You have probably heard the recent ads by the state of Nevada, trashing California’s legislators and their economic malfeasance in an orchestrated campaign to lure businesses and productive citizens to their Nevada tax base? California is being “bushwhacked,” and is too full of itself to even suspect its own protracted demise. Nevada and other states smell our weakness and are moving in to pillage.
Madera County is being likewise “bushwhacked.” Take a look at the grand new (huge) billboard on the west side of Highway 41 between Avenue 12 and Avenue 15 next to Mrs. Peck’s new fruit stand building.
You know, the side of the road with all the pre-planned slum tin buildings, chain link fences and no landscape? The fruit stand and the billboard even share the same color scheme (coincidence?).
It boldly says, “Discover Mariposa County, the home of Yosemite.”
Those who think that it will be business as usual in Madera County without the existence and support of the Yosemite Sierra Bureau and its coalition organizations are ripe for the plucking. The smell of weakness.
We all have a stake in this. If you also have an opinion, please share it with your county supervisor, now.
Ray and Tammy Krause,
Westbrook Wine Farm,
O’Neals
We are being told that President Obama’s new national medical insurance plan will cost billions more than we’re already paying for health care, but I have to ask why. The immediate answer would be that the extra billions would be the cost of providing insurance to the presently uninsured, but that doesn’t seem quite right.
Some statistics from Madera Community Hospital indicate that we’re already paying to provide medical care to the uninsured.
Here are the figures, and they are astonishing. Our little hospital pays the following to provide care to the uninsured:
Traditional charity care, $2.9 million; unpaid cost of Medicare treatment, $4.3 million; unpaid cost of Medicaid treatment, $6.1 million; other public programs, $1.7 million. That’s a total of $15 million.
Now, where does that money come from? From the hospital’s bottom line, of course, which means that the money that people who pay cash, or whose insurance companies pay, are subsidizing patients who don’t pay, for whatever reason.
The United States already has the most expensive health care of any country. And it covers virtually everybody through this screwy transfer of payments from those who pay to those who don’t pay.
So, as a citizen, and a taxpayer and a customer of three medical insurance companies, if I know nothing else, I know this: We don’t need to pay any more, because we’re already paying it.
Now, it’s true that not all are eligible for free, upper-tier care under the present system. But should they be?
It’s true that a lot of medical providers often get stiffed under the present system.
It’s true that too much money under the present system goes to people who have little or nothing to do with medical care.
The Obama plan seems to be silent on these issues.
The Madera Unified Teachers Association is very aware of the unjust focus being placed on our sister union, California School Employees’ Association (CSEA). What is being asked is that their bargaining unit members take an almost 15 percent pay cut (from 10 furlough days) as well as losing 80 jobs. This is unjust.
The Madera Unified Teachers Association has had imposed upon it larger class sizes, increased work loads, and as an act of good will, has given two institute days (days used to prepare for the school) so as not to impact the instruction given during the school year. We also have lost 40 plus teachers this year.
What the district is imposing upon CSEA will impact the students in ways unheard of before. By removing CSEA members from the workforce, they are in essence telling parents and children that it is okay that their children are in a dirty room; that they can wait longer in lunch lines; that they can get up earlier and wait for fewer buses and that their campus is unkempt. These are not acceptable measures.
These are things that impact children directly.
The Madera Unified Teachers Association is opposed to these measures and find that there are plenty of other places that do not affect our students, where monies can be found. As CSEA points out, there are 44 management level jobs in Madera Unified School District. No cuts have been made in any of these positions, and they compromise a $4.5 million dollar portion from the budget.
The Madera Unified Teachers Association stands with its sister union, CSEA, and we say, enough is enough. They, CSEA, went into negotiations last year in good faith, to help save jobs and reduce costs. Today they stand ready to help, but are being dictated to, and all good-faith bargaining on the part of the Madera Unified School District is gone.
All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published. Please limit calls to two minutes or less.
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A man opened with “Hey, Chuck I read your editorial here in the Monday, Aug. 10, newspaper about the doctors not happy with Obamacare because of the paperwork. That’s not why they’re unhappy,” the caller insisted. They’re unhappy because they won’t be able to get away with all those excessive charges they been doing through the years. They’ve been sending people to specialists for things that don’t have to be done for years. It’s a real scam.”
A lady “read in the newspaper that Madera is going to have to dip into the county till again for money to pay for services. I think they’ve been doing that all the time because they sure don’t do anything out in the county where I live. It’s kind of sad.”
A woman called about “the article written by Sandy Stewart on Aug. 5.” She wanted to “let the people of Madera to know they need to distinguish the difference between a true Christian and a hypocrite. No. 1, the people who were at Michael Jackson’s funeral were praising him for being the King of Pop, not the king of the people.” The caller also “wanted to make a comment on this woman.” After making several libelous accusations she “dared the paper to print this.” The same lady called again to praise Michael Jackson and his contributions.
A woman answered the Red Line caller who asked the location of the Ancient Farmer Restaurant. “If I remember correctly it was located in the parking lot between the credit union and Round Table Pizza on Howard Road.”
Another lady just called “to say there’s a wonderful event that has been going on all summer and it’s free family fun. It’s every Friday night at the Walgreen’s at the fairgrounds. It is the Madera Classic Car Show. It’s free, come on out. It’s neat family fun and clean.”
Concerning “the topic (headline) of the week on the Red Line,” a man “just asked that you would do away with this and let the Red Line just flow like it does, Leon’s legs and all. To kind of direct people toward topics is kind of self-serving.”
“I’m definitely for insurance for everybody,” began a lady. “But I’m against these ridiculous lawsuits against the medical insurance companies.”
“My wife and I moved to Madera a few years ago and I have to say we really enjoy your paper,” said a gentleman. He mentioned “in last Friday’s (Aug. 14) paper alone there were items about driving safe when the kids go back to school, events at Town & Country Park, a senior citizen burglar, Woodstock, and a quote from a Roman philosopher. And that was just (Leon) Emo’s wonderful column. All of you really do a good job.”
A woman who “read the Aug. 11 paper (Red Line) about the Madera Irrigation District office,” said, “I’ve been there several times and they are so helpful. There is no one rude there. They never close for lunch and they rotate everyone. It is strange there are two complaints in one day. They are great people in that office and I go there often.”
A man who said, “I’m an old codger, and I couldn’t let those disparaging remarks about Dial-A-Ride go without my more positive comment.” The man said recently he had some health issues including heart problems and an operation, and “I can’t drive anymore. I called up Dial-A-Ride. They showed up promptly, took me speedily to the hospital to visit my invalid wife, and when I came out they were waiting. They are perfect, kind, courteous and their service was excellent.”
A woman identified herself and left her phone number then had this to say. “In December 2008 I requested an assessment change on a piece of property. I didn’t know you had deadlines to meet.” They (the county) returned the request saying the caller had missed the deadline. The caller went onto describe a strange scenario in which the county said they received the application the same day it was mailed. The caller found that “totally impossible.” She then said, “it cost them labor to mail them back plus 53 cents in postage each time.” She asked, “why couldn’t they have held it for two days and then process it. They are wasting taxpayer’s money by doing this.”
A lady said, “the Red Line is too negative, but I’ve got something good to say.” She said her “son went swimming almost every day at the community pool next to the Youth Center. He had a great time, and when I went with him I noticed the lifeguards were very good. There were hundreds at the pool and it must have been very hard, but they kept everything under control.”
A man who said he moved from Southern California four years ago “agreed with the woman last week on how dirty the city of Madera is. I find it extremely trashy. In the northwest neighborhood I live in, there is trash thrown out, there is constant littering and the graffiti is out of control as well.”
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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting madera tribuneredline.com.
Madera County’s Board of Supervisors will meet next week to study budget recommendations from Chief Administrative Officer Stell Manfredi, who has warned of severe cuts in county programs. Manfredi probably wishes it were otherwise. This will be his last budget as CAO, one meant to see the county through what he says is the worst financial situation for the county he has seen in 40 years.
The problems are caused by the state, which has much bigger problems. The legislators decided to balance the budget in Sacramento by grabbing money from local governmental entities, such as counties, cities and redevelopment agencies.
On top of that, because of the recession, valuations of local properties have gone down, and as a result, cash flow from property taxes is likely to be less.
And yet, for all that worrisome news, Madera County is in better shape than most in the state. Manfredi and the supervisors have managed the county conservatively, and as a result the budget shocks are likely to be less terrible than those being experienced in such places as Fresno County, where the effects of the state budget crunch are larger.
For example, part of the Fresno County jail will have to be closed, while that is unlikely here, at least so far.
Social services will be hit hard in the new budget, but that is out of local hands. The state’s decision to balance its budget by reducing funding for social services is not one that can be reversed by local action.
And so it goes with every cut that will have to be made.
But Madera County is a long way away from the problems that plague other municipalities, especially the City of Vallejo, which went bankrupt in May, largely due to the city’s outrageous spending.
Madera County has never been that kind of municipality, and because of that the effects of this downturn, while painful, will heal.
It turns out a lot of scientists believe parallel universes exist, and I’m starting to see their point of view, especially when it comes to our cat..
They say they think it might be possible to go from this universe to one parallel to this one by going through a “worm hole,” which looks like one of those things that you put on your fingers and they get tighter as you pull your fingers apart.
The parallel universe believers say that one day, when we wear this universe out, we can go to another. It won’t be quite as easy as getting a new pair of shoes, but if this universe decides to blow up or contract into a little piece of matter the size of a BB and the weight of our cat, the parallel universe might be a good place to go.
Sometimes, I think the cat is from a parallel universe. She leads a good life in this one — plenty to eat, a comfortable place to sleep (in the garage, on the hood of my car), and Mrs. Doud took her in not long ago for a bath and a haircut. I was going to give her a bath and a haircut myself, but Mrs. Doud said she thought if I tried it, I would come out looking like a scratching post, and the cat would be dirtier and hairier than ever.
So, the cat was taken to the cat beauty shop, and came back looking like a new cat — one with a pot gut.
She has put on so much weight that when I was sitting in a patio chair last week, and she jumped up on my lap, the chair almost went over backward.
Obviously, she is getting plenty to eat. But she still thinks she’s hungry, and keeps whining for food. I think in the parallel universe from which she hails, the more you eat, the hungrier you get. If I could find the worm hole, I’d send her back through.
Madera Unified Teachers Association has been informed of the bargaining that is being imposed on its sister union, CSEA. They have been offered 10 furlough days and the loss of 80 jobs in their unit. This belated proposal came after CSEA was promised in good faith that no more jobs would be lost if they gave up five furlough days.
This will have a huge impact on the community of Madera due to the fact that many CSEA members live in Madera. These are citizens that pay property taxes, purchase their daily needs in Madera, and send their children to our schools.
If the district forces this proposal, our students may attend schools that are cleaned less, there may be less transportation for the school children, lunches may take longer to serve, schools repairs may take longer, all due to these layoffs.
CSEA has brought to light the fact that there are 44 management level jobs in MUSD (costing over $4.5 million), and they have not been considered for layoffs. Both CSEA and MUTA had recommended not filling the associate superintendent vacancy, created with the retirement of Kathy Lopes, and instead to spread those duties among remaining district office administrators. We were ignored.
Madera Unified Teachers Association stands with out sister union, CSEA.
Babette Jaire,
Madera Unified Teachers
Association president
I saw an interview over the weekend with the author of “Instant Billionaire,” the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the developer of Facebook, and one theme that ran through the interview was author Ben Mezrich’s assertion that Facebook probably will dominate social networking sites for many years to come.
I also recently talked to a fellow in his 40s who said that his first encounter with Facebook a few months ago “was a life-changing experience. Facebook is everything.”
And I have talked to a lot of other people who think Facebook is the best thing since round wheels.
So, one day I decided to sign on to Facebook, and I have to tell you, I have never been so confused by anything in my life. I doubt that I’ll return to Facebook anytime soon until somebody can come by and give me lessons on how to work it.
Meanwhile, I will tell you this, there’s no danger in my becoming addicted to it. However, that is not true with a lot of people, apparently.
For example, the fellow who said he found Facebook to be life-changing said he finds it easy to spend four or five hours a day on Facebook whenever he has the time.
Facebook is the new MySpace, apparently. MySpace beat Facebook into the market by a couple of years, and was well established by the time Facebook started growing.
Between the two of them, they apparently have created a lot of addicts — people who have a dysfunctional dependence on those computerized existences. These are people who become nervous, upset, unhappy and even physically ill if they have to go too long without logging on and seeing what their virtual friends on these Web sites are doing.
The same thing is true of Twitter addicts. If they aren’t tweeting all the time, they think something is wrong and break into a sweat.
Something else will come along, though, and people will become addicted to that. It’s a funny world that way, isn’t it?
LETTER: Facebook column was right on the mark (Aug. 15)
My wife and I agree with you. Facebook is something we do not understand. We had family members ask us to post on Facebook. We did and after we did, we thought, why not just give the person you wish to communicate with a phone call. If not that, why not an e-mail?
Your editorial about Facebook was right on the mark.
James and Linda Haze,
Madera
After working for 30-plus years on San Joaquin Valley water resource issues I’ve learned knowing the facts and having a broader understanding of what is occurring are extremely important. Unfortunately not everyone does that. One recent example was an Aug. 12 letter demonstrating the writer’s short memory and lack of knowledge regarding local water districts and water project operations leading them to the a conclusion that our Valley’s water shortage is a lie.
The letter states Hensley Lake has more water now than at any time in the last 12 years. Hardly. Storage at Hensley today is 18,800 acre feet. That contrasts with comparable dates and storage as follows: 2006; 63,000AF, 2005; 57,000AF, 2000; 29,000AF, 1999; 26,000AF, 1998; 58,000AF and 1997; 19,000AF. Storage was lower than today only in 2007, 2008 and 2001-2003. That’s only 5 of the last 12 years all of which actually demonstrates normal year to year to variation in precipitation and irrigation patterns and integrated water project operations.
The writer then expressed disbelief water was “pouring over the top” of Friant Dam with more water in the San Joaquin River than usual. Fact is that Millerton topped out on July 9, about 45 days later than normal, only because of policy decisions made last winter by Bureau of Reclamation officials in Sacramento. It was in fact not until April 23 that those Regional USBR officials allowed USBR Fresno staff to operate Friant Dam their way that some semblance of normal Friant operations and allocations began. Even then the yo-yo precipitation and erratic spring snow melt patterns generated unpredictable inflows to Millerton and an unprecedented 17 allocation changes, both up and down, within the CVP Friant Unit.
Thankfully, though the allocations came unusually late, the end result has yielded a near average annual supply.
As to his assertion that San Joaquin River flows are higher than “normal,” that never happened. And the data is readily available on line in daily time steps for anyone to see.
Finally the writer cited full canals in the Tranquility area as another sign that there is no water shortage on our Valley’s west side, again showing a lack of knowledge. Much of the area in and around Tranquility and San Joaquin are served by agencies in which groundwater is pumped by district growers and the districts into canals for distribution throughout their service areas. So even if there’s minimal surface water supplies canals will usually be full through the irrigation season.
In addition some of these districts receive exchange contract water, the allocations to which weren’t cut this year. And the bottom line is that when both surface water and groundwater are integrated into a district’s overall supplies and delivery system it’s called efficient water management.
As to the writer’s rose-colored vision that our Valley’s water shortage is a lie, I suggest he try saying that to the faces of farmers and farm workers on our Valley’s west side.
Lance W. Johnson, P.E.,
general manager,
Madera Irrigation District
Some members of Congress are upset at other members of Congress who are on a jet-airplane buying spree. The Congress people who want to buy eight more Gulfstream and Boeing planes than they need are getting plenty of heat from senators and others. Even the Air Force, which runs the aircraft, says it doesn’t need all those planes. And the Air Force saying it doesn’t need planes is a bit like a rabbit saying it doesn’t need carrots.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of those who opposes the purchase, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying “The whole thing kind of makes me sick to my stomach.”
The people who want to buy the jets are scrambling to come up with reasons why the money should be appropriated.
I know how they feel. Every time I suggest to Mrs. Doud that we need a new jet airplane, she shoots me down.
“You don’t even like driving to Fresno,” she is wont to say. “What on earth would you need a jet plane for? And, you don’t know how to fly. Who would you get to fly it? If you want to fly somewhere, just buy a ticket.”
She’s right on all counts, of course, and Congress should heed her advice.
But it would be fun to have a nice Gulfstream parked in one of those big hangars at Madera Municipal Airport. I could take friends out there, and we could sit in the leather seats, drink diet soda pop and tell amusing stories to one another. If we all kicked in money, we might be able to afford gas and the cost of hiring a pilot for a little spin.
I would have to take out a huge loan to buy a Gulfstream, or a Boeing 737, but then so will Congress. I don’t think Congress has any more actual money than I do, but it likes to pretend it does. Perhaps it could just make do with pretend airplanes. Unfortunately, in my case, pretending doesn’t get me off the ground.
