Ceres Police Chief Trenton Johnson is done with the problems at Tuscany Village and ready to take bold action.

Tuscany Village has never been finished nor occupied and has been a magnet for squatting and criminal activity. It’s been targeted because it is partially obscured behind a shopping center.

Johnson wants to put a lien on the property to recoup the cost of police and city time dealing with problems at the site, which is fenced off but compromised for lack of adequate security.

“Ceres can own this by the time we’re done,” the chief told me. “I’ll lien it for every hour we have to go there and take care of it.”

Tuscany Village has been plagued with problems from the outset. The project was first approved in 2006 with an accompanying commercial strip in front which was finished over a decade ago. The mortgage crisis of 2008 and the COVID pandemic caused delays in the construction until 2022 but didn’t get far. Some of the homes were near completion while some weren’t fully roofed when rising inflation and interest rates forced a halt to building. In recent years, the dormant site, tucked behind a small commercial strip mall largely out of view of Whitmore Avenue traffic, became a magnet for homeless persons, trash, vandalism and criminal activity.

Seventeen of the two-story houses – which range from 1,600 to 1,700 square feet – are 70 percent complete.

The city was excited in 2024 at the prospect of the project being acquired and finished in a partnership between the Stanislaus County Regional Housing Authority and A&M Affordable housing developer. That deal, however, fell apart.

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A couple of weeks ago I addressed how Ceres appears to an outsider and talked about the views along Highway 99. I failed to point out the view as one sits atop the southbound Hatch Road overpass as you invariably get caught at the red light. Glancing down next to the new Circle K/Union 76 station is a vacant triangle shaped lot with a wood slat fence that is marred by giant black and white lettering placed by a local punk. If I’m not mistaken the fence was put there after the gas station was built, indicating the developer put it in and thus is responsible as the property owner to abate the eyesore. If the fence is going to be kept marred in graffiti then perhaps it would be best just to tear it down or screened off with shrubbery or bushes.

The view is a horrible first impression for any newcomer.

Ceres needs to routinely be reviewed by a fresh set of eyes that would give an honest assessment of what remedies are needed if it is to project a welcoming appearance.

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When was the last time you heard a media outlet use the term “far left candidate” in a news article? I wondered that when I came upon a KGET story on Republican David Giglio when he suspended his congressional campaign in 2024 and it called him a “far right Republican.” It dawned on me that you never see any Democrat hopeful referred to as “far left Democrat” because the news media is heavily populated by liberals who have no concern about far left candidates.

Just saying.

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I often wonder why so many folks out there driving like their heads are clear up their keister. I got my driver’s license in 1978 and had a few mishaps (tapping into the car in front at a stop sign) when not paying attention so I guess I just answered my question. But I’ve never driven into a building like someone did over the weekend at the Orangeburg Round Table Pizza parlor. And I’ve never driven over a fire hydrant, shearing it off at the base and creating Old Faithful like what happened at Whitmore Avenue and Railroad Avenue over the weekend. And I haven’t run into a Stanislaus County public transit bus like what happened over the weekend.

If you want to know why your car insurance premiums cost a lot, there’s your explanation. This area seems to have more than its share of the careless, the speeders and red light runners. Slow down, life cannot be so hurried to abandon common sense and the attention to detail that safe driving requires.

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California’s Democratic majority is launching 2026 with an avalanche of new laws — and taxpayers are the ones left scrambling. From expanded regulatory burdens to sweeping social policy mandates, 2026 looks less like a simplification of governance and more like a full-scale legislative overreach into everyday life. 

Under SB 3, the minimum wage is set to increase to $16.90 per hour. The threshold for exempt workers will rise to $70,304 per year. Many local laws kick into effect to raise minimum wages even higher – depending on location and job category or industry. These wage hikes will only increase the cost of living and destroy jobs. But hey, politicians get to pretend like they care about working people while making matters worse.

Oh, and AB 1207 extends California’s costly Cap-and-Trade program to 2046 — adding up to 43 cents per gallon at the pump! So when California gas prices go up, you cannot blame Trump.

One of the more baffling mandates requires rental apartments to come equipped with specific appliances — refrigerators and stoves — simply because legislators decided this constitutes a “right” for tenants. While housing affordability remains a crisis, lawmakers chose to impose extra compliance costs on builders and landlords instead of tackling zoning and supply constraints.

Democrats are also banning all plastic bags at grocery checkout counters — a move they frame as environmental leadership — despite the fact that similar bans have historically led to unintended consequences like increased use of thicker paper bags and higher costs passed to consumers.

While there are laws expanding consumer rights — like giving car buyers a short window to return a purchase or forcing food delivery apps to issue refunds — amount to regulatory overreach that will only push up costs for small businesses and limit flexibility in the marketplace.

What’s striking is not just what laws are being passed, but how many — nearly 800 new laws will hit the books in 2026, touching almost every facet of daily life from employment to the environment and tech. Rather than focusing on reforms that could relieve real pain points for Californians like housing affordability, cost of living, and bureaucratic complexity Sacramento’s Democrats seem fixated on layering up mandates and regulatory burdens. But what’s new? They never see the big picture – that people are being driven to move from a state they love.

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Anheuser-Busch is closing its Budweiser plant in Fairfield, affecting 475 full-time employees. The abrupt closure comes after Anheuser-Busch in July 2024 announced a $7 million investment for capital infrastructure projects that included updates for the facility’s roofing, equipment overhauls, new lighting and repairs.

Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy called the state’s business environment a hostile dictatorship which has caused Fairfield and other Solano cities to lose major businesses. Moy said: “A one-party super majority is like a dictator. Benicia is losing a refinery, we lost Copart, a huge company, and now Budweiser. If we don’t change course, our beautiful state will sink further.”

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Speaking of people leaving California, the latest population figures are being touted by Democrats but they gloss over the real story.

California has had net negative migration for over a decade, causing the state to lose a congressional seat.

The latest figures released by the California Department of Finance estimates that California’s population grew by 19,200 residents and estimated to be 39,529,000 as of July 1.

But Assemblyman Carl DeMaio points out that this rise is only due to the inflow of illegal immigrants that came in under Joe Biden’s administration which ended on Jan. 20 of this year. Consider that the latest population figure covers July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 which included six months of Biden policy. Of course, having more babies born versus those dying is also a factor. DeMaio predicts California will lose more population next year because of the numbers who have self-deported and Trump’s clamp down on border crossings.

The important thing is to look at how many domestic citizens are leaving the state versus those who move into California. When you look at those two numbers, we lost 216,000 net migration during 2024-25 fiscal year! California saw a net migration loss of 140,000 bodies during the 2023-24 fiscal year. An estimated net migration loss of 250,000 was experienced in 2022-23.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, wake up voters! Get educated on how the state is being ruined and make a change.

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There is growing talk about the gubernatorial race in California.

As you know, California has the top-two primary system meaning that the candidates who receive the two highest vote counts in the primary election for governor, regardless of party affiliation, move onto the general election.

But with too many Republicans splitting the vote, there is a good chance that no Republican makes it to the general election.

Recent polling suggests Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are at roughly 12 to 15 percent each while Democrats Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell are also drawing roughly the same numbers. Other candidates are in single digits. Making things worse for Republicans, multi-millionaire Jon Slevat has jumped in the race as a Republican candidate to further split the vote.

Some Republicans are calling for Bianco or Hilton to drop out and give one GOP candidate a bolder position to advance to the Nov. 3, 2026 general election. One making that call is Reform California chairman and state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) who said this: “We’ve seen this play out before — conservatives cancel each other out, Democrats waltz into November unopposed, and the media pretends it’s a mandate. It’s voter suppression by manipulation of the rules.”

Democrats Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell are not great candidates and could be beaten, I feel, by Hilton who has an article and bold prescription for setting California on a course of correction from the disastrous Newsom years. We don’t need more of the same old failed policies that don’t work to address any of our state’s problems or lower our costs of living. Hilton is serious about affordability; Swalwell and Porter only parrot Newsom while having no intentions of changing anything to bring down the high cost of living in the great state of California.

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