I don’t know whether this is happening to others, but, I am being hit by numerous calls about being in arrears on student loans. I am 74 years old. I was last a student in January of 1964. If I am in default on a student loan, I’m really in arrears. 

I do not answer these calls. Most are machines leaving messages, wanting me to originate a call to them (clue No. 1).

I have chased some of the numbers on the Web. Reverse look-up gets nothing (clue No.2).

I have found blogs where people are complaining about these calls. Some have called back. The entity on the other end of the line claims a student loan is charged to the caller. The caller says that is not true. The person then asks for full name and Social Security number (clue No. 3). The caller usually hangs up. 

The modern term for this is phishing, trying to illicitly obtain information necessary to defraud you.

Key Words: Student Assistance Corp., SAC, and Sallie Mae. 

Key Numbers: 800-562-2525, 317-594-1043, 765-283-3498

Bob Christiansen,
Madera

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All comments are edited for length and content. Because of content or space limitations, some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published.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 woman suggested “the Tribune take a picture of the lighted Christmas tree on a tower at Rotan and West Fifth streets.”

Several calls were received responding to last week’s caller who didn’t like First Lady Michelle Obama’s dress during a dinner for the Indian prime minister.

Yet another woman “was appalled at the woman who was appalled at Mrs. Obama’s dress. Since when does it matter what the president’s first lady wears?”

A caller said, “Kudos to the (Marin County) person for not accepting the job (as county auditor) for Madera County.”

A “Madera citizen” wanted to comment on “one of your staff writers, Mr. Emo, on his column. He is very well spoken, says what he believes, and does a good job. He helps people know what is going on in the city of Madera. God bless you, Mr. Emo, for all the good you do.”

A lady commented on another staff writer. “Tami Jo Nix and her Gravy columns are wonderful. I think you should alternate Mrs. Nix and Mr. Emo with Nix on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and Emo on his usual Wednesday and Friday. Just add Emo on Monday and you would have a terrific column every day.”

An Internet visitor, self-identified as “Improvement Needed,” writes, “More people probably would shop locally if Madera had a larger variety of stores and restaurants, among other things, instead of an excess of a few types of stores, restaurants and so on. The lack of variety is why many Maderans head elsewhere for much of their shopping…

“Also, since the city has its ‘great’ 2025 plan all set, when will it push for shopping and more in other areas where it’s much needed? Instead of focusing on a Riverpark-type development at the fairgrounds and much development in mainly that area, the city should be planning better, such as the few downtown improvement projects already scheduled to be done. Focus more on downtown and other areas where shopping, parks and entertainment is needed. Don’t become a failure like other cities.”

A “native Maderan … remembers back when (at) the government center, the old Lincoln Grammar School, there was always a Christmas tree lit up at Christmas time. It really looked nice.”

After driving his family around town in the evening, he said, “there’s nothing lit down Yosemite Avenue that reflects Christmas except the stores that have decorations in their windows. Are Madera city and Madera County afraid to put up anything that reflects a merry Christmas?”

An online reader, self-identified as “Concerned Citizen,” writes, “The county and city (governments) are hurting financially and looking for ways to cut back. Both have way too many cars or trucks and are way too lenient with their use. Every day, I see both city and county employees in work vehicles using them to go to lunch or run errands. County bailiffs at the courthouse are the worst offenders.

“Why are they allowed to do such? It may not seem like much money, but gas and upkeep are expensive and every little bit counts. Let them use their own vehicles or feet to go to lunch, stop doing it at our expense!”

“I hope The Madera Tribune never goes the route of (another newspaper,” said a man. He called that newspaper on Sunday morning “to let them know that my paper hadn’t arrived yet. When I finally got a hold of somebody, they talked with a foreign accent. But before that I was told if I wanted to hear this in English, press one, which is wrong. Then, lo and behold, I asked this person, who I couldn’t understand, where she was located and she said she is in the Philippines.

“We’re hurting for jobs in this country. Why can’t they hire local people instead of outsourcing it to the Philippines? That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Both the English thing, and where they answer the phone.”

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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting www.maderatribuneredline.com.

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Music Video: “Gabriel’s Message” by Sting

Native American tribes face many obstacles in overcoming centuries of poverty, political disenfranchisement, and loss of traditional lands.

But perhaps the most unfair barrier we face comes from wealthy gaming tribes using their political and financial powers to crush the economic aspirations of tribes such as ours in order to protect their own narrow economic interests.

Why are some wealthy tribes doing this? They don’t want competition.

Recent attacks and back-handed tactics by the Chukchansi Economic Development Authority against the proposed North Fork Rancheria destination hotel and casino resort continue this trend. These inaccurate attacks jeopardize desperately needed local jobs, business opportunity, and community investment, and perpetuate misinformation about tribes and tribal projects.

Chukchansi ads and direct mailers have twisted the history of the North Fork project beyond recognition.
For instance, Chukchansi claims that our developer bought land in Madera and then “recruited” our tribe. In fact, our Tribe selected our developer — not the other way around — and then authorized them to secure an option for our proposed site.

Chukchansi would have you think we’re ignoring an opportunity to build a casino on our own land or elsewhere in North Fork. This ignores the fact that our reservation is small, remote and owned by individuals and not by our tribe. The governor, the county, and the local community all agree that the tiny town of North Fork is not suited for commercial development of a casino and we therefore cannot acquire new land for gaming there.

Chukchansi also claims that our tribe is somehow skirting the law. We aren’t. Instead, we are following the precise process that Congress established in 1988 to provide tribes without a land base, such as North Fork, the same opportunity to engage in tribal governmental gaming that Chukchansi was afforded. This process is the only way left to us to develop economically so that we, like Chukchansi, can take care of our members and community at large.

Chukchansi’s claim that allowing our project to proceed will open the floodgates to off-reservation gaming does not square with the facts. Over the past two decades, only four of the roughly 325 tribes who operate casinos nationwide have qualified under the same process that we are following. Ours is only one of two such projects pending nationwide where the governor has allowed the project to move forward by entering into a compact with the Tribe.

As we near final approval, you will hear other attacks by Chukchansi, who is desperate to maintain its economic advantage at any cost. Such tactics undermine the economic prospects our tribe, Madera County and consumers who fare better with more competition. They also tend to drown out more legitimate issues that may exist.

For these reasons, we’re confident that the people of Madera County will understand the source and motive behind such self-serving attacks and continue their unprecedented support of our project.

The North Fork tribe has been and will remain good neighbors and citizens of Madera County. Our project is a result of careful planning with the local community, the county, and the state, and will result in a project that will benefit us all without serious harm to Chukchansi or any other tribe’s economic interest. If you look at the facts and beyond the distortions, we think you will agree with us.

Elaine Bethel-Fink,
tribal chair person of North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians

By Glenna Jarvis
For The Madera Tribune

John Doe has a mental disorder. Medications help, but he can’t afford insurance and the cost of medication is too high. He turns toward self-medication: alcohol and methamphetamine. His dependence on the street drug increases and he has no way to support this habit. Eventually he turns toward selling drugs, robbery and burglary.

He turns his neighbors into victims of crime.

Arrested, tried and convicted he spends the next 10 years incarcerated in a state prison where he’s given the medication he needs and the time allows him to cleanse himself of the drug and alcohol addictions. He’s feeling better; his quality of life — regardless of incarceration — has improved. John sees all the possibilities life offers because his mental disorder is under control.

At the end of his 10-year sentence, he’s given the name of his parole agent, $200 and a bus ticket. Maybe he gets enough medication to keep his mental affliction controlled for two weeks. He has no home, no job, and no means of transportation. He moves in with a brother, but the brother’s wife isn’t happy about the arrangement and making room for John has displaced some of their children.

He runs out of medication. Just like before his conviction, the world closes in on him. Depression compounds the mental disorder and soon he’s looking for means to self medicate. The vicious cycle starts over until he’s committed another crime and created another victim.

This is one face of recidivism. In California, more than 70 percent of those who commit crimes reoffend and end up back in the state prison system.

Take the same scenario, only relocate John to a re-entry facility for the last year of his sentence. The facility is in the county he lived in prior to incarceration. Staff helps him reconnect with friends and family. Behavioral health services are available to him. He even learns some skills. When released, he’s moved to a home where he can live while he finds a job. He’s not alone. He has a chance to turn his life around and maybe avoid victimizing someone else in his community.

“It’s called continuity of care,” said Doug Papagni, chief of corrections at Madera County Jail. The process now used in the prison system — cutting off services cold once an inmate is released — has proven not to work, he said. “If we don’t do something, crime and recidivism will continue to get worse.”

During his 38-year career in corrections, Papagni has watched the current parole system fail. Closure of the state mental health facilities has shifted the burden of caring for mentally ill patients on the criminal justice and prison systems. Currently a high percentage of inmates held in Madera County jail are receiving treatment and psychotropic medications for their mental health problems.

Federal courts have ordered the governor to decrease the state’s prison population. In order to comply, 40,000 inmates must be released. By law, Papagni said, these prisoners will go back into the communities from which they came.

Over the next 18 to 24 months, Madera County will see 150 to 175 of these prisoners return through this early-release program. It’s only prudent, he added, to find ways to deal with these inmates once they come back to the county.

“We have to take steps today,” Papagni said. That step, while not a “quick fix,” is a re-entry facility that would provide the services and training necessary for an inmate to transition from prison to the community and to not quickly reoffend. Studies show that the first days and weeks after release are the most dangerous for the parolee and the community.

Criteria tied to inmates that would make them eligible for the re-entry program include
12 months remaining on their sentence, medium to high risk to recidivate, no serious in-custody rules violations and inmates with serious mental or medical cases would not be accepted.

“Because of the federal lawsuit, (these inmates are) coming back quicker,” Papagni said. “And they’re coming back unprepared. How are we going to deal with that? Be proactive, provide the beds and ensure they serve their entire sentence? Or are we going to fold our arms — no, we don’t want them? Either way they’re going to end up in our neighborhoods; (The re-entry facility) is the responsible thing to do for our community.”

He said this is the first time anyone has come up with a way to try to train inmates at the local level, “reconnect them with local services — all the things they need to be successful. And they’re putting money behind it.”

When Assembly Bill 900 was signed into law in May 2007, Papagni was ready to go after funds to expand the existing jail. Those funds — $30 million — are tied to the regional re-entry facility the state proposes to build in Madera County — a $170 million project.

AB 900 encourages using a site adjacent to an existing county jail and other services such as behavioral health, education services and local parole offices. The proposed Madera County site is situated near all of these facilities and services.

While it’s called a “re-entry facility,” Papagni said, “Let’s not try to fool anyone. It’s a prison. The inmates will not live outside those walls.”

Security, he added, will be every bit as tight as in a larger, state facility.

The building will be designed to blend in with the community and not look like a prison: No towers or lights. The building’s walls will create the secure perimeter so no new fence will be necessary.

“All services will be brought to them,” he said. “All programs will be conducted within the walls of that prison.”

One concern Papagni has heard expressed is the safety of nearby neighborhoods.

The area around the jail, which houses 400 inmates, is probably “one of the safest places to be,” he said. “Police presence in this neighborhood is very high. The jail is staffed 24-seven; patrol cars come and go day and night. There is a greater law enforcement presence here, in this neighborhood, than others.”

Another concern is that families would relocate to Madera if their loved ones are in the reentry facility. Papagni said the facility would house Madera County residents first, and be “backfilled” with inmates originating from Fresno County. Fears that family members would relocate in order to be closer to the inmate won’t come into play because Fresno is close by.

Programs include intensive substance abuse treatment, vocation training and job placement, education and GED course work, anger management classes, family counseling, housing placement and other services to help ease the transition from incarceration to a crime-free life.

“We have to remember; when people commit crimes they create victims,” Papagni said. “We need to take the proactive steps to protect the residents of Madera County.”

Several community outreach meetings are currently being planned for early 2010.
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Glenna Jarvis is legislative assistant to County Supervisor Vern Moss.

I wonder what makes these white females go after Tiger Woods, or vice versa. He is not handsome, he is not even good looking. He has a baby face.

These females, each one in her own right, is a tigress; they all have to mate in their lives. Some may be players and take what they can.

In the last two decades, I have noticed more white females getting involved with males of the opposite race, but not as many white males with females of the opposite race. I think we are looking at a trend.

Joe L. Urena,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

’Tis the season to be cheated, unfortunately. A longtime Madera couple told me a story Monday that is all too familiar.

It all started with a phone call. The wife answered the phone, and the caller turned out to be a man with an accent and talking on a not-very-good connection who claimed he was from Jamaica. He told her that her husband had won $250,000, although he was a little vague about why.

“He was very hard to understand,” she said. “I told him I didn’t care for his accent and that he was talking on a very bad telephone because I couldn’t hear him all that well.”

The caller then asked to speak to her husband, who happened to be out.

The next time the “Jamaican” called, he was very insistent. He said that in order for her husband to claim the $250,000, he would have to follow instructions carefully. These instructions included going to Walmart, filling out a cash transmittal form and handing over $105, apparently to cover handling charges. Once her husband had done this, the money would be turned over to him.

She also cautioned the wife to tell the husband not to tell the folks at Walmart why they wanted this particular transaction. “If they find out, they will charge you more,” the caller said.

This couple aren’t fools, and they were mad. They weren’t going to fall for the scam themselves, and they wanted to help keep others from falling for it.

They got on the phone to the sheriff’s office, where they learned there wasn’t much the sheriff could do.

The husband even said he was thinking of going to Walmart with $105, filling out the form and then trying to entrap the scammers. But you can’t entrap somebody who’s in a foreign country unless you’re willing to go there and confront them.

Good-hearted folks like these get angry even at an attempted scam, and they warn others not to be taken in.

The majority of the Madera Unified School Board voted to approve an employment packet for School Superintendent John Stafford that amounts to an 8.62 percent raise. This is the same school board that has repeatedly stated in school board meetings that these are hard economic times and their actions have to be fiscally conservative.

They continue to direct the Madera district leadership to send out the message that the financial cupboards are bare and there are no monies for enhancing education for the students.

They approve policy that will cut pay for other district employees, or worse yet, lay them off. This School Board insists cuts need to be made to programs like student sports or music. They want teachers and site principals to improve students’ test scores with fewer supplies for learning.

Everyone is expected to do more with less except the school superintendent. He gets an 8.62 percent raise retroactive to July 1.

In November of next year is a school board election with the new election districts. This is the opportunity for people of these communities to elect fiscally responsible school board members.

Babette Jaire, president,
Madera Unified Teachers Association

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The Democrats are desperate to vote the health care bill before the end of the year, and their reasoning doesn’t seem very healthy to me. Basically, they know 2010 will be an election year, and that if they wait much longer to adopt the legislation, some representatives or senators might get cold feet and change their minds about voting for it.

In other words, the hurry has very little to do with health care, but much to do with politics.

The House and the Senate have let the legislation get out of hand. They have lost sight of why health care changes are being sought in the first place. Here are some of the reasons:

– Americans pay far more for health care than the citizens of other nations pay — at least 50 percent more than the next highest industrialized nation. We already have the most expensive health care system in the world.

– Millions of Americans fall outside the health care payment system. They either are ineligible for insurance, or they can’t afford it. When these people are treated and they don’t pay, “someone else” pays for them, usually the taxpayers.

– The health care insurance business and its regulators have done an inadequate job, on the whole, of providing options for the uninsured. They continue to lean on employers to be the providers of health care through employer-paid insurance plans, the cost of which rises faster than almost any other business expense. Policies often aren’t portable.

Unfortunately, the health care bills now in the House and Senate do little to address these problems. They actually would raise costs, take away benefits that some people already have and create an entire new industry of people specializing in figuring out what the legislation says.
Let’s hope those people in Washington come to their senses.

Are these governmental cutbacks going to affect everyone, i.e., supervisors, council members, school officials? I would like to see reductions at their level: compensation, travel and perks. As a matter of fact, I would like to see no travel, no meals, no vehicles, no cell phones, no mileage, etc.

These “top heavies,” especially at the Unified Schools, need a real shaving. There isn’t a thing “new” that they have to go out of town for. Spend some time right here and look around.

If we have departments that are not needed, zap. If we have marginal personnel, zap. Smoke breaks, zap. Potlucks, zap. If ya ain’t workin,’ adios.

Ask: Am I an asset or a liability?

Bill Hoffrage,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

One of the latest crazes back east is gymnasiums for toddlers. Parents who overfeed their kids wind up taking them to the gym, where babysitters from heck work the little tykes into sweats. Once the baby fat is peeled off, the parents can take them home and pack it on again.

That is not so different from when I was a kid. But instead of taking the kids to a gym, moms and dads would send their kids outside to play, or to do chores. I enjoyed playing more than I did doing chores. Chores involved everything from raking leaves to mowing the lawn, from picking up the yard to sweeping the driveway. Bigger children even had to take the full garbage cans to the curb and take them back behind the house again when they were empty.

I had a red wagon, and I would put the garbage can on it, pull it down the driveway, take the can off and put it at the curb.

The garbage men would come by later in the day, and one of them would hop out of the truck, grab the can and empty it into the loading bucket on the back of the vehicle. Then the truck would go on to the next house.

“If you don’t do well in school,” Mom would say, “you will wind up like that garbage man.”

Those always were frightening words to me, because even though I got to use my wagon, and only had to lift one can a week, I didn’t care much for hauling garbage.

It and the other chores I did helped keep the fat off, though.

I found out much later that those garbage men were some of the highest-paid people in town. Not only did they make good wages, they got to keep anything they could find in the garbage that they wanted. And, they got to shoot rats at the dump. And they didn’t have to study all that much.

See what those gym babies are missing out on?