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Open letter from Stevinson resident Robby Avilla to Supervisor Diedre Kelsey and Assistant Planning Director Bill Nicholson

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 11 November 2007

As I have noted in letters to the editor of the Merced Sun-Star, and also before the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board, I am greatly disturbed by the process that Merced County used to expand the Stevinson SUDP (Specific Urban Design Plan).

This expansion is only being created to enable the Stevinson Ranch developers to attach a 3,880 unit gated community onto a town with a population of 400 people. Without the development there were no plans by Merced County government in place to expand the growth boundaries of the town of Stevinson.

Right here in River City?

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Saturday, 10 November 2007

The Sacramento-based law firm of Somach, Simmons and Dunn filed suit on November 5 against Riverside Motorsports Park (RMP) for breach of a promissory note. Somach alleges that John Condren, CEO of Riverside, signed a promissory note on August 17 for $147,703.32, payable on November 1 for legal services the firm rendered to RMP. The two Somach attorneys representing RMP departed that firm for another Sacramento firm about that time, presumably piling up new, unpaid legal bills. Only one of the questions raised by the Somach suit is who will pay RMP attorneys to defend against it.

Anatomy of the housing bubble

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 4 November 2007

Readers familiar with Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV show), will recall it is full of detailed, numbered and labeled diagrams of every part of the physical human body, the result of a long scientific tradition begun by body snatchers and grave robbers.

The importance of care

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Care, writes one of our best environmental journalists and activists, is at the basis of civilization. Yet, here we sit in a valley, one of the world's richest agricultural places, still largely rural, and its leaders spend their boundless energy figuring out how to replicate the mindless slurb to the south and to the north of it for the profits of finance, insurance, real estate, large landholdings and themselves.

For shame

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wednesday, 24 October 2007

The Valley has always been a hard place, no doubt of that. Merced County probably hasn't been better than the fifth hungriest county in the state at the best of times in the last decade (given poverty statistics on California counties), but now, in the wake of the greatest building boom in its history, it ranks as the third hungriest county in the state and its foreclosure rate is tops in the nation. One in ten go to bed hungry and one in 68 are in some stage of home foreclosure.

Victory for SB 719: expansion of the Valley air board

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thursday, 18 October 2007

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill to expand the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board from 11 to 15 members on Oct. 14. The board would add two more city council members to the three already included and would add two members with expertise in the health issues of Valley air pollution, to be appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the state Senate. Eight county supervisors, one from each of the Valley counties, would continue to sit on the board.

Shameless demogoguery

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Fresno Bee
9-7-07
Ruling will damage region's water future...Mike Villines Rep. 29th Assembly District
A recent ruling handed down by a federal judge in Fresno places a significant portion of the water our region receives from the San Joaquin Delta in jeopardy, which could devastate our region's economy and public health.

Kuttner: 1929 and 2007

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Monday, 15 October 2007

Testimony of Robert Kuttner
Before the Committee on Financial Services
Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
October 2, 2007
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

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