Several individuals in Ceres occasionally CC me on emails to the city which complain about blight or examples of code violations that haven’t been addressed.

Based on what I see for myself, I know Code Enforcement must have a tremendous case load in dealing with conditions in Ceres.

John Warren recently sent the city five photos of an RV parked on the front lawn of a house in the 2700 block of Dale Avenue. He believed people are living in it. He reported that he first saw the RV parked on the street on Feb. 26, 2023 with registration tags expired more than a year which should have triggered its towing.

Warren also sent photos of junk being stored in front of a home at Rose and Dale avenues, claiming it’s an illegal junkyard business. He also stated that the violation has been reported to city staff several times in the past with no results.

As of 2020, the city forbids the major repair of vehicles in public views in residential zones. Those repairs are allowed inside of a closed garage. The code allows a person, however, to allow a person to make minor repairs, such as a brake job or oil change, outside of a closed garage.

Former Councilwoman Linda Ryno emailed Ceres City Council members with a photo of the triangle island that greets folks in downtown Ceres as they come off the freeway after appearing from the underpass at the Whitmore exit. There is a “Welcome to Ceres” marque but Ryno took note of the weeds that have cropped up amongst the red bark. She wrote:

“Is this really the message we want to send welcoming people into our community? It was grass for years; then someone decided to put red bark in many, if not, all of the city’s planters.

“Whoever did the job, did a lousy job with the placement of the weed barrier…you can see it sticking up along the sides and weeds pop up all over…the city’s solution in the past, has been to spray weed killer. I guess in someone’s mind, dead weeds is landscaping.

“Even the war memorial in the background is embarrassing.

“Please, do not use staffing as an excuse…this has been going on at least a year.”

I’ve never believed it that landscaping using bark of any color is a good idea, and especially not when the city requires it of development. Colored bark may look good when first put in place but it breaks down with water and sun bleaching colors after a while and then the sun goes to work on destroying the weed barrier. Next thing you know the weeds pop up all over.

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If the Nanny State in California had a poster boy, it would be Jesse Gabriel. He’s the Encino Democrat in the state Assembly who continues his push to have the state ban things we eat because we are too stupid to choose for ourselves.

Now that his crusade against red Skittles is over, Gabriel is now going after Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Doritos and more food dyes – Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, and Green 3 because he feels they are linked to cancer, hyperactivity, and neurobehavioral harms. Last week he unveiled his AB 2316, first-in-the-nation legislation that would prohibit California public schools from serving foods containing certain additives.

If approved by the Legislature, the bill would remove popular foods like Hot Cheetos, Doritos, M&Ms, sports drinks, some juices and sodas, Twinkies and sugary breakfast cereals like Froot Loops and Cap’n Crunch from public schools.

Never mind that the current U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) levels for safe intake don’t say those dyes are a problem, Gabriel dismisses that pronouncement as “based on 35- to 70-year-old studies that were not designed to detect the types of behavioral effects that have been observed in children” and that “newer studies indicate that the [current FDA guidelines] may not adequately protect children.” He cites the dramatic increase in the percentage of American children and adolescents diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in recent years.

Did Mr. Gabriel ever think that kids have an attention deficit because of the cell phone?

Tasha Stoiber, a scientist with an activist group named Environmental Working Group, was quoted in a Gabriel press release as saying: “Many children rely on school meals as a source of their daily nutrition and calorie intake.”

Well that’s true, since the California Nanny State has excused parents from the responsibility of feeding their own children and made taxpayers foot the bill.

She goes on: “Kids deserve wholesome foods that don’t negatively impact their ability to learn, and parents deserve the confidence that the schools they’re sending their kids to aren’t serving them food that may harm them.”

Wait, the same parents who aren’t being trusted to feed their kids?

I could eat a bag of Doritos or Skittles and it wouldn’t affect my ability to write this column so I’m not buying that certain dyes in occasional food prevent anyone from focusing on a task at hand.

The food industry is pushing back. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) is working to clear up misconceptions about food additives, and informing policymakers and consumers about the real science and policy process behind this issue.

The NCA issued this statement: “It’s time for FDA Commissioner (Robert) Califf to wake up and get in the game. These activists are dismantling our national food safety system state by state in an emotionally-driven campaign that lacks scientific backing. FDA is the only institution in America that can stop this sensationalistic agenda which is not based on facts and science.”

The NCA suggested that Gabriel is perpetuating a myth that U.S. manufacturers can easily replace titanium dioxide and Red Dye 3 in food products. They note that any replacement options must first be petitioned for FDA review and gain approval for use before being legally used as a color additive in the U.S. Currently, no FDA-approved alternative to titanium dioxide or Red Dye 3 can provide similar pigment, opacity, or shelf-life properties.  

They also report that Gabriel is lying that Red Dye 3 is banned in the European Union. 

The FDA continuously reviews colors and other food additives and proactively addresses consumer concerns. Examples of this include food additives being targeted by the state ban proposals including Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO). FDA recently conducted its own studies and has initiated steps to remove BVO from the U.S. food supply.

The FDA is doing just fine so no state meddling by savior complex lawmakers is necessary.

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The lunatics on the Left continue their insane ideologies. Tiffany Cross, a former host on the hard left leaning MSNBC, suggested last week that black people should be exempt from paying taxes as a form of reparations. The remark came when she was talking about black actor Terrence Howard to pay $903,115 in back taxes, interest and penalties. Howard allegedly threatened a Justice Department lawyer and maintained that it was “immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves.”

Reparations here is the notion that people or their immediate grandparents who were never slaves being paid money taken from taxpayers who were never slaves owners.

Let’s be honest, the days of slavery are long over and blacks are not shackled in America. America is replete with highly successful black folks like Howard who make millions so let’s quit bringing up the past as a way to make excuses for wrongdoing like not paying taxes that are owed or robbing the corner 7-Eleven.

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I recently had a conversation with Max Garcia, a Ceres-based engineer who has been involved with innumerable projects in Ceres and Stanislaus County over the years. More times than I can count I’ve seen him appear at numerous Ceres Planning Commission and Ceres City Council meetings over the decades.

He reflected on why it seems Ceres has trouble attracting the businesses folks want.

It’s his opinion is that large companies are dazzled by either Modesto or Turlock but he argues that Ceres being located in the middle is a plus since they could draw from two different markets – not to mention its easy access on a major thoroughfare like Highway 99.

“But when you’re sitting in New York or Kansas City … laying out your marketing plans they don’t know what we know about our area.”

Garcia also shared insights as to why a lot of projects get approved and they don’t seem to move forward. He explained that in many cases a developer can’t market a project for prospective users until it is approved. Another dilemma is that many interested users want to get into the building in a shorter time span than the year and a half it takes to build.

In the case of Surjit Singh who won approval in June 2022 for a commercial shopping center of five buildings on 3.3 acres at the northeast corner of Mitchell and Roeding roads, Garcia believes the financing is in place but Singh wants to use a Bay Area contractor friend who has yet to schedule the work.

Garcia also said the city is still reeling from the effects of Ken Craig, director of Community Development for the city of Ceres prior to 2009, who “came up with all of these unrealistic requirements” relating  to the Copper Trails project.

Another impediment to growth is that construction costs have almost doubled in the wake of the pandemic, government shutdowns of the economy and supply chain issues.

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Congratulations, sanctuary state proponents in California. The top eight American cities for hit-and-runs is in – you guessed it –California.

According to personal injury lawyers, undocumented and uninsured immigrants are disproportionately involved in hit-and-run accidents and other types of fatal car accidents. California’s Democrat policies are serving as a magnet for more illegals.

Personal injury lawyers Anidjar & Levine studied data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the number of fatal road traffic incidents between 2017 and 2021, breaking them down by hit-and-run outcome. Cities with less than 100 total fatalities were excluded from the analysis. The final ranking reveals which cities have the highest percentage of fatal incidents involving a hit-and-run.

Fresno topped the study as the most dangerous city in America for hit-and-runs, with 14.55% of all fatal road traffic incidents involving a hit-and-run. Between 2017 and 2021, approximately 275 fatal road traffic incidents occurred in the city, 40 of which involved a hit-and-run. 

Next are San Jose, Santa Ana, San Bernardino, Stockton, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.

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Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders wants America to have a four-day work week. I’m sure that sounds great to most Americans who would love to have a forever three-day weekend but it would devastate the American economy which is already suffering from Bidenomics and high minimum wage laws.

Imagine if you’re running a small company and the government forces you to give your employees a third day off but pay them not to work. Not only does your productivity go down but your costs soar and you no longer have a reason to operate if it doesn’t make you a profit. If you do stay in business, you’ll cut labor costs through layoffs.

Technology and AI are already eliminating or threatening to eliminate jobs.

A better idea being floated is to have employees work 10 hours a day and get three days off. Most nurses do this already, working 12-hour days.

When Fox News asked Sanders how American businesses can afford that, he didn’t answer but only said that billionaires like Jeff Bezos pay “their fair share.” It’s a common Democrat talking point but also a lie.

Fair share? The top one percent of Americans pay 46 percent of the federal income tax bill.

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Hughson High School recently had an “Every 15 Minutes” program. High schools in Ceres, of course, have done them as well. It’s the involved production of staging a mock DUI crash, triaging of victims, the arrest of the drunk driver and fake funeral of victims all intended to shock kids into their sensibilities that drinking and driving can have serious consequences.

But is it effective? Does it curb the senseless DUI crashes and arrests?

The answer may be rather disappointing.

According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, these kinds of programs have not been significantly effective.

Generally, school-based alcohol misuse and drinking/driving interventions have been shown to produce short-term changes in knowledge and attitudes, but do not produce changes in behavior.

Winthrop W. Gilman, chairman of The Mychal Institute who has studied the use and abuse of alcohol for more than 60 years said “Adolescents are very impressionistic. They will immediately recognize that if the hoax is needed to make a drastic impression, it cannot be of any real importance. The shock and scare tactics used by these programs are more associative with the adrenaline rush at Halloween time in a haunted house environment. If the experience is not real, it is of no real value. When smokers are exposed to the diseased lung tissue of a deceased smoker, they are regularly seen lighting up a cigarette as they leave the autopsy room.”

Paul Nagy, director of the Duke Addictions Program at the Department of Psychiatry in the Duke University Medical Center said there is “consistent evidence that scare tactics such as those used in the 15 Minutes program have little-sustained effectiveness.”

Some believe this program achieves the opposite effect. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, said adolescents are “hard-wired” to be risk-takers and suggests that these kinds of scare tactics actually entice some kids to test the veracity of the information.

I draw on an observation I made while in high school. We had a school assembly where an ex-smoker woman spoke about the dangers of cigarettes causing cancer. She had her voice box removed and breathed through a hole in her neck. It was an awful story. 

Sitting in front of me were two girls who were smokers. I heard one tell the other: “I’m not gonna smoke anymore.”

The next week I saw both of them sitting on the curb opposite the school smoking.

Sad but true. Adolescents don’t seem to learn real life consequences until it’s too late.

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I was saddened to hear of the death of Dick Monteith. He was a gem of a guy.

Monteith first served as a California State Senator from 1994 to 2002 and then as a Stanislaus County supervisor. He was a warm and compassionate man who loved his God and served Him faithfully. I don’t know that Dick Monteith had any enemies at all.

I remember the time Jim Luton of Melody Corner Bible Book Store in downtown Ceres presented him with a Bible as a way of honoring his service. Jim was also a dear man who has since passed away from cancer.

I had maybe met him once before that encounter but the guy hugged me. You don’t find many politicians who hug nearly complete strangers but 

I remember one thing that Dick said at the time and that was that he and his wife always filled up their tanks at the AM/PM Mini-Mart at Service and Mitchell roads because it was the least expensive gas around. You have to admire a lawmaker who was careful to pinch his own pennies.

 This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com