By Richard Stone Clint Olivier is, at 38, a relative youngster on the Fresno City Council, and he meets me in his office full of youthful enthusiasm. It is clear he loves his job and is committed [...] Continue Reading
News
Letters to the Editor – October 2013
A Modest Proposal Wow, what a great newspaper. Many thanks to all the contributors. Stunning piece by Miguel Villega Ventura about the People of the Rain and their progress in decolonizing their [...] Continue Reading
Fresno Groups Support Drug Law Reform
By Pam Whalen After a hard-fought battle in the State Assembly, SB 649, authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D–San Francisco) is now headed for the Governor’s desk. SB 649 will, if signed by Gov. Jerry [...] Continue Reading
Crockford Files – October 2013
By John Crockford U.S. Postal Service Wants to Verify Who You Are The U.S. Postal Service recently awarded a three-year $15.12 million contract to build a cloud-based authentication exchange. IT [...] Continue Reading
Organizing for Action
By Keith A. Jones After working for 44 years in the newspaper business, I found myself retired and wondering what to do with my spare time. And I have a lot of spare time, believe me. I tried [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air: The Great False Air Alert of 2013
By Tom Frantz Central Valley ozone sometimes reaches extreme health-endangering levels in late summer when school starts. These spikes in one-hour ozone levels have been part of the reason that [...] Continue Reading
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
By Dan Yaseen What Is Obamacare? The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, [...] Continue Reading
City of Fresno Destroys Downtown Homeless Encampments
By Mike Rhodes The City of Fresno followed through on their threats to destroy homeless encampments in the downtown area last month by bringing in bulldozers, garbage trucks and sanitation workers [...] Continue Reading
It’s Complicated: Unintended Consequences
By George B. Kauffman “You have to think about the unintended consequences of either the decisions you make or the ones you do not.”—Madeleine K. Albright In the social sciences, unintended [...] Continue Reading
Progressive Voice: A Call for Nonprofit Action
By Yezdyar S. Kaoosji There are several types of nonprofits—a term assigned to organizations that are exempt from federal income taxes. In general usage, the term refers to entities classified as [...] Continue Reading
Did Latino Machismo Help Elect Andy Vidak?
By Valeria Pedroza There are two things I will always remember about the summer of 2013: First is the heat two degrees shy of hell, and second is the experiences I had as a canvasser. In February, [...] Continue Reading
The City of Fresno Declares War on the Poor
By Jessie Speer Imagine a young woman. Close your eyes and see her in front of you—her hopeful gaze, her restless hands. Now imagine one morning she can’t get out of bed. The doctor says it’s brain [...] Continue Reading