Badlands Journal

Viewing Main St. from a coffee shop, say the one next to Bob Hart Square c. 2006, the special characters that stood out on the sidewalk were chunky fellows in designer California casual attire and cellphones glued to their ears as their mouths made real estate deals. Today, looking out the window of a new coffee shop near the Art Kananger Center the special characters on the sidewalk are the homeless pushing babycarts bearing all the person's worldly goods and someone barrelling down the street on a mountain bike spouting off because she's off her medication for Tourette's Syndrome.

Yet so many of the people who made the decisions that turned Merced into the least affordable real estate market in the nation and then into one of the consistently highest per capita foreclosure-rate metro regions in the nation are still doing business at their old stands. They aren't sleek as they were once. In fact, some have aged so badly they can't be easily recognized beyond the confines of their offices and labeled public seats.

But, the chatting classes are expanded because of the arrival of UC Merced, which produces larger numbers of vacuously confident, subsidized students, youth in numbers still insufficient to become a municipal profit center. Alas, the students of UC Merced may never live up to the myth of their eternal prosperity-producing powers during the heyday of the Boom.

Badlands Journal editorial board

1-28-12
Merced Sun-Star

The Pimlico Kid is so lame all he can think about is the sweet pasture that lies ahead at taxpayers' expense after he leaves Congress. In the following letter to his constituents he limps along in the shadow of -- of all people -- the President, whose wife the Kid insulted by preferring to attend the Preakness with lobbyists to attending a UC Merced graduation featuring the First Lady as commencement speaker.

And, of course, he lied about the whole thing, claiming he couldn't make the event due to family commitments. The Kid finished dead last by 50 lengths in that contest.

Today, in his letter, he indicates that at last the president has recognized that he, the Pimlico Kid, had the right idea about the foreclosure crisis all along. It is a simple, three-part strategy: Do everything in the power of a politician to stimulate housing growth in your district; get the taxpayers to bail out the banks for the weak mortgages on their books; sell the package as a bail out of the people. Cover the whole campaign in the Kid's patented unctious piety and you've got as fine an example as you'd ever want to see of absolute political irrelevance.

Mayor Stan Thurston, who heard about the report from his aviation business partner, agreed it's difficult to find a job in Merced. He said there are jobs available, but people don't have the right training. As an example, he pointed to the high number of agriculture-based jobs in the county with few people qualified to work them.

Councilwoman Mary-Michal Rawling agreed that education, or a lack of it, is at the heart of the issue. "It's all about education. We need to be sure our residents are getting the education they really need to have good, sustainable careers,"she said.

(Councilman) Murphy said UC Merced will play a big role in turning the situation on its head. "UC Merced will be a key to long-rangesuccess. Integrating the university and its graduates into our local economy, in a way that hasn't quite happened yet, willbe important for the community to move forward." -- "Merced County at top of magazine's 'worst' list," Merced Sun-Star, Jan.24, 2012

The award, which comes with a grant of $473,797 over five years, will pay for the tuition of two of Yang's graduate students as well as research equipment. --

"UC Merced professor earns six-figure payoff
Research project a winner," Merced Sun-Star, Jan. 24, 2012

"I don't have a conflict of interest - I'm a citizen who is talking to my old colleagues." -- Rep. Dennis Cqrdoza, Annapolis, Merced, Atwater, etc. Jan. 20, 2012, Sacramento Bee 

1-21-12

Sacramento Bee

Rep. Dennis Cardoza enters online gambling fray in Sacramento…Torey Van Oot, Capitol Alert…1-20-12

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/01/e.html

Add Rep.  Dennis Cardoza  to the long list of individuals and interests weighing in on the online gambling legislation discussions going on under the dome.

The Merced Democrat was part of a group of racehorse owners and lobbyists for the Thoroughbred Owners of California trade association that met with members of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee this week "to discuss Internet poker, and other Internet gaming issues," according to a report by California Watch.

In a telephone interview, Cardoza said he is an unpaid member of the board of directors of the thoroughbred owners association. The House of Representatives' Ethics Committee approved his service last year, he said.

He said the Sacramento meetings were aimed at calling attention to the economic problems of the state's $2.8 billion horse racing industry. He was "absolutely not lobbying," Cardoza said.

Gee whiz: we're soooo surprised.

12-31-11

Merced Sun-Star

Livingston annexation appears on fast track

Gallo family wants 334 acres of land to be rezoned for industrial, commercial uses…JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/12/31/v-print/2173795/livingston-annexation-appears.html

LIVINGSTON -- City officials have taken steps toward approving a Gallo family request to annex several hundred acres of land into the city.

Proponents argue it would set the stage for luring industry and jobs to the town. However, local residents have already voiced concerns about the possible negative impacts of development in the area.

On Thursday the Livingston Planning Commission voted unanimously to send an annexation plan to the City Council, which would make 334 acres of land owned by the Gallo family part of the city.

If the council votes to incorporate the property into the city limit, future industrial, commercial and housing developments approved at the site would then have access to public services, including water, sewer, fire and police -- important incentives for prospective investors.

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

--Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

11-06-11
LA Times
There's too much pork on the table
Gov. Brown and the Legislature need to trim the fat from the water bond and serve it to voters...George Skelton
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-cap-water-20111107%2c0%2c7667745.column?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GeorgeSkelton+%28L.A.+Times+-+George+Skelton%29

Gov. Jerry Brown recently said, "I've got a lot on my plate." One item is a big slab of pork — formally called a water bond proposal.

The plate is shared with the Legislature.
 
Together, they must decide whether to serve up the bond whole to voters, trim it down first or shove it back in the fridge.

Or maybe they'll just toss it in the garbage. That's the most unlikely scenario. But voters might dump it for them if the bond isn't pared and recooked.

Let's back up.

After years of fighting — south vs. north, farmers vs. enviros, water buffaloes vs. fishing interests — then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature settled on an $11.14-billion water bond two years ago. It was passed by sleep-deprived lawmakers at dawn after an all-night session.

11-06-11
Modesto Bee
DA says Andersen knew of asbestos risk in Merced school
By Victor A. Patton
http://www.modbee.com/2011/11/06/1935528/merced-county-andersen-knew-of.html

MERCED -- Merced County's former education chief broke state law by knowing that high school students were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos, but waiting more than a year to notify law enforcement.

Those accusations have been lobbed against former Merced County Office of Education Superintendent Lee Andersen after an investigation by the Stanislaus County district attorney's office. Prosecutors say that Andersen would have been charged with a misdemeanor had the one-year statute of limitations not run out.

Andersen, in a letter to the Merced Sun-Star, insists he acted quickly to look into the asbestos exposure. He told a grand jury that he wasn't obliged to report it "because it was in the past." He asked the people of Merced to keep an open mind in reading the report.

We won't be able to produce a column-length article about the forced retirement of Rep Dennis Cardoza, Pimlico Kid - -Merced, aka Shrimp Slayer. We admire the verbosity of the McClatchy Chain editorialists while noting that what they are saying -- as most of what Cardoza has said throughout his career -- is not true. Perhaps, the McClatchy Co. in this instance agrees with Badlands -- "Good riddance." Cardoza, the former lady mud wrestling impresario, could not beg, borrow or steal enough respectability to edify his political career in this McClatchy dominated zone.

We'll just skim a few of the whoppers that arose to the surface of the dairy pond.

"I love the people of the Central Valley, and thank them for the confidence they have placed in me," Cardoza said in a statement. "While I plan to retire from public service...I will energetically continue my efforts to improve California as a private citizen."

What could possibly be the social, economic or political incentive for the government of the State of California to negotiate a better deal for its underwater homeowners than could the other 49 states acting in concert? The California state Legislature including executive officers may be the only political body in the country more in the thrall of finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) special interests than the US Congress.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris, leader of the go-it-alone policy, seems like a competent criminal prosecutor. However, given her connections to President Obama and his connections to Wall Street (and the imperious demand for a $1-billion campaign war chest), we suggest the California settlement might well be more favorable to FIRE than the settlement negotiated by the vast majority of states...which would put Harris in a favorable fund-raising position for her next statewide campaign.

Badlands Journal editorial board

9-30-11
Washington Post
Calif. attorney general pulls out of 50-state mortgage foreclosure settlement talks with banks
Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/calif-attorney-general-pulls-out-of-50-state-mortgage-foreclosure-settlement-talks-with-banks/2011/09/30/gIQACJD3AL_story.html