Adam Sandler is a big fan of Manteca. And Colorado Springs.
It seems that actors worth millions can’t get enough of slumming by driving cars that get flat tires in small towns across the USA and being helped by friendly people.
The same happened when Harrison Ford drove through Warner Robins, Georgia and San Angelo, Texas. Ditto goes for Tom Hanks and Canton, Ohio as well as Bill Murray and Bloomington, Indiana.
The stories are part of a hoax perpetuated by replicated websites that go by monikers such as KLPO News, WCPM 3, and WLEB 21 among others using “local news” source in their tag lines in a bid to generate Internet traffic.
The Manteca hoax posted this week on the website KLPO uses the same exact quotes as the other hoaxes only with the name of the celebrity and town changed.
The Manteca item read, “Well, we had a flat tire just as we were about to leave the city limits of Manteca and two, maybe three cars pulled over within five minutes to help us with it.” Sandler said. “And no, they had no idea who I was before they pulled over. They were very helpful and very friendly. I gotta say, I was really impressed with the people of Manteca, California! That would’ve never happened in L.A.!”
KLPO News noted that “Adam’s vehicle was back on the road within a short period of time. What a great testament to the residents of Manteca!”
This of course prompted bloggers to comment on Manteca positively and negatively including the usual Greek chorus that calls Manteca “a dump” and such.
Among the positive bloggers was Dennis Rocha who noted, “That’s what I miss about the older days when the highway went through Manteca. My mom worked at the corner drug store on Main and Yosemite. Stars were always stopping for lunch, drink, or whatever to or from LA.”
Celebrities stopping in Manteca were not all that uncommon in days gone by long before the 120 Bypass was built.
One of the regular visitors was Bing Cosby of “White Christmas” fame who made it a point in Manteca at the Creamery both on his way to and from a vacation home he had off Highway 108 east of Sonora.
Cosby’s infatuation with the ice cream produced with real cream at the creamery/ice cream parlor/restaurant located where Regal Signs and Athens Burgers are now on Yosemite Avenue at the train tracks prompted many of his Hollywood pals to stop there as well.

Starbucks serves up
interview practice
as well as jobs for teens

Here’s to the San Joaquin County Office of Education.
Starbucks managers from eight stores within the county this Thursday are interviewing 80 high school students enrolled in BrainworX Academy that’s part of the Venture Academy Family of Schools.
They will be given immediate feedback on their interview and resume writing skills. Students who perform exceptionally will during the interviews at the county office complex on Transworld Drive in Stockton will be offered jobs at the end of the day.
Starbucks has been partnering with San Joaquin County for four years to help sharpen student interview scores. They have hired 14 students from the annual event.

Water deal avoids
draining New
Melones Reservoir

 The deal the South San Joaquin Irrigation District along with the State Water Control Board and Bureau of Reclamation reached regarding water flows for this year on the Stanislaus River can’t be praised enough.
That’s because modeling clearly showed with the Water Right Decision 1641 regarding the implementation of water quality control objectives for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento San Joaquin Delta Estuary required base flow would have drained New Melones Reservoir down to 140,000 acre feet by September reducing it to essentially a mud hole. That is after taking into account the snowpack.
The modeling in reality is actually worse. Not only would the 2.4 million acre-foot reservoir be down to just over 5 percent which is 75 percent lower that it was at last year but there would still be the need for releases for fall flow on the Stanislaus River.
Thanks to the foresight of building the Tri-Dam Project, a wet spring, aggressive water conservation by farmers and cities alike, as well as SSJID and Oakdale Irrigation District making it clear they would fight relentlessly to protect their legally superior water rights, a massive legal and possible criminal showdown was avoided.
In its place the needs of farms, fish, cities, and the environment are being addressed with the added bonus that the parched farms served by San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority will have an additional 65,000 acre feet of water and both SSJID and OID will receive $9.75 million each for the water sale that will come from the two district’s storage used as fall flows to support fish.