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There was a bitter letter to the editor in the paper this week from Jared Hesse of Clovis, challenging the idea that Fresno has anything to offer visitors.
"The more I hear about trying to bring tourism to Fresno, the more it makes me wonder who is the half genius who thinks this could ever happen? What does Fresno have to offer for tourists? A whole lot of dirty air, two-star hotels at best, a mini-water park, an over zealous police force that makes the people who live here miserable and a run-of-the-mill museum. That would make me want to come to Fresno for a vacation."
Whoa, who poured vinegar on his Wheaties?
For folks who have a little more appreciation for this fascinating place, consider stopping by Villagio shopping center Saturday from 1-4 p.m., where local writer Janice Stevens and artist Pat Hunter will be signing copies of "Fresno's Architectural Past, Volumes I and II” limited edition historical book sets at Tamsen Munger Fine Gifts in the Villaggio Shopping Center, 7909 Blackstone Ave.
The boxed set ($49.95, Linden Publishing) describes 44 of the community's grand old buildings, along with watercolor paintings. Subjects include the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, the Meux Home, Warnor's Theater, Kearney Mansion, Tower Theater, St. Alphonsus Church.
A tour of those half-dozen delightful places alone, led by Ms. Stevens and Ms. Hunter, could keep many a tourist entertained on a winter afternoon in Fresno.
If you are a list lover and a book lover (OK, that would be me), The New York Times has now whittled down that list of 100 notable books to the top 10... They are posted right here. They will appear in the Dec. 9 print edition of the Times.
If you're like Brian Murray, and you don't need anybody telling you which books are good, jump in on the blog and let us know your own favorite books this year. (Take a look at Brian's snarky comment by clicking here.) If you're a wanderer, share the gems you've found this year while cruising through the stacks.
I lean toward autobiographies, "Little Heathens" is the one on the list I'm looking forward to.
Have you noticed how many of the popular political books, which constantly fill their nonfiction bestseller list, are noticeably missing from their list of the best? What? No Ann Coulter? I'm shocked. And where is Bill McEwen's book called "It's a Dry Heat." How good can a list be that leaves out Bill? Check out Bill's latest column by clicking here.
As college tuitions rocket into the stratosphere, it was really good to see a story in the Wall Street Journal that schools are reacting to pressure from Washington by dipping into their rich endowments to help families afford tuition.
It's infuriating to me that students so often begin their adult lives with $50,000 or more in student loans to pay back. The Record of Hacksensack, NJ, in a recent story said the Project on Student Debt has tabulated that nearly two-thirds of graduates of four-year schools have debt, with the average being $20,000. That's the equivalent of a home mortgage down payment on their backs before they even enter the workplace.
Those debts can delay their ability to buy homes, which is not good for them or their families or the economy. It also can impair the ability of parents to save for their retirement. Financial gurus are warning parents to let the kids carry their own student loans if it means delaying contributions for retirement. Even though the folks may think they are helping their children by paying for their education, the scene can be very troublesome down the road if the parents cannot support themselves when they are older.
Congress is on the right track here:
Members of Congress -- from both sides of the aisle -- are prodding schools to spend more of their endowments. Many colleges have seen enormous growth in recent years in their endowments, which are donated funds that colleges invest and use the proceeds to support the school's mission. Surveys of hundreds of schools by the National Association of College and University Business Officers show that the percentage of schools with endowments valued at over $1 billion has doubled since 1996, to 8%.
Read the full story by clicking here.
Mayor Alan Autry and Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson met this week to work out an agreement for the city to provide about $2 million to help upgrade school facilties that can be used by the community after school hours. The projects getting the most attention are swimming pools and all-weather tracks at Fresno High School and Bullard High School. But the city's money may be used at all the district's high schools if this proposal goes through.
On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to support the concept. If it does, this would be a breakthrough agreement for our community. For far too long, the schools and the city have mostly worked in their individual worlds. But they are serving the same people, with only a few exceptions. School facilities are too expensive to be used only during school hours. It makes sense to make them available to the community at other times.
I have been pushing this issue in columns and blog postings in recent months. There are many schools that need help, but district officials say the Fresno and Bullard pools/tracks are at the top of the list. The city should be working with the schools in a more uniform way. I think the city should put up at least $7 million, but $2 million is a good start.
The money for school facilities would come out of the city's proposed $35 million in bonds to improve parks and recreation areas in the city. That list is being finalized now and mayor and City Council needs to hear from you on your priorities.
A citizens advisory committee is developing a master plan to upgrades facilities in Fresno's schools. The facilities committee should have a proposal for the superintendent and the school board in the next 15-18 months. But Bullard and Fresno High are no-brainer projects. Get them done now, and then go to the next major projects on the list.
In exchange for the city's money, the district must make the schools available after hours for recreation, as homework centers and for enrichment programs. And the district must stop locking the gates to school grounds. Those grounds are part of the city's green space, and they should be used as much as possible by residents.
Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez has taken a bold step to address a growing crisis in California. He wants Gov. Schwarzenegger to call yet another special session of the Legislature to talk about the rising number of foreclosures in the state.
That’s a great idea. Another special session will no doubt produce results as impressive as we’ve seen in the other two special sessions already under way, in which legislators have moved aggressively fix the state’s water problems and health care mess.
Only a cynic — and how many of those are there in the Golden State? — would suggest that the speaker’s call is just a crass political ploy designed to divert attention from the inability of the state’s elected leaders to solve any problem of any kind.
If you're feeling guilty because you haven't finished all the books you wanted to read this year, I've got the perfect book for you. It's among the recommendations in the New York Times' list of the year's 100 notable books. One of the titles listed is this one: "How to Talk About Books you Haven't Read" by Pierre Bayard. See why you need to read? There is a book for everything.
It's no accident, I think, that the popularity of reading books is going down along with our children's test scores compared with other Western nations. See our editorial on that topic by clicking here. Part of the answer to the problem is that children need to see their parents reading to imprint the importance on their developing minds. OK, Mom and Dad, how many books have the kids seen you reading lately?
If you need someplace to start for inspiration, the New York Times list is a great place to start. Just put it by the phone or computer and start reserving books one at a time from the library or taking a look at them in the bookstore. The list will be published in Sunday's print edition of the Times' book review section but the list is already available on the Web site. Read the entire list by clicking here:
 Deputy Mayor Jeff Eben confirmed today that he will be a candidate for mayor next year. After an editorial board meeting on another subject, Eben told me that he will formally announce on Dec. 6. He will be the seventh candidate in the race to succeed Mayor Alan Autry.
Eben, 46, has moved to Fresno from Clovis and said he doesn't think his residency will be an issue. He has lived most of his life in Fresno, he said, and has only lived in Clovis the past eight years. "I have been an active part of the Fresno community," he said.
He said providing strong leadership will be a main tenet of his campaign, with these four cornerstones: public safety, jobs. the environment and education.
Here's today's news story about Jim Boswell, a Fresno businessman getting into the mayor's race. The other announced candidates are Fresno City Council Members Mike Dages, Jerry Duncan and Henry T. Perea, former council member Tom Boyajian, and Ashley Swearengin, chief executive officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative.
Here is my most recent column on the mayor's race. I also wrote this column earlier about the campaign.
The primary election is in June and the top two vote-getters will be in a runoff next November. Autry can't run for re-election because of term limits.
Some of our readers noticed that the same Doonesbury cartoon ran on Friday and Saturday last week. I lay out those pages, and I inadvertedly ran the same toon twice, skipping the one that should have run on Friday. Here it is:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't the only celebrity cover boy among California politicians. Madera County's own Frank "Ten-Gallon" Bigelow is featured on the cover of the current edition of California Counties, the magazine of the California State Association of Counties, which represents boards of supervisors in the state.
Bigelow is the outgoing president of the organization, and the magazine has a short piece he wrote recounting his year in that position.
Check out the cover shot of the rancher-supervisor -- complete with cattle and Bigelow's trademark cowboy hat -- by going to the CSAC Web site. Scroll down the right side to see the magazine.
Today's editorial on the dropping of the River Park curfew should embolden Valley teens to fight for the right to have their concerns on the table when this city makes plans. Read the editorial by clicking here.
If outspoken young people like Kelsy Castillo and Nora Walker hadn't spoken up from the very beginning, organized a protest, put out flyers urging a boycott, you can bet your Jamba Juice Caribbean Passion that Valley teenagers headed for River Park would be required to take a babysitter with them on on their weekend dates. It's happening to teens all over the country and there is no reason to think we'd be any different. But we are! I haven't read any story yet that tells our story -- that the teens were able to work with adults and reverse a mall-curfew effort.
Good for all of them. There are, of course, plenty of adults who showed grace, patience and wisdom. Ed Kashian, who owns Lance-Kashian, the River Park management company, saw this idea was going south early on. The easiest thing would have been for him to tell his team to show the kids who's boss here, tend to the many more grandiose business interests that interest him and dismiss the kids' concerns. To his credit, he had the wisdom and courage to step forward, admit mistakes, stop the process in its tracks and get things going in a right direction. If he would have been an outside owner, teens would already be headed elsewhere to shop by now. But by virtue of his position as a community elder, in addition to being a real estate investor, he used his power and expertise to approach this issue from the high road. I'm impressed.
The Rios Company, a public relations firm hired by Kashian to handle the process, turned in a textbook performance in calming down the divisiveness, giving respect to all sides and bringing people together to arrive at a consensus. Fresno City Council President Henry T. Perea also realized the public policy opportunities in the controversy and headed the task force. It helps that he's the youngest member of the council, and I'm sure that helped the city to connect with the teens.
Now, it's in the teens' court. They should not take this victory for granted and respect the code of conduct. For those of you who hang out there regularly, check in on the blog and let us know how it's going.
Three letters to The Bee today give you a good taste of the depth of frustration there is in the Fresno Teachers Association over the direction of the contract negotiations, which have dragged on with Fresno Unified since the agreement expired in July 2006.
FTA President Larry Moore is under attack from some teachers, although the longtime union leader still has strong support among many of the 4,000 members of the union. A Moore supporter says in her letter the upstarts are undermining the union's efforts to get a better contract for teachers. Two anti-Moore members just elected to the FTA executive board say in their letters that there are big problems with Moore's leadership, including questionable expenditures.
Meanwhile, a 5.5% raise for teachers sits on the table while the union members bicker. I'd take the money, especially at this time of year when a bit of extra cash always is needed. In this editorial, The Bee urged union members to approve the contract proposal from the school district. The only problem is Moore won't put the contract up for a vote, and that is causing a backlash in union ranks.
This contract would include retroactive pay for about 16 months and the back wages would come in handy during the holidays. District officials say they could prepare "retro checks" by Christmas if the teachers would accept the contract proposal.
The proposal also would keep teachers' share of health benefits payments below $70 a month.
Not bad given the state of the economy, and the high cost of health benefits.
But the bigger question for the union is whether Moore's stubbornness in these negotiations will weaken his union, which has been riding high since last year's school board elections. But things always change. It's not a good sign when the members are second-guessing the union president's tactics.
The magazines are full of "best" lists of Christmas gifts. Best gifts for joggers, artists, golfers, teens, dogs, magicians, stamp collectors, dinosaur lovers... you know. There is no end to it. How about you? What's on your wish list? I'm not talking about "world peace" -- we'll do that list later.
Here's a start on mine (it's always very long because I'm very easy to please):
Tickets to anywhere or to any play or concert
Any kind of lessons (language, computers, yoga, French cooking, skiing, swing dancing, doesn't matter)
Any class or autobiography on CD
Gym membership and a motivational wakeup call to get me there three mornings a week
A hand-painted wall sign that says "Be nice or leave"
A painting by Bebe Long, Karlene Ryan or Doug Hansen
Books by David Mas Masumoto (illustrated by Doug Hansen), Bill McEwen, the new Fresno County history book or gift card to any bookstore (new or used) on the planet
Any of those high-tech toys on yesterday's blog -- especially the Vespa -- oh, yeah!
So, what's on your list? Share!
Online Journalism Review has a list of the top nine gifts for online journalists "in order of their awesomeness," but I say they are great for anybody who loves the blogosphere -- and that would be people like us...
9. Belkin’s TuneTalk Stereo
8. Bose’s QuietComfort 2 noise-cancelling headphones
7. The Bamboo Fun, a consumer-grade PC drawing and writing tablet
6. Tom Tom Go 720 GPS system
5. Chrome Bags to “carry stuff”
4. A digital camera from the Digital SLR Guide website
3. A motorscooter or Vespa
2. Amazon’s Kindle wireless reader
1. Apple iPhone
See the full article by Noah Barron by clicking here.
OK, everyone who sees immigration in black and white, just stop reading right now. For everyone else, here's a small story from inside The Bee's A section this weekend that made me run for my scissors so I could clip it out. It should provide a Sunday sermon illustration for all the preachers out there and a character lesson for all the teachers and parents. File this under "unselfishness" and "compassion." Get your hankies out.
Border crosser comforts 9-year-old, awaits aid for his mother in fatal crash.
Associated Press
PHOENIX -- A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.
The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving Day, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said.
The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said.
Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help.
The woman died a short time later.
"He stayed with him, told him that everything was going to be all right," Estrada said.
As temperatures dropped, Cordova gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said. The boy was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson as a precaution but appeared unhurt.
"We suspect that they communicated somehow, but we don't know if he knows Spanish or if the gentleman knew English," Estrada said of the boy.
"For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead," Estrada said. "Fortunately for the kid, [Cordova] was there. That was his angel."
Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help.
He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.
The boy and his mother were in the area camping, Estrada said.
The woman's husband, the boy's father, had died only two months ago. The names of the woman and her son were not being released until relatives were notified.
Cordova likely saved the boy, Estrada said, and his actions should remind people not to quickly characterize illegal immigrants as criminals.
"They do get demonized for a lot of reasons, and they do a lot of good. Obviously this is one example of what an individual can do," he said.
What's in a motto, especially for a college? Plenty, it turns out, at least according to "branding experts," who make a living helping people and institutions come up with snappy phrases to distinguish themselves from their more prosaic peers.
Thomas Bartlett, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, notes that Motto magazine -- Motto magazine? Talk about niche publishing -- recently came up with a list of the top 10 college mottos. The magazine liked Stanford's slogan, "The wind of freedom blows." Rob Frankel, a self-professed "branding expert" (and Berkeley grad) disagrees: "No, that slogan blows," he said.
It raises the question: What is Fresno State's motto? And if the local university doesn't have one, what should it be?
How about "Praised be the three aims of life, virtue, prosperity and love"? That's from the Kama Sutra, which is much in the news today. That'll sell the Fresno State brand faster than Tailgate Red.
Evan Turk, 9, is no ordinary student at River Bluff Elementary School. He's lucky to be here at all. Since he was born with two holes in his heart and his pulmonary artery and his aorta reversed, he's had four open-heart surgeries and a few assorted other operations. So Evan has more knowledge and appreciation than your average grade-school kid when it comes to heart-healthy habits.
Last year, his school had a charity food drive and, as the food was collected, Evan was very concerned about the amount of sugary cereals and other unhealthy foods that were being sent to the poor and homeless. This year, he vowed that there would be a lot more heart-healthy foods in that gift package for the needy. So he's been collecting bottles and cans at home, taking them to the recylclers and saving up the cash. He's got $150, and he's been buying canned vegetables by the dozens to put in the food drive this year.
Evan's father, Len, says his son is very health-conscious, but he's also a normal kid who eats his share of junk food. "I cant get him to eat healthy" but he wants something better for the homeless, according to his dad.
I think it's a great idea and good on Evan for being able to use the knowledge he's acquired from his own health crises to advocate for better care for others.
If you're planning to purchase your true love everything in the "12 Days of Christmas" song, be prepared to dig a litte deeper into your wallet this year. The Associated Press annually reports the cost of everything, beginning with a partridge in a pear tree. This year the cost of all 364 items would be $78,100, says the annual PNC Christmas Price Index, which is compiled by PNC Wealth Management.
The cost of the items is up 4% from the $75,122 you would have paid last year.
Me? Note to true love: Never mind the bird and the golden rings, I'd go for the 12 drummers drumming. Pa-rum-pa-pum pum.
Read the entire story by clicking here.
 Today we launched a new service -- Opinion Buzz, a Monday morning e-mailed newsletter highlighting some of our top offerings from the weekend papers. The idea is to give readers a quick glimpse of what they might have missed if they were away from their computers on Saturday or Sunday.
The maiden issue contains links to our Sunday lead editorial on high school dropouts in Fresno Unified, Jim Boren's column about how voters were misled about moving the presidential primary to February, the latest offering from Del Rey author and farmer David Mas Masumoto and much more.
If this is a newsletter you would like to subscribe to, you can sign up for Opinion Buzz at fblinks.com.
Sunset magazine writer Peter Fish had a stellar time walking Fresno's Christmas Tree Lane last year and the result is a charming feature in the latest issue. Here is a little excerpt:
If you grew up in the suburban West, you've probably seen other Christmas Tree Lanes. They don't prepare you for Fresno's. It happens that I'm visiting on one of the lane's pedestrian-only Walk Nights. As I shuffle with the crowd, which tonight numbers about 10,000, I get the strange feeling we're all crossing some border into Christmas, a foreign land with its own language and customs and visa requirements...
It's difficult, in the confines of a magazine page, to list all the components of [Dean] Alexander's Christmas display. I see chugging trains, Mickey Mouse, clock towers, and colored laser beams illuminating a blizzard of artificial snow.
"My family thinks I'm a fanatic," Alexander says. I think, Your family might be onto something. But I also think, If you can't be fanatical about Christmas, what can you be fanatical about?
We stand admiring the falling fake snow and flashing lasers. Alexander says he doesn't mind when the lane shuts down December 26. "It's a demanding job."
Just then, an older woman steps onto his lawn. She looks as if she wants to complain — about the crowds, the lights, the energy use. She wants to know who is responsible for this display. Alexander says, "I am."
"God bless you," says the woman. The spirit of Christmas has triumphed for another year.
To read the entire article, click here.
I've long complained about the freeway design heading into downtown as motorists on Highway 168 attempt to merge onto Highway 180 or Highway 41. It's so bad that there are two accidents a week on this stretch and several other near-misses and one-finger salutes by frustrated drivers. But hold on. Caltrans is coming to the rescue. Or is it?
According to this story by Russell Clemings over the weekend, one solution that Caltrans is studying is forcing traffic onto city streets to avoid the intersection. OK, these are engineers who must look at every option, but this just seems to be a bad idea. If the solution is to drive on city streets, why are we spending so much money building freeways?
This option would prevent traffic headed downtown on Highway 168 to get onto northbound Highway 41. Those drivers, according to Clemings' story, would have to get off Highway 168 at McKinley or Shields avenues and drive across town to reach northbound Highway 41.
Will someone please drive a stake through the heart of this idea?
In today's Bee, we talk about the dropout crisis in Fresno Unified, which is so severe that four of our high schools were categorized in a recent study as "Dropout factories." Read the editorial here.
That is completely unacceptable. Fresno needs to immerse itself in a campaign to end this outrageous injustice to our children and the hard-working educators who are under-resourced year after year to meet this challenge.
The folks at the center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University conducted the study that laid that heavy description on the schools, so it's important to know this is not coming from an unsympathetic, uneducated hit-and-run political organization. The researchers know what needs to be done and are happy to pass on their wisdom. There also is a report called "What your Community can do to end its Drop-Out Crisis: Learnings from Research and Practice." It was prepared for the National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic in Washington, DC on May 9. Read more about it by clicking www.csos.jhu.edu under What's New.
Part of that report is this list of 20 Questions to End the Dropout Crisis in Your Community.
Step 1: Understand the dropout crisis in your community
1. How many students who start high school in your community fail to earn a high school diploma? How far from graduation are they when they drop out? From which high schools do they drop out? Which middle schools send students to high schools with low graduation rates?
2. What percent of your community's droputs are "life events dropouts," "fade outs," "push outs" and "failing to succeed students?"
3. How early in their schooling can the majority of your community's dropouts be identified?
4. Are the schools in your community organized to help end the dropout crisis or do they inadvertently make it worse?
Step 2. Combine the basics of good schooling with focused prevention, intervention and recovery efforts at the key points where students fall off the path to graduation.
5. Does your community provide high-quality pre-K education to all young children who need or want it?
6. Does your community have grading benchmarks and provide multiple layers of support to ensure all students can read by second grade?
7. Are your community's elementary schools joyful places filled with singing, dancing, art and science activities?
8. Is class-size reduction used strategically, so elementary teachers are not overwhelmed and can take the time it takes to teach all students in a caring manner the behavioral norms of schooling?
9. Does your community not expel primary students nor over-identify students for special education services?
10. Does your community provide high quality pre-K to 2nd-grade mathematics instruction?
11. Do you have a multi-tiered prevention and intervention system in place in your middle schools to react effectively to the first signs of poor attendance, behavior and course failure?
12. Are your middle schools organized to engage middle grade students and meet their need for adventure and camaraderie?
13. Is there a plan to transform high schools with low graduation rates into strong learning institutions? Is the plan sufficiently comprehensive? Does it have organizational engagement, instructional and teacher-support components? Is implementation support being provided by someone who is experienced with high school reform?
14. Does your community do whatever it takes to insure that all students are earning on-time promotion to the 10th grade?
15. Are high school students being helped to make the transition to adulthood and adult behaviors?
16. Are parents being actively engaged to help high school students organize their future?
17. Does your school system provide multiple pathways to adult success?
Step 3: Organize a sustained communtiy-wide campaign to end the dropout crisis
18. Is your community organizing a community compact to end the dropout crisis? Is it prepared for a sustained campaign?
19. Is your community working to ensure that the resources being deployed to end the dropout crisis are being used strategically?
20. Has your community organized a means to increase the human resources available to help end the dropout crisis?
 On Saturday evening, I was scrolling through some blogs when I came across a familiar name. The blog L.A. Observed reported that Michael Krikorian had written a piece for the NYTimes Mag about a young man in trouble from Compton. The twist was that Krikorian had once thought this young man was his son. He still carries his name: Michael Krikorian Jr.
Krikorian and I became good friends when he was a reporter at The Fresno Bee, and we continued that friendship when he went to the Los Angeles Times a few years ago. He is now a freelance writer working on a novel.
I had never heard the story about Michael Krikorian Jr. and Michael's relationship with the boy's mother, a woman from Compton who got hooked on crack. The young man Michael once thought was his son is now 19, in a L.A. street gang and in jail awaiting trial on a gang-related murder. I emailed Michael and asked if there is anything else I should know. He said he'd be in town in a few weeks and we'd catch up.
Michael's piece is in today's edition in the Lives section of the Times' mag. You can read it by clicking here.
Michael had supported the young man until he finally learned that he was not the boy's father. But he still carries Michael's name. After learning that he had been arrested last summer, he decided to go see him at L.A.'s Men's Central Jail. He had not seen the boy since he was 6 or 7 years old. Michael writes revealingly about the emotions he felt during this reunion.
(Bee file photo: Michael Krikorian used to be a reporter for The Fresno Bee.)
This would be a much different community if the street gangs did not have so much sway over the quality of life in Fresno's poorest neighborhoods. That's why I'm supportive of the aggressive action that Police Chief Jerry Dyer has taken against gangs, especially the Bulldogs gang. The random violence committed by these gang members have many Fresno residents fearful of even venturing outside their homes.
An editorial in today's Bee explains for the need to back this effort. Crime is down in Fresno since Operation Bulldog started a year ago.
Dyer's goal is to eliminate the Bulldogs gang. His latest initiative is to go after the gang leaders to go along with the current effort of targeting individual gang members.
Since the anti-gang effort began, Dyer's officers have arrested 4,800 Bulldog gang members or their associates on felonies and seized 168 guns. That's a lot of guns taken off the streets, but also is an indication of how many illegal firearms there are in our community.
Under this program, gang members have a chance to turn their lives around. There are opportunities to get out of the gang life, get job training, have tattoos removed and get drug and alcohol treatment. More should take advantage of this program. Gang life is a dead end.
California's early presidential primary election has been hijacked by the special interests, which was probably the idea all along. The politicians told us that the Feb. 5 primary was to give the nation's most populous state more clout in the presidential nominating process. It was really about saving the jobs of term-limited legislators and giving the gambling tribes a place to battle over slot machines.
I discuss all this in my column today. Click here to read it. There are seven propositions on the Feb. 5 ballot, whiich was supposed to be about presidential politics. Now we're going to have three statewide elections next year -- February, June and November. What a waste of money.
Edie Jessup of Fresno Metro Ministry's hunger and nutrition project tipped me off to this great Time magazine photo essay called "What Is The World Eating?" There are photos of families around the world, each with a week's groceries spread out on the dinner table. This is superb storytelling in a single shot. Each photo shows the family, tells about the food they eat, and gives the price in dollars. The photographs by Peter Menzel are from the book "Hungry Planet."
Oh, in Konstancin-Jeziorna, they are having pig's knuckles with carrots and parsnips.
To see the story, click here.
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Today, I'm heading to Pismo. My husband's side of our family camps there each Thanksgiving week. Denny has to work, but I'm taking our three daughters over for a few hours. We'll spend some time visiting with our cousins, aunts and uncles who are still there, and some time visiting the monarchs that winter in the grove next to the campground.
If you've never seen the monarchs, it's pretty amazing. I had heard of the butterflies that winter every year in Pacific Grove, but before three years ago (when we camped there Thanksgiving week), I hadn't known about the grove in Pismo, which annually hosts up to 100,000 migrating Monarchs.
According to the Web site for the grove, the Pismo Beach Grove is one of the largest in the state.
Although we experienced it first-hand three years ago, my youngest daughter wasn't yet old enough to remember the experience. Now, at 4, she is. So I want us to go back and see it again, so she can have a memory of that special experience. And returning there will reinforce the memory for our older daughters.
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~Maya Angelou
 Sacramento Bee editorial cartoonist Rex Babin offers a timely reminder for those of us hitting the stores tomorrow to begin our holiday shopping. Beyond the usual concerns in picking safe, age-appropriate gifts for children (here's a link to some safety tips), this year's shopping season brings a whole new bunch of concerns. In addition to your shopping list, make sure you have your up-to-date recall list!
Here's another site with some shopping information to arm yourself with (and an entertaining video). It also can help you find the recent recalls. Some of the info on there says:
- This year, more than 25 million toys have been recalled, many for dangerous lead paint.
- 80% of toys are made in China.
- The agency responsible for the safety of more than 15,000 products has only 15 inspectors at ports nationwide.
- The FDA inspects only about 1% of imported food.
Those homemade gifts are looking better and better.
My personal favorite topic for Thanksgiving Day family banter is an editorial from the Chicago Tribune, reprinted on Wednesday's op-ed page in The Bee. It's called the "Brain/butt theory," and this is the best news since Great Harvest Bread Company's cinnamon chip bread.
Get this:
Are fat-bottomed girls smarter? Answer: Yes. They also have smarter kids, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Middle-age women reacted with glee -- "We're getting smarter every day!" -- and men with trepidation. (What's the right answer to the question, "Does this PhD make my butt look big?") Skeptics, most of whom likely tend toward the skinny side, seem to want to file the wider-is-wiser theory with that old baloney about men with bigger noses having bigger, um, noses. We've never seen any empirical evidence on that one.
The data on the brain/butt theory, though, is pretty convincing. In a study of more than 16,000 women, the curvy girls consistently outscored their slender counterparts on cognitive tests. Their kids outscored the skinny moms' kids too. But the researchers don't posit that bigger is automatically better. What matters is the size of the hips relative to the waist. That's because fat stored around the buttocks and thighs is high in omega-3 acids, which promote brain growth, while fat stored around the middle is loaded with omega-6 acids, which make your pants too tight.
Women with "pear" or "hourglass" shapes have greater reserves of omega-3, which nourishes their own brains and is essential to fetal brain development in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Read the whole, wonderful editorial by clicking here.
The Fresno Teachers Association is leaving a 5.5% raise on the table and has been telling its 4,000 members that it can get them more money in the contract dispute with the Fresno Unified School District. It's not going to happen. Teachers have been without a raise since July of 2006 because FTA President Larry Moore has been in a power struggle with Superintendent Michael Hanson.
We point out in our editorial today that teachers are getting restless. They want their money and Moore is standing in the way of a settlement. This is a fair proposal for teachers given the economic times.
We've been told by several teachers if Moore and the FTA board put the current offer up for a vote by all union members, it would pass overwhelmingly. It's time for the FTA leadership to do just that.
Fresno Unified officials say that if the union took the contract, they could have retroactive pay in the teachers' hands by Christmas. That would be a tidy sum for holiday needs.
In the Blogging Across America column on today's op-ed page, there is an amusing excerpt from a Parents magazine blog. A dad questions if it's appropriate to have a preteen boy's birthday party at Hooters. He thinks not. What do you think? Read Ron Kelly's posting by clicking here.
In that same column, there is a fun look at a book called "Working for the Man," which includes a list of rules. One of them is "Even if you've been told by numerous reliable sources, do not ask a coworker if she is pregnant. Wait until she tells you." Amen to that one. I've made that mistake myself. Check on the blog by clicking here.
Another new book that sounds fascinating to me is "The Daring Book for Girls," which is a sequel to a hot-selling book from Great Britain called "The Dangerous Book for Boys." These are good candidates for great gift ideas. Check in on the author's blog by clicking here.
Do you have a favorite blog? (Besides Opinion Talk, I mean.) Tell me about it and maybe we'll excerpt from it next time. We are always looking for good ones.
From the looks of my e-mail basket this morning, there are a lot Portland fans out there and I don't mean sports folks. In a column in today's Bee titled, "When I grow up, I want to be just like you," I talked about Portland serving as our mentor city in many areas, most recently their downtown streetcar system. They also have done some award-winning work in helping the homeless achieve self-sufficiency that we could certainly learn from. Note: Their strategy does not involve storage sheds. To read the column, click here.
I wrote a blog item awhile back, listing "Six things to learn from Portland," after a recent visit. To read the blog, click here.
Today's article about the Running Horse golf course/residential project in southwest Fresno reminds us of an overlooked piece of the puzzle in this entire deal:
"Some southwest Fresno residents weren't so sure. Several told the council that the city needs to come up with more specifics about how the area will benefit, including getting guarantees about construction jobs."
Those are fair concerns. We keep hearing that this proposal is the best thing for southwest Fresno. But how exactly will residents there, many of whom have lived there for decades, benefit from the construction of million dollar homes and a PGA caliber golf course? Residents would benefit if, as expected, Running Horse spurs the development of other businesses in the area. But how else will this plan make life better for those residents?
The public was promised a redistricting reform measure this year. Instead, legislative Democrats gave us a self-serving term limits proposal. We shouldn't be surprised, even though 2007 started out as a year of bipartisan statesmenship. But California legislators couldn't help themselves, and defaulted to their old tired ways of protecting themselves and ripping off the public.
The state's biggest problems remain unsolved. This editorial in today's Fresno Bee discusses how Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata failed to do their jobs this year. Now they want voters to pass Proposition 93, which would allow term-limited incumbents to continue to run for their seats next year. Not a chance.
We caught the whole monster package -- 3-D, Imax -- version of "Beowulf" over the weekend. Yow! I don't normally speak out loud in a movie, but I heard my own voice saying, "Sweeet!"
This is big fun, Hollywood showing off its stuff and producing one impressive afternoon at the movies. We have a teenage guest from Italy staying with us over the holidays and the first thing my husband wanted to do was make sure she saw that film. Oh, yeah, she was wowed, too. Americans definitely get the movie biz. See the trailer by clicking here.
I've been researching Fresno's high dropout rate for an editorial we're working on and the one thing that came to mind when I came out of the theater was, why can't they do that for education? Can you imagine if our teachers could have at their disposal all that razzle dazzle brainpower applied to illustrate their history, geography, computer, science, art, language, government classes? We couldn't lock kids out of those classes.
I'm thinking we need a new Imax Charter School. Let's get after it.
If you missed Jennifer Belcher's commentary on the Valley Voices page Saturday, be sure to catch up by clicking here.
Jennifer plans to graduate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles next month, and she wrote a delightful piece about coming home to the Valley for Thanksgiving. If there is a Mama, grandma or great-grandma out there who wonders if it matters to anyone if she brings pies to the dinner, well, she'll tell you that it does matter.
Jennifer wrote an especially poignant essay about the qualities of the Valley that she most misses while she's living down south.
In the Valley, she says, tradition matters...
"where where the red, white and blue always shines a little brighter. Where there are people who make pumpkin pie until they're 80, hang not just a few strands of Christmas lights but like my Clovis neighborhood off Athens Avenue, deck their houses inside and out, where people pray a little harder, salute the flag a little prouder, advocate U.S. history a little stronger, send their own children to fight when they are called upon and understand the importance of the sacrifice they made when they are forced to bury them in the red, white and blue.
Bee reporter George Hostetter's dispatch from the Fresno County Courthouse this morning has former Fresno State women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein apologizing to the judge for calling Fresno State lawyer Dawn Theodora a "bitch" on Thursday. Johnson-Klein fired off the epithet after Theodora told her to "calm down and take a pill."
Johnson-Klein told Judge Donald S. Black that her remark was inappropriate, and she was sorry for making it, according to The Bee story. Theodora told Black that she and Johnson-Klein settled their differences in an earlier conversation.
The Bee's editorial board gave both women a thumbs down in our Saturday opinion section.
While they resolved this issue, they are on opposite sides of a very emotional trial, and it's no secret that they don't like each other. It's too bad the animosity came out so blatantly Thursday in the courtroom as the case was recessing for the lunch break.
But there are few among us who can say we never let our emotions get the best of us. I know I wish I could have reeled in some of the things I have said over the years when I was frustrated.
It appears that Jeff Eben, deputy mayor under outgoing Mayor Alan Autry, will be a candidate for Fresno's top job. He said he's moved from Clovis to Fresno to fulfill residency requirements and plans to make a formal announcement in the next few weeks. Last week, Eben said he is not ready to announce, but added that he expects to be in the race next year to succeed Autry.
Things can change, but Eben sure sounds like a mayoral candidate to me. Here is Eben's Web site. He is a motivational speaker and previously served as a school principal for the Clovis Unified School District.
My column today points out how the announcement process is really an insiders' game and voters are yet to be engaged in the 2008 campaign for mayor. After all, we'll have a presidential primary election in February, and the mayoral primary will follow in June. Don't expect voters to get excited about the mayor's race until after the presidential primary.
I've had two other recent columns about the Fresno mayor's race. You can read them by clicking here and here.
If Eben runs, he will join these candidates in the mayor's race: City Council Members Jerry Duncan, Mike Dages and Henry T. Perea, and former Council Member Tom Boyajian. Ashley Swearengin, chief executive officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative, also is in the race.
The growing readership of Opinion Talk is mostly coming from the San Joaquin Valley, but we're also getting readers from across the state. In fact, our blog is getting strong ratings from those who track California's political blogs. This week, Opinion Talk was rated the third most influential blog in the state by Blognetnews/California.
At last count, Blognetnews rates 41 political blogs in the state. The ratings change weekly. We were fifth last week, after climbing from 16th the previous week.
Orange Punch, an Orange County blog, was rated first this week. This is how that blog describes itself: "Orange Punch is a blog of political opinion from a libertarian perspective by Orange County Register editorial writers."
There are many other top-notch blogs listed on this site. Check them out.
Our lead editorial today points out the irony of public university officials planning more tuition hikes for students, while giving big salary increases and other benefits to university administrators.
Consider this: The University of California regents have fired -- they say he resigned under pressure -- UC President Robert Dynes, yet they are giving him a huge parting gift as "punishment." Dynes is going to get a year off at his president's pay: $405,000, and then will go to the physics department at UC San Diego, for a mere $245,000 a year. Outrageous. There are Nobel Prize winners in physics teaching in the UC system at lower pay than Dynes will get for getting fired.
At the same time, UC is raising tuition costs for students. Is this system for adults or the students? Apparently the regents think it's set up to pay out administrative perks.
It's just as bad in the CSU system, which oversees Fresno State and the other state university campuses. Trustees there are raising tuition. Then there's the arrogant CSU Chancellor Charles Reed's response. After the board voted to study more hikes in student fees, Reed said. "I only think it's fair for students to get early warning."
Oh, please, chancellor. Spare us the artificial concern for students.
On my doorstep this afternoon, I found an expensive piece of literature from the Ashley Swearengin for mayor campaign. It included a card, postage paid, that is supposed to be returned to Swearengin. It has 11 questions for voters to answer and then mail back. The first question is basic: "Is Fresno on the right track?" But the money question is No. 3: "What grade would you give the Fresno City Council?" Guess what she plans to do with the results of that question?
It's at the heart of her campaign. Swearengin, chief executive officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative, is running as an outsider against a bunch of current and former council members. She hopes the council gets a poor grade in her survey. Then she'll pound Council Members Jerry Duncan, Henry T. Perea and Mike Dages and former Council Member Tom Boyajian over the head with the results.
I'm impressed that Swearengin's campaign already is walking precincts. That's part of a campaign's compulsory exercises, but some candidates don't like to walk precincts. In politics, they are called losers. You have to walk to win local elections. Swearengin said she had 40 volunteers walking on Saturday. "The main purpose was to get the surveys out," she said, "but some (including me) wanted to go ahead and ring doorbells and talk with folks."
Most of the survey questions are pretty basic, although No. 10 is kind of odd: "What statements best describe you." The choices are limited: Fresno State alum, sports fan, parent of school-aged children, small business owner, want to get more involved in Fresno. You are supposed to check all that apply.
So if you're not a Fresno State alum, aren't a sports fan, not a parent of school-aged children, don't own a business and don't want to get more involved in Fresno, Swearengin presumably doesn't want to hear from you. I'm sure there's a reason she's excluding so many people who can vote for mayor next year. I just can't figure out what it is.
Our way of life is being threatened and we don't even seem to realize it. Starbucks Corp. has reported that the number of customers going to its U.S. stores is down. Can there be a bigger symbol of our Western way of life being under attack than fewer customers at Starbucks? If we don't stop our enemies now, we'll all be drinking their tea on our soil.
We've yet to hear from President Bush on this, but I'm sure he's preparing a major speech saying the nation is four-square behind Starbucks in these times of crisis, and American resolve will ultimately win this battle. Our hopes and prayers are with Starbucks CEO Jim Donald.
While the number of customers are down, profits are actually up thanks to Americans' will to buy $3.85 lattes. But Starbucks stock is still reeling. The Associated Press reported that Starbucks stock has fallen more than 40% over the past year.
You know what to do. Get out there and buy Starbucks coffee. Our nation depends on it.
I got an e-mail today from Judith Reposo, who wrote a Valley Voices piece recently on the "Nothing But Nets" campaign, which raises money to send mosquito nets to families threatened by malaria. So far, they've raised more than $ 2,700 locally. That's 270 families who will be protected from this fatal disease thanks to you! People have sent her checks, dropped off money, donated to her online site and donated at the Chanukah bazaar. Good for them! Read her Valley Voices commentary called "Nothing But Nets: Protect a family for $10" by clicking here.
I had a few people who came to the bazaar only because they read the article. One was an elderly man I don't know (no one else recognized him either). He approached our table when we were really crowded. He asked, "Are you Mrs. Reposo?" He said, "Your article really touched me here (he touched his heart)," then handed me a sealed envelope, blew me a kiss and disappeared into the crowd. Inside I found a $ 100 bill. How sweet! Also saw the mother of a junior high school friend of mine (my sister's high-school boyfriend's mom... don't ask how long ago that was!). I hadn't seen her in years. She came down from the foothills specifically to donate to our project @ the bazaar.
So many thanks to you. By publishing my piece you've helped facilitate the purchase of more than 270 mosquito nets to prevent malaria!
If you would like to contribute to this effort, go to the Web site by clicking here.
  Demonstrating the maturity level of a couple of catty middle school girls, Dawn Theodora, a lawyer for Fresno State (picture at left), and former women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein (picture at right), the plaintiff in a sexual-discrimination lawsuit against the university, got into it yesterday as the two sides prepared to leave for lunch.
According to today's article:
"Fresno State lawyer Dawn Theodora, at the lunch break, told Johnson-Klein to 'calm down and take a pill.' Johnson-Klein, the former women's basketball coach who was fired in March 2005, responded by calling Theodora a 'bitch.'"
Nice.
The judge, Donald S. Black, summed it up nicely after he learned of the exchange:
"Honestly, I feel like I'm dealing with children," he said.
Such immature behavior has no place in a courtroom. It doesn't reflect well on either of the women.
California -- and clean air -- won a victory over the Bush administration in a federal court Thursday. The administration's weak rules for mileage on small trucks and SUVs were tossed by the court, which said regulators should have considered the economic impact of emissions on climate change. Here's the New York Times story.
It's the latest in a string of defeats for the Bush administration and its go-slow -- or no-go -- policies on clean air. U.S. fuel economy standards are the lowest among the developed nations, and the White House appears determined to keep things that way, despite the damage to the environment and American pocketbooks that low mileage standards cause.
A federal court in Fresno will soon hear a case involving California's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from trucks and cars. The federal government lost a case involving nearly identical regulations in Vermont recently, and here's hoping the Fresno case turns out the same way.
The Bush administration and its pals in industry warn us ceaselessly about the economic impacts of tighter environmental standards -- by which they mean the impact on their profits -- but they never factor in the social, health and environmental costs of their policies. Perhaps the courts are more willing to do so nowadays. That would be a happy turn of events.
 Fresno Bee columnist Bill McEwen's book of his columns is the fastest way I know for someone to get up to speed on the politics and social fabric of our part of the San Joaquin Valley. This sampling of Bill's columns over the past five years would make a great Christmas gift. It's designed to fit right into Christmas stockings.
The cost of the book -- $12.95 -- is worth it just for the cover, which has a giant drawing of Bill hovering over Fresno, just as he does every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday when his column comes out in The Bee. Artist Bob Campbell drew the cover of "It's a Dry Heat," which invites you inside for 12 chapters of his columns. Bill can be delightful, snarky and angry all in the same week. That unpredictableness is refreshing.
Bill will even sign the book for you. You can catch him Friday, Nov. 30, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at Borders in River Park; and Saturday, Dec. 1, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Holiday Boutique benefiting The Cat House on the Kings, at Petco, 4144 N. Blackstone Ave. You can also buy it online by clicking here.
If I ran the local Welcome Wagon, I'd give every new resident a copy of "It's a Dry Heat."
 In all the recent announcements for mayor, I haven't heard anything from the candidates about following up on Mayor Alan Autry's big strength -- connecting Fresno with the state and federal governments in a very personal way. The high-profile talk about a downtown river, the Running Horse project and a municipal utility district, has overshadowed Autry's huge accomplishment of making Fresno an important player in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration and with federal officials in Washington, D.C.
That has meant more state and federal funding for Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley. Remember, unfair government funding formulas had shortchanged the Valley for years when it came to handing out state and federal money. The system still isn't perfect, but Autry has made big strides in helping this region get a bigger share of the tax dollars we send to Sacramento and Washington.
One example is the funding for improving Highway 99 through the San Joaquin Valley. Lawmakers from Los Angeles and the Bay Area didn't much care for helping the deteriorated freeway, but Autry and others made sure Highway 99 got funded. The California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley would not exist without Autry's pressure on the governor. There are other examples.
Fresno's next mayor must be able to build on the connections that Autry has made in Sacramento and Washington. This isn't just asking for a meeting with the governor or a U.S. senator. It's having personal relationships with these leaders that can get things done for the city.
The next time you see the mayoral candidates -- Jerry Duncan, Henry T. Perea, Ashley Swearengin, Mike Dages and Tom Boyajian -- asked them how they are gong to ensure that Fresno gets its fair share of state and federal funds. It's not just saying they support more Highway 99 funding. It's about developing relationships in Sacramento and Washington that will benefit residents of Fresno. This should be part of the mayoral debate.
Get out your best boots and ring the cowbells.
On today's Opinion page, we celebrate the appointment of Visalia lawyer Dan Dooley to serve in the position of vice president for the division of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the University of California. As the cowboys would say, yahoo! Read our editorial by clicking here.
This is a real trophy cup for the Valley because Dooley will take with him to Sacramento a depth of knowledge of Valley ag practices and politics that we definitely need in the UC organization. For a century, UC has driven the cutting-edge research that has kept California farmers in the forefront of agricultural practices. The challenges of the future -- air and water quality, global warming, food supply and safety -- all meet right here in Central California and Dooley will be charged with making sure the students and professors of the future are well prepared to tackle these immense research projects.
Dooley has a deep and impressive resume and a promising record of bringing people together. It shows respect to the Valley -- finally! -- that the UC Regents chose a candidate with Valley expertise included among his many state and national credentials..
 Now that a federal grand jury has indicted Barry Bonds for perjury and obstruction of justice, I feel a little sad. I'm no fan of Bonds; his arrogance is all-galaxy caliber. But I love baseball, and this is no good.
It's not entirely about Bonds. The owners of the cartel we call Major League Baseball Inc. let the steroid/substance abuse problem go unremarked for years because players were putting home runs in the stands and fans in the seats. The money available to stars in baseball -- and team owners -- is so enormous that it distorts the moral sense of athletes, owners and fans alike.
It took four years for the grand jury to indict Bonds -- that's way too long. Justice delayed is justice denied, as the old cliché has it.
However the charges are adjudicated, this will be the end of Bonds career. He is a free agent, but it's unlikely that any team will offer a contract to a player who might have to leave the dugout for a federal prison. So Barry's record for career home runs -- 762 -- will likely stand for a few years before Alex Rodriguez breaks it. Barring injury, indictment or other catastrophe befalling Rodriguez, of course.
The whole thing is just sad.
 In editing Marcela Sanchez' column for tomorrow's op-ed page, I was alerted to this news event I had missed:
"King Juan Carlos of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to zip his lip on Saturday and the Spanish-speaking world went nuts."
She goes on to mention that the king's rebuke has become a YouTube sensation and a downloadable ringtone. Here's a link to a fun clip on YouTube.
We have a different opinion on the Venezuelan leader on today's op-ed page.
(AFP/Getty Images photo)
The Valley has come together in stellar form to get treatment for Melissa Griffin, the 21-year-old cowgirl with a brain injury from a riding accident.
According to an e-mail I got from her mother, JoEllen Moreno, today, she starts therapy Nov. 26 in Bakersfield. What a blessing it is to live among such caring people. Even though we live in a time with such incompetence in our administration of health insurance coverage, people step forward to make things right.
I am really curious to know what kind of administrative insurance imbeciles refuse therapeutic treatment for a 21-year-old with a brain injury? This young woman has her whole life in the balance -- education, career, future child bearing and child-rearing. What possible sense could it make not to help her be as strong and healthy as possible going into this important stage of life? Are they complete idiots -- or what?
Don't get me started ... better you hear all the happy talk from Melissa's mother.
As, I hope, most of you saw, Melissa made the front page of the Fresno Bee! Wow! I knew that they were doing an article on her story but I had no idea at all that it would have been a headliner. Thank you Diana Marcum!! Thanks to the exposure we are still getting donations trickling in. My sister Connie, who is handling the donations called me last night and told me that she received 33 envelopes in the mail today totaling an additional $3.500.00!! I am still getting calls from readers that were so touched by her story and want to help in some way. Some callers have actually apologized for only being able to send a modest donation.....ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Any dollar we receive and can help Melissa is so very much appreciated. So, please do not apologize. You are wonderful people and may the Lord bless you.
Her father, Greg, has been in contact with CNS and has negoiated a price since we are paying cash. (Most of you in the medical field know that if you pay cash, you usually get a 25% discount.) I believe that Greg got a 30% discount which means that the money everyone raised can make for a longer stay for Melissa! Which I think is great. Greg informed me last night that she will be heading to Bakersfield the sunday after Thanksgiving. She will be admitted into the program on Monday, November 26th. She will head to Bakersfield on Sunday afternoon and spend time with her step sister who lives in Bakersfield so that she won't be so tired to start her first day on Monday.
Again, I know that I sound like a broken record but thank you, thank you, thank you all so very much for helping our |