A trial is under way in San Francisco that could result in an order to release as many as a third of California’s 156,000 prison inmates due to poor prison health care.
The prison health care system already is in receivership, with demands for $8 billion from the state’s General Fund to be spent now and on future prison health care facilities.
The prison system is designed to house about 100,000 inmates, but has 156,000 crammed in, with more going behind bars all the time.
The Legislature and the citizenry may have a big choice in the not too distant future as a result of these numbers: Either build more prisons and equip them with adequate health care facilities, or forget determinant sentencing and let crooks descend on local communities, where they will strain parole and probation systems, not to mention local jails, where many are likely to wind up.
The citizens and legislatures of many states, including California, made decisions in the 1980s and ’90s to get more criminals off the streets longer by mandating minimum sentences for certain types of crimes. Statistics showed that keeping criminals behind bars would lower crime rates, and that has proven true in many cases.
But the citizens forgot one thing: It is easy to say crooks should spend more time behind bars, but you have to have the prison space to make it happen.
That has been the problem from the get-go. Even though California has built many new prisons in the recent past, they haven’t been enough. We have 33 prisons now, but we need about 50, and building those extra 17 prisons will be a huge undertaking.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, it is said. It appears as though the state government is doing just that. The world’s economy is the most important problem and we can’t fix it as a whole, but we can help it locally. The state plan to cut water deliveries 15 percent, (not down 15 percent but down to 15 percent) of the amount requested annually.
This just shows me that the state is either uninformed or unconcerned about the economy and agribusiness, and how they interrelate to each other. They are the backbone of the state’s economy. Because of the lack of sufficient water for agribusiness the most variety and richest farmland in the state will have to go fallow and turn California into another 1930s Oklahoma dust bowl. Is that good for the economy or what?
This stems mostly from the environmentalists who want to save the Delta smelt. The way I see it if they don’t have solutions to go with their complaints they should shut up. You can’t hug a one-inch fish. Go hug a Polar Bear instead. Stopping the pumping is not a solution. As I remember my history, didn’t the Indians show the Pilgrims how to plant corn using a fish as a fertilizer in the holes where the corn was planted?
So, the pumps grind up a few little fish. Fish emulsion is a good fertilizer because it is high in nitrogen. I think that a more acceptable solution would be to invent a sonic device that would transmit a low frequency sound in the water that would ward the smelt away form the pump intakes. Not powerful enough to hurt them, but more of an irritation that would send them seeing refuge elsewhere.
The company that comes up with this type of device would help to bring up California’s economy. What a concept, farmers that would be allowed to farm. These crops not only feed the country but they also help clean the air as they absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Helps us go green. Fallow farmland does not produce food or taxable income for the economy. All that it creates is higher welfare rolls and unemployment. While the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers flow merrily into the San Francisco Bay. Useless to everyone.
The Delta smelt prefer the waters where the tidal salt waters and fresh waters mix. This mix does not occur in the south delta where most of the pumps are located. This court-ordered pumping restriction (what do they know?) is based on poor advice and ignorance. The court seems to forget who’s paying their bills.
Back in the middle days of the presidential campaign, after Barack Obama had been nominated as the Democrat standard-bearer, he held meetings with Sen. Hillary Clinton to curry her support for the rest of the campaign. Some of us wondered at the time what he promised to do for her if he became president.
Well, that question has been answered. He promised her at least a chance of being the U.S. secretary of state. She is still being vetted, or we should say her husband, former President Clinton, is being vetted, so the deal isn’t completely done. But there’s no question she is front runner.
The people at the State Department must be praying something will be found during this vetting to get her name off the table. Aside from the fact she ran for president and is a U.S. senator, she brings nothing to the job.
President Bush’s two secretaries of state were eminently qualified to lead the State Department and help the president conduct his foreign policy. Colin Powell had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and had broad experience in foreign affairs; Condoleeza Rice was national security advisor and before that was one of the most respected foreign-affairs scholars in the country.
If Obama had signalled that Clinton was a front-runner for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, nobody would have been surprised because those subjects are the ones nearest her heart and to which she would bring a portfolio of activism and understanding. But the State Department? She really would contribute more by staying in the Senate, where she reportedly is respected and does a good job representing the state of New York.
In response to your column on the stimulus check, Chuck, I’m glad you are waiting for that second stimulus check. My wife and I are still waiting for our first one.
She served our country during World War II, paid taxes all her life and reached the ripe age of 82. I served overseas (Central Pacific) in World War II, worked most of my life for this government, paid taxes like everyone else and reached 85 years.
We both were not eligible for a stimulus check.
I wonder how many others in their 80s received the same answer. Lucky you!
Scientists are thinking they might be able to clone a mammoth from a clump of mammoth hair that was found on one of the beasts frozen in Siberian permafrost, but I, for one, hope they hold off.
You probably recall that mammoths used to wander around where we are right now, here in Madera. Paleontologists are finding their bones up near Fairmead. I don’t think we want them wandering around here again.
As you know, mammoths were big like elephants, and you can imagine what a herd of them could do to your lawn or your flower beds. If they decided to come back to Fairmead to visit their ancestors, think of how they would tie up traffic if a herd of them decided to cross State Route 99 during rush hour.
Also, you can bet they would be declared an endangered species — having been extinct. The environmentalists wouldn’t want to take a chance on their going extinct again. We would have to let them roam through the vineyards and orchards, and on the golf courses, where the mammoths might not let you play through. Perhaps there would be such a thing as a “mammoth hazard,” in which hitting one with a ball could cost you a stroke, not to mention a lot of trouble if the mammoth took offense and decided to chase you.
Stray mammoths would have to be taken to the animal shelter, which would have to build a mighty big barn to accommodate them, and you can only imagine how much difficulty would be involved in spaying and neutering them before they were adopted out to well-meaning mammoth-rescue groups.
I have nothing against mammoths, but really, we have to think this thing through.
Like most readers of The Madera Tribune, we enjoy Bill Coate’s columns every Tuesday. In two articles concerning the Sordi family, one a couple of years back and one last Tuesday, Nov. 11, there was an inadvertent omission.
Dominic Sordi had two sons, John and the baby of the family, also named Dominic. Since he was the baby of the family he was always known as “Babe.”
Until his death last June, 35 days short of his 89th birthday, Babe was a resident of Madera County. He was married to his wife, Irene, for 71 years, and had two daughters, Margie and me, and three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
I understand this series of articles are to be included in a book so I wanted the record set straight.
I can understand why the American automobile manufacturers are trying to get their share of federal bailout money. The cash is right there, over that legislative fence, and if they just reach far enough … they can grab a handful.
To help their cause along, they are saying that if they don’t get $25 billion, they will all go bankrupt.
I find that a little hard to believe. Look around you when you drive to work this morning, or when you drive home tonight. The roads are filled with American-built cars. So far this year alone, the Big 3 have sold about $120 billion worth of cars and trucks in the U.S. And they have sold billions more abroad.
Of course, they would like to sell more. It bothers them that foreign makers are taking a lot of the U.S. market away, and you can’t blame them for feeling that way. And it must bother them a lot that what they have sold this year is less than what they sold last year.
But let’s look ahead a little.
Uncle Sam is pouring money into the banking system to get it to make more loans to consumers, some of whom are probably going to use the money they borrow to buy
cars.
A lot of the reason Big 3 sales are down is because we just went through a period of rising gasoline prices, but now gasoline can be bought in Madera for $1.94.99 a gallon. That will help some of the gasoline sticker shock to wear off, and as it wears off, people will be less inclined to make gas mileage their first concern, and will look toward the creature comforts such as ride and room that Detroit-built vehicles offer.
Plus, American pickups, which account for much of U.S. carmakers’ profits, still sell very well Detroit will be all right, with or without the $25 billion.
The election of Barack Obama has given African-Americans a sense of pride and belonging that we had never really felt. Yes, race relations have come a long way, but we know that it wasn’t just African-Americans who voted for Obama. It took a broad coalition of whites, Latinos, Asians and other ethnic groups that gave him this historic victory.
I’ve felt racism and prejudice my entire life. Racism is institutionalized here in America. That means racism is so entrenched in out national conscience that most people have no idea they’re prejudiced or have deep-seated racist views when it comes to dealing with blacks and other minority groups. Historically, since the end of slavery, blacks were viewed as violent, lazy, criminal and immoral. The civil rights movement in the late 1950s and ’60s went a long way to change those views by most forward thinking people. But by the ’80s, with the growth of gang activity, drugs and drug dealing, once again African-Americans were stereotyped as less than.
The election of Barack Obama came at just the right time, because none of it was ever true. We were judged by the actions of a few. An example would be that most people, seeing a young black man driving a nice car and wearing hip-hop clothing, assumed he was a drug dealer. On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh and his cohorts killed over 500 people in a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City. But, I doubt most of us are terrified when when we see a young, white man in his 20s driving a rented Ryder truck.
Now, that being said , here’s a message for all African-Americans, young and old: Obama has now taken away the biggest excuse we’ve used over the years. No more excuses. Yes, racism and prejudice still exist, but if this man can overcome all the obstacles and ascend to be the most powerful man in the world, we too can achieve the American dream. This means, young black men: get an education, get a job. No matter where you start, put your nose to the grindstone and make a better life for yourself in spite of these adversities.
It also means anyone can get a young woman pregnant, but a man gets married, has a job and takes care of his wife and his kids. One woman, not babies by two or three different women. It means taking the crap that you’re still going to have to take.
Young women, get education, get a life, get off welfare, take care of yourself, and don’t trust the first boy that says he “loves” you. This means having pride of who we are as a people. It means taking the adversity that is sure to come your way during your life and by handling it, it will make you a better and stronger person.
Now, having said all this, it’s not just African-Americans that need to get it together. When is the hate and violence from white people against minorities going to stop? A white woman was killed by eight members of the Klan when she went to a meeting and decided she wanted no part of them. They shot and killed her. An Ecuadorean young man who had been here legally for 15 years on a visa was beaten and stabbed to death by a group of white teens as they went “beaner jumping” in Long Island, N.Y. According to the FBI hate crimes are up 40 percent this year. When will this madness stop?
So, not only do I say to African-Americans, I say to the rest of us: No more excuses.
The latest news out of Wall Street is that Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, will be foregoing his multimillion-dollar bonus this year and will settle for the measly $600,000 a year that is his base salary. He probably is lying on the carpet of his office and kicking his feet.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs said Blankfein felt refusing the bonus was “the right thing to do.”
It appears other top executives at other Wall Street firms may follow of Blankfein, who last year took home $68.5 million in cash and stock, what The Wall Street Journal called “a record payday for the head of a publicly traded securities firm.”
Poor Blankfein. His compensation has dropped to less than one-tenth of what it was last year, but it still seems a fair amount of money.
I know if I were paid $600,000 a year, I would think I was living large. When I ponder what I would spend all that money on, year after year, the only thing I can come up with is putting it in the bank.
Mrs. Doud and I already have most of what we want, so we would have to make up things to spend it on.
I know some people who would go out and spend it on a new recreational vehicle, but Mrs. Doud and I aren’t RV people. When we go somewhere, we stay in motels, because we don’t want to drive an unmade bed and dirty dishes around behind us. I know a lot of people do like RVs, and that is fine, but they aren’t for us.
There was a time when I would have spent it all on a boat — aka a hole in the water into which you throw money — but that time is past. I’m a dry-lander now.
Anyway, if he watches his pennies, Mr. Blankfein should be all right.
This last Saturday started out to be like a lot of other Saturdays for me. I went for a walk towards the Granada bridge, leaving my home at 10 a.m. As I approached the bridge from the River Trail, I saw a man crossing the bridge with a medium-size dog running ahead. The dog was not on a leash and the man seemed to be calling to it.
Once I got on the bridge heading north, the dog ran past me in the northbound lane of Granada as a motorcyclist approached heading south. The rider slowed as he got near the dog and then accelerated once past. The dog crossed over to the other lane and after crossing the bridge, nosed around in the dirt shoulder on the west side of the roadway.
The man I had seen earlier was nowhere around. Not his dog, I thought to myself.
As I approached the end of the bridge, I crossed over towards the dog to see if it had any tags that might identify its owner. From a distance I could see that it did, but the dog was not trusting enough to let me approach. I continued on, thinking I would call animal control when I got back home, since I had left without my cell phone. As I continued on my way past the dog, it suddenly darted out into the roadway and began walking in a circle. As several vehicles approached from both directions I began flagging them down to slow them so the dog wouldn’t get hurt. Fortunately everyone stopped.
I began to call to it in an attempt to get it out of the roadway. The dog responded to my calls and began walking to me on the shoulder of the road. However, just as the dog got to the edge of the roadway, it stopped.
I talked to the dog as I reached over to grab its collar and nudge it out of harm’s way. The dog resisted a little but took a few steps with me. But just as we were almost off the roadway the dog lunged at me and grazed my arm as it thrashed about trying to get loose from my grip. Now we were back in the roadway, in front of the five or six cars that were still stopped.
As I wrestled with the dog to keep us both out of harm’s way, it managed to turn its head enough to latch onto my right wrist and push two teeth deep into the tissue. At that point I knew that the dog and I were in the fight for the long run, since I was not about to take the chance that the dog might get away, leaving me wondering whether I might have just been injected with rabies.
As I fought the dog and began to ooze blood from the wounds, the drivers who had stopped and watched simply drove off. It took a while to get the dog calm enough so I could focus on what had happened, assess my injuries and realize that I was now in trouble. I was standing on the side of the road working to control the dog and began yelling for help. As cars drove by I waved my arm and yelled that I needed help. An older couple in a silver Lincoln Town Car slowed but kept on going. Another man in a 4 x 4 also slowed but never stopped. Other drivers averted their eyes and continued on.
The dog kept moving and I had to stay one step ahead of it. I began to get desperate when I realized that on a bright Saturday morning at 10:15, everyone in town seemed to be too busy to consider assisting someone who was calling for help.
My frustration level began to climb and I began to realize that the only way I was going to get help was to stand in the middle of the road and force someone to stop. As I tried to move the dog, she refused to cooperate. At one point the dog maneuvered out of my grip due to the amount of blood that was congealing into my right hand and bit me a second time.
I continued to yell for help and finally a man driving north heard me and spun around to see what was wrong. I explained what was happening and he offered to call the dog’s owner using the number shown on the dog’s designer tag (the dog wasn’t wearing a city-issued tag). No one answered. I learned that this good Samaritan’s name was Steve, and thanked him several times for stopping to help.
During the time that he stayed with me, I learned that he was just as busy as anyone else who failed to stop, since he was scheduled to play golf with his son, whom he called to tell that he would be late. We finally reached animal control and the dog’s owner and both arrived 45 minutes after my ordeal began.
After filing a report, I went to the emergency room where I realized that I had three deep puncture wounds (I had only seen two holes after I was finally able to let the dog go, but the caked blood hid the 3rd one), one which was next to a major blood vessel.
Counting my blessings that I had not been injured more seriously and that the dog’s vaccinations were current, I told my wife that I could not believe that only one person felt compelled to stop when I began calling for help. Neither of us was raised that way and we taught our kids to help others in need.
To those of you who felt your needs, appointments, whatever, were so much more important than those of someone who was calling for help, I hope that if you find yourself in my position, you will eventually have someone like Steve respond. It only takes a minute to roll down a window, find out what is happening, place a call on your cell phone or go to a neighboring house to use the phone.
But I learned Saturday that for some of you, that’s too much to ask.
