BVN Opinion

EDITORIAL: What is a Public Figure, a Bully and a Journalist? Why Some May Never Know!

EDITORIAL – The law defines a public figure as a person, such as a politician, celebrity, or business leader, who has a certain social position within a certain scope and a significant influence on society or a person who has thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies to influence the resolution of the issues involved.

As the publisher of Big Valley News, I recognize that I have voluntarily placed myself in the position of a public figure. If I didn’t want to be in the public spotlight, I should have probably picked a different line of work. There are others in our community that take to the podiums at public meetings, such as county board of supervisors, school boards, or city councils, and share their opinions or criticize our elected officials. Those people are also public figures and hopefully, they all gave thought ahead of time to what it means to choose to spend time in the public spotlight.

EDITORIAL: The Bullies Continue Attack on Madera Mayor While the Grand Jury Complains They Get No Respect, No Respect at All…..

EDITORIAL – Since December of 2017, the city of Madera’s Mayor Andy Medellin has been on the hot seat. A hot seat created by two land developers who have had a history of grievances with the city.

These two men tried to have the mayor recalled, but failed. They have had their bully-pawns attack the mayor at nearly every Madera City Council meeting over his personal financial issues for the last year. Now they have convinced the Madera County Grand Jury to publish a report full of accusations but with no real “meat”.

Editorial: Lesson Learned, For Customer Service the Local Guys are Your Best Bet

EDITORIAL - When Home Depot announced they were opening a store in Madera, I was excited like many other Maderans. We needed a good place in town to buy lumber and a one stop shop for home improvement. Then a few years later along came Lowes less than a mile from Home Depot. Now we had two large box stores that would stock everything you would ever need to fix up your house.

The only problem was, despite the large inventory of everything you could ever want; they forgot to stock the one thing Maderan’s want more than anything else, CUSTOMER SERVICE. How many times have you walked the aisles of either of these stores looking for an item, only to have NO ONE around to help you find it?

EDITORIAL - Political ‘Want-To-Be’ Bullies City & School District - Now Accuses Local High School of “Institutional Racism” – ENOUGH!

EDITORIAL – Enough is enough! I was recently made aware of a letter that is circulating through-out the Central Valley high school track & field community accusing the Madera Unified School District, specifically Madera South High School of “institutional racism”. The letter was written by a frequent flyer at the public comments podium for both the Madera City Council and Madera Unified Board of Trustee meetings, Ron Montoya a Medical Social Worker for Valley Home Care.

Montoya was a 2010 board of trustee candidate for the Madera Unified School District but was trounced by Maria Velarde-Garcia in the general election (45.8% to 24.7%) and is now talking about a run for the Madera City Council against Donald Holley in District Six. Montoya was also a part of the recall efforts against Madera Mayor Andrew Medillian (acting along with Khalid Chaudhry of Ripon and developer Michael Pistoresi).

EDITORIAL: Three Months & No One Has Done Anything to Solve the Troubled MUSD A5 Election

EDITORIAL – It is coming up on three months since the November elections and we still do not have a winner for the Madera Unified School District Area 5 seat. A seat that has been empty since July of last year when then board trustee Al Galvez resigned because of family issues. Yet the tax payers in that district are still paying taxes for their schools despite the fact that they no longer have any representation on the school board.

Wasn’t taxation without representation a big part of the founding of this country? Didn’t we dump tea into Boston Harbor and go to war with England over just that sort of thing? Why is it now acceptable some 245 year later in the little old town of Madera, California?