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Ripon’s road to nowhere going there fast
It is Ripon’s Frontage Road to nowhere. It runs under the Wilma Avenue overpass and ends abruptly at the Ripon Christian High campus.




Deer feces and learning to look at life differently
We had just turned off Highway 395 outside of Lee Vining and onto Highway 120 heading west toward lofty Tioga Pass at 9,934 feet.




Manteca High menu a big draw for students who want value for $1.75
Sometimes being old can be an advantage. While Sierra High had a unique layout and East Union had a shiny new kitchen to serve their students, it was the unique way that Manteca High utilized what space they had to make the entire lunch process work. The gorgeous deli lines inside of the cafeteria – with ‘Manteca’ etched into the artistic front that runs the length of the main lunch counter – are just the ...




Downtown’s future slogan: ‘Winos, hookers & tweakers’
Finally there’s a clear vision for downtown. It’s about putting truck access ahead of pedestrian ambiance. That’s right. Shorten landscaping medians and rip those blasted bulbs out. It’ll allow trucks to have their way and give motorists the ability to play Starsky and Hutch crossing busy traffic lanes traveling from one alley to another. Downtown Manteca doesn’t need landscaping to attract visitors. If curb-to-curb traffic lanes are OK for most of 11th Street’s vacant storefronts ...




Calvary finds out that no good deed goes unpunished
Normally I do not get into commenting on remarks left on the Manteca Bulletin’s website. But the full throttle attack on Calvary Community Church “Christ is a verb for Calvary youth” in Tuesday’s Manteca Bulletin for allegedly not supporting the community through efforts like Turkeys R Us and instead investing in a youth center at their church campus is over the top. Calvary Community – along with many other houses of worship in this city ...




His son has a medical scare
A common sight in the waiting rooms at most hospitals and health care facilities are the number of people wearing N95 respirators.




Money clouds perspective on Manteca housing
Money – or the absence thereof – isn’t just the root of all evil. It also has a wonderful way of clouding people’s perspectives.




Make Halloween real scary: Put Congress in charge
Imagine if the federal government were in charge of Halloween. First, the Republicans would howl that it was nothing but welfare-style hand-outs. The Democrats would demand censuring anyone who wore a non-political correct costume. Southern states with sugar beet farms would seek tariffs against candy made with imported sugar. Nancy Pelosi would demand that homes that didn’t have trick-or-treat candy to distribute would be forced to participate in a public option where the government would ...




Healthy candy is definitely an oxymoron
Claus Spreckels must be laughing his head off up there in Sugar Land. Necco Wafers – the ultimate sugar high of childhoods past – is going natural. Artificial flavors and colorings are history. They’ve been replaced with beet juice, purple cabbage, cocoa powder, and turmeric. If you want to know what turmeric is, you can often found it as a spice in curries. This might lead you to believe they are healthy. Guess again. They’re ...




What a difference 10 years make: Food is tastier, more nutritional
It’s been almost 10 years since I went through the lunch line at Sierra High School – where it wasn’t uncommon for me to grab a cheeseburger, fries, and a coke.




Greed is now hurting those who resisted
Send your congressman a congratulatory note. They have succeeded in penalizing people who have integrity and didn’t overextend themselves through unadulterated greed. The foreclosures that are starting to pop up now are people driven to the edge by months of reduced hours and loss of jobs. Washington may talk about the recovery starting but thanks to their inept, short-sighted fiscal policies that triggered the foreclosure meltdown and then managed to dilute integrity in their bid ...




A lot of community organizations go into making Lathrop School puzzle complete
Editor, Manteca Bulletin, How long has it been since you’ve been in the classroom or even a school? Have you ever seen an SRO in action? You could be a piece of a larger puzzle toward success! On behalf of Lathrop Elementary, I want to thank those who have made a difference just recently and during our Back to School Night. It is impressive to see our community step up and help make success happen. ...




Dr. Smith said it best: “The pain, the pain of it all!”
If pain is relative, then it must be one of my first cousins. One of the joys of living, if you call it that, is your body reminding you that you are alive. Mine does it on a daily basis  whether it is jammed fingers, a toe that’s been broken for years, a bunion I hit wrong, an old shoulder injury or my upper right leg that is still smarting from a spill I took ...







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