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The late Peggy Mensinger left a lasting impact on Modesto in several regards. Before and during her years as a councilwoman and mayor, from 1973 to 1987, she spearheaded significant efforts to preserve farmland by slowing growth and to reduce the influence of developers on city politics.
This week was full of caps and gowns as high school graduates walked the stage. It's a little soon to rain on their parade and tell them this is just the beginning of their lives rather than the end of it; after all, they've looked forward to this moment for years.
Editor's note: Masumoto gave the commencement speech at UC Merced on May 19. This is an excerpt from that speech, expanded to include high school graduates.
A weekend conference titled "The Changing Face of America" wraps up this morning at UC Berkeley with a panel discussion called "Friends and Foes: The Politics of Immigration Reform."
It has been 35 years since California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, a measure that, as Gov. Jerry Brown put it in 2011, "started the centralization of power" in the state. He should know because he was also governor in 1978 and helped oversee that shift.
When Gov. Jerry Brown talks about reducing the state's "wall of debt," he carefully limits it to about $30 billion in budget deficits, mostly money owed to schools and community colleges.
At least some of those grease spots on the Assembly and Senate floors are what's left of grand legislation to raise taxes on the oil industry.
These letters were written by eighth-grade students in the AVID program at Hanshaw Middle School. Their teacher is Cindi Karras.
Thank you for publishing "One price should fit all at state's JCs" (Our View, May 7) emphasizing the negative impacts of two-tier pricing for students. The two-tier pricing creates an unfair disadvantage for the students who can't get the regular course and will further worsen problems in the California community college system.
We wonder why there have been so many teen suicides lately. Many say that suicidal tendencies stem from a hard life. But what is considered a hard life? Is it being called horrible names? Is it being physically abused by family members or peers? Is it being picked on day by day by day for no good reason?