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Michael Fitzgerald
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Monthly Archives: June 2006
Legion Park as litmus test
There’s a sure-fire way to tell if a neighborhood is going downhill: if its residents become afraid to use the park.
That’s why it’s distressing to hear midtown resident Jeff Devine say of American Legion Park, “Look at this beautiful park across the street. We can’t even use it.”
That’s an exaggeration. There’s understandably a lot of [...]
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Hoosier daddy? eBay!
In case you never visited Ye Olde Hoosier Inn, the recently shuttered Wilson Way restaurant that sold off its antiques last week, eBay has postcards showing what you missed: Stockton’s most eccentrically exuberant period décor.
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Immigration hard-liners gain ground
The U.S. Senate may be caving to the immigration hard-liners. Read it here.
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Capt. Anal Does the Math
Am I being anal about Allegiant Airlines’ addition of two new flights from Stockton to Las Vegas (see below)? Let’s do the math.
Allegiant’s planes carry up to 150 passengers. Multiplying that times five flights a week, 52 weeks a year is 39,000 Stockton-to-Vegas fliers. A hefty number.
But take five percent, which is number of [...]
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Shipping $$ to Vegas
Maybe I’m a killjoy, but I’m not 100 percent happy that Allegiant Airlines is adding two more round-trip flights from Stockton to Las Vegas.
Eighty percent happy, sure. Stockton’s airport gets a boost. San Joaquin residents get more travel and recreation options.
But there’s a dark side to gambling.
Studies show five percent of gamblers become addicts. They [...]
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New in journalism: interviewing yourself
Lately I’ve noticed that interviewees are pre-empting hard questions reporters may ask and treating themselves to easier questions instead.
In the latest example, county fair chief Forrest White interviewed himself over poor attendance and a child’s death.
“Will we survive? Yes. Will we be back next year? Yes,” said White who, like all self-interviewers, never asks himself [...]
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Grand gesture or grandstanding?
That was nice of Council member Leslie Barranco-Martin to make a surprise appearance at Chris Isaak’s show at the Bob Hope Theatre Friday and present a Council proclamation declaring today (June 26, Isaak’s 50th birthday) Chris Isaak Day.
Is it a problem that a previous Council declared Dec. 29 Chris Isaak Day back in 1999? Not [...]
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Benny Alverez, the constant cook
Ye Olde Hoosier Inn’s closure brings a reminiscence of Benny Alterez, the cook who worked there 50 years.
A World War II cook in the U.S. Marines, Alterez began cheffing at the Hooser in 1946 when it was an itty-bitty truck stop serving 20 customers.
He soldiered on until 1995 – three months shy of a half [...]
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A Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card for 14 million
The Center for Immigration Studies had this to say today about the immigration bill that just passed the Senate:
“Based on the experience of the 1986 amnesty, we expect that nearly 9.9 million illegal aliens will receive amnesty under the recently passed Senate Hagel-Martinez bill. That is, they will legalize and can apply for permanent residence [...]
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Letter of the day: Legion Park beating