Editorial

Lack of Fair Funding Would be Disastrous for Our Community

EDITORIAL - Summer has finally arrived, and that marks the official kickoff of fair season! Many of you and millions of others around our state will visit your local fairgrounds this year to participate in one of California’s longest-standing traditions. But in recent years, state funding for fairs has been all but eliminated, threatening their very existence.

In 2011, at the peak of California’s historic budget crisis, the Legislature completely eliminated the $32 million in funding to the California Division of Fairs and Expositions, which oversees the state’s fairs. Though the cuts were devastating, fair organizers learned to adapt to their limited means the way many other state programs did during that difficult time.

EDITORIAL: Slate Mail Ads - Paid Endorsement or Political Trickery

EDITORIAL - In the next few weeks, if not already, your mailbox is going to be filled with advertisements and brochures for candidates for every position on this June's ballots. The message will be "Vote for me because" or "Don't vote for him because".

Positive ads as well as negative ads designed by public relations firms will try to sway your vote to the candidate willing to spend the most money. Then there are other mailers that will look like endorsements from powerful groups that aren't what they seem. These mailers are called SLATE MAIL ADS and they can be quite deceptive.

Slate Mail Ads - Paid Endorsement or Political Trickery

Bad Sportsmanship in Little League is a Sign of Bad Coaching

EDITORIAL - Over the years I used to look forward to when my daughter's Little League team would play Cervantes Remodeling. At that time the team was being taught baseball and class from one of the best coaches I've ever seen in Little League, Larry Cervantes.

Unfortunately this year Larry isn't coaching. Instead his team is being handled by two newer coaches; one being Larry's former Son-in-law and the other being a sexist jerk. From the example they are setting, I'd have to say it doesn't seem that teaching sportsmanship and class is something these coaches find at all important.

Did County Auditor Marcia Hall Tell The Truth at Madera Chamber Forum?

MADERA - Last Monday at the Madera Chamber of Commerce Candidate's Forum appointed Madera County Auditor Marcia Hall was asked two questions regarding her private practice CPA firm and her primary residence. On both questions Mrs. Hall avoided the word MERCED. Her answers can most accurately be described as evasive and/or defensive. On the answers for both questions Big Valley News had to ask for clarification, speaking from the audience.

Madera Tribune publisher Chuck Doud asked both county auditor candidates where their private practice CPA firms were located. Oakhurst CPA Todd Miller clearly answered that his firm was located in Oakhurst and offered information about the size of his firm and the kind of work his firm does for his clients.

Did County Auditor Marcia Hall Tell The Truth at Madera Chamber Forum?

EDITORIAL: Marcia Hall: Full Time County Auditor or Private CPA? - Full Time Madera or Merced Resident?

MADERA - In January of 2012 Marcia Hall was appointed to complete the term of former Madera County Auditor/Controller Janet Kroeger by a unanimous vote from the Madera County Board of Supervisors. However no one advised Ms. Hall at the time that as an (appointed) elected official, she had to live in Madera County in order to hold that position.

A year later the board realized that the advice given to them by former county counsel Doug Nelson was wrong and that Hall would have to move to Madera County from Merced if she wanted to continue in her current (appointed) elected position. For the next several months Hall claimed she was looking for a house to rent in the Chowchilla area and each time she spoke at the weekly board of supervisors meetings it seemed like her search for a Madera County residence was a running joke that the board was in on.