By Emerson Drake
We don’t intend on providing commentary on this story. Our only desire is to bring you news and allow you to read it for yourself.
Here is the report’s entire 122 pages:
stanislaussheriff_parisreport_2013-01_secured (3)
The Sheriff’s badge isn’t Stanislaus County
EOM Contributor
South Dakota law requires a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy to visit her physician, then visit an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center” and then wait 72 hours before the procedure can be performed. This law has been in place for two years. They are now considering HB 1237, which would state the following: “No Saturday, Sunday, federal holiday, or state holiday may be included or counted in the calculation of the seventy-two hour minimum time period between the initial physician consultation and assessment and the time of the scheduled abortion procedure.” What could possibly be the purpose of this bill? Do they believe women cannot contemplate their options unless they do it during the work week?
If the bill passes, it would mean a woman who goes in for her initial consultation for an abortion on a Wednesday actually has to wait five days before she can have the abortion (Or six, if she happens to come in before a long weekend.) This is no small barrier for many women, especially in South Dakota. The state has just one abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, and a doctor that flies in from out of state to provide services. Women drive up to six hours each direction to reach that clinic. The state also requires the doctor to read patients a state written script claiming that abortion will put them at an increased risk of suicide. There have been no studies done to back up this information. In fact, the multitude of studies done since terminating a pregnancy was legalized, show the opposite.
Other states are attempting to pass “heartbeat” bills, which would ban abortions after a heartbeat can be detected. The advance of medical technology has allowed us to detect the heartbeat of a fetus as early as 18 days into a pregnancy. Most women don’t even have the slightest suspicion that they may be pregnant that early. At this stage of a pregnancy, the embryo is about 1/12th of an inch long, or about the size of a pencil tip. Many women have irregular periods. Having a bad cold or flu, or taking some kinds of medications may cause a woman to miss a period or to be even more irregular. This means that most women, when they start to suspect they might be pregnant, would already be well past the cut-off date for terminating the pregnancy.
Roe V. Wade legalized abortion up to “the point of viability.” That occurs at 22 or 23 weeks, certainly not at 18 days. These heartbeat bills are an attempt to redefine pregnancy from a medical science viewpoint. Unfortunately, it’s not medical doctors or scientists that are attempting to change the definition. It’s politicians.
I would never go so far as to say that abortions are a good thing, but I am realistic and I understand that in so many cases, they are a necessary option. But it’s not our governments job to make such a personal decision for each woman in America. Throughout history women who have not wanted to be pregnant have attempted to end those pregnancies and an untold number of them died. Restricting abortions or making them illegal will not end them. It will just force women to risk their lives. It will force children already born to grow up without their mother. It will force husbands to live without their wives. It will force families further into poverty by the loss of income that the mother would have earned.
We do not yet have a perfect birth control available in this country. It seems the far right conservatives only care about fetuses. They don’t care about helping women access birth control. They don’t care about the pregnant woman who can’t care for more children. They certainly don’t care about unwanted babies once they are born. This has been proven by their desire to cut social services for low income families and their objection to insurances covering birth control.
State governments will soon be forcing women to become mothers. How will men react to being forced to become fathers? How will men react if insurances stop covering vasectomies? Will men like their reproductive rights being controlled by politicians? It’s interesting that so many men have been silent on this subject for so long. I’m anxiously waiting to hear their opinions.
English: Author: Carl Skaggs This image was taken by me on January 14, 2010 in Modesto, California I hereby relinquish all rights to this photo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Emerson Drake
The Alliance held their monthly meeting January 28th at noon and everyone but the public was invited. As an organization subject to the Brown Act the Alliance must post their agenda 72 hours ahead of time, and the official places they choose to use are their website and on the door to their offices at 1010 10th Street. Unfortunately for the public, the time on the website was 3:30 PM and the two pages attached to their door had NO MENTION of the meetings start time.
So understandably when five interested members of the public arrived early at 3:15 for the meeting and discovered the meeting was already over, there was some consternation. During his convoluted explanation, Bill Bassett pointed out it was mentioned just before the meeting by attendees, that the starting time listed on-line was incorrect, but they went ahead with the meeting anyway. What was strange was they adjusted the time on their site to 12:00 AFTER the meeting was over. How that helped I’m not really sure, though their admission came after I explained the incorrect listing had been downloaded over the weekend.
You haven’t read about this in the Bee
You really have to wonder why this Brown Act violation has been overlooked by the Modesto Bee since one of their reporters, Ken Carlson, was one of the five left hanging by the incorrect/false time posting. But even Ken has to get it past his editors before it gets printed in the Bee. And as we have seen, the Bee editors have an agenda they adhere to when it comes to backing the powers that be. They consider that it’s in their best interest not to ruffle the feathers of those in power so they can continue to receive the behind the scene phone calls (or as in the case of MID, confidential Legal Memos) giving them advance notice of political deals. Unfortunately this practice ends up taking their readers down the rabbit hole with them. The Bee keeps their secrets for weeks as in the case of the memos, until Eric Cain published them on his site, www.TheValleyCitizen.COM . Blog sites like his and this one are where you can find out what they don’t want you to know.
It was interesting to read the two different versions of Ken Carlson’s article on the Goodwin report. The first one mentions the Bee obtaining the Goodwin Report and the second one, the one published doesn’t. Makes you wonder doesn’t it? It’s those pesky editors.
The Leaking of the Goodwin Draft Report to the Modesto Chamber of Commerce and the Workforce Alliance
One of the reasons we wanted to attend the Alliance meeting was to hear Bill Bassett’s comments on expanding the Enterprise zones, shovel ready ground, and the need for Modesto to annex Salida to make it easier to divide up the pie known as Salida. Both the Alliance and the Chamber have had the Goodwin consulting Group’s Fiscal Impact Analysis Draft Report for the better part of two weeks. Who in the City and County governments gave these reports away? Well no one will admit to it but it happened. My thoughts are to look to those who are the liaisons from the City and County but who knows? It appears the Chamber is getting ready to launch an “Annex Salida” campaign. After all, one of the reasons for the Chambers existence, and that of the Alliance, is to manage situations for the advantage of their members. Remember Bill Bassett has repeatedly said his “investors” expect a return on their investments. And it usually comes out of your pocket and mine.
Is anyone censuring the Alliances Violation of the Brown Act?
We made sure both the City of Modesto and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors were made aware of the Brown Act violation and have asked both organizations to issue the Alliance a letter of protest. Will anything come of this probably not. When it comes to the potential annexation of Salida, our Mayor has turned a deaf ear to the vocal protests of over 240 Salida Residents. So I ask the Mayor and Council, when was the last time 240 Modestan’s showed up to a council meeting and stayed past the presentations? For that matter I ask the Board of Supervisors the same question. At Tuesday’s meeting of the BoS there was only one member of the public present for the last hour of the meeting.
Why should the City or County censure the Alliance?
Most people aren’t aware the County gives the Alliance about $92,000 and the City gives the Alliance about $60,00 of the taxpayers money so I feel they have a responsibility to speak out.
Not only should the Alliance receive a letter of censure from both of the Board of Supervisors and the Modesto City Council. these two government entities should stop wasting taxpayer money on the proposed annexation.
By Emerson Drake
The Cat Killer Ordinance or Animal Abandonment Ordinance will be discussed by the Modesto Safety and Communities Committee of the Modesto City Council on Monday February 4, 2013 at 5:00 PM, in room 2005 at 1010 10th Street. We have
to thank Interim Police Chief Gene Balentine, Captain Harris, Councilmen Muratore, Geer, and Gunderson along with City Attorney Susanna Acala Wood and Mayor Marsh for pushing this ordinance through so quickly.The Committee consisting of Councilmen Lopez, Geer, and Gunderson will have to vote on it and if approved, send it on to the City Council.
The link is to the Committee agenda report
This link is to the proposed ordinance
D.A. Birgit Fladager needs to step up to the plate for past infractions committed by the two men and can be encouraged by the public to do so and enforce existing State Law against animal abusers at 525-5550.
Radio RED 104.9 FM (Photo credit: Mahdi Ayat.)
Topics include the Salida MAC meeting last night and some of Mayor Marsh’s comments, Councilman Cogdill throwing a snit, The illegal meeting held by the Work Force Alliance, The passing around of confidential documents to the Alliance and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce, Janice Keating being in denial about her pay for performance during the water sale, ta councilman deleting his annexation emails, the Don Pedro relicensing, and women in the military, these and more so tune in at 7:00PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
104.9 FM Modesto our Flag Ship station
The call-in number is 1-347-215-9414
English: A woman swats away the stork which has brought her her child. Caption: “And the villain still pursues her”. And the villian is the American government.
EOM Contributor
Paul Ryan is at it again. He is supporting yet another “personhood” bill that would grant all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood to a one-celled human embryo. Previous personhood bills have been soundly defeated in several states, including Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and socially conservative Mississippi. Mr. Ryan also sponsored a bill that was nicknamed “let women die” because it would allow hospitals to refuse to allow a woman emergency abortion care, even if her life were in danger.
Not only would these laws, if passed, prevent abortion in most cases, they would also result in banning some forms of birth control. The birth control pill and the IUD do not prevent eggs from becoming fertilized, they simply prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the lining of the uterus. Medical science does not consider a woman to be pregnant until the egg is securely implanted in the uterus. Personhood bills would consider a woman pregnant before medical science does. Do these politicians actually believe the know more about medical science that physicians do?
What is being forgotten in this emotionally charged discussion is the rights of the woman. Do women lose their rights the moment an egg is fertilized? Why would a single-celled embryo have more rights that I do?
New Mexico is trying to pass a law that would prosecute rape victims who have an abortion for “tampering with evidence”. Giving birth isn’t evidence of rape, it’s just evidence of pregnancy. Evidence of rape includes bruises, scratches and injuries. Rape kits done at a hospital provide evidence of rape. If they want to determine paternity, you don’t need to carry a pregnancy to term to do that. If a rape victim has an abortion, tissue from that procedure carries the DNA of the rapist. The New Mexico bill would allow prison sentences of up to three years for any rape victim who has an abortion and for the physician who performs it. If the purpose of this “evidence” is to determine paternity, let’s start by putting the DNA of every male in the country into a national database. It will be very easy to determine paternity. Men don’t think the government should have their DNA? Too bad…women don’t think the government should force us to become mothers. If the government is going to control the lives of women, you can be sure we will force it to control the lives of men, too!
Wisconsin lawmakers have imposed restrictions on chemical abortions, including a waiting period. These are abortions caused by taking medication prescribed by a physician. They are performed very early in the pregnancy, can be done at home in privacy, and are extremely safe. Wisconsin is forcing women to wait longer to end a pregnancy, making it necessary to have a surgical abortion. This only adds stress to the woman and her partner. Surgical procedures are still very safe, but slightly riskier than chemical ones, as there is always the chance of infection.
We are quite possibly heading to forced parenthood. Any woman who becomes pregnant, either rape or accident, will be forced to become a mother. There is a flip side to this….men will be forced to become fathers. How many of you men believe the government has the right to force you to be a father? Think about it….every time you have a sexual encounter you will run the risk of your government forcing you to be a father. Birth control fails. IUD’s, the pill, condoms….all have a certain failure rate.
We need to consider not only the rights of women to choose when or if to become a mother, but the rights of men to make a choice to become a father. Will the government force these men to be involved in their child’s life? Will they be strict in forcing them to pay child support? Several states already give rapists the right to sue for visitation rights and even custody. Apparently the rights of men, even rapists, outweigh the rights of their victims, who are women. Now the playing field will be leveled to a certain degree. Will men stand for allowing their government to force them to become fathers? I doubt it. It should be interesting.
The goal of the conservatives in this country is to eliminate abortion. They may succeed in making it illegal, but we all know that desperate women in desperate situations will try to end their pregnancy. What the conservatives will succeed in is causing women to die from unsafe abortions.
Conservatives and liberals alike would like to reduce the number of abortions performed in this country. It has been shown that abstinence only education doesn’t work. The way to reduced unplanned pregnancies and abortions is to provide thorough sex education in schools. The states with the highest rate of teen pregnancies are the ones that teach abstinence only. Teenagers have raging hormones. They think they’re in love. If they have the knowledge to prevent pregnancy, most of them will use it. Sex education and access to birth control. That’s what this country needs. Not politicians forcing parenthood on us against our will. All of us would like to have a less intrusive government. Forcing parenthood on us? That’s incredibly intrusive.
REMINDER: The Salida Municipal Advisory Council meeting is Tuesday, January 29th at 7 pm @ the Salida Library Community Room. Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh and Councilman Dave Cogdill plan to attend because they want your questions about Modesto’s potential annexation of Salida. Please plan to attend and bring your family, friends and neighbors. — at the Salida Library.
Attitudes are welcome, tar and feathers are optional…(metaphorically speaking, of course.)
By Emerson Drake
Imagine, if you will, a hit and run driver who killed a man is sentenced. The local Sheriff has the ability to decide if he spends his sentence of a year actually in jail or allowed to spend his time at home with an ankle bracelet. The Sheriff gets calls and visits from people he refers to as Rotarians who ask him to allow this man to stay out of jail because in his words “he’s written grants that have brought lots of money to Stanislaus County.” The Sheriff’s policy was no home detention for crimes of violence and a fatal hit-and-run fits that description. The perpetrator not only received this “special treatment” he even received lax follow-up on his home detention and was seen several times out and about town, from the Gallo Center, to the Brenden movie theater in the evenings when he should have been at home.
The Sheriff’s name was Adam Christianson and the Rotarians he referred to were members of the Stanislaus County Workforce Alliance, Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary. The man’s name was Joe Gibbs. The group he worked for was called Stanislaus Community Assistance Program or SCAP. What most people remember of the SCAP debacle is Mr. Gibbs wanted to be paid over $600,000 dollars for his grant writing ability.
Well, that and the fact he and his wife placed her parents in one of the fanciest remodeled homes while using SCAP staff to rent out the two homes her parents owned.
Less remembered is the joke of an investigation Modesto City Manager Greg Nyhoff performed. The total paper trail was an email to SCAP warning them about the Bee’s investigative article.
What many people aren’t aware of is the continuing SCAP connection at city hall. Not only have former SCAP board members been placed on multiple city committees, they still promote on the city website some of the companies involved. From the company that attempted to channel $62,500 to Benchmark Realty (then owned by Councilman Joe Muratore and his business partner Ryan Swehla), to Joe Gibbs and SCAP.
Joe Gibbs
Stanislaus Community Assistance Project (SCAP)
2209 Coffee Rd. Suite A
Modesto, CA 95355
(209) 572-2437
Jgibbs1@scap4.org
Ryan Swhela
Trinity Ventures
1120 13th Street. Suite I
Modesto, CA 95354
(209) 380-4425
ryan@trinityventures.us
You can see for yourself here NSP2 Developers straight from the city website.
Recently J.David Wright, Modesto’s third largest political contributor in the last local election helped, Frank Ploof get placed on the Citizens Housing and Community Development Commission. It is bad enough that Ploof is a former member of SCAP’s Board of Directors, he spent 10 months helping Daryl Fair, the former SCAP Board Chairman with a nonprofit that hadn’t filed their papers with the IRS for several years and had lost their nonprofit status. Now Mr. Wright is also promoting Mr. Fair to run a day drop-in-center for the homeless. All he needs is a grant. That’s correct, he wants to stick his hand back in the honey jar, your pocket and mine. Watching Wright show up at the last city council for the expressed reason of making sure Ploof received the necessary votes sure took the cake. By the way, despite all of the SCAP connections and the fake nonprofit, the vote was 5-1. Councilman Lopez voted against with Councilman Muratore recusing himself from the discussion and vote.
Watching the city representative make sure their “insider friends”, the Beard Industrial Trust, receive special treatment from the LAFCO Board, which cost Modesto millions of dollars between property taxes and utility fees, was enough to turn a citizens stomach. But quite honestly it was just business as usual for Modesto and the County we live in.
Since the Alliance and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce are 501 (c) (6)’s, they can lobby to their heart’s content and allow donors to receive “business deductions”. The donors can EXPECT some return on their investment according to Bill Bassett, and receive special favors from the City and County.
Our Mayor likes to say “Politics just happens to most people.” Maybe he’s correct, but between the back door, and behind the scenes dealings that go on every day how is a citizen supposed to have a chance?
There will be two Don Pedro Relicensing meetings the public is encouraged to attend on January 30th from 8:00 AM until 5:30 PM and January 31st 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM. These meetings will be held at the MID offices in Modesto so please try to attend.
For those who are unable to participate in the meetings in person here is the call in information:
Call-in Phone Number 866-994-6437, Conference Code 5424697994
– Online meeting information (below – same for both days)
Join online meeting
https://meet.hdrinc.com/jenna.borovansky/3D64F0F5
First online meeting? Here are the agendas:
Initial Study Report Meeting (Day 1)
Wednesday January 30, 2013 8:00 am – 5:30 pm
Meeting Location: MID Offices, Modesto
|
Time |
Topic |
|
|
8:00 |
Opening – Agenda Review, Purpose of Meeting | |
|
8:20 |
W&AR‐15 | Socioeconomics Study |
|
8:40 |
W&AR‐01 | Water Quality Assessment |
|
9:00 |
W&AR‐02 | Project Operations/Water Balance Model |
|
9:25 |
W&AR‐03W&AR‐16 | Reservoir Temperature ModelLower Tuolumne River Temperature Model |
|
9:55 |
W&AR‐04 | Spawning Gravel Study |
|
Break – 10:20 |
||
|
10:35 |
IFIM Schedule and Update | |
|
10:45 |
W&AR‐05 | Salmonid Populations Information Integration |
|
11:05 |
W&AR‐06 | Tuolumne River Chinook Salmon Population Model |
|
11:30 |
W&AR‐10 | Onchorhynchus mykiss Population Study |
|
Lunch Break – 11:50 |
||
|
12:50 |
W&AR‐07 | Predation Study |
|
1:15 |
W&AR‐08 | Salmonid Redd Mapping |
|
1:40 |
W&AR‐11 | Chinook Salmon Otolith Study |
|
2:05 |
W&AR‐12 | Onchorhynchus mykiss Habitat Assessment |
|
2:30 |
W&AR‐13 | La Grange Reservoir Fish Assemblage and Population Study |
|
Break – 2:55 |
||
|
3:10 |
W&AR‐14 | Temperature Criteria Assessment |
|
3:35 |
W&AR‐17 | Don Pedro Reservoir Fish Population Study |
|
4:00 |
W&AR‐18 | Sturgeon Study |
|
4:25 |
W&AR‐19 | Riparian Information Study |
|
4:50 |
W&AR‐20 | O.mykiss Scale & Age Study |
|
5:15 |
Wrap-Up & Review 1/31 Schedule | |
Initial Study Report Meeting (Day 2)
Thursday January 31, 2013 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Meeting Location: MID Offices, Modesto
|
Time |
Topic |
|
|
8:00 |
Opening – Agenda Review, Purpose of Meeting | |
|
8:15 |
CR‐01 | Historic Properties Study |
|
8:40 |
CR‐02 | Native American Traditional Cultural Properties Study |
|
9:05 |
TR‐01 | Special-Status Plants Study |
|
9:30 |
TR‐02 | ESA- and CESA-Listed Plants Study |
|
9:55 |
TR‐03 | Wetland Habitats Associated with Don Pedro Reservoir Study |
|
Break – 10:20 |
||
|
10:35 |
TR‐04 | Noxious Weed Survey |
|
11:00 |
TR‐05 | ESA-Listed Wildlife – Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle Study |
|
11:25 |
TR‐06 | Special‐Status Amphibians‐Aquatic Reptiles Study |
|
11:50 |
TR‐07 | ESA-Listed Amphibians – California Red-Legged Frog Study |
| Lunch Break – 12:15 | ||
|
1:15 |
TR‐08 | ESA-List Amphibians – California Tiger Salamander Study |
|
1:40 |
TR‐09 | Special‐Status Bats Study |
|
2:05 |
TR‐10 | Bald Eagle Study |
|
2:30 |
RR‐01 | Recreation Facility and Public Accessibility Assessment |
|
Break – 2:55 |
||
|
3:10 |
RR‐02 | Whitewater Boating Take Out Improvement Feasibility |
|
3:35 |
RR‐03 | Lower Tuolumne River Boatable Flow Study |
|
4:00 |
RR‐04 | Visual Quality Study |
|
4:25 |
Wrap-Up and Next Steps | |
I don’t know and you don’t either. (Photo credit: j_mills)
By Emerson Drake
At last night’s Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCO a vote was taken to give special interests a leg up on the competition and the citizens of Modesto are footing the bill. LAFCO Commissioners voted to repeal a 2010 Resolution, #2013-01 which states if an out of boundary service extension, which in this case is a sewer extension to the Beard Trust Industrial Park, is allowed the future purchasers of the property are required to sign a waiver not to oppose their annexation by Modesto.
It seems like a small change but allows LAFCO Commissioners to be “swayed” by business owners in the future to allow for another exception to what is supposed to be the rule. What difference does it make you ask? Well check your utility bill next time you get ready to pay it and you’ll find a 6% utility tax/user fee added if you live in Modesto. Not only will Modestans be shorted this income but we lose out on the property tax collected every year. The tax if you live in the county goes 100% to the county. If you live in an incorporated area (Modesto in this case) the split is 70/30. 70% to the county and 30% to Modesto. It doesn’t affect the amount of property tax a business has to pay.
But it does affect the amount of money Modesto has to hire more police officers. All of our council members including the Mayor talk about finding more money to spend on police, but last night they insisted on giving it away. There is also a mill tax Modesto collects from businesses if they are in Modesto.
Lets all understand that businesses aren’t going to agree to be annexed into the city if they have a choice when they are already getting the services at no extra cost from the city. Now our Mayor has claimed it’s easier to attract business if they aren’t required to sign a waiver. But in his next breath he says the reason he wants to annex Salida is to make it easier to attract business. Huh? Why is it that in Beard Industrial Park it’s better NOT to be in Modesto and up around Salida it’s BETTER to be in Modesto?
Now if Beard Trust, which owns the industrial park, wants to make it more business friendly, why don’t they reduce the cost of using their private railroad which currently charges about three times the amount for each move of a rail car as do other railroads. Three times the cost to spot (bring it to your dock) the car and three times the cost to move it away. This is what they’ve been doing since Tri-Valley came to town. These excessive charges are at least one of the reasons Tri-Valley went under. Since they (Beard) own the land they refuse to allow any other railroad to service businesses there.
So why did the Mayor and the Modesto City Council actively participate in the fleecing of Modesto’s citizens by Beard Industrial? I honestly don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense especially since they keep crying about not having any money to pay for more police. Don’t forget you’ve been paying extra to build and expand the water treatment plant and sewage facility. They(the City Council and LAFCO) are giving away to their friends the bounty YOU paid for.
The vote was unanimous to grant Modesto and Beard Industrial their special private deal. Despite pleas from the public to be our last bastion of defense against special interest politics, the Commissioners went along. They actually said if the public didn’t like it they should go talk with their council members and not them. They want the power to make “special backroom” deals against the public’s best interests if and when the choose. After all it isn’t breaking the law, if you change the law. Unfortunately, in this case, they changed it for the worse.
In another decision they chose to break the Attorney General’s orders and allow Alternate Members of LAFCO to attend closed sessions. The vote was three to two with Commissioners O’Brien and Bublak voting no. So we could be facing an expensive lawsuit in the future.
The scary thing about this Board is they changed the official policy to give themselves more leeway in “special interest” decisions and when they couldn’t change the meeting law, they decided to break it.
You can’t watch these important meetings on-line because they aren’t video recorded. You can’t watch it live since they don’t use streaming video. They do have an audio recording you can arrange to hear by appointment. Last night we asked the LAFCO Board to consider televising, utilizing streaming video, and archive their meetings to allow those who can’t attend to watch their meetings. They are now looking into the cost. We thank them for that.
You won’t read this in the Bee, at least not first hand coverage. Despite the potential millions of dollars being lost to Modesto, the Bee chose not to attend the meeting. Then again maybe they had gotten a phone call and knew the outcome was preordained.
If you live in Modesto you might want to take a moment to call your council representitive and ask why they gave away money that could have gone to pay for more police officers.
Eye On Modesto 