Mark these dates: April 25, May 9 and May 18.Those are the dates of water rate meetings in Stockton.Stockton once again finds itself between a rock and a hard place. And its residents are there, too.The Stockton Municipal Utilities Department has proposed a water rate hike that begins at 26 percent next year, rising to a total 40 percent by 2021. [...]
Our view: Water rate meetings are must-see reality
↧
↧
Our view: Immigration shows American dream knows no boundaries
It is a disturbing conversation about a sensitive topic.Immigration.Too often we hear about “sending them back” or “protecting our borders” or “how they are burdening our (insert one) social services, schools, health care system."And, most often, the references are to those who come from the south of the U.S. border.Given the migrant labor in the Central Valley, and our large Latino population, we are particularly aware of this [...]
↧
Letters (April 15, 2016)
Is theft of Mayor Silva’s guns really news?In my opinion this latest news that the mayor has had three robberies since 2014 is ridiculous. Why do I think this?Let’s start with his Morada home. Since he was living elsewhere, would he leave any weapons in the home? Since he two months ago was on his tour of the Philippines and had someone staying at his current home, it happens again.Suddenly this becomes front page headlines. Also, per Mr. [...]
↧
Navarrette: Overall a bad idea
Newspapers ought to focus on doing good journalism, and leave the satire to professionals.Just look at the ruckus that ensued when The Boston Globe created a mock front-page postdated a year from now, in April 2017. Running this past Sunday in the paper’s “Ideas” section, and put together by the editorial board, the parody imagined what the world might be like if Donald Trump were elected president.In what could have been called the newspaper’s [...]
↧
Fitzgerald: Should cops shoot at moving vehicles?
Police on Wednesday fatally shot a fleeing suspect who jumped into a passing vehicle and tried to carjack it. I wonder whether shooting into moving vehicles is always the right thing to do.Though I’ve stood with police repeatedly when officers shot suspects in moving vehicles, I continue to have nagging doubts about the law that allows deadly force in that situation.“Our policy states that we only shoot at a vehicle if it’s necessary to defend the life of [...]
↧
↧
Tennis: Lions All-Star game promises points
After last year’s 51-38 score fest in the Lions All-Star Football Classic, if there’s a possibility that this year’s game on June 18 at Tracy’s Wayne Schneider Stadium is returning to a defensive posture, you can forget it.At least that was what one could deduce from seeing the players and what the coaches said during last Saturday’s annual Lions All-Star Football banquet held at the Stockton Italian Athletic [...]
↧
Matthew T. Mangino: Pennsylvania lawmakers target sex offenders, again
Pennsylvania has had an agonizing and embarrassing series of scandals involving sexual exploitation of children. The Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia; Penn State; and the indictment of Franciscan friars in western Pennsylvania have whipped the state legislature into a frenzy.Pennsylvania House Bill 1947 is a byproduct of those frenzied lawmakers. The bill would treat future child sex-abuse crimes like murder, which can be prosecuted any time, by eliminating a recently expanded [...]
↧
Liccar cartoon: Primary horse race
Joe Liccar cartoon on the primary horse race.
↧
Granlund cartoon: Bernie and Hillary turf war
Dave Granlund cartoon on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton’s turf war.
↧
↧
Stockton Art Scene: Momentum swinging in favor of downtown walls
Momentum is changing the face of downtown this coming week. The extensive mural project is a collaboration between Ten Space and Placeholder Magazine funded in part by grants from the Stockton Arts Commission. Preselected artists will paint Ten Space buildings. One wall will be painted by high school students led by muralist Joel Munoz. For locations, visit momentumstockton.com/about.This project reminds me of the walldogs that came to downtown Lodi and painted a series of murals with [...]
↧
Pet Care: Anti-itch medication can treat many skin conditions
Apoquel is a revolutionary anti-itch medication specifically made for dogs by Zoetis. It has been in use in the veterinary industry for a few years, but because of limited production, it hasn’t been widely available until now.What makes Apoquel (Oclacitinib maleate) so unique is that it can be used for a variety of skin conditions, is safe and effective, and is rapidly acting. It is a synthetic Janus kinase inhibitor, a protein that is pivotal in the signaling pathway that [...]
↧
Parker: Fashion-backward in North Carolina
It’s been a long while since South Carolina could look down upon its neighbor to the North.Thanks to North Carolina’s anti-LGBT legislation (HB2), also referred to as the “bathroom bill,” the state effectively has begun redefining itself from its long-popular characterization as a “valley of humility between two mountains of conceit” (South Carolina and Virginia).The new law, which ludicrously requires transgender people to use the [...]
↧
Pitts: Clinton (Bill, this time) and the campaign
By the next day, Bill Clinton was feeling remorse. Almost.“Now I like and believe in protests,” he explained to an audience at Penn State Behrend. “But I never thought I should drown anybody else out. ... So I did something yesterday in Philadelphia. I almost want to apologize for it, but I want to use it as an example of the danger threatening our country.”That danger, said the former president, is the inability to have respectful discussions with [...]
↧
↧
Will: Keystrokes can do international damage
There is a consensus that aggression by one nation against another is a serious matter, but there is no comparable consensus about what constitutes aggression. Waging aggressive war was one charge against Nazi leaders at the 1946 Nuremberg war crimes trials, but 70 years later it is unclear that aggression, properly understood, must involve war, as commonly understood. Or that war, in today’s context of novel destructive capabilities, must involve “the use of armed force, [...]
↧
Sierra Middle School students get into giving spirit
On the shelves of Irene Dillon’s language arts classrooms are the typical books and school materials, but there also are cans of fruits and vegetables, boxes of macaroni and cheese and ramen soups, and jars of peanut butter and jelly.The seventh-grade teacher at Sierra Middle School and the Christian Club she advises have been running the food pantry since December. Kick-started with a donation of 2,400 cans of food from Del Monte, the [...]
↧
Our View: Another incident in north Stockton amps up continued concern
Right or wrong, often crime is associated with south Stockton.Yet, think of Kelley Drive and the Tam O Shanter/West Lane area of north Stockton, which repeatedly have been the site of shootings, manhunts, killings and various actions.Since August, there have been at least a dozen violent crimes in the West Lane area, including several shootings.On Feb. 23, Laurits “Pepe” Petersen, 75, was killed when he was stabbed and shot with his own gun. Rafael Watts, [...]
↧
From the Record: Recollections from 20 great years
Twenty years ago, I started work at The Record — for a second time.I had worked in Stockton for six years (1987 to 1993) before taking a job in Florida. What happened? To summarize: Our family missed California — Stockton, in particular — and former Record Publisher Terry Kroeger and former Editor Jim Gold gave me a chance to return.I was reflecting recently on some of the things that have happened in Stockton over the past 20 years. This list isn’t [...]
↧
↧
Fitzgerald: A trove of Stockton boat photos
I got to wondering about San Francisco’s Maritime Museum: is there Stockton stuff in there? After all, Stockton is a nautical neighbor. Turns out the museum is part of a national park complex that includes an archive a few blocks to the west called the San Francisco Maritime Research Center.That place is chock full of Stockton items.There’s a [...]
↧
Krauthammer: Democratic Party moving away from Bill Clinton-ism
How far they’ve come. And I’m not talking about the GOP, whose front-runner representing 37 percent of the Republican electorate has repudiated post-Reagan orthodoxy on trade, entitlement reform, limited government and Pax Americana (and possibly abortion, but who knows?). I’m talking about the Democrats.The center-left, triangulating, New Democrat (Bill) Clintonism of the 1990s is dead. It expired of unnatural causes, buried — definitively, if [...]
↧
Fitzgerald: Reader poll: Which Stockton logo is best?
Chuck Barnard wrote me:“I read your piece on the new Stockton logo and slogan and have been trying to digest what we have been provided. It may require a bit of Maalox.“No disrespect …but I think the two of us could have done better and saved the city some dough.”Sheesh. Visit Stockton’s new logo, which took branding firm North Star 10 months to design and cost $10,000, got a lot of similar heckles. [...]
↧
