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Now, if this was common knowledge, there might be quite a few more people willing to serve in Iraq. Married soldiers serving in Iraq get to live and sleep together. Here's an excerpt from an Associated Press report:
When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.
In a historic but little-noticed change in policy, the Army is allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep together in the war zone - a move aimed at preserving marriages, boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years into the fighting.
"It makes a lot of things easier," said Frazier, 33, a helicopter maintenance supervisor in the 3rd Infantry Division. "It really adds a lot of stress, being separated. Now you can sit face-to-face and try to work out things and comfort each other."
Well, yes. Makes sense to me.
Like it's not tough enough to be a parent or a teacher, about 60% of students admit in surveys that they cheat on their schoolwork. And these are not all garden-variety cheaters today. Students have a lot of high-tech gadgetry at their disposal, the Los Angeles times reports, such as harmless-looking pens that can scan a test and send it to a remote location (like their best friend's computer). They can even get cheating instructions on the Internet. Here's an excerpt from the story:
One click of the Internet opens a world of possibilities and temptations, devious and ingenious, with Web sites devoted to the best cheating practices, and cheating tutorials on YouTube.
One YouTube compilation offers such strategies as taping answers under a tie and designing a T-shirt with a cheat sheet printed on the front in a form that can be overlooked as a logo.
In another, a young man recounts his method of stretching a rubber band over a textbook and writing answers on it. When the rubber band isn't stretched, his writing looks like harmless ink stains. Yet another video explains how to remove a wrapper from a drink bottle and create a duplicate carrying test answers.
Although camera phones with pictures of an answer sheet, and text messages from friends outside the classroom are still the most ubiquitous electronic techniques, many schools have caught on and now ban devices such as cellphones and iPods during tests.
More recent innovations are button cameras, which have a wireless connection to a laptop computer that can then capture stolen test items, and pens capable of scanning a test and sending a video signal to a remote laptop to save the images.
Scary.
If you're strugging with this issue, there are some good commentaries from Michael Josephson, creator of the Charactor Counts program.
I wrote over the weekend about Google going dark for Earth Hour. We also featured a letter to the editor in Saturday's paper from Adam Nitido, a 15-year-old:
"On March 31, 2007, the city of Sydney, Australia, turned off its lights -- 2.2 million Sydney citizens and 2,100 businesses -- for one hour. The greenhouse reduction was equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for one hour."
By the way, me, my mom and daughter did take part that night, turning off the lights and having our dinner by candlelight. Last night, Katie, who is almost 5, was asking if we could do that "lights out" thing again.
Here's what an article in the Boston Globe had to say:
"World landmarks from Sydney's Opera House to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge went dark last night as cities around the globe turned off their lights for a campaign to raise awareness of climate change. Up to 30 million people switched off their lights for 60 minutes by the time "Earth Hour" - which started in Fiji and New Zealand - completed its cycle westward, organizers said."
(Associated Press photo: The lights on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge are turned off.)
 I stopped by Barnes & Noble in Fresno on Saturday afternoon to hear author Barbara Firestone discuss her book, "Autism Heroes." Unlike a lot of authors, Dr. Firestone wasn't there just to sell books. She was on a mission to shine light on the struggles of children with autism and their families.
Most in the audience showed up because they're parents or grandparents of children with autism. There was a lot of pain in that room, as they explained how the system wasn't giving the children they love the care they deserved. The public schools didn't want to deal with their problems, the insurance companies wanted to duck their responsibility, their neighbors didn't understand why they couldn't control their children..
Dr. Firestone spent much of her time Saturday listening to the family members tell of problems in getting basic education and health needs met. Some of the questions were complicated and she said she'd talk to those parents privately. She has learned patience in dealing with families with children who have autism.
I was one of the few in the audience without a personal connection to autism. I went out of curiosity because my daughter is volunteering in a research lab at UC San Diego, where she is an undergraduate student. Researchers in the UCSD baby lab are studying autism, and looking for protocols leadng to early diagnosis. That would allow for better treatment of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. My daughter has been telling me about the research, and I wanted to learn more about autism. The book signing in Fresno was a wonderful opportunity for me to hear first-hand about this subject.
Dr. Firestone is president and CEO of The Help Group, which is a nonprofit that serves children with special needs related to autism, Asperger's Disorder, learning disabilities, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation, abuse and emotional problems. She is vice chair of the California Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism.
Her book, "Autism Heroes," recounts the experiences of 38 families and how they have dealt with autism.
Representatives of Families for Effective Autism Treatment of Fresno/Madera County also attended the lecture and book signing. This is an important local advocacy group.
Firestone said autism spectrum disorders are a public health crisis affecting one in every 150 children, mostly boys. The Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission is supporting a package of eight bills to improve autism treatment in California. Firestone is urging autism families to write California senators and Assembly members asking them to vote for the bills.
 I went to Google to search something this morning and noticed that the screen is black instead of the usual white. A message under the search window says: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour."
If you click on the Earth Hour link, it explains that this is "a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation."
That's pretty cool. I'm going to try to go dark tonight for energy conservation.
Good for Alan Yengoyan of the Fresno County District Attorney's Office, who just wrapped up a substantial settlement with 3M over its Scotch and Tartan brand adhesive and packaging tapes, according to a story by Marc Benjamin in today's Bee. 3M has agreed to pay almost $700,000 to settle the case, which alleged the company sold undersized adhesive tapes. Local prosecutors showed that some of 3M's tapes were 6% narrower than their packaging said.
In settling the case, 3M did not admit liability or guilt. Yengoyan said the case originated with inspectors from the Fresno office of the state Division of Measurement Standards, who brought it to the county's attention. Props to that department, too. Someone's paying attention over there.
You know, such a case could turn a person from skeptical to cynical. If you cannot trust your Scotch tape, what can you trust? This settlement will make the world a little safer for gift-wrappers everywhere...
Now that the presidential primary has been held in California, most of the political interest has been removed from the June 3 ballot around the state. I'm wondering just how many people will actually vote in the upcoming primary. In Fresno, we have a high-profile mayor's race, but that alone won't generate a big turnout locally.
The statewide turnout for June is only expected to be about 33%, and we usually vote at a lower rate in the San Joaquin Valley. It's going to be lonely if you're a poll worker on June 3.
The turnout will impact political strategies locally. One of the keys to the Fresno's mayor's race is how aggressive the 11 candidates will be in getting early voters -- those voting by absentee ballots -- to cast ballots. The early voters could be the difference in a candidate getting into the runoff or being out of the race altogether.
This crowded field undoubtedly means that no one will get a majority in June, and the next mayor will have to win the runoff election in November. Most observers -- and many of the candidates -- say Councilman Henry T. Perea is the frontrunner. They also say Councilmen Jerry Duncan, Mike Dages, Tom Boyajian and Ashley Swearengin, who is on leave from her job leading the Regional Jobs Initiative, are battling for the second spot.
Let me know how you see the Fresno mayor's race breaking down, and if you think a low voter turnout will favor any of the candidates.
Spoiler alert: If you like to be surprised by your Sunday Vision section, stop reading right now...
Don't miss Jim Boren's column, where he rants about Assemblyman George Plescia's pleas for "Take your dog to work day" (the man is serious) and other time wasters in the Lege.
Our usual "Two views" feature on the op-ed page this week is replaced with "Three views" on what the three presidential contenders would do about the economy. Very informative.
David Mas Masumoto writes another chapter of his spectacular series on life in the Valley, this one titled "Running against the wind." It's about the difficulty of living in the age of speed for those of us who are more deliberate and thoughtful.
One of my personal favorites from Sunday is a piece by David Broder, where he talks about some think-tank caliber strategies that have been worked out to solve this sticky dilemma the Democrats are in vis a vis Michigan and Florida.
Jim Naughton is a veteran of The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer and of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., a journalism think tank. Here is Broder's version of his idea: Because Florida and Michigan both knowingly violated the party rules, they must be punished by having the size of their delegations cut in half. But he would let the remaining 183 delgates chosen in the disputed primaries take their seats and vote on the platform or almost any other issue -- excpet those that impact directly on the presidential nomination.
Broder tosses in his own "crapckpot" solution as well.
The Top 10 list is things we can sell on eBay to get Fresno through the tough economic times: No. 4 is dirt from Running Horse that Donald Trump walked on.
Enjoy!
We're in the middle of our usual election year exercise of candidate interviews, as part of the process of making our recommendations for seats on local government bodies. One interesting -- and very gratifying -- element has emerged: Most of the candidates walking precincts report that voters are voicing strong concerns about the Valley's air quality.
Public safety still rules to roost as the No. 1 campaign issue, as it always has and likely always will with local government.
But just a few years ago, it would have surprised candidates -- and us -- to hear people expressing concerns about air quality.
It's reassuring that the message is sinking in. Creating a greater awareness of air quality issues in the Valley was always the first step toward actually cleaning the air. And if political candidates hear that message from the people whose votes they're seeking, you can bet it will be high on their own agendas. That's good news for us all.
It's up; it's down; it's ugly; it's inspiring: It's an election like no other. I write in a column on the op-ed page today that people are excited about this election in a way we haven't seen in decades. The young, the old, the women, the minorities, the artists, the D's, the R's -- even the historians are hopping on one foot and the other about choosing the next president.
Armen D. Bacon, senior director for communications and public relations for the Fresno County Office of Education, reflects the feelings of a lot of people:
"I felt almost euphoric as I drove to my polling place; I think I broke the speed limit driving to get there, and for the first time ever in my own voting history, I felt this great sense of urgency and empowerment, as if my vote was actually going to make a difference in the world.
"When I got home, I realized that, for once, I feel as though my voice will be heard, and that my vote will matter. Of course, that will translate into a willingness to get more involved, be more engaged and active on a local, state and national level.
"All of a sudden, I am feeling as though we can definitely move some mountains and change the landscape of our nation. Now when was the last time any of us felt that powerful? I must say that ... I felt proud to wear my little 'I voted' sticker. My grandson, Logan, enjoyed the day, too! And to think ... if all of this is true, the world in which he and his cousins, Arden and Ani, grow up is going to be so much better!"
Read the full column by clicking here.
 Carole Migden's in the news again, this time as the target of a lawsuit by the state Fair Political Practices Commission. It's a countersuit filed after Migden sued the FPPC for blocking her attempts to use old campaign funds in what I hope is her uphill fight to hold on to her state Senate seat.
It's not easy to feel Migden's pain. The San Francisco Democrat's been arrogant and abusive in her legislative career. Back in 2002, in response to a bill by then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza of Merced, part of early legislative efforts to clear the Valley's air, she offered this deep thought: "It's easy to gain political points in Ceres by saying the Bay Area elite are making your kids cough." Our editorial at the time said "It wasn't funny in a region where one in six children has symptoms of asthma." It still isn't.
In a radio interview she once blamed the Valley's air pollution on "tires burning down there and a lot of problems with junk heaps."
And in a classic bit of political slapstick, she once wandered over to the Assembly, which was considering a bill of hers, and pushed the "yes" button to record a vote for an absent Assembly member -- a Republican, no less.
The good news in that Migden's got a tough battle on her hands to retain her Senate seat, facing Assembly Member Mark Leno of San Francisco and former Assembly Member Joe Nathan in the June 3 primary. Good luck to both of them.
Updated 5:38 p.m.
There's more information today about the Channel 30 story on a judge halting a trial Monday to investigate sexual allegations against two jurors serving on the Eddie Scott molestation trial.
Sherry Spears, public information officer for Fresno County Superior Court, issued this statement: "Unconfirmed rumors concerning this jury have been reported in the media. There is no pending investigation concerning any juror. No juror has engaged in misconduct or inappropriate conduct."
Judge James Oppliger told jurors today in court: "There has been false reporting going on and I want you to stay away from the press, and don't share something inadvertently with the press."
Attorney Tony Capozzi explained on Channel 30's Web site today that in his opinion, jurors would not necessarily have to get kicked off a case for having relationships with other jurors or even -- having sex in the courthouse bathroom with another juror.
This could create a waiting list for jury duty years in advance.
Andres Araiza is reporting this on the Channel 30 Web site:
"We have confirmed with multiple sources two jurors were accused of engaging in sexual activity in a courthouse bathroom. Some attorneys believed if this did happen it could have led to a mistrial and the case would have to begin all over again."
Capozzi: "This is my first time in my 38 years of experience practicing law. I've never heard of this before."
He believes the judge made the right decision to investigate. It's unknown if the incident actually happened or it was a false report. Capozzi said jurors don't have to be excused if they engage in sexual activity during a trial.
"Technically there's no prohibition against it. The judge doesn't tell the jurors in the beginning of the trial, you can't have a relationship with each other. He doesn't say anything about a sexual relationship."
To read the whole story, click here.
What do you think?
San Diego County foster children are moving to the top of the admissions list at Cal State University, San Marcos under what officials are calling a historic agreement, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. What do you think?
The university -- which rejected almost 2,600 applicants last year -- is guaranteeing enrollment to any foster youth who meets its admissions standards in a deal between the school and San Diego County, which has about 6,000 children in its foster system. About 200 turn 18 years old each year.
The move comes two months after Cal State capped enrollment at current levels and closed application windows months earlier than normal in response to the state's proposed budget cuts.
The agreement, to be announced tomorrow morning on campus, is the first of its kind between a Cal State school and a foster system, officials say.
The university's admissions standards are a 2.5 grade-point average and a high school or equivalent degree. Students also must take the SAT, but no minimum score is required.
Read the whole story by clicking here.
The jet controversy in Lemoore spilled over into an animated, four-hour planning commission meeting Monday, most folks opposing a portion of the city's proposed general plan that calls for housing under an a flight path east of lemoore Naval Air Station.
Steve Griffiths of Lemoore, who owns a travel planning agency in Tulare, very eloquently expressed the rationale of the opposition in a Valley Voices column Saturday:
As our Valley continues to grow, conflicts between agriculture, industry, development, residents and the environment occur every day. All are important, and challenging, but few have such far-reaching effects.
The base contributes millions of dollars a week to the economy, and its personnel work around the clock to defend our national security.
The city has been working on its general plan for almost two years now. It's amazing -- and frustrating -- that the idea for these houses has survived for so long. To address concerns, the city says it would seek strict requirements on the houses and require homebuyers to waive their rights to sue because of noise.
That's just nuts. The proposed general plan needlessly puts the Navy, the city, landowners and residents on a collision course.
Read the whole article by clicking here.
If the Iraq war is your issue, check out this chilling pictorial memorial to the 4,000 dead benchmark posted by Nico Pitney, national editor at the Huffington Post. What do you think?
 Today marks the first day of an extended leave for "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau. According to his syndicate, it has been sixteen years since Trudeau's last extended leave. He has requested another break, to work on other projects, travel and regenerate a few creative cells. This break will last twelve weeks, into June. He will resume creating new strips before the two major political conventions and the general election.
During Trudeau's absence, we will run cartoons that have run before that Trudeau has selected personally.
(Associated Press photo)
 The New York Times reports today about two things that Republican presidential candidate John McCain doesn't want to talk about: Toying with becoming a Democrat and talking with Democrat John Kerry about being Kerry's running mate in 2004.
McCain's advisers say that the Democrats reached out to him and that McCain was not interested in either suggestion. But this latest controversy is another aspect of McCain's struggle to be accepted by the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
This is a paragraph from the Times' story: "Either way, the episodes shed light on a bitter period in Mr. McCain’s life after the 2000 presidential election, when he was, at least in policy terms, drifting away from his own party. They also offer a glimpse into his psychological makeup and the difficulties in putting a label on his political ideology over many years in the Senate."
It appears State Department contract employees have been getting their kicks out of snooping through the passport files of the major presidential candidates. But is something more sinister at work here?
Federal officials confirmed today that the passport files of Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain have been breached. Call me crazy, but it seems highly unlikely that this was just done "out of curiosity."
In this matter, we again saw the Bush Administration's routine lack of outrage for Americans' privacy. I'm surprised the president didn't use the 9/11 defense for this snooping: "If we didn't look at these passport records, America would be a terrorist training ground."
The State Department initially waved off the seriouness of this breach. Here's what the State Department spokesman said about the issue: "Mistakes and errors happen from time to time. ... We caught these and we've got to work and correct that process," said Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy.
This isn't about correcting a process. We need to know how this happened and how many other federal agencies are being used for political purposes. Are the IRS computers being tapped to find incriminating tax information on the candidates? Who else is on the Bush Administration's enemies list?
I have one word for the state Legislature: Priorities.
The story about parking placards for pregnant women made me want to pose for the cover of Arrgghhh! magazine: What are they thinking in Sacramento? People are getting paid to create laws for such issues when the budget's on fire, teachers are about to be laid off by the score, sick residents aren't getting the care they need, and we are uncertain of our water supplies for the future?
Assembly Member Chuck DeVore of Irvine apparently has too much time on his hands. He needs to visit the Valley and get his brain focused on substantive issues like water policy, view the nation's most concentrated poverty, take a look at our crumbling schools infrastructure and talk to our hospital CEOs about fair reimbursement for indigent care.
This adds credence to Jim Boren's argument that the lege should only be allowed to introduce four bills a year. Here is an excerpt:
Limit the number of bills that can be introduced. Right now, more than 2,000 bills are introduced each year. Cut that back to three, not counting the budget bill. For example, in 2009, the Legislature might only work on bills on water, education and transportation. That's it. If they forgot the trivial stuff and spent the year concentrating on three issues, they just might get somewhere. By radically limiting the number of bills, we wouldn't be hearing about laws to ban kangaroo leather or require the labeling of food made from cloned meat.
Read his recent column on that topic by clicking here.
It was a pleasure talking with incoming Assembly Speaker Karen Bass this week. She was very candid about her need to learn more about the state's water issues and learned a lot during the tour she was given here.
As I think about the periodic reports about the expensive trips abroad our elected officials take to do their jobs better, I have to wonder how many have experienced the Valley tour? It should be a priority for our officials to get eyeballs on the Valley; Gov. Schwarzenegger has certainly found a lot to appreciate here once we got his attention. We are in a very good position to attract the spotlight right now, since the Republican legislative leaders Sen. Dave Cogdill and Assemblymember Mike Villines are from the region. How about a Valley meeting of the Big Five?
We write about this in today's editorial "Getting new speaker to visit here is first step."
I'm fascinated by people's reading lists. (Share yours!) I asked Assemblymember Juan Arambula what's on his nightstand right now because he's a voracious reader -- about 100 books a year. He said, "the budget." That's it.
I've got half a dozen books going all the time! (Short interest span!) "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen R. Covey, and Rebecca R. Merrill is on my nightstand at the moment. Very good. I'm listening to an audio book on organizational change by John P. Kotter of Harvard Business School and Dan. S. Cohen called "The Heart of Change: Real Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Kotter also wrote "Leading Change." The nut graph of this book is that real change happens when people feel differently about their organization, not when they think differently.
While cruising the blogs for the Wednesday blogging bits column the other day, I came across this list from the Freakonomics guys, who posted this as part of a Q&A interview with Newt Gingrich:
" The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker - I have read this book once a year for the past 30 years and still learn something new with each reading. It is single best guide to being effective I have every come across.
"The Godfather" by Mario Puzo
"Shogun" by James Clavell
"Advice and Consent: A Novel of Washington Politics" by Alan Drury
"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara
"All the Kings Men" by Robert Penn Warren
"The Third Wave" by Alvin Toffler
"Lincoln by Gore Vidal, Lincoln at Cooper Union" by Harold Holzer
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Eloquent President" by Ronald White
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn
"Leadership" by Rudolph Giuliani, "The Turnaround" by William Bratton and Peter Knobler, and "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis — these three books explain metrics-based management, a key to 21st century government, which I write about in "Real Change."
C'mon, you've got a minute. What's on your nightstand?
A Sacramento Bee article discusses a California lawmaker's proposal to grant special parking privileges to women in the final three months of pregnancy and the first two months after birth.
The legislation would apply to more than a half-million women who give birth every year in California.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's bill would qualify pregnant women for "temporarily disabled" parking placards from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
I think it's telling that opponents of the proposal, Assembly Bill 1940, say pregnant women should be exercising as much as possible and that the legislation could reduce parking for motorists with more serious disabilities.
"We really want pregnant women to be active, to be moving, to be walking," said Shannon Smith-Crowley of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' California chapter, which opposes AB 1940. A woman with complications from pregnancy that severely impair walking, or cause other serious health problems, can qualify for a temporary parking placard under existing law, she said.
What do you think?
The recall election against state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, in the 12th Senate District shows how vindictive Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata is. He's reportedly holding a grudge because Denham was a holdout vote against the state budget last year. That was a bad vote, but it surely isn't grounds for a recall election.
The Bee's editorial board opposes the recall. Here's the editorial explaining the reasons.
But there's more at work in this recall than Denham's budget vote. The Democrats think they can steal the seat because the voter registration favors Democrats. The termed-out Perata is trying to win one last contest before he leaves office. Voters in the 12th District should tell Perata to just go, and reject the recall.
I must admit, being the mother of an only child, I never thought of outsourcing his toilet training to another, older child using jelly beans as payment. There's an economist who swears it works, if you handle things correctly. (Beware the budding entrepreneur who force feeds his young subject water to grow his business.)
I've just had a ball reading the most intriguing little blog called "gametheorist" by Joshua Gans of Australia, author of a forthcoming book called "Parentonomics." It is, essentially, the economics of parenting.
If you want to elevate the spanking argument onto a whole other level, he's your guy. He and his guest economist-parent bloggers also write about the economics of the tooth fairy, why parents should pretend to have superpowers, why it makes sense to teach children subtraction before addition, why shared birthday parties save money and how to compute which incentives get the best results with kids. When they write about thumbsuckers, they are being literal.
Now this is some great dinner table conversation.
An article in today's paper tells of a property owner who bulldozed a homeless encampment off his private lot in downtown Fresno.
The men who were living there said they were notified on Wednesday by a manager that they needed to leave the area by Friday. They were able to move some of their belongings, but one man lost clothing, blankets and a cat. He said some of the 15 people who lived there returned to find all of their possessions gone.
Fifteen people were living on this lot? If they were told on Wednesday that they needed to clear out, why were they still trespassing on private property when the owner decided to reclaim his land?
I think this is different from a previous situation in which homeless advocates filed a lawsuit against the city of Fresno after the city confiscated and destroyed personal property. I think a property owner has the right to notify anyone who is squatting illegally on his or her land to vacate, and if that doesn't happen, then to take action to reclaim their property.
Was notice on Wednesday adequate? I think so. It wasn't like someone who is renting a property. When you rent a property from someone, you have a binding legal agreement with the land owner, which requires a certain process and timeline if eviction becomes an issue. These people were on the property illegally.
Young people seem to be getting the message that smoking is a zero-sum game for people who try it: you lose money, lose time, lose your health, your looks, and increasingly jobs and insurance. The percentage of American teens who smoke is far fewer than their European counterparts, who just don't get it. Still, many young people are nonetheless becoming victims of the tobacco industry, which works so very hard at getting people addicted -- it's money in the bank for them.
On The Bee's Valley Voices page Saturday, there was a powerful essay that carried the byline of former Reedley Exponent newspaper editor, Budd Brockett. The column actually had to be written by Budd's son, Scott, because Budd is so ill with complications from emphysema, a consequence of his lifelong smoking habit. Here is an excerpt:
I do not want sympathy or people to feel the need to say they're sorry. I made these decisions on my own, and the consequences were told to me in the beginning. What I desire is for just one young person to hear me and believe what I say.
The purpose of this column is very simple, and yet it will be so difficult for those who really need to hear it from an "old man." If you smoke, you will live to regret it.
Read the entire column by clicking here.
That's an issue that Long Beach is facing. According to this wire story, anti-war marchers banned in last year's Long Beach Veterans Day Parade will be allowed to participate this year.
Parade coordinator Martha Thuente disclosed Sunday that organizers and the groups -- Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Military Families Speak Out -- have reached an agreement.
The groups were prohibited from marching last November because organizers said they didn't fit the spirit of the parade honoring veterans.
What do you think? I'm torn. While I agree with the anti-war marchers' freedom of speech to protest and express their views, I don't think that does fit the spirit of a parade honoring veterans. Couldn't they hold a protest somewhere along the parade route without being a part of the parade?
Fresno's district attorney, Elizabeth Egan, is among the legal gunslingers weighing in on the challenge to the District of Columbia's strict ban on handguns, a battle that begins Tuesday in the Supreme Court.
She is cited in today's story by The Bee's Michael Doyle as being among those challenging the D.C. ban, asserting in legal filings that "the anti-crime effects of citizen handgun ownership provide enormous benefits to law enforcement."
District of Columbia officials consider the gun ban a reasonable restriction that saves lives. "Handguns are the guns most liketly to be used in street crimes," D.C. attorneys noted in a legal brief. "Although only a third of the nation's firearms are handguns, they are responsible for more killings, woundings and crimes than all other types of firearms combined."
In her role as executive director of the American Constitution Society, a nonprofit legal organization, Fresno prosecutor Lisa Brown, also is cited in the story, saying "There is a difference in view, not only between sides in this case but within each side."
President Bush and Vice President Cheney disagree and it will be fascinating to see where the court comes down on this issue.
Should the Second Amendment be zealously guarded, giving gun owners few restrictions? Should cities and states be able to put restrictions in like California's ban on silencers and Florida's ban on armor piercing ammuntion? Should there be a compromise, as the Bush administration advocates, that would retain many existing gun-control laws?
Read the whole story right here. What do you think?
Don't miss Nancy Crossfield's Valley Voices commentary in Saturday's Bee on her experiences as a blood donor. Delightful and informative. She is a medical librarian for Saint Agnes Medical Center.
I don't have a million dollars in the bank, but I can still be a philanthropist, and so can you. Get yourself to the blood center, a Bloodmobile or other donation site and roll up your sleeve. Round up some friends and make it a party. Give for those who can't and for those who need it. As it says on the blood center's Web page, "Be a hero!" I'll save some doughnuts and cookies for you.
A pal of mine, former Fresnan Sandi Tompkins, had an inspiring story published in the December issue of Today's Christian magazine about Dean Eller, president of the Central California Blood Center. It's called "The Blood Banker: In facing death, my teenage daughter discovered her purpose in life — and helped me rediscover mine." It's the compelling story of the struggle to save his daughter, Jenny, whom they lost to leukemia. You can read the story by clicking here.
I'd first seen the need for blood in Vietnam when I was 21 and serving as a medic, but I'd never known anyone like Jenny who needed so much blood to stay alive. Not long after she was diagnosed, our local blood bank asked Jenny to attend its annual appreciation luncheon to thank the donors. Claudia and I remember that day clearly. Jenny wore a long dress, and her head was bald. She walked up to the podium and looked out at the 800 regular donors in the audience, held out her hands, and her chin began to quiver: "Thank you … for letting me live."
Six words. The most powerful words a blood donor can hear.
"My body no longer makes blood," Jenny explained, "and every ounce in me belongs to someone else. Your blood may be coursing through my veins right now! Thank you for letting me live."
While President George W. Bush continues to claim the economy is merely in a "slowdown," the Federal Reserve on Sunday cut the emergency lending rate to financial institutions from 3.50% to 3.25%. Somebody at the Fed must be worried if everyone there, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, are working on Sunday.
But the president says everything is just fine. Sounds a lot like his father when the first President Bush took the economy into a nosedive, and didn't even realize it.
Let me get this straight: Oil prices are at an all-time high; the dollar is weak; blue chip credit houses are almost bankrupt; the Fed keeps cutting the interest rate; the stock market is diving; businesses are shedding workers to stay afloat, and the president is as pleased as punch over the economy.
This is the same guy who only a few weeks ago was stunned that gas prices were heading toward $4 a gallon. How many different ways can we say this guy is out of touch with the plight of average Americans?
You're doing a heckuva job with the economy, Mr. President.
My column today offers a half-dozen ideas to make the Legislature more efficient. But don't count on many of them being adopted because they cut right to the heart of what's wrong with politics in California -- the legislative system is designed for the politicians and special interests. The public is an afterthought -- unless voters are so passionate about an issue it can't be ignored by lawmakers/
Here's my first idea:
-- Legislators must show results for their work or they won't get paid. Each year, establish three legislative goals and if the Assembly and Senate don't come up with solutions to all three by Dec. 31, lawmakers in both houses forfeit that year's pay.
The other five ideas are just as provocative. You'll have to click here to read them.
The facts are still coming in about the Lindsay branch library crimefighter who called the cops on a child pornography suspect, but so far things don't look good for the Tulare County Library officials.
The library worker, Brenda Biesterfeld, says she saw someone viewing child pornography on a library computer and reported it to her boss. The boss said to warn him. The library worker instead reported him to the police.
The Lindsay police arrested Donny Lynn Chrisler for suspicion of possessing child pornography. (The authorities reported finding more child pornography after searching his home.)
Hooray! Suspected bad buy caught. Right?
Wrong. Two days after reporting the crime, the worker was fired from her job a little over a week before her probationary period was up. OK, we don't know what we don't know, but I think that firing sounds more than a little bit suspicious. She thinks so, too, and she says she's shopping for a lawyer.
The library folks say they misunderstood the porn to be adult porn, not child porn. They aren't talking publicly about the firing, citing privacy issues.
Hmmm. Do you smell something not right here?
Read the whole story by clicking here.
A Fresno County Superior Court jury concluded that the city of Fresno's parking manager paid $300 in taxpayer funds to touch an employee's breast, but the boss was acquitted because jurors said he didn't know that and other allegations were wrong. Apparently, at least in these jurors' minds, the city should have a policy that explicitly says bosses can't touch employees' breasts, and then pay for it with city funds. It also has to be spelled out in city policy that managers working for the city can't improperly use city money.
And the rest of us thought that keeping our hands to ourselves and not misusing the boss' money were fairly basic guidelines.
Memo to City Hall: Adopt policy ASAP that forbids managers from using tax money to touch employees' breasts. A policy is also needed to say that employees in finance department can't steal money that comes from utility payments made by city residents and employees in tree maintenance can't steal city chainsaws.
The jury didn't believe former city parking guru Bob Madewell's denial that he didn't accost the employee, according to a juror interviewed by The Bee. But the jury also decided that Madewell didn't have a clue that his actions were wrong, and he shouldn't be found guilty because of that lack of knowledge.
Amazing logic. Madewell sure caught a break by drawing a jury that had the capacity to reach such a conclusion. This oddball verdict was reached Thursday after a two-week trial.
"We believe he did what he did, but the evidence wasn't there that he knew better," a juror told Bee reporter Chris Collins.
So the jurors decided that the manager of the city's parking division, a job that paid him $94,000 a year, didn't know he couldn't touch an employee inappropriately, and have the taxpayers pay for it.
Wow. . . maybe there really are drugs in our drinking water.
There's an unsettling murmur building about how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will get on board the high-speed rail proposal on the November ballot: privatize the system. That’s a deal killer.
The attraction, as Robert Cruickshank writes in his California High Speed Rail Blog, is the $1 billion in surplus revenues — profits, to a private company — that the high-speed system is expected to generate annually.
There's no problem with involving the private sector in the funding and construction of the system. Indeed, that’s both necessary and desireable. But turning the completed system over to private hands would be a catastrophe.
The $1 billion a year the rail system is expected to produce will be needed to build extensions and other connecting lines over the years. Left in the hands of the public, that’s how it will be used. Turned over to private hands, the money will end up as dividends in the pockets of company officials and shareholders, not the public. No. Bad idea. Forget it.
More than 800 people showed up at Hatfield Hall at the Madera District Fairgrounds last night for a hearing on the enivironmental impact statement on the proposed casino on Highway 99 north of Madera. So many people showed up that not everyone could get into the hearing, and not everyone had a chance to speak. While they can submit written comments untl the end of the month, it would have been much better if the feds could have accommodated everyone last night.
It shouldn't have been a surprise to the Bureau of Indian Affairs that this controversial casino proposal would draw so many people to the hearing. Opponents had been drumming up interest in the hearing for several weeks and supporters of the casino rallied their troops to show up. The BIA started the hearing while several hundred people were still trying to get in. This "public" hearing does not give you a lot of confidence that the BIA is handling this proposal in an even-handed way.
In a column last Sunday, I said the site is not a good one, although I support Indian gaming. Casinos should be on Indian land in rural areas. That was the deal the tribes made with voters when expanded Indian gaming was approved at the ballot box.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, argued in his testimony that approval of the casino would set a precedent leading to a "gaming corridor along Highway 99." Florez is a key official in this political exercise because he chairs a Senate committee that will have to approve a gaming compact if the federal government allows the North Fork Rancheria of the Mono Indians to proceed with the casino.
Here's Florez's statement:
Mr. Chair. I'm Sen. Dean Florez. I represent the 16th Senate District, which covers a wide area of the Central Valley -- from Bakersfield in the south to Fresno in the northern part of my district.
I am also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization, which is the Senate policy committee with jurisdiction on issues of gaming. This includes Indian Gaming Compacts.
Let me start by saying that I have great concerns about any tribe’s efforts to take land into trust that is not reasonably situated to their existing tribal lands. I understand that there are some situations which merit special consideration.
Taking land into trust, miles away from already existing tribal lands, for the sole purpose of conducting Class III gaming sets an objectionable precedent that could result in a grand race to place other major casinos along Highway 99.
I’m not in favor of creating a gaming corridor along Highway 99 and would prefer that the tribe find a solution closer to its existing tribal lands.
While this proposal may not come close to the off-reservation plans that were proposed for the city of Barstow (which didn’t receive legislative support), I would say that members of the Legislature are aware of the issue of off-reservation gaming, and I can say, haven’t shown an interest in supporting off-reservation gaming in general.
We would probably closely look at how any proposed casino will affect existing facilities and tribes and we would ask that you complete such a similar review in your analysis.
Sequoia Middle School and Carver Academy are sharing a principal, Mike Ribera, this year because the school district couldn't recruit a principal for Carver. That's ridiculous. Leadership sets the tone for every school and these are two of Fresno Unified's neediest campuses. Ribera is a fine leader, but it's a recipe for burnout to give him responsibility for these two demanding campuses. The children deserve better and so does he.
We lay out our arguments for better succession planning in today's editorial. Click here.
It was a wonderful day Tuesday to raise money for Children's Hospital Central California. You came through in a big way, with more than $450,000 contributed on this 21st annual Kids Day.
Thanks also to those who stopped by Blackstone and Shaw avenues where Bee columnist Bill McEwen and I were stationed. Bill easily won our "friendly" sales competition, breaking my winning streak of several years. Bill gave away a signed copy of his book for every 10 papers sold, and this was very effective. People were coming by throwing money and checks at him -- a testament to the popularity of his book of columns: "It's a Dry Heat."
I only had the Kids Day paper to sell, but I did very well with my customers, even though I fell short of Bill's total. I'll have to rethink my sales strategy for next year.
My supporters were generous in their contributions, and checks are still coming in from those who couldn't get by on Tuesday. Thanks to all of you for pitching in to help Children's Hospital.
Our sales at Blackstone and Shaw were helped immensely by the kind folks at Big Country 102.7, who set up next to our table and promoted us on the radio every chance they got. The DJ was Uncle Buck and account executive Kristy Thatcher was at the intersection helping us sell papers. She knows sales and did very well at unloading papers. Thanks for all the help, Big Country.
The Tuesday resignation of the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Admiral William J. Fallon raises a frightening prospect: The Bush administration is gearing up for military action against Iran. Fallon was a thorn in the administration's side because he didn't support all the saber-rattling aimed at Iran, and he was blunter about it than most military commanders are in such cases.
Dan Froomkin, writing for washingtonpost.com, gathers a chilling collection of thoughts and insights from a variety of commentators that adds up to one thing: Bush and Cheney are laying the groundwork for some kind of strike against Iran.
If Bush and Cheney decide to play the Götterdämmerung card, it may be the rest of us who go out with a bang.
 Again with his wife by his side, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace this morning after getting caught in a call-girl scandal that shattered his corruption-fighting, straight-arrow image.
National Public Radio has a gallery of photos of on its Web site featuring spouses standing by their man during times of scandal.
Here's what Michelle Cottle of The New Republic had to say:
"How many men do you think would really do the same for their wives? Consider it: You wake up one morning to discover that the papers are awash in juicy details (and even juicier innuendo) about how you are such a loser that your woman went out looking to pay some young stud to scratch her itch. You are utterly humiliated. You want nothing more than to phone the meanest divorce lawyer in the state. Instead, you get to shower, shave, put on your special-occasion tie, and try your best to look aggrieved yet supportive while standing two-steps behind your lying, cheating tramp of a wife -- possibly even holding her hand -- in front of God and 10,000 drooling reporters all thinking that you must be the most pitiful creature on the planet. Riiiight. That's gonna happen a lot."
Penn State communications professor Nichola D. Gutgold was outraged that Silda Spitzer stood by her husband's side, according to a San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Why do political wives stand by their men?":
"I saw that, and I wanted to yell to her, 'You don't have to do this! Go shopping! Go for a walk. Do anything else.' I keep waiting for one of these women to tell their husband, 'You go make that speech yourself.' Why should they - it was their husband's wrongdoing? Why should they be internationally humiliated?"
As if it's not scary enough raising a teenage girl today, a new study finds that 1 in 4 U.S. teen girls has a sexually-transmitted disease.
There were two very creepy things to me in the news story about this study: One was the incredibly low level of education among the nation's young women about their own bodies. Physicians say many sexually active teens think the withdrawal method will protect them, or that douching with Coca-Cola will kill STD germs. I thought with all the great medical information on the Internet that parents and teens would be smarter about such things. OK, everyone -- parents and teens alike, here you go. Click here and you will find the Web site for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. There is a lot of good educational information there in simple language you can understand.
The second stunner was the notion that physicians are complicit in keeping life- and fertility-saving information from teens. Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine, said some doctors hesitate to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.
We are supposed to be one of the most advanced societies, and such backward behavior toward young women is incomprehensible to me. Blythe, who heads an American Academy of Pediatrics committee on adolescence, noted that the academy supports confidential teen screening.
Sadly, it seems that most teens are not comfortable talking about their sexuality, even with an impartial medical researcher, because only about half the girls in the study even acknowledged having sex. Among those who admitted having sex, 40% had an STD.
Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention.
Well yes, of course, and better sex education at home and at school. Young people deserve to know how their bodies work and what the long-term consequences are for their actions.
Read the whole story here.
It's bad enough that Sen. Hillary Clinton might lose New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer as a superdelegate if he resigns over a prostitution scandal, but this sordid case also reminds voters of Bill Clinton's Oval Office activities with Monica Lewinsky. That can't be good for Hillary.
After Spitzer apologized Monday for his involvement in a prostitution ring (he never said prostitution, only admitting that he did a bad, bad thing), the cable shows started an almost endless loop of Bill and Monica hugging, and then that famous denial that Bill made about not having sex with "that woman." Oh, how Bill's escapades keep coming back to haunt Hillary. And poor Bill. He's been working so hard to get her elected, and then this.
This story in the Washington Post explains "Hillary Clinton's Spitzer Problem."
The Post piece also refers to a David Letterman item about Spitzer and the prostitution case. In last night's segment on his Top 10 List, the segment was about excuses Spitzer will use: The No. 1 excuse was. . . "I thought Bill Clinton legalized this years ago."
It's sad watching anyone, especially a governor, self-destruct, but as a headline writer myself, I cannot help but wish I'd been listening at the news meetings when the New York tabloids cooked up their banner headlines for the story of Gov. Spitzer's problems with a prostitution ring.
The New York Post had my favorite: "HO NO!" The dropheads said, "Gov nailed in hooker shock; Impeachment threatened; Post: NY's Naked Emperor."
The New York Daily News had this one: "PAY FOR LUV GOV"
California's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles hit a big snag when the Bush administration denied a necessary waiver under the Clean Air Act. The state sued the Environmental Protection Agency, and was joined by a number of other states that wish to adopt California's tougher standards. Here's our editorial today on the issue.
The waiver denial also set in motion a bipartisan move in Congress to reverse the EPA action. Democrats and Republicans from around the nation joined to craft legislation that would overturn the EPA decision. Much evidence of a flawed decision-making process at EPA emerged. It's clear that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson went against the advice of his own scientific and legal experts at EPA in making the decision to deny California's waiver.
But one significant group is missing from the bipartisan effort in Congress: California's own GOP delegation. Only Reps. David Dreier and Mary Bono Mack have joined Democrats to fight the EPA decision.
The rest of the GOP pack is taking the Bush administration's lame line about the need for one national standard instead of many sets of state rules. It's a bogus argument, and they know it. This is really about protecting big business, especially automakers, at the expense of the public health of their own constitutents in California. Now that's leadership.
I saw them with my own two sleepy eyes: Jim Boren, editor of The Bee's Opinion pages, and Bill McEwen, columnist, were on the job in the dark of night this morning selling Kids Day papers at Blackstone and Shaw avenues to benefit Children’s Hospital Central California.
I bought papers from both of them but I am deeply prejudiced as a committed member of Team Boren, so I gave twice as much to Jim to make sure we win -- again! (I love to win.) Don't tell Bill about that, though he was very nervous even taking my money, thinking it was a trap for sure. The guys will be there until noon, so go on out there to the southwest corner. You cannot miss them. As an added incentive, if you buy 10 Kids Day papers at $1 each, you will get an autographed copy of Bill's book, “It’s a Dry Heat.” This is a great deal!
This is my 21st Kids Day, since I had the pleasure of being part of the team that created the very first section. The Valley may not have the billionaires who live in the Bay Area, but Isn't it great to be in a place that can raise millions $1 at a time?
 It's been several hours since the story first broke about N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring. He held a press conference, in which he apologized, saying "I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family."
What about his obligation to his constituents? I think there are some political situations that just cry out for immediate resignation.
This week's Top 10 list offers Fresno Bee readers 10 creative ways of dealing with exploding gasoline prices, which will soon hit $4 per gallon.
This is reason No. 10: Take second job -- have paycheck deposited directly with oil companies.
You'll have to click here to get the other nine suggestions.
A state appellate court has ruled that parents without teaching credentials cannot legally home-school their own children, according to a story filed today by the Associated Press.
What do you think about that? Is this too much government intrusion or appropriate child protection?
About 166,000 students are home-schooled in California and I would be willing to bet that darn few are taught solely by credentialed parents. The AP says that until now, California had several loopholes that allowed uncredentialed parents to teach their children. The parents, for example, could file paperwork to establish themselves as small, private schools; hire a creditialed tutor or enroll their child in an independent study program run by an established school while teaching the child at home.
Read the whole story by clicking here.
These arrangements are supposed to receive oversight from local school districts, but there is precious little of that going on.
In the best cases, children can thrive with such individual attention, and under the worst cases, the children can be neglected and even abused..
Oil is at $105 a barrel, and gas is headed for $4 a gallon and beyond. In that bleak setting it's good to see that public transit pencils out for Californians. CALPIRG has released a new study that says public transit saves Californians $1.2 billion in gasoline costs each year.
With each price hike at the pump, public transit makes more and more sense. It isn't entirely about saving money and reducing dependence on imported oil. It's also about air quality and other environmental concerns, and reducing our output of greenhouse gases.
The report also found that every dollar invested in public transit reaps more than two dollars in benefits. That's another reason why it's important for the governor and the Legislature to stop raiding public transit funding to pay for other needs, as they did last year to the tune of $1.26 billion.
It also provides another argument for passing the $9.9 billion high-speed rail bond on the November ballot.
Public transit is the future of transportation in California and the United States. The rest of the world already knows this. It's time we started catching up.
 Each year, fellow columnist Bill McEwen and I have a friendly competition to see who can sell the most Kids Day papers. We're both very competitive guys and that generates extra sales, as we hustle to out-sell each other. The real winners of this competition are the children at Children’s Hospital Central California.
The professional advertising folks are still analyzing the Super Bowl ads in their trade press, Advertising Age magazine. My favorite ad stars our very own state, our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, and assorted luminaries like Rob Lowe, Vanessa Williams and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. It's being used to recruit people to come to California to work. It's called "Work" by the agency MeringCarson. See the final version by clicking here, but if you click here, and go to the video, you can see a rough cut with lots of funny outtakes.
Guess which Super Bowl ad was most liked? Clue: It's not about the beer. Click here.
I wonder what Thorstein Veblen would make of all the doings at Fresno State in recent years. It probably wouldn’t surprise him.
The Wisconsin-born economist accurately described what American colleges would look like if they abandoned the classical liberal education model and turned to the business world for organizational and philosophical underpinnings. His book, “The Higher Learning in America,” published in 1918, was remarkably prescient, and useful today in understanding how American universities work - or don’t work.
Veblen believed that using the business model would turn academic institutions into mere vocational or trade schools, a process that has largely been completed at the undergraduate level.
And he didn’t have much use for intercollegiate sports. “It has been said, not inaptly, that the relation of football to physical culture is much the same as that of the bullfight to agriculture,” he said in “The Higher Learning.”
He didn’t have much to say about women’s sports, of course, since there were none in his day. But I can’t imagine he’d be anything but jaundiced at the street theater being played out in courtrooms involving Fresno State and various women coaches.
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