to offer us lessons about our changing region.
Last night, Mas read from "Heirlooms," as well as some of his previous books. A reading from Mas is like no other, They are performances. He often was accompanied by his daughter Nikiko, who sometimes read parts of the letters and sometimes drummed with great flair.
Mas has written several books, including "Harvest Son," "Epitaph for a Peach" and "Four Seasons in Five Senses." If you want to understand the rhythms of the Valley, the reasons that we do some of the odds things that we do, you must read Mas' books and essays. While we are part of California, this region is different from the rest of the Golden State, and Mas tells us why.
Talk about having a bad week. The Fresno Teachers Association was on a PR campaign to get public sympathy for its stalled contract talks with the Fresno Unified School District. Then it turned the effort into a PR disaster when it first threatened a teachers strike on Wednesday and the next day said the school board members it supported last year were turncoats. We write about it today.
It was already a tough sell for the union. The district was offering teachers a 5.5% raise -- very generous considering the economic climate -- and kept the teachers' portion of monthly insurance payments to between $30 and $70. Teachers have a Cadillac health insurance plan, yet pay almost nothing for it. We must pay our teachers well to get the best educators to teach our children. But the district can pay only what it can afford.
The distrct was close to bankruptcy in 2005 and cutting programs. We must not return to the days of wild spending that put the entire system at risk.
The FTA has a chance to recover from its recent missteps. When the union and the district go back to mediation next week, it needs to look for common ground. The recent strategy of throwing grenades into the discussions and watching them blow up isn't good for teachers and isn't good for children.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bank of America is raising its non-customer ATM fees to $3 per transaction. The spin is they are upping the the fee to divert non-customers from their ATMs, thereby making it more convenient for their customers. How nice. But bank analysts say these fees are the fastest-growing profit centers for banks, and the extra dough is built into their business plans.
So take you pick on the real reason for the increase. Do you believe the bank's PR machine or the analysts who make their living following banking industry trends?
But you don't have to pay these fees if you go to your own bank. Is it worth $3 to you for the convenience of using the nearest ATM? If so, have at it.
While I think banks gouge us in dozens of way, it is our choice to allow it. You can avoid fees by smart banking. Besides, most of us willingly pay $3.65 for a Starbucks latte. Why not $3 to get some quick cash out of the nearest ATM?
We have a very convenient society, but it will cost you to use it. Your choice.
Here are some tips from the Chron on how to avoid ATM fees:
-- Plan so you can use your own financial institution's ATMs.
-- Use your ATM card as a debit card and get cash back when you make purchases at groceries, drugstores and other retailers.
-- Do business with a bank, thrift or credit union that belongs to an ATM alliance with cash machines around the country.
-- Alternatively, keep your checking account at an institution that reimburses you for other banks' ATM fees, such as Schwab Bank, Mechanics Bank and many other institutions.
-- Find out which institutions in your area allow noncustomers to use ATMs for free. Your own bank might still charge you, but at least you'll avoid a second fee.
-- If you must use ATMs that charge noncustomers, make one large withdrawal instead of several smaller ones.
-- Avoid private ATMs at places like bars and restaurants, which often charge hefty fees.
A Vermont court ruling is a victory for clean-air advocates in California, where a similar suit will be heard next month. Here's our editorial today on the case.
The Vermont court ruled against the nation's automakers, who are opposing a California-led push to let states regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The federal Environmental Protection Agency, too often a creature of the polluting industries, is stalling a waiver California needs to implement AB 32, the state's landmark greenhouse gas legislation.
The Vermont ruling has no direct impact on the case in Fresno, but the suits are so similar that environmentalists and others -- people with the quaint belief that the air we breathe should be clean -- are much encouraged.
The Legislature has failed once again to come up with a fair and reasonable plan for drawing the lines of state and congressional representatives' districts. Our editorial response is simple: The Fresno Bee won't be supporting any attempt to change term limits -- though we think some changes are in order -- until the redistricting issue is solved satisfactorily.
In an editorial today, we take Madera County supervisors to task for approving a mammoth residential and commercial project just across the San Joaquin River from Fresno.
The gateway Village project would eventually add 21,000 residents to an area near Children's Hospital Central California. It was approved despite many questions about water supplies, air quality and traffic congestion. We concluded:
"So the result is this: Acres of orchards and other crops will be replaced by row upon row of suburban dwellings, complemented by new ribbons of highway. Water supplies -- already dicey in much of Madera County and the Valley -- will be further strained. Increased traffic from all those new homes will add to the bad air we breathe and bring even more congestion to local roads.
"And Supervisor Frank Bigelow, who represents the area where Gateway Village is planned, said: 'I think it's really a good outcome.'
"We don't agree. It's strikes us as the sort of outdated thinking -- straight out of the 1950s -- that we can't afford in the Valley any longer."
If you -- like me -- are among the legions of Valley Molly Ivins fans who read her columns on The Bee's Opinion pages for decades, don't miss the wonderful photo and touching recounting of her New York memorial service Wednesday in The New York Observer, which says, in part:
The festivities began with a slide show (set to songs by the Rock Bottom Remainders) showing the writer-activist at every age, posing with everyone from Bill Clinton to Bill Moyers. The shot of her sporting a Fox News hat got the biggest laugh from the three hundred fans who had gathered to remember her.
Maya Angelou recalled how startled she was when she first met Molly and realized she was 6 feet tall.
"I knew she was white," said Ms. Angelou. "I didn't know she was so much white!" Nevertheless, Molly immediately dubbed the two of them "twins separated at birth."
New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin remembered columns that could make you "laugh out loud": "if a certain Congressman's IQ dropped any further he'd have to be watered twice a day," or the one about the Texas gubernatorial candidate who was "so afraid of getting AIDS while visiting San Francisco that when he was in the shower he wore shower caps on her feet."
Molly was one of a kind. I miss her.
Last week I posted a blog item about my green hotel experience at the Doubletree Lloyd Center in Portland.
Coincidentally, this week the The Wall Street Journal carried a story that says "going green" is the big thing for hotels nationwide. However, the businesses are being inundated by products and services claiming to be green and it's taking them some time to figure out what's smart and what's just a scheme. I am curious to know how forward-thinking the Valley's hotel business is when it comes to these innovations. Anybody with inside info?
 An article on Fresnobee.com says that Las Vegas police investigators questioned O.J. Simpson and named him a suspect Friday in a break-in at a casino hotel room involving sports memorabilia.
The former football star acknowledged going to the room to get property he said was stolen from him but denied breaking in.
Give the man a break. "If" O.J. did go to the room, I'm sure that, in addition to getting back property that feels still belongs to him, he was only searching for the "real killer" in his wife's murder.
Here's the latest Associated Press news bulletin:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush says the American people can
"begin seeing troops come home" because of success in Iraq.
"Mission accomplished." -- again.
Since women's sports is one of the hot topics here after former Fresno State coach Lindy Vivas scored a decided victory against the university for its unfair treatment of her, I'll share this little newsletter from the National Women's History project. The history project tells a story about the days when it was forbidden for women to dribble the basketball more than three times because it was believed dribbling all the way across the court was just too much for them!
I hope those folks who made those ridiculous rules are still alive to watch the play-offs for the WNBA!
Here is the letter from Molly Murphy MacGregor, Executive Director of the
National Women's History Project. |
