Everyone seems to be putting the blame somewhere. We need to think first. The people came from all over they brought these homes. That they could not pay for. Half of them were just house painters others were grass cutter yet they got homes for 5 hundred thousand. The mort. was 22-2,5oo a month. The day they move into these homes they were already behind in the mortg. Then they went out a got the biggest suv's they could get,some even brought boats, They stay a year or two and when they saw they were losing it they just left. It's not the mayor's fault. These people knew in the beginning they could not pay for these homes.But like so many of them said.I just put the house in my wife's name My credit is still good.

My last article was a very light introduction to health and fitness with emphasis on physical fitness programs from the easiest and most simple (stretching and walking) to the discovery of online fitness programs that may better suit your schedule and lifestyle than gym membership. In this article I'd like to touch on the topic of nutrition, offering a few tidbits to get you started thinking about nutrition and providing a source for further research.

If you are like most health conscious adults, you notice nutrition information on your favorite foods, and make good choices based on recommended nutritional guidelines. A great site to visit that has reliable nutrition information is www.nutrition.gov, made available to consumers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Library. This site features discussion on all the latest nutrition news, in addition to answers to the most frequently asked questions about the latest dietary guidelines for all age groups. Nutrition information is included for everyone, including men, women, infants, children, adolescents, the elderly, and for women that are pregnant or breast feeding. The revised Food Guide Pyramid is also discussed, and describes each food group, recommended number of daily servings, and how to get these foods into your diet.

What is wrong with our justice system? A Los Banos resident, Gilbert Fuentes Jr., pleaded guilty yesterday to vehicular manslaughter charges and was sentenced by the judge to 360 hours of community service. On November 30th, 2008 Mr. Fuentes was driving west bound on Highway 152 at an excessive speed for the weather conditions. His wrecklessness caused the death of my only brother, Mauricio Inocenio Diaz, 24, and caused my cousin, Antonio Franco, 17, to be paralyzed from his chest line down for the rest of his life at the last stoplight heading westbound on Highway 152. The place is marked with a wooden cross by Merced Community College. The judge allowed us to speak and share with him how the loss of my brother's life has impacted us. We shared our tears, deepest emotions, and feelings and were disappointed to hear that the judge valued my brothers life, a productive member of society, CSU Fresno alumni, recently accepted to Masters program, at 360 hours of community service.

What is wrong with our justice system? A Los Banos resident, Gilbert Fuentes Jr., pleaded guilty yesterday to vehicular manslaughter charges and was sentenced by the judge to 360 hours of community service. On November 30th, 2008 Mr. Fuentes was driving west bound on Highway 152 at an excessive speed for the weather conditions. His wrecklessness caused the death of my only brother, Mauricio Inocenio Diaz, 24, and caused my cousin, Antonio Franco, 17, to be paralyzed from his chest line down for the rest of his life at the last stoplight heading westbound on Highway 152. The place is marked with a wooden cross by Merced Community College. The judge allowed us to speak and share with him how the loss of my brother's life has impacted us. We shared our tears, deepest emotions, and feelings and were disappointed to hear that the judge valued my brothers life, a productive member of society, CSU Fresno alumni, recently accepted to Masters program, at 360 hours of community service.

Anybody wanna go to a tea party or keep your kids form seeing the Prez? Are we really so stupid to let China surpass us?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125260749581800317.html

While y'all were wasting your time worrying about Obama talkin to your kids and getting your opinions from Bill O'Reilly, China has craftily captured 95% of the rare metals market that are indispensible for everything from missile systems to hybrid cars. They are forcing companies to relocate to China in order to have access to these minerals. Thanks George Bush, thanks Dick Cheney, thanks Bill O'Reilly for screwing America.

Once the current problems with city administration are cleared up, the city still has abundant problems that will not go away anytime soon. The problems Los Banos is facing are region wide and they require a strategic and coordinated approach from all the leadership in the valley.

If weather patterns do not return to the norm we have come to expect, this could be the beginning of a permanent contraction of the farm economy. The only hope we have is to transform the economy and vigorously pursue investment from Silicon Valley.

The world is changing very quickly and misdirected resentment will not change the fact that petroleum will become more scarce as 1.5 billion Chinese aspire to live as we do.

Well, the last week of events tells it all...again! Despite alot of angry citizens demanding that the city manager be fired for the OVER $1.7 million embezzlement at city hall, the three amigos( AKA Mayor Jones, Joe Sousa and Elizabeth Stone) voted to keep him at the head watch of our city. Turning their heads on the accounts of embezzling going on since march 2005 under his nose and he supposedly didn't know anything about it. Yah, that is like saying Maryann Jones' husband didn't know she was embezzling..same thing. After repeated audit reports stating the cash handling needed attention, Steve Rath still did nothing about it.

Has anyone heard of a tea party in Los Banos or Merced for the week-end of 9/12?

Los Banos Enterprise quote:
The criminal investigation for Mary Ann Jones didn’t go into management practices, didn’t go into the culpability of other city employees,” Stone said. “So I don’t feel like we have enough information to indict anyone or convict anyone else besides Mary Ann Jones.”

No one believes Steve is guilty of anything criminal. He is guilty of lazy management. We pay him a lot of money to manage and protect our city. The one common denominator in the city’s woes has been the manager. Here was a chance to start the ball moving on his removal, but the familiar split of votes saved him. We must wait until the next election to see if the voters of Los Banos will give their vote of confidence to the big three who gave their vote of confidence to the city manager.