Everyone needs to write to Gov. Brown to have him once again block the release of Marty Don Spears from San Quentin State Prison.

In 1979 Spears and three others staged one of the most brutal crimes in our area when they broke into the home of Phillip and Kathy Ranzo,raped her and then bashed their bodies in with their son’s own baseball bat and then proceeded to stab them over and over.

On Thursday, for the 22nd time, the Parole Board took up his case and said he may now go back out into society. The rest of us are asking why is this guy still breathing?

The other “animals” in the savage crime are Jeffrey Maria, Darren Lee and Ronald Anderson. The Parole Board recommended in January that Maria be freed too.

For some insane reason Democratic San Francisco state Senator Mark Leno – who doesn’t represent the community where this savage crime occurred – went to bat for Spears in 2014 writing letters praising Spears for finishing an anger management course. Bleeding heart Leno forgot that Spears admitted he got a rush from watching accomplice Lee rape Kathy Ranzo, and that Spears then raped her as well before killing her. Leno later recanted his praise, saying his letter “should not in any way be used to advocate for his parole.”

In 2013, along party lines, Democrats passed California State Senate Bill 260 which was signed by Governor Brown to modify the parole rules for killers who were under 25 at the time they committed a murder and made it easier for them to be released from prison because they were just young and stupid at the time. These new rules were applied to Spears because he was 17 years old when he committed the crimes. But as District Attorney Birgit Fladager noted in her letter earlier this year to the governor, “lack of brain development and immaturity had nothing to do with his willingness to participate in violent crimes that resulted in the deaths of two generous, innocent people. It certainly had no effect on his continuing criminality and violence while incarcerated.”

Governor Brown can be written at Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814.

* * * * *

You may want to keep your plastic drinking straws as Sacramento Democrats are coming for them. They’re going to be a rare commodity.

As you know, they want you to drink out of paper straws. Good luck with that.

Two Democrats crafted this bill in the guise of some environmental protection issue, citing how much plastic is in the ocean. (Studies show the Chinese are the ones polluting most of our oceans). It’s as if they think everyone from all quadrants of California rushes out of restaurants down to the beach to throw their plastic straws into the ocean. But get this – the bill exempts schools, commissaries and food facilities with a self-service beverage station. Give me a break.

I’m all in favor of being environmentally sound but can we let the market dictate this rather than state lawmakers?

When I say Sacramento Democrats just know I am not just blowing smoke. Indeed, it was the Democrats who supported AB 1884, the drinking-straw ban. On the floor of the Assembly there were 49 “yes” votes and 25 “no” votes. Of the 25 no votes, 22 were Republican –Assemblymembers Dante Acosta, Travis Allen, Frank Bigelow, Bill Brough, Phillip Chen, Steven Choi, Jordan Cunningham, Brian Dahle, Heath Flora, Vincent Fong, James Gallagher, Matthew Harper, Kevin Kiley, Tom Lackey, Devon Mathis, Chad Mayes, Melissa Melendez, Jay Obernolte, Jim Patterson, Marc Steinorth, Randy Voepel and Marie Waldron. Only three Democrats voted against this lame bill, including the district’s own Adam Gray, along with Sabrina Cervantes and Rudy Salas.

* * * * *

People are justified in thinking the move to district elections for the Ceres City Council is just plain unnecessary and dumb. This was, of course, a local decision forced on the city by state lawmakers, which you might as well say Democrats because they control the state. I hate to harp on Democrats so much of what ails the state emanates from their policies, including stupidly passing the California Voter Rights Act in 2001.

Shirley Rogers asked on Facebook: “Do you have to live in the area of the person running for City Council to vote for them? I live in Area 4, can I vote for a person running in another area in Ceres?”

The answer, of course, is no, voters can no longer vote for candidates running in other districts even though they will be making decisions for them on the City Council. Essentially, minority groups and the Democrats have allowed your rights to be taken away by creating district elections whereas before we elected the council at-large. Now if you dislike a certain council member you can’t vote them out of office unless you live in that district.

Once Shirley looked into it she proclaimed the change as “stupid” for a small town. Indeed it is. But failing to switch to district elections alternative would likely cause the city to get sued by minority advocacy groups and spend millions like Modesto did fighting it, only having to throw in the towel. It’s blackmail and extortion at its finest.

Marge Derby remarked on the same Facebook string that “through the years in Ceres our elections have drawn from few diverse ethnicities” and said “we have areas in Ceres that did not promote having representation on the councils and boards.”

I’m not sure what she’s talking about on the latter. Over the years, Ceres has elected Latino candidates, including Louis Arrollo and Lisa Mantarro Moore. The council appointed a Latino to the council in Guillermo Ochoa and a Latino to the Ceres Planning Commission in Luis Molina. At least three Latinos sit on the Ceres School Board in Teresa Guerrero, Lourdes Perez and Mike Welsh (his mother is of Mexican descent).

The unvarnished truth is for whatever reason few Latinos have ever run for City Council! Even now as two council seats have opened up, zero Latino candidates have come forward! What do you have to do to level the playing field, forbid any other ethnicities to run?

And that’s another thing. I resent the claim from some segments that a duly elected council person of any color cannot represent citizens of all ethnic backgrounds. It’s that your-type-versus-my-type thinking that has really done nothing but divide us as a people, not unite us as one.

* * * * *

Recently city Recreation Supervisor Cambria Pollinger noted how she has almost reached her 21st year with city employment, telling the council how her son was seven weeks old when she started in 1998. He’s now off to the Navy.

I can relate to how she tracks her employment years with her children. I started at the Courier in 1987, just three weeks before the birth of my daughter. She’ll be 31 this October. I look at her and I know how long I’ve been at the Courier. 

Next week you’ll be hearing about a city employee who is wrapping up 50 years! A half century!

Such longevity is rare these days. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people average about 4.6 years in one job.

* * * * *

I’m guessing that Councilwoman Linda Ryno’s questions about resource sharing didn’t set well with Ceres Firefighters Local 3636. She wanted to know if Ceres was spreading itself too thin by sending fire engines to help out with Modesto fires. She wanted data to see how much help Ceres offers other agencies and vice versa.

It was explained in resource sharing that the nearest agencies respond, which means Ceres is called a lot. Then other agencies cover Ceres.

The firefighters posted a veiled response to her on their Facebook page on Thursday morning: “The Ceres Fire Department responds to fire, medical, hazardous materials, vehicle accidents, lift assists, and many other types of calls making us an ‘all risk’ department. We operate out of just three stations and have nine personnel to get the work done. If anyone, including our policy makers, think we are able to accomplish these tasks without outside assistance then we have failed to inform them of how we operate.

“The fact is that because of our automatic aid agreements with Modesto, Stanislaus Consolidated, and Turlock fire departments as well as our mutual aid agreements with several other fire agencies in this county we are able to have access to a large number of resources to help assist us with labor heavy incidents as well as cover our calls when we are unavailable to respond.

“This aid system comes at a cost. In return for being backed by these other agencies we must take resources out of Ceres and return the favor to our neighbors. Sometimes we respond into neighboring districts with one or all of our available resources. Resources throughout our county are then repositioned to insure Ceres is still covered. The result of this resource sharing system in this county is that calls for service in Ceres ALWAYS get answered resulting in high quality 24/7 coverage.”

* * * * *

If an employer wants to lavish its employees with a free lunch every day, most Americans would think that’s great and support that. But not the Democrats in San Francisco. Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin –both Bay Area liberals – introduced a city ordinance last week prohibiting in-house cafeterias in about 51 office buildings and tech campuses. They are succumbing to pressure from neighboring eateries bemoaning the loss of lunch crowds because big employers offer free lunch to them. Safai and Peskin say the city has the legal right to do this through a zoning amendment using certain planning and public health codes. What a crock of you-know-what.

Let’s see. Banning free lunches means those thousands of employees must now get in their cars and drive to a restaurant and pollute the Bay Area with exhaust. I suppose Safai and Peskin are enemies of the environment. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

What next? Banning sack lunches as they deny restaurants’ business, too?

Let me get this right, liberals are all about giving away free stuff like college tuition, food, healthcare and Obama phones, but when a private employer wants to do it they can’t? 

Is there no shame in that party?

* * * * *

Speaking of Democrats and freebies, did you hear about Congressman Sean Maloney, D-NY, wanting taxpayers to pay for the tampons used by the female staffers in his office? He has taken up the mantle to lobby for “menstrual equity” and turned it into a weapon against Republicans, saying if they aren’t for it that they are being “archaic” and “sexist.”

Maloney complained that the House Finance Office would not reimburse him for the $37.16 worth of tampons he bought for his congressional office. Isn’t it insane to expect taxpayers to pay for personal needs items while bashing Republicans for being opposed to such wasteful spending?

Here’s an idea, Congressman Baloney, perhaps you should eat the cost since you make $174,000 a year and get lots of perks anyway. Or let your well-paid staffers buy their own like every other woman in America has to do in the workplace.

* * * * *

I once lived in the country near dairies so I know the odor of cow crap and it’s similar to the smell coming from the Josh Harder camp. I was made aware that Josh Harder actually attacked Jeff Denham over his record on water. Harder tweeted “Watching @RepJeffDenham pull the wool over farmers, #CA10 voters and #Ag’s eyes is beyond frustrating – look at your record on water. You Voted in favor of a bill that would have robbed #Central Valley#farmers of #water through pumping Northern California water outbound.”

Harder had no idea what he was talking about. Denham replied: “#BayAreaHarder showing ignorance. #CA10 is SOUTH of delta and pumped water goes to district farmers and @cityoftracy (2nd largest)…”

Maybe that’s why Harder deleted his original remark.

You might want to understand that Democrats like Harder are supported by the environmentalists who are all in favor of the water grab.

* * * * *

Despite all the science and millions spent on showing why taking up to 40 percent of unimpaired flow the State Water Board is hell-bent on seeing the theft take place.

In fact, City Attorney Tom Hallinan said last week aloud that he suspects it all about stealing our water for Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels project.

Who are the water board members? They are Chairwoman Felicia Marcus appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Vice Chair Steven Moore, appointed by Brown. Tam M. Doduc, an environmentalist who last worked as the Deputy Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and directed the agency’s environmental justice and external scientific peer review activities. Dorene D’Adamo of Turlock also appointed by the governor. E. Joaquin Esquivel, a Brown appointee who used to work for liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer.

So that’s all you need to know how this decision will go down. Whatever Jerry wants, Jerry gets. If it’s any different I will publicly apologize but be prepared for a water grab and a decade of lawsuits in court.

How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com