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.

Madera Unified Delaying Records Turn Over on Trustee's Taxpayer Paid Dinners

EDITORIAL - What is the Madera Unified School District hiding from the public related to the dinners the board of trustees receive before each and every meeting?

Last week Big Valley News issued a public records request for information about dinners which the district provides it's trustees before their twice a month meetings. This morning we received a call from the district informing us they are delaying our legal California Public Records Act request, wanting us to resubmit our request on yet another form.

EDITORIAL: Madera High Coach Questions Parents Loyality - What a Boner of a Move?

MADERA - What does Madera High School varsity football coach Bonner Cunnings do when he hears bad news? The same thing the administration of the school has done for the last five years....shoot the messenger.

Last year Big Valley News wrote a series of stories on former head coach Scott McKinney's final year with the football program. The year started with a scrimmage which degenerated into a riot involving recent Madera High players and possibly current players. Questions stand to this day about the participants because the administration refused to share the game video of the melee claiming it was classified as 'student records'.

Madera High Coach Questions Parents Loyality - What a Boner of a Move?

AN EXCLUSIVE BIG VALLEY NEWS EDITORIAL

MADERA - What does Madera High School varsity football coach Bonner Cunnings do when he hears bad news? The same thing the administration of the school has done for the last five years....shoot the messenger.

EDITORIAL: Farinelli on High Speed Rail Lawsuit

Today is a sad day for Madera County Taxpayers. Madera County, along with our friends from the Madera Farm Bureau and Preserve Our Heritage vowed, just a few short months ago, to stand up to the goliath California High Speed Rail Authority and hold them accountable for the destruction they will do to our community and their failure to consider the future of Madera County.

Today, three of my colleagues, whom I respect, abandon our friends by walking away from a lawsuit that sought to protect taxpayers, farmers and our children from the devastating effects of High Speed Rail. I want to thank Supervisor David Rogers for joining me in opposing the withdrawal and his willingness to stand up, even in the face of adversity.

Would Dean & Don's Breakfast Club Survive in Today's Fresno Radio Market?

FRESNO - Would the Fresno radio market support a show like the Breakfast Club? Not the movie staring Molly Ringwald, but the morning radio show that ran on KKDJ from 1981 to 1993 staring Don Fischer and Dean Opperman. Has the Fresno radio market become far too conservative that it would no longer welcome a locally produced radio show with satire that might not fall in line with the messages of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity

Sunday on Facebook, Opperman posted a story he wrote for a newspaper about the old show. A few hours later he received a responds from his old boss Al Smith. With the permission of Mr. Opperman, we have reposted Smith's comment and Opperman's responds.

EDITORIAL: Where is the American Flag at the New McDonald's?

EDITORIAL - Well it is back after an absence of three months and everyone on Madera's west-side couldn't be happier. I am of course speaking of McDonald's on Howard Road. Driving by the new building that houses the Big Mac, Quarter Pounder with Cheese and of course the Chicken McNuggets, the lines in the new double menu drive through are always packed and the restaurant looks busy.

I had hoped that the industry leader in good food made fast would have found away to make the Big Mac's and McMuffin's coexist in their restaurant for breakfast but this did not happen. How about figuring out how to melt a piece of cheese before I am given my sandwich. I mean how hard is it to melt cheese?