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Archive By Section - Local Columns


LAFCo’s Subliminal message: SJ County is not business friendly

Is San Joaquin County business friendly? It's a good question given the 44-month and counting ordeal that South San Joaquin Irrigation District has been going through trying to secure the permission of a county agency - the Local Agency Formation Commission - to lower electrical rates 15 percent across the board for businesses, agriculture, local governments, churches, and residents. The one thing that has been forgotten in the epic battle being waged by LAFCo staff ...

April 25, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


King George III: Behind the smoke in New York City

I can't stand cigarette smoke. I've never lit up even as an act of curiosity. But there is one thing I definitely abhor more than cigarette smoking – gutting of free will by the government. It's an act that leads to a much more vicious and destructive death via cancer of the soul. New York City, an early benefactor of the don't-tread-on-me-movement that tore the colonies away from the micro-governing of King George III, now ...

April 24, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


CARE to know why your power rates are higher?

CARE to know what PG&E and South San Joaquin Irrigation District agree upon? Try how a number of folks in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon are getting reduced electrical rates that probably aren't qualified to receive rate breaks. As a result everyone else is subsidizing their power use whether they are other ratepayers or PGE's shareholders. It's part of the quasi-sham known as California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) that the California Public Utilities Commission foisted ...

April 22, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


POETRY CAFÉ DRAWS 75

Wednesday was the Eleventh Annual Poetry Café held at the Ripon Library with the help of the library staff and the Ripon High School English Department in celebration of national Poetry Month – 75 filled the meeting room.

April 20, 2013 | By OLIVIA SHIPHERD Ripon High correspondent | Local Columns


A Marshall Plan to fight Manteca crime

Bruce Lownsbery is by all standards a thoughtful man. He's hardworking and strives to keep an eye on his money including what he entrusts the government to spend on his behalf. He will often pore through tedious government paperwork on city issues before offering a suggestion or his opinion to the Manteca City Council. He isn't overtly emotional and he tries not to let his biases get in the way of a possible solution. You ...

April 20, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


A lost wallet led to snipe hunt in yard

I used to find it amusing when my mom would misplace her wallet. One time we spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out where she laid her wallet after going grocery shopping. For whatever reason, I happened to look in the cupboard where we kept the drinking glasses. I didn't find the wallet but I did find a half gallon of milk. A quick trip to the refrigerator found her wallet – cold cash ...

April 19, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Traffic too fast on Cottage Ave? It’ll get worse

If you think people drive too fast on Cottage Avenue and elsewhere in Manteca, just wait. It's going to get worse. That's because state law dictates Manteca and other cities conduct speed surveys every five years. Posted speed limits – this excludes residential streets, business district streets and school zones that have a prima facie speed limit of 25 mph in California – must comply with speed survey data. Manteca has completed its speed survey ...

April 18, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


RELAY FOR LIFE

On Saturday night, when the sun has set and thousands of tiny lights illuminate the dark of Dino Cunial Field, Kim Bettencourt will whisper softly into a breeze.

April 17, 2013 | James Burns | Local Columns


Paper or plastic may soon drop from vernacular

No one seemed to be happy when the days of Manteca's unlimited garbage came to an end.

April 17, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Feeling overtaxed? General Electric & the Oracle aren’t

The Great American nightmare is over. Well, it is for at least 53.6 percent of us who pay income tax. Everyone else didn't including General Electric. Keep in mind most of the 46.4 percent are retired on Social Security or are too poor. In the case of GE, the corporation makes over $6 billion a year. The Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffet, paid taxes. Rest assured it is not his fair share. Buffet lectures ...

April 16, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


About those grave (marker) robbers

David Massey helped shed some light on one of the area's more intriguing, odd-ball mysteries.

April 15, 2013 | James Burns | Local Columns


Doom & gloom? It’s really a wonderful world

It was a honeymoon with plenty of pain. Three days straight without sleep. Guzzling "horrible tasting" off-brand Asian energy drinks to stay awake. Not leaving your room to eat. Not wanting to go to the bathroom so as not to waste time. She recalls calling her dad Mike in Manteca craving for human contact as she slogged onward. It's the price paid by Lauren Morowit as a Cal Berkeley freshman as she crammed for her ...

April 15, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Candini was part of the Jackie Robinson story

It was the summer of 1951. Sugar Ray Robinson was the middleweight champion of the world, Ben Hogan was victorious at the Masters and the U.S. Open, and Mickey Mantle made his debut in centerfield for the New York Yankees. And in Brooklyn, a journeyman pitcher from a small town in Northern California that nobody from Flatbush – or his teammates from "The City of Brotherly Love" for that matter – had ever heard of ...

April 13, 2013 | Jason Campbell | Local Columns


The inexcusable gestation period for a crosswalk project in Manteca

How long does it take for the City of Manteca to put in a crosswalk? The answer to that question might come this Tuesday, but don't count on it. It's been 25 months since Manteca's elected leaders approved placing a crosswalk across the wide speedway known as Woodward Avenue. It was a decision the council in April of 2011 said they made so kids would have a greater margin of safety going to and from ...

April 13, 2013 | | Local Columns


KICKING FOR A CURE

Justin Coenenberg knew only what he had gathered second-hand – that Riley Simmons was a first-rate 9-year-old.

April 11, 2013 | James Burns | Local Columns


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Articles by Section - Local Columns


Want Insanity Workout? Run with 2 Dalmatians

Shaun T. - one of the late night gurus of exercise DVDs - wants you to send him three monthly payments of $39.95 to take advantage of his Insanity Workouts.

June 04, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Twin Tunnels: $24B won’t assure adequate water supplies for 25 million people

Let the distortions begin.

May 31, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


A pawn, a $350,000 study & taking $12M out of people’s pockets

One man's due diligence is costing more than 40,000 households, business, and farmers $12 million a year.

May 30, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


A virtually empty garage may be un-American by today’s standards

I'm a prime candidate for the Homeland Security watch list.

May 29, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Apple isn’t rotten but the American taxing system is

Why does Uncle Sam insist on subsidizing rich people?

May 27, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Twin Tunnels: Get ready for Owens Valley 2.0

Want to see the future of the Northern San Joaquin Valley?

May 25, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


Traffic officer: Toughest job in Manteca?

The toughest job in Manteca might just be the men who are part of the Manteca Police Department's traffic enforcement unit.

May 24, 2013 | Dennis Wyatt | Local Columns


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