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Racetrack promotion meets reality on narrow country roads

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, 8 December 2006

The Riverside Motorsports Park/Merced County government pitch for a world-class motor sports facility met a political pitchfork from the nation’s second-largest dairy county on Dec. 5, at the county Board of Supervisors public comment period.

In a short, prepared address concluding the comment period, board Chairman Mike Nelson abused a privileged moment by attacking the public. Nelson’s pitch was that the “leadership of the opposition to the racetrack” had a right to its opinion, but RMP also had a right to its opinion.

Political storm brewing over racetrack traffic

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 3 December 2006

We need to step back from the chicanery of the County and Riverside Motorsports Park with regard to environmental law and regulation to understand what happened in the past week on three evenings – in Ballico, Delhi and on the Merced River. County Supervisor Diedre Kelsey, whose district encompasses the three venues, called meetings to “discuss” the racetrack.

Grand Jury may investigate mysterious Livingston pipeline

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 3 December 2006

Supervisor John Pedrozo disagrees. The county took action by prohibiting more work without filing the proper paperwork, he said. "If someone wants someone to file a grand jury investigation, more power to them" Pedrozo said. "The county has done everything we've been asked to do." Merced Sun-Star, Dec. 1, 2006
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Open appeal to supervisors about RMP

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wednesday, 29 November 2006

November 27, 2006

Dear Supervisors Pedrozo, Crookham, Nelson, Kelsey and O’Banion:

Thank you, Supervisor Deidre Kelsey, for scheduling three town-hall meetings this week to address the immediate impacts that the proposed Riverside Motorsports Park will have on your district. We would ask that supervisors Pedrozo, Crookham, Nelson and O’Banion also schedule meetings in their districts and listen to their constituents’ concerns about the RMP project.

Lipstick

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wednesday, 22 November 2006

The general environmental interest in the San Joaquin Valley is strong because it concerns basic health and safety issues. Anger is stirring in the public against rampant air pollution-producing development and the politicians who promote it.

In a recent article, Stockton Record political reporter Hank Shaw ended a look into the post-Pombo world with a quote from a professor:

"I am dubious that this will be a productive Congress," Pitney said. "I think there's going to be a lot of posturing."

Mascot issue: identity crisis

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Monday, 20 November 2006

When I look at the debate growing about the mascot for UC Merced (setting aside all the laws broken to get the living mascot bobcat incarcerated at the city zoo), I see an identity crisis. But, as local sentiment against the choice of the fairy shrimp over the bobcat grows, I see that the identity crisis is a little more complex than it first appears.

Badlands letter to UC Merced students

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thursday, 16 November 2006

The Badlands editorial staff is not among the members of the Merced community advising UC Merced students to "love it or leave it." We remember that one from another era and another futile imperial war.

We also remember from that period a great educator, Clark Kerr, president of UC, who designed the "knowledge factory multiversity," whose latest outcropping the UC Merced students now occupy, like ducks land in a Los Banos duck club wetlands, and with possibly not much better chance of a successful migration on the life path.

Pombo's Ghost haunts the McClatchy Chain

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, 10 November 2006

Our questions this evening for the McClatchy Chain's Washington correspondent are:

1) Didn't the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Commerce and representatives of 15,000 Friant irrigators settle with local, state and national environmental organizations on the question of letting water flow in the San Joaquin River again on behalf of the Chinook salmon, which is listed as a threatened species under the Engandered Species Act?

Not invited to the funeral

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, 10 November 2006

The Badlands Journal editorial staff has few opportunities to defend the honor of the Merced Sun-Star. But, fair is fair. A working girl's got rights, too. On Primary Election night, the Sun-Star committed an act of photojournalism. It took a picture of Jesse "The Crestfallen" Brown, director of Merced County Association of Governments and manager of the failed Measure A campaign. Brown's face expressed bewilderment and despair in a painful moment of political defeat.

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