Our state Attorney General Xavier Becerra is once again crossing the line. But what’s new? He and his liberal counterparts think their job description is meddling in the affairs of other states. You know how California liberals like to squeal about their state’s sovereignty and supremacy to abort federal laws but they don’t think states like Ohio can decide for themselves on abortion. Becerra is on the attack against life. Two weeks ago (in Preterm Cleveland v. Himes), a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit barred the state of Ohio from enforcing its law that prohibits medical providers from performing an abortion if they have “knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion, in whole or in part, because” her baby has been diagnosed as having Down syndrome.
Becerra wants women to be able to kill their babies if they find out they have birth defects. Aren’t your state officials so noble?
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Do you ever since that a lot of our young people just aren’t happy?
According to USA Today, doctors are seeing more people in their 20s and 30s with symptoms of acute liver disease related to alcohol consumption. A January published study in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that from 1999 to 2017 the number of alcohol-related deaths per year doubled, rising from 35,914 to 72,558. Just under a third of those resulted from liver disease.
Dr. Naga Chalasani, head of hepatology at Indiana University Health, believes there is an “epidemic of alcoholism and alcohol use disorder that I think is hiding behind the opioid crisis.” He states that “There are more people drinking, and the people who drink are drinking more.”
The problem is growing among middle-aged women. You can blame marketing and the growing push for drinking, such as women’s nights out to football parties to business dinners.
Something to think about when popping the top of that can or heading out to the tap room which are popping up everywhere.
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Every time I see a Michael Bloomberg or Tom Steyer commercial I see a millionaire who would better put his money to use by sending kids to college (since they think all of us taxpayers should).
I will never forget how Bloomberg, when he was mayor, capped the size of soft drinks in New York City greater than 16 ounces at all movie houses, fast-food eateries and restaurants, delis, food carts and sports stadiums. Fortunately an appeals court struck down that soda limit, saying Bloomberg’s action violates “the principle of separation of powers.”
You know how I feel about government telling people what they can and cannot drink or eat or smoke. Now in New York’s Suffolk County (the most progressive county in the state), is proposing a law that would ban smoking in apartment complexes, condominiums, and multi-family dwellings. Legislator Sam Gonzalez carrying the bill wants offenders to be fined up to $1,000 or even arrested, and said that enforcement will be complaint driven.
Liberals think they’re God.
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There are truly difficult issues in matters centering on city powers.
As you know, three members of the Ceres City Council changed the law regarding the storage of garbage cans. Now residents will be able to leave their cans in public view as long as the cans are up against the house and not in front of the house. They cannot be closer to the street than the front of the house.
But the council tightened down on some other matters, outlawing the parking of vehicles on the front yard or grass; and banning major car repairs in the driveway unless you’re just changing the oil or working on the brakes. Engine overhauls and car restorations must occur in a closed garage or behind a fence.
Residents seem split, like they were with the garbage cans.
I personally always place my can behind the fence because it doesn’t take much effort and it doesn’t subject me or my neighbors to visual blight. Some people don’t care. They act like placing them behind the side yard fences is like dragging a cord of wood up a 100-foot hill. It’s really a minimal effort with big dividends as far as neighborhood aesthetics is concerned.
On our Facebook page, we heard both sides of the matter.
Cali Kel Perez posted that her neighbors have two cars in their driveway that haven’t run in years and said “they look like they came out a swamp.” She said the neighbors have inoperable cars parked on the street and an additional four cars they each drive daily and park in front of everyone’s house but their own! She said it “makes my beautiful neighborhood look like a dump.” Wish there was something they could do about that.
Amanda Lorraine Ginnings agreed, saying parking on laws “looks so trashy.” She feels if a household has too many cars then they should be parked elsewhere.
Russ Hill sees it as a liberty issue, saying “If there are no health or safety issues, why are people so concerned about what people should want to do with their own property? Some folks here sound like they’d also like to set up and enforce their own laws around how people should dress. Liberty is something very dear and valid.”
Christine Crawford thinks while lawn parking may look trashy, “it shouldn’t be illegal to park on your own property.”
In answer to those who like the no-parking-on-lawns law, Christian Rincon asked “Who are you to tell or judge anyone how to park on their own property?”
It seems to me that you go with the good of the most. With real estate agents saying the looks of a neighborhood affect value, I think it would behoove everyone to not make classless behavior part of everyday life. Ceres needs to rise to a higher standard.
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You just can’t make up the insanity that flows from our governor’s mouth.
He called it “a disgrace, that the richest state in the richest nation ... is falling so far behind to properly house, heal and humanely treat so many of its own people.”
Well, yeah, and the problem belongs squarely in your party, Bub.
The shortage in housing is due to California being unfriendly toward corporations and businesses – as evidenced by its high taxes and regulation – and its extreme environmental protections shackle the construction industry.
Republicans like Assemblyman Vince Fong of Bakersfield have been urging the cutting of red tape for years.
This from his State of the State address: “Health care and housing can no longer be divorced. After all, what’s more fundamental to a person’s well-being than a roof over their head? Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin and antibiotics. Why not?”
What? A doctor prescribing housing? Can you understand now why the rest of the United States is laughing at Californians for putting into office people who seem to be making policy while in a perpetual state of being stoned?
So let me get this straight. In Newsom’s mind, all you have to do to take care of the mentally ill and drug addicted people on the street is just give them a 3 bedroom, two bath home (which is going to magically appear out of nowhere) and likely paid for by you and I who are busting our butts to both pay our rents and mortgages while getting soaked by the tax-heavy Democrats? Did it ever occur to him that most of the homeless are homeless because they did drugs and made horrible decisions themselves?
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I’m going to say it now. Listen to me. Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra are certifiable fools.
Friday brought this press release from the state Attorney General’s Office: “SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for failing to protect endangered fish species from federal water export operations.”
It should have read: “California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration because the president is against an illegal state grab of water that threatens the livelihood of farmers and of all industries and jobs that center on agriculture.”
Why haven’t you had enough of this California?
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Tuesday is Election Day. Please vote. Many in our military have died for your right of self determination.
Don’t treat it lightly. Research and do soul searching. And don’t let the liberals take back the property tax relief passed in 1978. Don’t fall for their games.
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Katherine Loera, a 2008 Ceres High graduate, is a cheerleader on the San Francisco 49ers who performed in the Super Bowl. The story
Lillian Loera, the coordinator for Ceres Healthy Start, is her mother.
We hope to give you the story soon!
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Sadness in my family came with the death of one of my mom’s cousins who was raised in Ceres. Larry Holland was the son of my grandfather’s sister. He was the son of Dorothy and Jack Holland. His brother Garry had been killed in a car crash above La Grange in 1971.
I wasn’t close to Larry but he appears in some early reunion photos. He battled a fierce brain cancer.
Life is short, isn’t it?
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
