Monthly Archives: December 2009

Happy New Year from Alberto and me

I was about to shove off for the 3-day New Year’s weekend when the phone rang. The deep, Filipino-accented voice of an elderly man said, “Listen to this special message for you.” Next, music wafted over the phone. And the elderly man’s voice, warbling on a recorded song: Though your miles away/I will always pray and say/”I love you [...]
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The Westlands: possibly a net loss

That “We’re feeding the world!” line Hannity and others spout about the Westlands as an argument to ignore the dying Delta is baloney, Dan Bacher reports. They don’t grow that much food, and when the special costs of propping them up are toted up, they may even be a net loss. If there’s a California state [...]
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More about 2009

Today’s retrospective of 2009 had to leave a lot out, obviously. Foremost among items omittted was the fall of Stockton Unified Superintendent Tony Amato. He bulled ahead with a reading program called Success For All, spending millions on a program that had to be cancelled because it wasn’t state approved. That, and his supposedly intimidating and [...]
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When the earthquake hit the jail

Reader Bill Beckman writes: “I enjoyed reading your article about the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  It brought back memories.  I was working in the County Jail supervising dinner to about 100 felons. When the quake hit I thought that I was getting dizzy and had to move toward a wall and place my hand on it.  “Then I realized [...]
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The Recession Chronicles

The Eddie Bauer in Stonecreek is closing.    A cashier said the store will close on Jan. 4. The Eddie Bauer chain remains open. The announcement follows by days the closure of Fuzio’s bar/restaurant in the same center. And the dirge drones on.
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Deceit

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the prison hospitals, Douglass Wilhoit, the Chamber’s CEO, has filed a complaint against the law firm representing receiver J. Clark Kelso. Wilhoit’s complaint asks the state bar to take law firm Ohoa and Moore off the case because they illegally sent a spy to extract information from Wilhoit. The alleged spy is John [...]
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Is funding uncertain for the Stockton prison hospital?

The legal advocate who started the whole reform process with his lawsuit thinks so. Don Specter, director of the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office, told the Los Angeles Times, ”We’re really not sure whether in our lifetime we’ll see the other hospitals built, absent some court intervention.” Specter’s comment came at the end of a story about the lavish [...]
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Merry Christmas from a germ-free newsroom

Please accept this Christmas card and my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, spirited and prosperous New Year. The photo depicts a pump jar of Purell antibacterial gel. Purell jars were set out around the newsroom to counter the swine flu threat. When the Christmas season came, they were festively decorated. Sort [...]
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T.W. responds

This morning’s e-mail brings a (belated) response from developer T.W. Starkweather to today’s column, in which several parties claim Starkweather failed to pay them for their services. This thorny mini-issue caused a blowup between Starkweather and the Council on Dec. 13. Writes Starkweather: “I am only aware of two of the parties that have come forward and [...]
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A P.S. to the previous item

Not to mention that Kelso doesn’t know what he’s doing.
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