Valley Voice Issue 88 (2 March, 2017)

Inside: the Western Classic Dairy Show

Volume XXXVII No. 5 • 2 March, 2017

www.ourvalleyvoice.com

Uncertain Future for North Visalia Advisory Committee

The controversial Mental Health Wellness and Recovery Center is located at 1223 S. Lovers Lane. Joseph Oldenbourg/Valley Voice

County Moving Forward With Wellness and Recovery Center Nancy Vigran The Tulare County Department of Health and Humans Services Agency (HHSA) held two listening sessions during the last week in February to address citizen concerns for the new Mental Health Wellness and Recovery Center, located at 1223 S. Lovers Lane in Visalia. The new center comes in accordance of mandates of the Mental Health Services Act, passed by voters in 2004.

Citizens in the area of the center at the corner of Lovers Lane and Tulare Avenue have expressed concerns regarding safety

for their neighborhood, and the children who attend Pinkham Elementary School, located on Tulare Avenue.

The panel representing Tulare County consisted of Supervisor Kuyler Crocker, Jason T. Britt, HHSA agency director, John Hells, deputy CAO, Capital Projects, Dr. Timothy Durick, HHSA health director, Christi Lupkes, division manager, Mental Health Managed Care, and Colleen Overholt, LMFT, Kings View.

“We want to make sure we are good neighbors,” said Crocker, during his opening statements at the first listening

WELLNESS CENTER continued on 12 »

With Councilmember Greg Collins absent, the Visalia City Council stalemated on its decision whether to discontinue the North Visalia Advisory Committee (NVAC) as an official Visalia entity.

During the February 21 work session three choices were on the table: continue the NVAC as an official city committee indefinitely, continue the NVAC as an official city committee until November 30, 2018--when district elections will be complete, or discontinue the NVAC as an official city committee immediately.

Councilmember Phil Cox and Mayor Warren Gubler voted to reevaluate the fate of the NVAC in November of 2018. Councilmember Bob Link and Councilmember Steve Nelsen voted to discontinue the NVAC’s official status as an advisory committee immediately.

The NVAC became an official city committee in 2000. Its purpose is “to serve as a liaison between the City and the North Visalia Community, serve as a forum for citizen complaints and problems, and make recommendations to the City Council.” In 2015 the boundaries of NVAC expanded north to Riggin, south to Murray (Goshen), east to Ben Maddox and west to Mooney. But the heart of North Visalia is, and always has been, the Oval.

Catherine Doe Assistant City Manager Leslie Caviglia gave the staff report and stated that the council had questioned the relevancy of the advisory group given the fact that city council members are now elected by district.

The North Visalia region is represented by District 4, Greg Collins, and district 5, Nelsen. It was suggested that those councilmembers representing North Visalia could make the decision to form and administer their own advisory committee for the region.

The staff report also stated that the NVAC currently costs approximately 4-10 hours of staff time a month, depending on the issues discussed.

The Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) recommended that the NVAC be discontinued in 2016 and Nelsen agreed with that assessment.

Nelsen said one constituent approached the dais and asked why her community didn’t have an official advisory committee. Nelsen agreed, saying, “I don’t feel that one segment of the city deserves more than another. The NVAC was needed at one time and now that need is gone.”

Nelsen said that the

ADVISORY continued on 9 »

Visalia Takes Cautious Attitude Towards Retail Marijuana Sales Catherine Doe The Visalia City Council isn’t taking any quick steps towards changing the city’s Municipal Code regarding recreational marijuana sales.

At the February 21 council meeting, the council members discussed changes to the Visalia Municipal Code (VMC) that were needed in response to Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Currently, the code only regulates medical marijuana.

The city council voted 4-0, with Councilmember Greg Collins absent, to revisit the topic of a municipal code update in six months.

Recreational use of marijuana became legal effective immediately when voters approved Proposition 64 last November; however, the legal sale and taxation of marijuana cannot occur until Jan. 1, 2018.

As a result, no city or county can ban the personal use or indoor cultivation of pot; during the waiting period,

cities and counties are able to implement regulations limiting or banning commercial activity.

Attorney Nicolas Cardella and Visalia Police Captain Brian Winter outlined Visalia’s options and spoke about the effect legalization has had in Colorado and Washington, two states that voted to legalize pot in 2012.

Cardella suggested that if Visalia wanted to allow the commercial sale of pot that it use the Massage Establishment Ordinance or the Adult Oriented Business Ordinance as a template.

Many of the restrictions imposed on these businesses would work for an establishment that sells pot. Cardella said that the city also had to make revisions to its medical marijuana ordinance to comply with Proposition 64.

Cardella then used Pueblo County, Colorado, as an appropriate case study to highlight the drawbacks and benefits of the commercialization of pot. That

MARIJUANA continued on 9 »

Dr. Benny Benzeevi, CEO/Chairman of Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, speaks to the TLHCD Board of Directors at January’s regularly scheduled board meeting.

Tony Maldonado/Valley Voice

Tulare Hospital Board Meeting Shifts from Solemn to Raucous The only things missing from the most recent Tulare Local Healthcare District meeting were an announcer, a bell, round cards, and popcorn.

The meeting started on a down note -officials with the district announced Fitch Ratings, a major credit ratings agency, had revised the district’s “rating watch” position from “positive” to “negative” on both its bonds and its “Issuer Default Rating.”

Tony Maldonado “I’m sure this is how Dr. [Parmod] Kumar feels, Dr. [Benny] Benzeevi felt when he practiced, when they lost a patient,” Alan Germany, the CFO of Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, said of the news.

After pointing out the hospital’s suc-

TRMC continued on 8 »

2 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017 From the Publisher’s desk

The Orange Horror Is A Domestic Enemy

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And now the Orange Horror has barred select news outlets from the White House press briefing. CNN, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, the BBC, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post were each excluded from the February 23rd chinwag hosted by the president’s press bloviator, Sean Spicer.

The Associated Press and Time magazine boycotted in protest.

To quote Dan Rather: “The barring of respected journalistic outlets from the White House briefing is so far beyond the norms and traditions that have governed this republic for generations, that they must be seen as a real and present threat to our democracy.

These are the dangers presidents are supposed to protect against, not create.”

I wonder if the Orange Horror recollects the following 35 words: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

I wonder if the Orange Horror recollects the following 45 words: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It’s the First Amendment of the living document he has sworn to protect.

You’ve heard of the enemies, foreign and domestic, that members of Congress and commissioned military personnel swear to defend the Constitution against? The Orange Horror is one of them.

The Orange Horror is a domestic enemy.

And it looks, increasingly, like he’s had foreign--specifically Russian--help in his efforts.

According to The Washington Post, White House staff attempted “to get senior FBI officials to speak with news organizations and dispute the accuracy of stories on the alleged contacts with Russia.”

And when that was unsuccessful, again according to The Washington Post, the Trump administration enlisted “senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia.” Those “senior members of the intelligence committee” include Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and our own Representative Devin Nunes, the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees, respectively.

The innocent do not enlist surrogates to beseech the investigating authorities on their behalf.

Much like those with nothing to hide don’t cherry-pick the journalists who will cover them.

Consider the following from UC Berkeley Public Policy Professor and Former United States Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich: “7 Signs of Impending Tyranny.”According to Reich, as tyrants take control of democracies, they typically do 7 things-1) They exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a “landslide” even after losing the popular vote. They criticize any finding that they or co-conspirators stole the election. And they repeatedly claim “massive voter fraud” in the absence of any evidence, in order to have an excuse to restrict voting by opponents in subsequent elections. 2) They turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them “deceitful” and “scum,” and telling the public that the press is a “public enemy.” They hold few, if any, press conferences, and prefer to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements (or what we might now call “tweets”). 3) They repeatedly lie to the public, even when confronted with the facts. Repeated enough, these lies cause some of the public to doubt the truth, and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals. 4) They blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias or even violence against them. They threaten mass deportations, “registries” of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees. 5) They attack the motives of anyone who opposes them, including judges. They attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties. 6) They appoint family members to high positions of authority. They appoint their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public. And they put generals into top civilian posts. 7)They keep their personal finances secret, and draw no distinction between personal property and public property – profiteering from their public office.

Ring any bells?

The question is how to un-ring this particular one.

Joseph Oldenbourg

The Valley Voice is your newspaper Published by The Valley Voice, LLC.

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Catherine Doe (catherine@ourvalleyvoice.com) Dave Adalian (dave@ourvalleyvoice.com) Stefan Barros — sports (stefan@ourvalleyvoice.com) Production/Website: Tony Maldonado (tony@ourvalleyvoice.com)

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Please contact the Voice for more information.

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 3

Political Fix Getting into the Weeds on the Pot Issue

What’s the only problem with smoking marijuana? It means your stash just got a little smaller.

After writing a half dozen articles on the legalization of pot this is the most accurate statement I’ve heard yet.

The vagueness of Proposition 64 and rumors have lead to a lot of misinformation. City councils, the media, and regular citizens don’t seem to have a grasp of the issue.

Before we get into the “weeds” of the issue, though, let’s review some fun facts.

It is true that Tulare and Kings County voted against Proposition 64.

But not every town in each of the counties felt the same.

Farmersville, Lindsay and Woodlake all voted for legalizing the recreational use of pot. It is also interesting to note that these towns voted overwhelmingly for Hilary Clinton.

These largely Hispanic communities obviously voted against Mr. Trump because of his views on immigration, but it is unclear why a town like Dinuba would vote against pot by a large margin and these three towns would vote in favor.

Kings County rejected Proposition 64 with 56% voting no and 44% in favor. Avenal came the closest to accepting the legalizing pot with a tied vote.

Assuming Makes An Ass of You and Me.

After Proposition 64 passed one might assume you could go buy an ounce or two of pot for your personal use. It would also make sense that, on your way home, you could not stop at the neighborhood park and light up in public.

Both assumptions would be incorrect.

Proposition 64 made it legal to smoke pot in the privacy of your own at home and grow up to six plants. You can also possess, while out in public, up to one ounce of pot, which would fill a sandwich baggy. But, there is nowhere in California to legally buy recreational marijuana.

The sale of pot won’t be legal until January 2018 when the Bureau of Marijuana Control starts issuing licenses. In addition, don’t count on running down to your local 7-Eleven for a pack of pot cigarettes. No store with a liquor license will be allowed to get a recreational marijuana business license.

Only those businesses that have a local license to sell recreational pot will get a state license. The law was written so cities and counties can ban the sale of pot, and it seems that if the Central Valley has its way, you will never be able to buy it here.

Rumor has it that Hanford has approved the retail sale of marijuana. In reality, Hanford is still waffling on approving a lucrative medical marijuana grow facility in its industrial park and has unanimously rejected the idea of dispensaries. The facility has the potential for bringing in $14 million a year in tax revenue. The city is a long way from approving the sale of pot.

Do You Mind If I Smoke?

It would make sense to equate

Catherine Doe

smoking pot in public as akin to drinking alcohol in public. But because of the way Proposition 64 was worded, law enforcement cannot. Law enforcement has had to use cigarette smoking ordinances as its guide on how to enforce smoking pot in public.

According to a Lindsay police officer, it is illegal to smoke pot unless allowed by a local ordinance, or within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers, and other places where children gather. The hitch is it didn’t dawn on anyone to pass local ordinances banning smoking pot in public.

In the Foothills Sun Gazette, Lindsay Public Safety Director Chris Hughes said “citizens are fully in their rights to smoke marijuana as long as there are no signs saying they cannot.”

It was difficult to believe that in the absence of a “No Smoking” sign one could get stoned in public. But a Lindsay police officer confirmed the possibility. The police officer explained that there had just been training specifically geared towards dealing with pot in the aftermath of Proposition 64. The officer was literally quoting the California’s Clean Air Act of 1977 while trying to explain to me how the police enforce the use of marijuana.

The federal government categorizes marijuana as a Schedule 1 Drug on the same level as heroin. Local law enforcement, on the other hand, finds its guidance on how to treat pot in terms of air quality issues and second hand smoke.

“There is a lot of clean up legislation that needs to be passed,” said an employee of the Tulare County’s District Attorney’s office.

What’s Up With Coalinga?

Ocean Grown Extracts, a medical marijuana company, purchased Coalinga’s abandoned prison for $4.1 million.

The prison used to hold 500 inmates but has sat empty for five years, becoming an economic liability. The purchase immediately relieved this dusty little town of a $3.3 million deficit. The massive medical marijuana farm will generate 100 jobs and a million dollars in tax revenue per year.

Coalinga has since gone all-in on pot, voting in favor of a pot dispensary and filling its industrial park with marijuana-related businesses. Coalinga may end up the only place in the Central Valley where you can buy recreational pot. Who knew?

Fresno, Kings and Tulare Counties’ supervisors have consistently banned any possibility of pot dispensaries. Their message has been, “Don’t even think about it.” Fresno County has gone so far as fining their residents $1000 per illegal pot plant, a fine that has been challenged in court as being excessive.

So what has the Coalinga City Council been smoking? I’m not sure, but there sure are a few ironies surrounding their new marijuana facility.

Irony number one is that Bob Marley’s youngest son, Damian Marley is the owner of Ocean Grown Extracts and developer of Coalinga’s marijuana facility.

Irony number two is that the same prison that used to incarcerate people who grew or sold pot is now a pot growing facility.

Irony number three is that Mr. Marley’s other pot growing location is a 3,000-square-foot dispensary in downtown Denver, just across from Mile High Stadium.

Ocean Grown Extracts should have already harvested its first crop and is expected to branch out into growing recreational pot. Coalinga has already received their first pot dividend check.

Medical Marijuana vs.

Recreational

Whatever you do, do not let your medical marijuana identification card expire. Councilmember Phil Cox brought up a salient point during the Visalia City Council meeting: medical marijuana will be much cheaper to buy than recreational pot.

Layers of taxes await the commercialization of pot, such as a cultivation tax on each plant, the tax on the final product, a state tax and a local tax, none of which are imposed on medical marijuana.

But the best thing about medical marijuana is that you can buy it right now. Anyone can get a medical marijuana ID through a health clinic or even on-line.

Writers of the Compassionate Use Act crafted the measure so that medical cannabis can be used to treat “any condition for which marijuana provides relief.”

So if you walk into a clinic and say “I need some weed to help me cope when my crazy uncle watches Fox News,” voila! You get your prescription.

CannaCanHelp, located in an industrial building in Goshen, serves the medical marijuana needs of Tulare and Kings County.

Just show your medical marijuana ID card and you are allowed in their dispensary. CannaCanHelp existed before the Tulare County board of supervisors completely banned dispensaries, so the company was allowed to be grandfathered in. CannaCanHelp serves 10,000 people a year with their marijuana medical needs.

Their busiest say of the week? Friday.

Berkeley.

The president might have gone a bridge too far.

And the Meritorious Public Service Award Goes To...

Back in January 2016, Alberto Aguilar handed me a thick envelope with documents detailing the problems at Tulare Regional Medical Hospital (TRMC) and their management company, Healthcare Conglomerates Associates (HCCA.) The envelope also contained two letters to Assemblyman Devon Mathis to initiate an investigation, both of which went unanswered.

When Joseph Oldenbourg and Dave Adalian met with several doctors working at TRMC, Oldenbourg said “their hair was on fire.”

The doctors were upset by what was happening at the hospital and the fact that the public did not know.

As a result, in March of 2016, Mr. Adalian documented, for the whole world to see, all of the goings-on at the hospital and its contract with HCCA. Mr. Aguilar lamented that no one would touch the issue. I was soon to discover why.

Before Mr. Adalian’s expose even hit the stands, a powerful Los Angeles law firm threatened to shut the Valley Voice down.

We spent a very tense afternoon de-

POLITICAL FIX continued on 5 »

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President Trump Comes to the Rescue

The debate rages about universal healthcare, Russia’s meddling in our elections, our crumbling infrastructure, and our need for immigration reform.

So it makes sense that President Trump finally decided to crack down on those states that have legalized recreational marijuana.

All those pot heads invading 7Elevens at midnight could pose a threat to our national security if they eat all our potato chips.

I remember in the 1980’s in Berkeley a street comedian, Stoney Burke, got frustrated that more students weren’t showing up to the anti-apartheid protests. He said, let’s shut down all the cafes. That would start a riot.”

It does not bode well that Trump’s administration has been compared to Nixon’s administration at almost every turn. His pussy grabbing, wall building, and travel banning have created some mighty opposition to his administration. But messing with citizens’ access to pot may be like closing all the cafes in

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4 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017

Sheriff Announces Internet Predator Arrests & Safety Campaign Teresa Douglass, TCSO Operation Baby Face continues as Sheriff Mike Boudreaux announced the arrests of eight suspects for soliciting sex acts from juveniles in Phase IV of Operation Baby Face and the roll out of Phase V, an internet child safety campaign.

Billboards have gone up throughout Tulare County educating residents about online child predators.

“I want the public’s attention,” Boudreaux said. “Everyone needs to know that there are predators looking to prey on the innocence of our children. We will be vigilant and aggressive in identifying these predators.”

Boudreaux has dedicated both the Cyber Crimes Unit and the Crimes against Children Unit to the protection of children in Tulare County. This is an ongoing, aggressive and vigilant effort.

Five phases for Operation Baby Face were developed in a strategic plan to continue to deter this type of crime against children in Tulare County and to educate parents, children and the community at large.

The Sheriff’s Internet Child Safety Campaign is multi-faceted: • Community Liaison meets with service groups to give a PowerPoint presentation about the dangers children face online from predators.

• A School Resource Officer is scheduling presentations at schools in Tulare County to educate children about what not to share online and who to avoid.

•

Billboards rotate through Tulare County at multiple locations warning of stranger danger online.

• Public Service Announcements air on local radio stations.

• Media interviews help educate the community about internet safety.

The Sheriff’s message is simple: 1. Engage your children and know what they are doing.

2. Educate your family about the dangers of the internet.

3. Enforce the rules and hold your children accountable.

Phase I: Operation Baby Face was announced on August 11of last year, when the Sheriff’s Office took down a human trafficking ring in Tulare County, arresting three primary suspects and 12 co-conspirators for sexually exploiting 23 juveniles and 29 adults.

During the first phase, a female deputy represented herself online as a 16-yearold girl in Tulare County. In no time, several men pursued her even though it was clear she was underage.

While they didn’t meet the criteria of a human trafficking case, they did pursue her, while believing her to be a juvenile, for sexual acts. That is a crime.

The undercover deputy continued the ruse online, which led to Operation Baby Face Phase II and Phase IV. Phase II: On August 22, Boudreaux announced that seven men had been arrested over the previous weekend following an operation similar to “Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator.”

Through an online undercover oper-

ation, seven predators were identified and arrested for soliciting sex from an adult undercover deputy purporting herself to be a 16-year-old female juvenile online.

Phase III: As a preventative measure, Boudreaux assigned 35 deputies and police officers from allied agencies to spread on October 30 to 137 residences for Sex Offender Registration compliance checks.

Deputies made sure registered sex offenders were where they were supposed to be and not decorating for Halloween to attract children to their homes. Three suspects were arrested and 15 registered sex offenders were out of compliance, that is, they were not living where they said they were living and warrants were issued for their arrests.

Phase IV: In October, the Crimes against Children Unit opened an undercover decoy operation targeting online sexual predators seeking to victimize children in Tulare County. A deputy went undercover online and represented herself as a 16-year-old female.

In late November, a second fictitious female profile was created online. This time, an undercover deputy purported herself to be a 14-year-old female living in the Visalia area. The goal of these two accounts was to target local predators that would be willing to come meet juvenile females for sexual acts.

In approximately three months’ time, the fictitious accounts established more than 2,800 “friends” on social media. Each account received sexually explicit materials and conversations from suspects. Approximately 80% of the 14-year-old’s “friends” were adult males, who obviously had never

met the fictitious female.

As part of Phase IV, detectives learned in February that a 14-year-old male juvenile had been solicited for sexual acts from adult males on a social media site.

Detectives then created a fictitious profile in which a detective portrayed a 14-year-old male.

Adult males, ages 27 and 39, connected with the new profile online and engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the purported juvenile, agreeing to meet him for various sexual acts on February 14.

Upon arrival at the agreed location, the suspects were arrested and booked in jail for felony charges. These suspects were: • Brock Pearson, 39, of Springville, Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC • Fernando Chavez, 27, of Dinuba Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC Also as part of Phase IV, on February 25, another operation was put in place in Visalia - this time to target 17 identified in-state suspects who were seeking sexual contact with the 14-year-old female decoy.

She advised them that she was visiting another 14-year-old friend while her parents were out of town. The suspects and the decoy discussed meeting at this residence for the purpose of performing sexual acts.

Three of the suspects discussed having the other juvenile also participate in the sex acts.

The following suspects arrived at the location for the purpose of having sex with a 14-year-old minor and were taken in to custody: • Javier Hernandez, 22, of Porterville Bail $100,000.00

INTERNET continued on 5 »

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2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 5

Speller Prepares to Compete in National Spelling Bee Tulare County Office of Education In six hours, 229 spellers participating in the annual Tulare County Spelling Championship stepped up to the microphone in the vast Visalia Convention Center exhibit hall – each one eventually misspelling the word given to them by spelling master Scot Hillman. By 3:25 p.m. on February 22, only one student remained. The speller, who was familiar to the audience and judges, was two-time champion Sameera Hussain of Sequoia Middle School in Porterville.

In the 17th round, Mr. Hillman gave her the word “behemoth.” Sameera anxiously asked the spelling master all the right questions concerning the word’s language of origin, alternative pronunciations and definition, before she spelled it. “That is correct,” said lead judge and retired Visalia Unified administrator Carlyn Lambert. Sameera sighed, smiled and grasped the number that had hung around her neck since earlier that morning. In the competition’s 18-year history,

Internet Continued from 4 • • •

•

Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC Benjamin Lopez-Herrera, 23, of Delano Bail $100,000.00 Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC Hector Ornelas, 24, of Avenal Bail $130,000.00 Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC, 664-261.5(d Jonathon Hernandez, 25, of Porterville Bail $150,000.00 Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC, 288(c)(1) PC Steven Albertson, 27, of Visalia

Political Fix Continued from 3

bating whether we should destroy the papers and reprint the issue without the hospital article, which might have put the paper out of business.

We decided to call the law firm’s bluff and finished the distribution of the paper, keeping Mr. Adalian’s article up on our website.

Mr. Adalian, along with webmaster Tony Maldonado, went on to report over the course of 2016 about the hospital’s failed Measure I and its lack of an oversight committee, the unaccounted $85

e

Th

Right: Sameera Hussain, an eighth-grade student from Sequoia Middle School in Porterville, won the 2017 Tulare County Spelling Championship with the word “behemoth.”

Above: Sameera is pictured with second-place winner Jiraya Caelan Detubio, an eighth grader from St. Anne’s School in Porterville; and third-place finishers Yasoda Satpathy, an eighth grader from Sequoia Middle School in Porterville and Jose Guzman, a seventh grader from Veva Blunt Elementary in Visalia. Also pictured is Nancy Bellin, Spelling Championship coordinator, and Tulare County Superintendent of Schools Jim Vidak.

Courtesy/TCOE

Bee beginning May 28 in National Harbor, Maryland. Sameera reports that she will spend the next three months preparing for the bee, which she has dreamed of winning since she was a young girl.

she is the only student to win the spelling championship three times.

As part of the Visalia Times-Delta/

Tulare Advance-Register sponsorship of the competition, Sameera is now eligible to compete in the Scripps National Spelling

Bail $150,000.00 Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC , 288(c)(1) PC, 664-261.5(d), 664-288a PC • Raymond Lopez, 52, of San Pablo Bail $150,000.00 Charges 288.3 PC, 288.4 PC , 288(c)(1) PC, 664-261.5(d), 664-288a PC (52-year-old suspect Raymond Lopez brought each of the 14-year-olds multiple pieces of Victoria’s Secret clothing, body lotions and bath sprays as well as alcohol.)

Phase V: The Sheriff’s Internet Child Safety Campaign follows the three E’s: Engage, Educate and Enforce.

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office will

engage with parents and children in Tulare County through presentations at service groups, classroom presentations, parent presentations, information pamphlets, billboards, public service announcements and investigations such as Operation Baby Face.

The goal is to educate parents and children about what children are doing online that could leave them vulnerable to predators, how predators pursue their victims and what to do if anyone falls victim.

The Sheriff’s Office will enforce the laws to protect the innocence of Tulare County children.

Sheriff Boudreaux asks that parents do

their part to keep their children safe.

“Talk to your children,” he said. “You are the parents. Look at what your children are doing online. Be a concerned and protective parent.”

“Speak to your children,” he said.

“Ask the difficult questions.”

Please contact law enforcement if you discover anything suspicious or need advice.

“We are here for you,” Boudreaux said.

Tulare County Sheriff’s Office: (559) 733-6218 or anonymously through TipNow at (559) 725-4194 or tcso@ tipnow.com.

million from the first bond, the layoffs, the secret loan, the lopsided management contract, the recall, and the hospital board election, among other things.

Our writers and the Valley Voice put their professional survival and careers on the line to let the public know what was happening at Tulare’s hospital.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that the Visalia Times-Delta writers Juan Villa, Jim Houck, Calley Cederlof and Luis Hernandez were awarded the Meritorious Public Service award for their 2016 coverage of TRMC/HCCA. I enjoy reading all four of these writers, but the announcement of their pres-

tigious award elicited a “really?” from me.

Our staff made meeting audio and a multitude of public documents available for citizens of Tulare and any interested parties, including the Times-Delta. More hospital documents are available on our website than the hospital’s own.

During the course of a year, the Voice scooped the VTD on multiple stories. We did this despite the fact that the VTD is a daily newspaper with a full-time staff of 16 to our part-time staff of five.

Juan Villa, who covered the Tulare Hospital in depth in 2007 when it was obvious that TRMC was not going to finish its tower, did do the Voice the courtesy of citing us twice in 2016.

I enjoy my morning VTD and encourage everyone to go out and get a subscription because they serve the community.

But they are not our competition.

The VTD cannot hold a candle to Valley Voice’s investigative reporting.

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6 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017

Agriculture Farmers Assess Impact of Flooded Fields Kevin Hecteman, CFBF Anticipating a rain-free start to March, California farmers whose orchards, vineyards or farmland flooded during January and February storms will work to patch and reinforce levees, and hope water can recede with minimal crop damage. But some farmers say they expect to suffer losses.

Joe Valente, a manager for Lodi-based Kautz Farms, said he stands to lose an almond orchard his farm planted last year in Thornton. The young trees flooded three times in a month.

“They’re about year-old trees,” Valente said. “They’re about 6-7 feet tall, and the water depth in this area has been about 5 feet deep for quite a while now.

I’m talking well over 40 days.”

Typically, almond trees would be blooming now, he said—but the flooded trees aren’t, which he called “a bad sign that more than likely they’re not going to make it.”

A levee break on a neighbor’s property on the Mokelumne River, plus levee breaks on the Kautz property and floodwater from Dry Creek, combined to flood crops in Valente’s care.

“Right now, our effort’s in saving the vineyards,” Valente said, “not only for this year’s crop but for down the road, too.”

Water in the flooded vineyard stood 5-6 feet deep. Valente said the window of opportunity to prune the vines will close around mid-March, when they start breaking dormancy.

To the north along the Sacramento River, walnut farmer Sib Fedora of Meridian said “the clock is ticking” on his flooded orchards.

“There is so much seepage, so much flooding, if we don’t get this ground drained, the trees are going to die. I’ve got some orchards that have been underwater for a couple of weeks. And if we don’t have the water off of the roots by the time they start to leaf out, then there’s not much hope for them,” Fedora said, adding that other orchards in his area face the same problem.

As a result of releases from Don Pedro Reservoir, several dairies close to the San Joaquin River had to move their an-

imals to neighboring properties, said Anja Raudabaugh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen.

In Sacramento County, the Cosumnes River was making life tough for Ken Oneto, who farms just south of Elk Grove.

Typically at this time of year, crews would be pruning walnuts and grapes, but flooding has prevented them from doing that, he said.

“My workers haven’t been work- This vineyard in Thornton, in northern San Joaquin County, has been flooded for more than a month. The ing, because we floodwaters found their way in from the Mokelumne River through a levee break on a neighboring property.

Joe Valente, who manages the vineyard and other lands for Kautz Farms, thinks the vines can be saved but haven’t been able says he’s losing valuable pruning time. Kevin Hecteman/CFBF to go do anything,” said he has 55 trees down across 25 acres “There’s been some fruit that’s not Oneto said. “Lots of time off this winter, at last count.” going to make it to the market,” O’Donwhich is kind of tough.”

With reservoirs full and spilling wa- nell said. “The long-term outlook looks Oneto has one walnut orchard sitter out to the sea, and ground saturated, pretty good in terms of the weather, ting in floodwater for the third time this Wenger said farmers hope for a stretch of so we’re expecting by the second week year. It had been pumped out, only to fair weather. of March is when we’ll see a ramp-up reflood on Presidents’ Day. Oneto was “At this point, you hope that the sun in supply.” waiting for the Cosumnes to recede so comes out, the bees start flying and we At a news conference last Friday, he could restart his pump. can get to work,” he said.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced plans to The trees are dormant and should be On the coast, Monterey County was deal with the state’s “maxed-out” water OK, he said, though it may be years beseeing limited effects from the storms, and transportation infrastructure. He fore the full effects are known. according to Norm Groot of the Monte- said he wants to spend $437 million on Farmer Jake Wenger of Modesto rey County Farm Bureau. flood control and emergency response in said those long-term consequences could “Most of our fields are still unplant- the short term, using $50 million from be serious. ed,” Groot said. “That usually starts end the general fund and $387 million from “Walnuts become very susceptible of February, beginning of March. I ha- Proposition 1, the 2014 water bond. for Phytophthora, a disease from basiven’t heard at this point that people are Brown also wants to require emergency cally sitting in water too long,” he said. postponing that schedule, but I would action plans and inundation maps for all “There’s really no coming back from it. It imagine with all the rain we just got and dams; step up the state’s dam inspection makes the trees really sick, it stunts their how muddy the fields are, that may put program; and ask the federal governgrowth and the trees just shut down.” a couple of weeks’ worth of delay into ment for prompt regulatory action and For almond trees, the combination getting in the fields and getting them increased funding to improve dam safety. of wet ground and high winds during prepared and planted.”

(Kevin Hecteman is an assistant edthe Presidents’ Day weekend caused othAmong strawberry fields, those in itor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at er problems, Wenger said.

Ventura and Orange counties took the khecteman@cfbf.com. Ag Alert assistant “There’s been a lot of trees that went worst of the impact, according to Caro- editors Ching Lee and Christine Souza over,” he said. “A few days ago, we had lyn O’Donnell of the California Straw- contributed to this report.) gusts that were up to 56 mph out here, berry Commission. Those areas were This article reprinted with the perand driving around you can see that a lot planted in November and provide most mission of the California Farm Bureau of almond trees are down. One neighbor winter production.

Federation.

Commentary: Helping Farm Employers Navigate Immigration Changes Bryan Little, CFBF President Donald Trump has acted quickly to fulfill campaign promises to remove unauthorized immigrants already in the U.S. and discourage others from emigrating without authorization.

Two executive orders issued in January were followed by memoranda from Department of Homeland Security SecreSALES, SERVICE, RENTAL AG EQUIPMENT & TRUCK REPAIR

tary John Kelly to define for DHS agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol how the orders are to be carried out.

The executive orders significantly broaden circumstances under which an unauthorized immigrant may be apprehended and deported. For example: Any immigrant in the country without authorization who is charged or

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convicted of any offense, has committed acts for which he or she could be charged with a crime, is suspected of a crime, or who an immigration officer deems a risk to public safety or national security will be prioritized for removal.

The orders end a “catch-and-release” policy of releasing apprehended unauthorized immigrants within the U.S. and detaining immigrants who have crossed the border without authorization, pending a deportation hearing.

Federal agencies will create regulations and policies allowing them to collect fines and penalties from immigrants and from people “who facilitate their unlawful presence,” and to prioritize removal of immigrants who have engaged in “fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection of any official matter before a government agency.”

Taken together, it appears these two directives could prioritize assessing penalties against employers who may have facilitated the presence of unauthorized immigrants by hiring them knowing they were not employment-eligible, and prioritize the removal of employees who offered fraudulent documents to complete the I-9 process to obtain employment in the U.S. The orders authorize the hiring of 10,000 additional ICE agents and 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

A federal program will be expanded that encourages cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement agencies.

The orders authorize construction of a border wall and necessary infrastructure.

EMPLOYERS continued on 7 »

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 7

Agriculture Employers Continued from 6

Many implications of the orders remain to be played out, such as: Whether ICE will begin large-scale apprehensions of suspected unauthorized immigrants in areas distant from the border; Whether ICE will begin significant new worksite enforcement, including I-9 audits; Whether Congress will begin serious discussions about immigration reform.

There has been much congressional interest in an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform, including building the wall and requiring mandatory, universal use of the DHS E-Verify system, which can verify the authenticity of many (but not all) identity and work eligibility documents.

What does the future hold?

The California Farm Bureau Federation, American Farm Bureau Federation and many other organizations have long recognized that agriculture depends on a foreign-born workforce. These farm employees provide their employers with identity and work-eligibility documents that appear authentic in order to complete a Form I-9 when their employment begins, but which in fact aren’t authentic.

Employers are not required to be “document cops” or to be trained to rec-

ognize inauthentic documents; in fact, asking too many questions about documents presented by a new employee can lead to a lawsuit against the employer, alleging employment discrimination.

Because of this “catch-22” situation, Farm Bureau advocates a two-part approach to modernize immigration law in order to help employees and employers on American farms: Create a form of legal status that allows current agricultural employees to continue to provide Americans with high-quality food at reasonable prices.

Farmers need employees who can live and work securely, continue to fill key jobs on farms, pay taxes, buy goods in local stores, and come and go across the U.S.-Mexico border to visit family and friends without fear.

Create an agricultural “guestworker” program that will be easier, simpler and less expensive to use than the current one. A program should allow employees and farmers the option of contracting with each other for agricultural work, or should allow approved U.S. farmers to hire any employee legally admitted to work on farms.

Since the early stages of his campaign, President Trump has said he wants to build a border wall, but that there should be doors in the wall to allow entry of people whose presence will benefit our country and our economy.

CFBF Welcomes Executive Order on ‘WOTUS’ Rule Staff Reports Welcoming President Trump’s executive order for review of a disputed Clean Water Act rule, the president of the California Farm Bureau Federation said he hopes today’s action leads to a more cooperative approach to environmental regulation.

“California farmers and ranchers pride themselves in the care they show for the land, water and other resources entrusted to them,” CFBF President Paul Wenger said. “We want to work cooperatively to maintain and improve our land, not to be subject to confusing and sometimes contradictory rules from government agencies.

“We’re encouraged by the Trump ad-

ministration’s action to roll back the ‘waters of the United States’ rule,” Wenger said. “At the same time, we recognize the executive order as the first step in what could be a long process to undo the confusion brought by the WOTUS rule.

“Ultimately, the goal should be to provide farmers and ranchers—in California and elsewhere—the freedom to farm their land productively and with environmental certainty, while pursuing compliance with the Clean Water Act through incentives rather than coercion.”

The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of more than 48,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of more than 6.2 million Farm Bureau members.

The reality of food production and the agricultural workforce is clear: Americans’ food will likely be grown, harvested and processed in the future by the same people as today; the only question is whether the farms they work on will be in the U.S. or in Mexico.

In recent days, I have received numerous calls and emails from farmers who report their employees are worFarm Bureau advocates a two-part approach to modried. The farmers want to know ernize federal immigration law in order to help both what their employees should employees and employers on American farms. Ching do, regardless of their legal Lee/CFBF status; what farmers can do to furnishes subscribers and clients with help their employees; and what farmers technical assistance and information to should do in their role as employers. enable them to assess their compliance Many organizations and agencies with employment eligibility requirehave prepared information that is widely ments. For more, including information available on the Internet, advising immi- on subscribing to the FELS Newsletter, grants on their legal rights and how they see fels.net. should handle an encounter with law enforcement.

(Bryan Little is director of employFarm employers can begin now to ment policy for the California Farm review their practices when creating, Bureau Federation and chief operatmaintaining and storing Forms I-9, and ing officer of the Farm Employers Labe ready to comply with ICE requests to bor Service.) audit I-9s.

This article reprinted with the perFarm Bureau’s affiliated compa- mission of the California Farm Bureau ny, the Farm Employers Labor Service, Federation.

CFBF President: “Announcement Shows Limits of Water System” Tuesday’s water supply announcement from the federal Central Valley Project shows the resiliency of nature and the limitations of California’s water supply system, according to the president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

After a wintertime recovery in precipitation, CFBF President Paul Wenger said “it’s a shame” the CVP can’t assure full water supplies to all of its customers.

“Just look at the numbers,” Wenger said. “The Sierra snowpack stands at 186 percent of average. Most key reservoirs hold higher-than-average supplies for the time of year. If the CVP can’t assure full supplies to all of its customers this year, what would be needed for that to happen?

“We understand this is a fish-first system now,” he continued, “because federal fisheries agencies have the first and last call on CVP water. We know the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act that Congress passed last year

Staff Reports will help. But we obviously need to take further action to modernize our water system, our laws and our policies.

“One wet year won’t erase our longterm surface water deficit, and the current fish-first policies have also harmed groundwater supplies—an impact that is both serious and inexcusable.

“Farm Bureau remains committed to achieving a water system that benefits both our environment and our economy.

We believe that can be achieved and we believe we can learn from wet years such as this one as well as from dry years. We will continue to work with elected representatives and agency officials with that goal in mind.”

The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of more than 48,000 members statewide.

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2 March, 2017

TRMC

“

Continued from 1 cesses in quality and compliance, Benzeevi, the CEO of HCCA -- the company which runs the Tulare Regional Medical Center -- shifted gears to discussing the past, no holds barred, creating a raucous audience.

That atmosphere continued as the board voted to schedule a recall election for Kumar.

“Potential Death Knell”

The news from Fitch Ratings served as a reminder of the district’s difficult path forward in finding continued financing for its beleaguered tower construction project.

“This is something that potentially, certainly could hurt the hospital, death knell the hospital. Whatever you want to call it,” Germany said.

One of the key reasons for the downgrade stemmed from the voters’ rejection of Measure I, the $55m bond proposal that would have funded construction of the hospital’s unfinished tower.

“The Negative Watch is due to the failure of a ballot measure in August 2016 that would have authorized a $55 million general obligation (GO) bond issuance to finish its new building project,” a Fitch press release states. “TRMC is currently in the process of evaluating financing options and the Negative Watch reflects the sizeable amount of debt that will need to be supported from hospital operations.”

“

You asked for an opinion, and I’m giving you the opinion.

If you don’t like it, fine. The opinion is [Dr. Parmod Kumar] does not have to recuse himself from voting on whether there should be an election for his recall. He’s gonna vote on it. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry.

”

Bruce Greene, attorney for TLHCD and HCCA Wednesday’s press release from Fitch did not indicate whether HCCA or TLHCD officials had discussed any updated plans beyond stating that management officials expect “to finalize [their] financing plan by summer 2017 and will issue bonds through the FHA 242 program or Cal Mortgage.”

Germany also discussed declining patient volumes, a trend not left unnoticed by the ratings agency.

“TRMC’s financial profile has weakened through the six months ended December 31, 2016 as a result of an information technology conversion and continued decline in volume. TRMC had 41.2 days cash on hand at December 31, 2016 and 6.3% operating EBITDA margin through the interim period,” the agency noted in its recent release.

Financial Reporting

During the meeting, the board also approved less frequent financial reports.

Germany requested that financial reports be made quarterly, stating that monthly reports took time away from finance staff to focus on other matters and could provide an inaccurate picture.

[Tulare’s hospital] belongs to the public. It doesn’t belong to the charlatans of the past [...] 500 jobs saved, higher paid, and more of them. Facts.

”

Benny Benzeevi, CEO of Healthcare Conglomerate Associates Since the exhaustion of the initial bond, the hospital has expended $7.3m to continue construction and prevent the expiration of construction permits -- a drain on resources that is untenable in the longterm, Germany said.

That fact was key to a prior Fitch Rating Watch upgrade in August 2016: the agency placed the healthcare district on “Rating Watch Positive” due to optimism surrounding the ballot measure and its potential to stop the project’s drain on hospital resources.

“We felt really good that the community really wanted a hospital, they really wanted the future, they really wanted a future tower and were willing to fund it,” Germany said.

“The [August] Rating Watch Positive reflects Fitch’s expectation of upward rating movement if Measure I passes since funding will be secured to complete the new building project and Tulare Regional Medical Center’s strong operating performance has been sustained,” Fitch Ratings officials stated in an August 2016 press release. “However, if Measure I fails, Fitch will need an updated plan from management and will reassess the rating at that time.”

“It allows time for finance staff to focus on financial analysis, and all sorts of other things,” Germany said. “The thing with monthly reporting is that you can have incredibly significant fluctuation, and it’s really misleading.”

On 3-2 lines, board members Parmod Kumar, Linda Wilbourn, and Richard Torrez voted to allow the less frequent reports, with Kevin Northcraft and Mike Jamaica dissenting.

Kumar made the motion to switch to quarterly reports, thanking Germany for his service along the way.

“First of all, Alan, thank you for being so damn good,” Kumar said. “In my 20+ years, we never had a CFO of the caliber as you are, Alan.”

Northcraft explained his dissenting vote by stating that he believed the switch would be a violation of the contracts that TLHCD has with HCCA. “Our agreement with HCCA requires monthly financial reports to be made by the 20th of the month following.

You are in breach of contract by not providing those,” Northcraft said, explaining his vote. “We cannot, by motion, change the agreement with HCCA.”

“That’s your opinion, and I appreciate that,” Benzeevi retorted, “but it’s not accurate.”

“I’m not entitled to have independent legal counsel,” Northcraft replied, “so I have to use my best judgement.”

“The Charlatans of the Past”

Benzeevi took the podium from Germany to discuss the hospital’s success in spite of some setbacks.

“We’re very, very proud of our team for taking a hospital from the brink of disaster, in spite of a 5-year physician boycott from the very physicians that have supported some of our people, unfortunately.”

Across a wide swath of benchmarks, Benzeevi said, the hospital has proved its excellence.

“We look at every area and multiple variables within that area,” Benzeevi said.

Benzeevi presented statistics from those areas -- including food and nutrition services, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ‘Code Blue’ cases.

“A ‘code’ is somebody who loses all heartrate and respiration, basically clinically dead,” Benzeevi said. “If you were to have a ‘Code Blue’ as a patient here, the likelihood of you living to discharge is one out of three. The national numbers are 17 to 20 percent. That speaks volumes to the care and the notice that the nurses and the staff pay to the patients here.”

Segueing from the Compliance and Quality section of the meeting and stepping clearly into the “Other” portion on the agenda, the HCCA CEO took aim at the hospital’s critics and past leadership, pointing out one member of the audience by name.

“Let’s talk about some of the things that HCCA did not do,” he said.

“HCCA wasn’t here in 2005 to tell a community that $85m would pay for a $120m building,” Benzeevi said. “I don’t know who was responsible for that, but I looked up who was on the board.”

“Deanne [Martin-Soares], you were on the board,” he said. “Victor [Gonzalez] was on the board.”

Multiple members of the audience decided to talk, too.

“I don’t think you can call out people in the audience,” one man said.

“We’re just talking about public officials, I’m not calling anybody out,” Benzeevi responded.

He continued.

“2010, we started building a new tower before the plans are complete? Who the heck does that -- start a new tower before the plans are complete,” he asked. “How about doctors that run the hospital and

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The board voted on 3-2 lines -- Linda Wilbourn, Richard Torrez, and Kumar in the affirmative; Kevin Northcraft and Mike Jamaica in the negative -- to schedule Kumar’s recall election.

The vote authorized Wilbourn to “issue and deliver to the registrar of voters within 14 days of the date of [the] meeting an order, stating that an election will be held on the date which is 125 days after the date of the order, to determine whether or not Dr. Kumar shall be recalled,” though the one official recommended a June 6 election date to reduce expenses for the district.

However, Kumar’s participation in the vote didn’t please an already incensed segment of the audience.

“We checked with independent counsel on the issue of whether Dr. Kumar whether had to recuse himself,” Bruce Greene, the district’s attorney, said, responding to statements from the audience.

“You asked for an opinion, and I’m giving you the opinion. If you don’t like it, fine,” Greene said. “The opinion is he does not have to recuse himself from voting on whether there should be an election for his recall. He’s gonna vote on it. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry.”

“We would respectfully request that you order the election for June 6. That would coincide with another special election being held,” Michelle Baldwin, the Interim Tulare County Registrar of Voters, stated. That will save the district money in costs to run the special election separate from that election.”

The board did not choose to act on Baldwin’s recommendation, instead adopting the resolution that would see the election date, at a minimum, set on June 28.

At the end of the vote, Visalia lawyer Mike Lampe said he believed that Kumar’s participation in the discussion vote was a violation of the Brown Act. “Mike, I would be more than happy to see you removed,” Greene said.

“Remove me,” Lampe responded.

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HCCA, he said, had over the last three years “brought the public hospital back to the public.”

“It belongs to the public. It doesn’t belong to the charlatans of the past,” he said, drawing more jeers from the crowd -- and responding back.

“500 jobs saved, higher paid, and more of them. Facts,” he said.

While the speech had clearly shifted the tone and mood of the audience, the point wasn’t to incite, he said, ending his portion of the meeting.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Benzeevi said. “What gets us to the future is a coming together and recognizing that we all need to have an integrated healthcare system in this community.”

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Valley Voice • 9

Kaweah Delta Offering Free Breastfeeding Classes Staff Reports Kaweah Delta Medical Center is now offering free monthly breastfeeding classes in English and Spanish to encourage mothers to breastfeed.

The English classes take place on the fourth Tuesday of the month from 6-8 p.m. at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in the Acequia Wing Conference Room; while the Spanish classes are the second Saturday of the month from 9-11 a.m. in the same location (enter the hospital off West Acequia Avenue and South Floral Street).

This program gives expectant mothers the information and support to achieve a fulfilling breastfeeding experience. Fathers are also encouraged to attend. To register for a free class, call

Marijuana Continued from 1

county has adopted some of the most lenient regulations involving the sale of marijuana and has become a case study for the entire country. “[W]ith a population of 108,000, Pueblo is the most populous city in Pueblo County. After the county adopted some of the most marijuana-friendly business rules in the state, the Posada Homeless Services Organization, a homeless services organization in the city of Pueblo, reported that the number of homeless served more than doubled in two years, from 2,444 in 2013 to 5,486 in 2016,” a Visalia city staff report stated.

The Posada Homeless Services Organization could not definitively connect the increase in homelessness to the commercialization of pot.

According to the organization’s study, the homeless staying at the shelter said they came to Pueblo to “use pot legally.”

Others have attributed the rise in homelessness to the so-called Amsterdam effect. This hypothesis claims that “when a vice is only legal in one place, everyone goes to that place to partake in the vice, which means that place bears a disproportionate share of the externalities.”

Advisory Continued from 1

Neighborhood Church, along with help from the NVAC, made the Houston Park a reality but did it without any official affiliation with the city. He predicted that the NVAC would live on and continue doing great things for its community even without an official designation.

Cox, who was chairman of the NVAC many years ago, didn’t see the common sense in discontinuing a functioning committee “because they made too much noise or asked for too much from the city.” He added, “They are the boots on the ground and advocating for the neediest in the city.” Cox believes that the advisory committee is a good idea for a region of the city that has special needs.

Link commended the committee for doing a tremendous job in improving North Visalia. But he acknowledged

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Breastfeeding can be beneficial for the health of new moms and their babies, Seeger said. “Here at Kaweah Delta we promote breast feeding and we strongly encourage it for every mom. Breastfeeding is beneficial for mom, for baby, for the family and actually the whole community,” she said.

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Representatives from shelters in Washington and Oregon, another state where pot is legal, claim to have seen no evidence that clients are being drawn to their shelters because of their states’ decisions to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

Pueblo County also experienced significant economic benefits from allowing the sale of pot. The county’s unemployment rate dropped more dramatically than in any other major Colorado metropolitan area, and over $3 million in marijuana tax revenues were generated over the past two years.

Winter presented the public safety drawbacks of legalizing pot.

According to studies done in Colorado and Washington, Winter said, both states have had an increase in young people smoking pot. There has also been an increase in driving under the influence, and traffic fatalities involving marijuana.

There have also been an increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations, especially due to edible forms of the drug. There has also been an increase in the number of explosions resulting from the process of extracting honey oil from marijuana.

Councilmember Steve Nelsen commented that the collateral damage of crime and death may not outweigh the economic benefit.

Representatives for Cannacanhelp,

a medical marijuana dispensary based in Goshen, disputed some of the research.

Philip Bourdette, a lawyer for the organization, said that there was no scientific evidence that the increase in homeless in Pueblo was a result of the legalization of pot.

He also said that the people running the study were biased against the legalization of marijuana, adding that prohibition created a huge black market for alcohol -- and the same will happen with marijuana if it can’t be sold legally.

“You will know where they are if you license pot,” Bourdette said. “If the city regulates pot instead of prohibits it, the city will be in better shape.”

Bardell suggested a citizens committee to help make the final decision.

Councilmember Phil Cox agreed with Bardell’s proposal for a citizens committee, and stated the issue requires more study.

Nelsen suggested that the committee be comprised of legal and health experts, public safety officials, and Visalia citizens, preferring information from local experts and residents over studies from other states.

He stated he wanted to hear the good, bad and ugly pertaining to this issue -- not just the economic benefit, and that he wants to do what is best for the community and best for the children.

Wes Hardin, an employee and board member of Cannacanhelp, reminded the

council of California’s trailblazing status with marijuana -- one that eclipses Colorado’s. California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996.

Mayor Warren Gubler reminded the council that marijuana was still illegal at the federal level, and wanted to also note that Visalians voted against Proposition 64.

He said that Visalia did not need this type of commercial activity and that he believed in the Amsterdam effect.

He also said he believed legalizing the sale of pot was a step backwards in their efforts to alleviate the local homeless issue.

Council member Bob Link stated that he was not ready to make a decision about the commercialization of pot and was curious how Visalia voted on Proposition 64.

Visalia voted similar to the county as a whole with 46% voting in favor of legalizing pot and 54% voting against the proposition. Farmersville, Lindsay and Woodlake are the three communities that voted in favor of legalizing pot.

Nelsen agreed with Link and suggested that the city council table the issue for six months while the city staff collect more data and possibly form a citizens committee.

The council was also leaning towards watching what happens in other cities around California who decide to legalize the sale of marijuana.

that he has seen a lot of money spent between Houston, Ferguson and Highway 63 and “I see that as a problem.”

Link mentioned that the Washington School area and Central Avenue have just as many needs as North Visalia.

He also pointed out that the city’s other advisory committees, such as the CAC, the Transit Advisory Committee and the Parks and Trails Committee serve all of Visalia and not just one region.

Gubler felt that North Visalia had special needs compared to the rest of the city. He said it is OK to be noisy and that he appreciates the different voices the committee brings to the city council meetings. Gubler did not see any hurry in changing the status of the NVAC and his recommendation was to wait until after the 2018 election.

Collins, who intends on making his final decision at the March 6 meeting, said during a telephone interview that he leaned towards waiting until November 2018 to decide the fate of the NVAC.

He said that the advisory committee has a long history going back to the 1970’s and that it has made a valuable contribution through the years.

“The more inclusion of Visalia citizens in the decision making process the better,” said Collins.

He acknowledged that just having one region of Visalia with its official advisory committee does not square with the other committees. “But North Visalia has some unique attributes such as Highway 63 and the Oval that the other regions don’t have.”

Bill Huott, who has been a committee member since 2001, said “one less voice and one less committee is not a good idea.”

In a letter Huott said, “Instead of embarking down the road of dissolution of this committee, the council should be brainstorming ideas for this committee as a model for more outreach, more intervention and services, more lines of communication to the most needy, of

outreach and services.”

He reminded the council that there had been two murders in Visalia this year, both of which happened in North Visalia, underscoring the regions special needs.

Vincent Salinas, who has also been a longtime member of the committee, listed off its many accomplishments, such as more lighting, better streets, improved housing and recruiting new businesses.

He said it’s the heart of the city but so many houses and businesses are blighted.

Maria Gonzales, another member, added that the committee gives a voice to the most impoverished residents of Visalia.

She said they do not feel comfortable coming to the city council meetings so they rely on the advisory committee to be their voice.

Bob Ludekins agreed with Cox that it did not make sense to discontinue a successful working committee just because other regions of Visalia do not have their own advisory committees.

Why Breast Feed?

For moms, it’s: • Convenient and economical • Helps shrink uterus to normal size • Helps with weight loss • Reduces risk of osteoporosis • Reduces risk of endometrial, uterine and breast cancer.

For babies, it: • Allows bonding • Provides perfectly matched nutrition • Reduces risk of SIDS • Prevents ear infections and allergies

10 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017

Comments & Letters

“California’s Valley members of Congress refused to meet constituents.”

Kate Connor, Courage Campaign Across the country last week, constituents demanded answers from their members of Congress on issues related to the Trump Administration’s dangerous agenda—from whether they’ll pledge to protect and improve health care (instead of stripping it from millions of Americans) to how they will stop the unconstitutional actions of the White House, including the Muslim ban.

California’s central valley members of Congress refused to meet with their constituents. Instead of meeting with our elected officials to discuss the importance of the Affordable Care Act, how to protect immigrants in our communities, or hear how important we think it is that the Trump Administration’s ties to Russia be investigated we went to them.

Courage Campaign members gath-

ered outside the homes of Rep. David Valadeo, Rep. Jeff Denham, and Rep. Devin Nunes.

On Thursday, February 23, 2017, the Courage Campaign and Service Employees International Union joined forces for a candlelit vigil and march outside of Rep. Devin Nunes, home in Tulare County. Over 100 people chanted “No Repeal,” regarding the Affordable Care Act, and held signs that said “missing” with Nunes photo below just outside of his gated community. The event’s primary focus was on making it clear we do not want the Affordable Care Act repealed because that would throw our healthcare system into chaos while harming seniors, children, and working families.

Traditionally during the February congressional recess, members of Congress return to their districts, and meet

with constituents about upcoming legislation and ways to address local concerns. Elected officials from California’s central valley refused to conduct town hall meetings and ignored their constituents’ pleas to meet with them. Constituents of Rep. Devin Nunes say this year is not different from any other year. Rep. Nunes is infamous for not meeting with his constituents and not holding town meetings.

Rep. Nunes did have time for a GOP fundraiser though in Bakersfield, CA the night before the vigil and a right wing summit in Aptos over the weekend. If a constituent of Rep. Nunes wants to pay $200-$10,000 you can listen to Rep. Nunes speak, but there is no guarantee he will ever listen to you.

The unwillingness of Rep. Nunes to do his job, which is to listen to his constituents, speak for them, and develop solu-

tions for the needs of those in his district demonstrates the fact he is not interested in democracy.

Congress is poised to take action on issues that literally have life-and-death consequences including access to affordable healthcare and the protection of undocumented Americans from unjust detention, deportation and the inevitable family destruction that follows. It is simply undemocratic and it’s disturbing that our Central Valley representatives David Valedeo, Jeff Denham and Devin Nunes do not care about the majority of their constituents or their needs.

If our democratically elected representatives don’t have the integrity to stand face to face with their constituents and explain their decisions -- then they shouldn’t be voting to destroy our access to affordable health care or launch a war against our immigrant communities.

“I am so sick of people bashing Trump.”

Ms. Richman I needed to send this comment to the Editor of the Valley Voice. I am so sick of people bashing Trump. Oh boo hoo, if you feel he isn’t your duly elected President, then leave the country or

shut up. In four years you will have a chance to vote someone else in as President, but until then we should support our government. I felt that Obama was the worst President since Jimmy Carter, but I didn’t cry, threaten, and march like a maniac saying he isn’t my President.

The left wing liberals which I used to one of, feel so entitled to their opinion and freedom of speech, that they won’t allow anyone else to have an opinion or free speech, because if you do so, someone may beat you up, shout you down or possible set your hair on fire all of which

has already be done. Also, I don’t necessarily agree with all of President Trump’s platform, but I have faith in our layered form of government with its checks and balances will help protect our country from extremism.

Comments from ourvalleyvoice.com

“

There is so much that I would like to add with many of these comments but unable to do so at this time due to time constraints.

But I would like to address that someone attempted to impersonate me last week by putting a comment as it was from me. It indicated that I changed my mind because I was given false information that I didn’t research and that I thought HCCA was the best thing for our hospital.

I want to stress that I absolutely do not feel that way for so many reasons. My opinions were developed by researching data and not what someone told me. The disappointing thing from HCCA and some of their employees is that they fail to recognize that a good majority of the community is not supportive of their actions because they actually did research.

So it doesn’t matter how many times that you indicate that we are trying to sabotage with lies and deceit it just isn’t true. We are bringing out the truth, the community is bright enough to educate themselves and make their own decisions. I can speak for the Citizens Group as a whole to state that we would never support impersonating someone else.

“

”

They did no such thing. They did research and didn’t hide anything, they have all the research and proof on their website. Unlike HCCA continuing to not provide the audit, because they changed accountants, wonder why, could it be the other firm wasn’t willing to lie or do things that weren’t ethical or maybe HCCA has paid their bill. Why is the last finance meeting they said it would take a while to give another board member an aging report. They said it would take awhile. I am in business and now a days it only takes a couple of pushes of button on a computer to produce an aging report, that show 30,60, 90 and over. If they are doing so well they HCCA has a poor credit rating.

Hopefully Valley Voice will publish Sherrie Bell deposition that just came out.

”

Hillary is history and stories about her getting the “old band back together” for the next election are silly. Her time is past. This country just needs to survive 4 years without a disaster. Do you think the Donald will be impeached? Some people think about such things.

So long for now.

“

”

— John Mahoney on Political Fix (2 February, 2017)

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“

”

— Troll Kassandra on New TLHCD Board Members Seated

Now they closed Lindsey clinic. They told patients to go find some other clinic. This is one fast shrinking hospital system. Management is not aiming to serve patients. They just want to milk out as much money as possible before it is nothing more than a carcass.

Shame on us for letting them do to our hospital.

”

— Steven on New TLHCD Board Members Seated as Factions Develop

— Tulare Taxpayer on Get The Facts — They Matter

K: You are a professional troll paid for by our tax dollars (through HCCA).

You have been given job to come here, spread lies, frustrate people with illogical remarks and crowd others out.

Your goal is make user experience so off-putting that people stop commenting here.

Why dont you come to facebook page and comment with your real identity?

”

John

— Speakmymind on Get The Facts — They Matter

I am part of the group that you are speaking about.

We help defeat the bond that you said would force the hospital to close if it didn’t pass.

You lied. The hospital is still open.

We helped vote in two new honest board members.

And now we will see that Kumar is recalled. We are proud to help save our hospital from HCCA. The truth always wins over lies and dishonesty.

Dithering on about Hillary Clinton is a waste of space in the VV. Stop it. Supporters of Mr. Trump should celebrate, he is president and this country is stuck with him. Raise your arms and dance around the dinner table. Every decision he makes, every political appointment he fills, every executive order he signs, and every fake news comment he tweets belongs to this country. He is an embarrassment but unfortunately he is our embarrassment. In a time of war, his “presidential aides” could be guilty of treason (especially his former air force general) for consorting with the enemy (Russian operatives).

But apparently the VV thinks that is fine. Silence speaks for itself.

And it’s wonderful the VV is so pleased by Congressman Nunes (a member of the president’s transition team – choosing staff and making executive decisions), but when the decisions are poor or worse what do you have to say? It’s nice that you’re happy with the republicans and the new president, but is that it? How do you feel about the National Security Advisor he chose, Retired Air Force Lt. General Michael Flynn? Would you discuss “alternative facts” – whatever those are (ask Kellyann Conway to explain). What are your thought on ICE rounding up illegals and deporting them? It’s tough being relevant but give it a try.

— Deanne Martin-Soares on New TLHCD Board Members Seated

“

Dear Catherine

“

Steven I am 100% Sure that our hospital was in a form of financial devastation. I use this hospital as does my family so we are very exhilarated that HCCA has kept the doors open.

”

Furthermore, I would rather have a clinic close then a hospital wouldn’t you Steven?

— Kassandra on New TLHCD Board Members Seated as Factions Develop

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 11

Comments & Letters

Veteran’s Corner

Use your voice — send your letters

VA Adaptive Sports Grants Available

Via email: editor@ourvalleyvoice.com Via mail: PO Box 44064, Lemon Cove, CA 93244

Scott Holwell

Capitol Update - Assembly Bill 942 Devon Mathis

Friends, I would like to share with you a brief update on my newly proposed legislation which will grant Californian’s pet owners a break from expensive veterinary bills. Assembly Bill 942 will allow a pet-owner to write off 50% of their annual veterinary costs, up to $2,000, from their income taxes.

With routine veterinarian bills totaling in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, California’s pet-owners are often faced with the difficult decision of undergoing expensive treatments for their pets or letting their furry friends continue on without needed medical attention. The surgical costs for a pet that was hit by a car and suffered a fractured pelvis

“ “ “ “ “ “ “

can exceed $3,700, while claims for long term diabetes medication and blood work cost nearly $10,500. In all, Americans spent nearly $16 billion on veterinary care in 2016, according estimates from the American Pet Products Association.

We have all heard stories where a family is forced to put down a pet because of the staggering costs for procedures.

However, what if the state incentivized pet-owners to keep their pets in the family through an income tax write-off?

Our cats and dogs are vital members of our families, providing emotional support through love and affection.

Inflated veterinary costs should never prevent a family from adopting or taking care of a pet. As a state,

we should strive to provide the best care possible, while also not breaking the bank.

Again, I am pleased to inform you of my steadfast dedication to our furry friends, and I encourage you to support this measure as well.

Should you wish to express your support, I invite you to write a letter addressed to the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas. You can call the committee to express your support at (916) 319-2098 or fax a letter to (916) 319-2198.

Please know that I am committed to fighting on your behalf, as well for our four legged friends.

Sincerely, Devon J. Mathis

Comments from ourvalleyvoice.com Puppy Raising is a very rewarding volunteer experience. We have a club in Tulare Co. for youth and adults of all ages, that enjoy working with dogs and help them grow with training and socialization into a future Guide Dog for the Blind.

For more information regarding TailWaggers Puppy Raising club, contact Guide Dogs for the Blind at 800-295-4050 or guidedogs.com

” ”

— Judy Landers on Lemoore FFA Raises Puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind

Um, excuse me, but this is what we thought. This truly represents the fraud that is our local government. This money was supposed to serve public safety needs. Some of us voted no because we knew that we were being lied to. Thank you for proving us right.

— David McElroy on Council Moves Forward with Youth Programs Funded by Measure N This is an appalling decision. I worked at KDDH in the NICU as an RN for close to 10 years, and have over 30 years experience in the field, including 13 years at Valley Childrens Hospital in the NICU. The neonatologists, specialists, and pediatricians who care for the babies in the KDDH NICU are among the finest I’ve been blessed to work with. This decision by the KDDH Board is outrageous, and worst of all, NOT in the interest of the patients and families. They should be ashamed!

”

— Sharon Lathan on “Qualified local physicians should not be blocked from deciding who will provide care”

Were told our community will be safe, were told there will be no loitering in our neighborhood. How will this be enforcing? The facility that poses no threat to our community will have security officers, security cameras, and appropriate lighting along with seven foot fencing!

They are protecting themselves, what about us and the children of Pinkham Elementary school.

”

— Frank on Listening Sessions Set Regarding Visalia Wellness & Recovery Center

These people are our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, and so on and so on. I know of no family who has not been touched in some way by mental illness, substance abuse, etc. When folks say clean up I worked at Tulare View Mental Health Hospital when it was located at Tulare District Hospital. Wonderful facility and was an asset in regards to hospital revenue and provided a much needed public service to the community….that is until some property owners complained about “security” issues (they apparently did not like seeing or knowing that mental health patients were housed close by their homes and were concerned about their personal safety, I guess). That seems to be happening again …..too bad. Your friends and relatives who need these services deserve and need your support. Open the much needed facility.

”

— Barbara on Listening Sessions Set Regarding Visalia Wellness & Recovery Center

There’s no questioning that a mental health facility would be beneficial to the public. No one has said anyone in need of mental health care is a bad person or doesn’t deserve treatment. We are questioning the location of this facility! Let’s be honest, if the facility has security officers onsite, special lighting and a seven foot fence, then it should be obvious there is the possibility for violence.

What we are saying is it was a hastily made decision to purchase this property with no regard for the community or the children of Pinkham Elementary school. They needed to spend the money or lose it. And no pre-planning was done.

”

— Frank on Listening Sessions Set Regarding Visalia Wellness & Recovery Center

There is violence on our community streets and street corners every day. There has been violence on our local school grounds, public parks, hospital grounds, courthouse grounds, city hall meetings…. and yet society continues to exist and hope for the best and plan for the worst. Garden Elementary School and its grounds in Tulare was just adjacent South-West to Tulare View, an Acute Care Mental Health Facility. There was no fencing around that school as I recall. Perhaps the Valley Voice could take the time to find out if Garden was ever put into real (not imagined) jeopardy from the patients housed in Tulare View. Hastily made decision works both ways folks. Let’s be honest, there are security officers onsite all around most facilities in our towns. And lets remember that our schools are all fenced in as well.

”

— Barbara on Listening Sessions Set Regarding Visalia Wellness & Recovery Center

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is providing up to $8 million in grants to fund adaptive-sports programs that offer activities for disabled Veterans and members of the armed forces who have disabilities. The application period for the fiscal 2018 Adaptive Sports Grant begins Feb. 21, 2017, and will close at 11:59 p.m. (EST) on April 21, 2017.

“We know disabled Veterans and military members of all ages and abilities report better health and an improved quality of life when participating in adaptive sports,” said VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin. “We encourage organizations to apply for a grant to better assist those who have faced life changes due to their military service. At VA, caring for Veterans, day in and day out, is a noble cause.”

Previous VA grants included eligible nonprofits, Veterans’ groups, universities and municipalities, which plan, develop, manage and implement adaptive sports activities. Funding may be used for training, program development, coaching, sports equipment, supplies, program evaluation and other activities related to adaptive-sports program implementation and operation.

In fiscal 2016, VA awarded $7.8 million in adaptive-sports grants to 90 programs providing services nationwide. The Grant Notice of Funding Availability is published on the Grants.gov website (www.grants. gov) under opportunity number VAASG-2018-01, linked through https:// www.grants.gov/web/grants/searchgrants.html?keywords=adaptive%20 sports.

For more information about VA’s Adaptive Sports Program, go to http:// www.va.gov/adaptivesports/va_grant_ program.asp.

The Kings County Veterans Service Office can complete the DMV Veteran Status Verification Form for the new California Veteran Designation on your driver’s license and also issues Veteran I.D. cards to honorably discharged veterans. Contact Scott Holwell if you would like to receive periodic veteran’s information by email. There are many state and federal benefits and programs available to veterans and their dependents. To determine if you are eligible for any of these benefits, call or visit our office. We can and will assist you in completing all required application forms. You can get information on the Web from the Kings County Veterans Service Office webpage at www.countyofkings.com/vets.

Scott Holwell, retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer, is the Veterans Service Officer for Kings County. Send your questions to the Veterans Service Office, 1400 W. Lacey Blvd, Hanford, CA 93230; call (559)852-2669; or e-mail scott.holwell@co.kings.ca.us.

12 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017

Wellness Center Continued from 1

session. “I am committed to us making sure we are good neighbors, and this is strictly a listening session so that we can get as much feedback from you all and from others tomorrow night, to make sure that if there are opportunities for us to change the operations – for us to make safety enhancements, etc. . . .We will have ongoing conversations, as well, and I’ve directed that to staff, in our board meetings, and in private meetings, as well . . . that is why we are here tonight, to make sure that we can minimize as much as possible, the impacts.”

Some 50 citizens attended the Tuesday night session. On Wednesday night, there were about 30 in attendance, and it was estimated that about half of those had attended the previous night’s session as well.

In response to the Valley Voice article, “Listening Sessions Set Regarding Visalia Wellness & Recovery Center,”

posted to the Voice’s website, John Sarsfield asked “If these people aren’t dangerous then why all the security?”

In response to this, and to other concerns of security regarding the intent of constructing a seven-foot fence, and security guards on duty during opening hours, Agency Director Britt said, “The fencing has been proposed by HHSA to enclose the vacant lot south of the building, wherein a garden and outdoor space will be placed, as well as landscaping to beautify the area surrounding the area. The fencing would not enclose the whole location.

“Security is standard operating procedure at most of our facilities; however, security officer(s), security cameras, and appropriate lighting were proposed to ensure compliance with the no loitering and no smoking outside designated smoking area signs.”

Following the sessions, David McElroy commented on the Voice’s website “Well, the ‘listening’ sessions have occurred, so now the board can do what they will, ignoring anything that was

said. Their paychecks will just keep rolling in for nothing.”

Britt responded to the comment, “HHSA is analyzing feedback from the community from the listening sessions, to determine next steps, with the goal of being a good neighbor.”

Plans are for the center to be open weekdays from 10am-7pm, to align with public transit schedules.

According to the center fact sheet, the center, “will not be a treatment clinic, a methadone clinic, medication service provider, or a residential program.

It will not serve individuals who are not yet within their wellness and recovery journey, or those just entering into or not yet engaged in mental health treatment. It will not serve sex offenders or parolees. Nor will it offer mental health assessment or outpatient therapeutic treatment; such as diagnosis, therapy, and medication services.

“It will serve individuals who are within or advanced in their wellness and recovery journey and will be an alcohol and drug-free environment.”

Instead, the county could offer support groups, educational classes and vocational training at the new facility. Clients could and will be advised to utilize budgeting workshops, cooking classes, arts and crafts for self-expression, library and computer stations for promotion of education and employment, employment support services for job search, job readiness, and retention, social and recreational engagement opportunities, and peer-to-peer and family groups to promote wellness, recovery, and resiliency skills.

The county received a Mental Health Services Act grant, covering the $1.2 million expense for the purchase of the property and escrow, which closed in January. The building is owned by the county and the center will move forward. However, county representatives continue to listen to citizen concerns on the matter, in order to assure that it moves forward in the most cooperative, and advantageous way possible.

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Student Life

Dairy Show Western Classic Dairy Show in its Sixth Year 2 March, 2017

Lauren Evangelo

The Western Classic Junior Dairy Show began in 2012 and has been held annually every year since at the Kings Fairgrounds in Hanford. It is a junior-only dairy cattle show, allowing youth ages 5-21 to participate.

In late 2011, due to tough economic times and decreased funding from the State of California, the Great Western Livestock Show in Tulare was canceled.

Great Western included a junior dairy cattle show at the Tulare Fairgrounds, the first weekend in March for many years. It was a great event that hosted young dairy exhibitors from up and down the state.

Not wanting to sit back and witness another event for juniors be cut back or lost, the South San Joaquin Holstein Club decided to establish a similar event so that juniors could continue to enjoy the same opportunities that many of its members enjoyed growing up.

Club members Greg Silva, Matthew and Lauren Evangelo, Anthony Souza and Joey Airoso, along with the help of additional SSJHA members, and dairy cattle enthusiasts, encompass the reason there is a show today.

It is important to note that this show would not be possible without several volunteers, who spend countless hours helping everything come together, and for all of our business sponsors. The show is privately funded, so we are grateful to all the business throughout the state that have stepped up to help make this show a reality.

The show has continued to grow and gain popularity Some of the key organizers of the show include from left to right, Greg Silva, Matthew Evangelo, Lauren Evangethroughout the en- lo and Joey Airoso. Courtesy/Western Classic Dairy Show cluding Registered and Grade Holsteins, up another barn to accommodate additire state and more than exceeds our expectations. At the and Registered and Grade Any Other tional cattle and exhibitors. The positive response we receive from the exhibitors, 5th Annual Western Classic in 2016, Breed (AOB).

We had nearly 190 exhibitors with parents, leaders and people in our comthe number of cattle and exhibitors had nearly doubled since we started the show, 169 exhibiting in Showmanship and 138 munity is humbling and rewarding. In five years prior. A total of 308 head of Judging Contest participants in the dairy an industry that is often filled with negative talk, this show is an excellent recattle were exhibited with divisions in- judging contest on Saturday morning.

For this year’s show, we are setting minder that our future is bright.

The Art of Showing Dairy Cattle

Summer Parreira finishes up bathing her calf, Apple, last Saturday, a week prior to the show. Nancy Vigran/Valley Voice

Exhibiting Dairy Livestock is a Family Affair Nancy Vigran

Two years ago, two of the Silva brothers, Jon Michael and Mark Anthony, exhibited in their first dairy show – the Western Classic. Their sisters, Juliana and Christiana, helped get the cows ready for the show, but missed out on the action in actually showing. It looked like so much fun, the girls decided to participate the next year.

“When we saw what fun it was, we decided we had to do it,” said Christiana Silva.

Some of the Silva kids have been involved in 4-H, but have not yet gotten into a 4-H dairy project. Christiana, currently a sophomore, said she isn’t sure

whether that will be in her future or not, but she is continuing on with showing in the Western Classic Dairy, in which she shows in class, a confirmation class for the type of cow she shows, and showmanship. In the past two years of preparing and exhibiting, she has learned a lot.

“How to show, how to groom – what to do and what not to do,” she said.

But, she feels she still has a way to go to understand what makes a good quality cow.

Unlike with 4-H, the exhibitor at the Western Classic show does not need to own his or her animal, which is fine for the Silvas, since they do not have a dairy. But, their relatives and friends

FAMILY continued on C7 »

To show dairy cattle it takes paGrace Wilbur, Tulare FFA tience, practice, and hard work. It starts by finding or breeding the most ide- proximately two years old. Additionally, al show cow or heifer, based off a na- breeding stock animals would be typicaltionally used scorecard. For milk cows, ly owned by the exhibitor for a longer period of time and the breakdown is: not sold in the acFrame 15%, Dairy tion. Male calves Strength 25%, are not shown in Rear Feet and Legs most shows - this is 20%, Udder 40%. for safety reasons.

The judge places Once you find the class of cows a cow - comes the according to how hard part - halter good her attributes breaking. This can are, based off of the be done many difscorecard. ferent ways, but There are althere is one goal in ways opportunities the end - get the cow to buy a heifer or to walk on a halter cow, whether it is at and lead. Once you a show sale, or from can control the cow a private party. It’s enough to walk her helpful for new short distances, you buyers to consult with experienced It is obvious Grace Wilbur loves her cows, should wash her as often as possible. people in the show so much so that she enjoys sitting in the stall with them. In this case, Grace is business. This may sitting with Monster, at the California State Washing cows helps with many things, include other show- Fair Dairy Show in Sacramento last sumincluding calming mer.

Courtesy/Grace Wilbur men, Ag teachers, them down, and or anyone involved with livestock fairs and shows. Typically stimulating more hair growth that will beginners would buy a calf or a heifer to give them a sleeker, shinier look when start off with, because they are smaller you clip them.

The next step to get her ready for and easier to work with and handle, if show is clipping and fitting her. Clipyou are not experienced.

As experience and knowledge ad- ping is like getting a haircut, but for vance, it will become clearer to the show- cows and includes their whole body. man what they can handle. At the Tulare Fitting is like styling your hair. You blow County Fair, there is a replacement heif- the cow’s topline, the hair that is on the er program in which exhibitors have the cow’s back, which is the only long hair left opportunity to sell their project at ap- on the cow’s body, with a blowdryer, and

SHOWING continued on C6 »

2 March, 2017

C2 • Valley Voice

Good luck to all our local dairy exhibitors

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Valley Voice • C3

SHOW SCHEDULE Saturday, March 4 8:00 am: Dairy Judging Contest begins 10:45 am: Group picture with all exhibitors in Show Ring 11:00 am: Dairy Showmanship, followed by AOB Heifer Classes Sunday, March 5 9:00 am: Holstein Heifer Classes 12:00pm: ALL Cow classes (Holstein & AOB alternating) Spectators are welcome both days

Cort Rowley showing his heifer, Sunset Canyon Headline C Amity, at the 2016 Western Classic Dairy Show.

Student Spotlight Cort Rowley, Golden West FFA Cort Rowley

My name is Cort Rowley. I am a member of the Golden West FFA and a senior at Golden West High School.

I am a member of a fourth-generation dairy family, so cows are in my blood.

I currently have a herd of 20 registered dairy cows, which I exhibit all around the nation.

My passion began at the age of six, when my grandfather purchased my first heifer.

The agreement was that when I sell her, I pay back all expenses and keep the rest of the money and put it toward my next animal. Since this began, I established an account and expanded my herd.

I still remember the day that I helped my family pick her out. It began with a never-ending ride to Tulare, from Visalia.

That may not seem like long for many, but for a six-year-old, anticipating his first cow, this was the longest ride of my life.

I remember being so excited and jumping out of the truck when we got there. Once I laid my eyes on “Payton,” I instantly fell in love.

Most people have a favorite breed and remain specific to that breed.

However, I live my life everyday thinking, “a good cow is a good cow, and it only takes one of those good ones to win.”

I serve as the junior president for the California Jersey Association, the California Holstein Association, and the California Brown Swiss Association - all of which I am heavily involved, and avidly promote.

My passion for the dairy in-

dustry expands larger than just one breed.

A frequent question is, “Why do you show?” I respond, “because of my passion, my excitement and my drive.”

These three things are what excite me to expand my herd, get involved in leadership positions, and promote the dairy industry.

I show for the experience that I will gain when working with different individuals, and the competition that grows lifelong lasting friendships.

The Western Dairy Classic is a junior dairy cattle show that I have exhibited at since it started.

This show is unique and specialized for the junior dairy program.

This show has grown in the number of participants as well as the quality of animals exhibited.

The show organizes a competitive dairy judging contest. It allows 4-H and FFA students all over the State of California to participate and polish their dairy judging skills.

I find myself looking forward to the laughs, memories and the opportunities that are available at the Western Dairy Classic.

My career choice is to become a large animal veterinarian. I have been accepted to University of Idaho, Oklahoma State University and Iowa State University, all with a Pre-Vet major.

After college I plan to transfer to a veterinary school within the United States and then start practicing medicine back in Tulare County.

My passion, my herd and my accomplishments could not be possible without my family who supports me in all my endeavors.

Miss your chance to support local ag students?

Our 4-H week section is coming in October!

Call 559-623-5398 to find out more

2 March, 2017

C4 • Valley Voice

Got Milk? Standing in the middle of the Airosa Dairy rotary parlor, one can see all the cows currently in the milking stances. Nancy Vigran

Generations of the California Dairy Industry – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Nancy Vigran

Joey Airoso is a fourth-generation California dairyman, his son, Joseph is the fifth, and his grandchildren could be the sixth.

His great grandfather, Charles, emigrated from the Azores to the San Joaquin Valley in 1912.

Charles had been a dairyman in the islands of Portugal, but moved his family to the US, to live the American dream. Joey grew up on the family’s Tulare dairy, which currently maintains a herd of about 600700 milk cows, while an additional 2,000 milkers, and some of the older stock, are housed at the family’s Pixley location, built in 2006.

While modern technology has changed the way dairies operate in recent years, the principles remain the same – to take the best care of the animals as possible, while getting the optimum production possible.

The Airosa Operation

The Airosa Dairy cows calve every 12-14 months. Cows have a 279day gestation period, and receive a 60-day respite from regular milking prior to calving, Airoso said.

This produces some 2,600-2,700 calves per year. Female calves are held back – many of which will remain at the dairy, others of which will be sold to other dairymen around the country. Twenty percent of the male calves will also be held back for potential breeding stock – the remainder are sold as newborns into the beef trade.

Production at the Tulare facility remains much the same as it was when Airoso grew up there, he said.

The Pixley location has a bit more modernization to it.

The “new farm” as Airoso calls Pixley, “provides a lot more comfort in the wintertime – it’s easier to work

in, for people and cows,” he said.

The rotary parlor, which was perfected in the late ‘90s or early 2000, he said, moves cows around in a circle while being milked. It is easy for new cows to get on, those finished to get off, and technicians to handle production.

The Airoso rotary parlor milks up to 72 cows at once – it takes five minutes to milk a cow and each cow spends about nine minutes on the apparatus. Airoso Dairy Holsteins are kept in groups of approximately 300. They are milked three times per day and the milked is picked up three of four times per day and taken to the Land ‘O Lakes creamery, where most of it is churned into butter.

Some milk is sold off for production of Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese.

The rotary parlor uses “the same concept as far as milking, but different technology,” Airoso said. “It is more labor intensive the old way.”

The industry continues “trying to make it easier for the cows and the people,” he added.

Other changes in the new dairy from the old, are the freestall barns, where each animal can spend time on her own bed. The barns provide insulation from the weather, winter and summer, Airoso said.

State Regulations

But, while comfort of the cows has become better along with ease for the human technician, regulations have become harder and harder to deal with, especially in California, he said.

The largest regulation, SB1383, requires the state to cut methane emissions from dairy cows and other animals by 40%, by 2030.

A September 17, 2016 Sacramento Bee article stated, “Today, many more California dairies are try-

ing to figure out how they, too, can cobble together enough money to buy their own digesters. They anticipate regulations that would compel them to slash methane emissions by at least 40% by 2030, the target set by a bill awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.”

The bill was signed by the Governor three days later.

The Sacramento Bee article went on to state, “Hitting that target would require about 200 of California’s 1,400 dairies to join the Van Warmerdams [a Galt dairy family referred to in the article] in building a digester, said Michael Boccadoro, president for the advocacy group Dairy Cares.

“Dairy advocates say it’s a tall order.

“Each machine usually costs several million dollars. The companies that build them are trying to meet the demand for their services. Fulltime dairymen also have to find utilities to buy the power they can generate on their farms. Otherwise, they won’t recover the cost of the equipment.”

“California, by far, is the most regulated state,” Airoso said.

He predicts the cost of a methane digester for the Pixley farm would cost $3-$5 million. For a smaller farm, like the Tulare farm, it would probably cost around $3 million, he said.

“You can’t justify that,” he said of the smaller farm.

Smaller dairies will have to close, he added. And dairies in the state have already declined from 2,5002,600 in the late ‘90s, to about half that now, he said.

Airoso did note that small, organic farms should be OK – they have pasture room that South Valley dairies don’t have available, so meth-

DAIRY continued on C5 »

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • C5

Milk – The Local Number One Agricultural Crop

2015 Star of the Holstein Breed was Air-Osa Redbull 12417. She was shown throughout the West Coast, Wisconsin and Utah and earned the title by a combination of production and her type. She was produced and continues to live at the Airosa Dairy in Pixley. Courtesy/ Jenny Thomas & Airosa Dairy.

Dairy

Continued from C4 ane levels are much lower.

Along with the methane-reduction bill, comes the raising of the minimum wage and the Ag worker overtime pay requirements.

“The people in Sacramento have no idea what the working environment here is,” Airoso said.

The minimum wage raise, inand-of-itself, is not that big of a deal, he said. Dairyman pay their good workers well.

“But, when dealing with animals, it’s difficult to keep regular hours,” he said. “It’s legal to smoke weed, but it’s illegal to work seven days a week – does that make sense?”

Dairyman have long taken good care of their workers.

“You’ve got to treat your people good in order to keep them,” he said.

But, this has a big impact in the industry, he added. And it could backfire. Dairyman may look to how to get some things done without using people – so, overtime pay or additional hiring may not take place.

The Drought

And yet another huge concern has been the drought.

“Water [or the lack of it], has been the single largest thing I have had to deal with, other than family things such as illness,” Airoso said.

“In Sacramento, they worry about methane, but they don’t look at infrastructure,” he said, in an interview prior to Governor Brown’s

Milk continues to lead the way in the agricultural commodities for Tulare and Kings Counties.

Permitted dairies in Tulare County were last estimated around 290, according to the Tulare County Farm Bureau.

In 2014, milk was worth $2.5 billion dollar in gross revenue. That was a 21.9% increase over 2013.

Milk represented about 31.4% of Tulare County’s total crop value in 2014.

Cows were estimated somewhere around 600,000 – 700,000 with the largest percentage being Holstein, more than 50%.

For the 2015 Tulare County Crop Report, and according to

garage with three cows farting, and someone else can spend the night in a garage with one car running – who do you think will come out in the morning?”

Mello manages two dairies, for one, JD Mello Dairy, he is in partnership with his dad, the other is his own.

Like Airoso, Mello feels he pays his staff well, and isn’t too concerned about the newly implemented minAnother Perspective Unlike Airoso, Jason Mello, imum wage.

Finding good workers is diffia third-generation Kings County cult, he said, and he wants to keep dairyman, has not felt the drought his, so he treats them well. as drastically.

“We haven’t run out of water,” he said.

Mello’s Dairies But, he has felt the pain of Mello doesn’t feel running the California regulations on the dairy has changed much from when dairy industry. he grew up.

“I’m not against all regulations,” “We were pretty modern 30 he said, “but I think, for the most years ago,” he said. part, we are stewards of the land and Mello maintains two herds of our animals.

900 Jersey cows, which are milked We work here, live here and raise twice per day. Cows live in freestall our families here. We don’t want to barns, which were built in the 80s. ruin the environment!

Cow care has always been Number 1 “We provide care for our cows, for the Mellos.

24 hours a day. What else takes care “We take good care of them, and 24 hours a day, except for an infant? they take good care of us,” he said.

These aren’t factory farms, they are In 2012, Mello sold off his Holfamily farms.” stein herd to replace it with Jerseys.

As for the “methane problem,” “I feel they [Jerseys] are a more Mello doesn’t understand why some efficient animal,” he said. consider it more of a problem than They produce a little less milk, auto emissions. but they also eat less, he said, and “So far, nobody has been able more of their food is turned into to been able to convince me that milk. They also reproduce well, he my cows’ farting is ruining the envi- added, they conceive easier.

Like at the Airoso Dairy, Melronment and not the car’s running,” he said. “I’ll spend the night in a lo’s cows are generally bred once per unveiling on February 24 of a $437-million plan for shoring up some of California’s most pressing water and flood-control needs, saying “the storms of January and February have made clear the state has substantial needs that have gone unmet for years.”

Hopefully, the plan will help address future water needs.

Best of luck at the Western Classic Show Serving the Agricultural Communities since 1907

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Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County’s Agriculture Commissioner in the August 2016 report to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, “Milk continues to be the leading agricultural commodity in Tulare County, with a total gross value of $1,718,001,000 a decrease $822,231,000 or 32.4%. Milk represents 24.6% of the total crop and livestock value for 2015. Total milk production in Tulare County remained relatively stable.”

Both milk volume and price were lower in 2015, leading to a drop of 32% in overall production value. year, and the Mellos tend to keep the majority of the female calves back to replace those that are aging in the milk line. All cows are artificially inseminated.

The basic changes to the industry are those of labor and regulations, Mello said.

“What’s different is that you have to be every efficient, if you want to survive,” he said.

“Other states have regulations – they’re not as bad. They just haven’t gotten there yet – they will.

“I hope for the best. I look at things a little different – through faith, we’re going to be fine.”

Cows come a “close” second to family.

“Sometimes my wife thinks it may be the other way around,” he joked. “It’s a great environment to raise your kids in – it teaches them a lot of stuff you’re not going to get in school,” he said, more seriously.

Keep Your Eyes on the Cows

Mello has a bit of advice to offer those junior exhibitors of today.

“The best advice I can give them is don’t ever forget that in order to be successful, you must get out and work with your cows,” he said. “You can’t just sit behind a computer.

Your success and your future, you can’t blame on your cows or your employees, you are responsible for your operation.

“Agriculture, in general, is the heartbeat of our country – I don’t think a lot of people are aware of that.”

Good luck at the Western Classic Show!

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Orange Cove 626-4629

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4780 South K Street Tulare, CA 93275

2 March, 2017

C6 • Valley Voice

2016 Western Classic Junior Dairy Show Results Staff Reports Held March 5 and 6, 2016 at the Kings County Fairgrounds in Hanford, the Western Classic Junior Dairy Show had a total of 308 head shown by 169 exhibitors for Judge Ethan Heinzmann.

Divisions included Registered and Grade Holsteins, and Registered and Grade AOB. Results included many local winners including and exhibitors from up and down the state.

Registered Holsteins

Junior Champion: Ocean-View Shocking Emelia, Spring Yearling exhibited by Evan Garcia, Tulare Reserve Junior Champion: Bella-Ilha Hunters Starla, Fall Calf exhibited by Kestin Martin, Tulare Reserve Senior & Reserve Grand Champion: Air-Osa Major 15370, 5 Year Old exhibited by Cort Rowley, Visalia

Showmanship

Novice Division (23 Participants) 1st Place: Kiara Konyn, Escondido 2nd Place: Kyleigh Foster, Bakersfield 3rd Place: Summer Parreira, Tulare Junior Division (26 Participants)

Last year alone, this show attracted over 300 head of registered and grade dairy cattle, exhibited by nearly 190 junior exhibitors, ages 5-21 each year from all parts of the Central Valley, and as far south as Escondido and as far north as Petaluma. Courtesy/Western Classic Dairy Show

1st Place: Alexis Diniz, Bakersfield 2nd Place: Hartley Silva, Modesto 3rd Place: Jon Michael Silva, Hanford Intermediate Division (51 Participants) 1st Place: Kylie Konyn, Escondido 2nd Place: John Alamo, Turlock 3rd Place: Hayley Fernandes, Tulare Senior Division (40 Participants) 1st Place: Lantz Adams, Laton

2nd Place: Cort Rowley, Visalia 3rd Place: Alexis Nunes, Turlock

Judging Contest Results

4-H Division 1st Individual: John Alamo, Sacred Heart Turlock 2nd: Billy Marchy, Sacred Heart Turlock 3rd: Clayton Arntz, Sonoma County

4th: Aspen Silva, Shiloh High Team: Sonoma County FFA Division 1st Individual: Alexis Nunes, Turlock 2nd: Heidi Omlin, Modesto 3rd: Sabrina Esquivel, Modesto 4th: Lantz Adams, Immanuel 5th: Allison Kidd, Modesto High Team: Modesto

Western Classic Junior Dairy Show wishes to recognize and thank its 2017 sponsors: Platinum

A & M Livestock Auction, Inc. All West/Select Sires Farm Credit West IWP Land o’ Lakes Pape Machinery Zenith Agribusiness Solutions

Gold

Boehringer Ingelheim Caruthers District Fair Connor Agriscience Danell Custom Harvesting Gold Star Cattle Co. Hakker Dairy L.P. J.D. Heiskell & Co. JAM Dairy Construction, Inc. JLG Enterprises, Inc. JW Welding

Linder Equipment Company Barcellos Farms The Kings Fairgrounds Valley Agricultural Software Western Milling World Wide Sires, Ltd.

Silver

Alltech Baker Commodities Bank of the West Best Agri-Marketing, Inc. California Milk Advisory Board Crown Trophy Petaluma Dias & Fargoso Inc. Diversified Dairy Solutions, LLC Elanco Animal Health Evangelho Feed & Seed Golden State Farm Credit

Showing

Lawrence Tractor wishes good luck to all local dairy exhibitors!

Visalia 2530 E. Main St. (559) 734-7406

Tipton 380 N. Burnett Rd. (559) 752-4251

Herman Porter & Family J D Mello Dairy J.C. Lansdowne, Inc. Kahn, Soares & Conway, LLP Kirby Manufacturing Inc. Law Office of Frank M. Nunes, Inc. Leprino Foods - East Mendes Calf Ranch Mid-Valley Pipe & Supply Mill Creek Vets Netto Ag Inc. Nutrius LLC Pietersma & Company River Ranch Farms Rosa Brothers Milk Company Semex Tulare County Farm Bureau Ultratech Industrial Systems, Inc. Valley Veterinarians Inc.

Continued from C1

Hanford 9213 E. Third St. (559) 582-9002

On Facebook at facebook.com/ourvalleyvoice

then you keep it up with sprays. Usually it is ideal to clip your cow as close to the show as you can, so that it is still a close cut which makes her look cleaner and sharper.

On show day it is important to keep yourself and your cow as clean as possible, which is harder than it sounds!

When you are in the show ring it is important to keep good eye contact with the judge, walk in sync with your cow, and keep your cow under control.

Yosemite Jersey Dairy

Bronze

Airosa Dairy Avila Dairy Equipment, Inc. Bar E Dairy Dias Law Firm, Inc. FernOak Farms GEA WS West Ken Melvold Sales & Service Kings Dairy Supply, Inc. Legacy Ranches Livingston Dairy Consulting, Inc. Pacific Ag Insurance Parreira’s Breeding Service Superior Truck Lines Tom Dutra Top di Mark Swiss Tulare Dairy Herd Improvement Association

Showing at the Western Classic Dairy Show is different from the county fair because there are people from across the State of California participating and there is a wider range of ages showing.

The Western Classic is much more competitive than the county fair.

At the Western Classic there is also a judging competition.

This show is only for dairy cattle, unlike the county fair that has multiple species. Overall the Western Classic is a great experience to get to know more people in the industry and see a lot of great cows and genetics!

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • C7

Family

Continued from C1 do – which is a lot of what this seems to be all about.

In fact, the Silvas are related to the Mendes family, who own High Roller Dairy, where the calves and cows to be shown are kept for the months leading up to the show.

An Organized Group

At first sight, this arrangement of family and friends getting a dozen or so calves and heifers ready a week prior to the show, may seem a bit of pandemonium – but it is, in fact, a well-organized combination of One of many groups of local kids preparing for the Western Classic Dairy Show includes the Mendes, Parreira Silva, Rebelo and Morais families. All of family and friends. There are these kids will be exhibiting at the show this year. Nancy Vigran/Valley Voice many such groups around production.

For cousin Mark Anthony Silva, vorite part of preparing his cow, is to clip the South Valley, and while the goal may “I wouldn’t normally do this - for well, he, like Caitlin, cannot seem to her coat short. seem like it should be to win, it is really my husband, or my children,” said Dina get enough of being around the cows.

This tightknit unit of family and much more than that.

Esteves, Monica’s mother. “But I would Mark Anthony also shows in class and friends will be showing and cheering on For this group, toward the end of the do anything for my grandchildren,” she showmanship. He enjoys all of the expe- others at the show, March 4 and 5 at the year, friends and family choose the cows said, as she worked on drying grandson rience, because he gets to hang around Kings County Fairgrounds. or calves to be shown. They are gathered Blake’s freshly bathed calf and hug his cow, Bullet, he said. His fatogether and kept in specified pens at the dairy, where they are provided special feed for growth, coat and conditioning.

At the beginning of the year, the group comes together to start together once or twice a week workouts, explained Danielle Parreira. The Parreiras are friends of the Mendes and everyone from the youngest five-year-olds involved in the show, to their parents, and grandparents get together for the preparations.

Parreira and her husband, Mike, both graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in agriculture.

This is the sixth year they have helped their 10-year-old daughter, Summer, show dairy cattle.

“It’s getting the next generation going,” she said. “And it’s something they can be proud of, when they’re done.”

Husband, Mike, is an AI technician, as are his twin cousins, Matt and Chris, who also take part in the practice sessions.

“When we did this,” Matt Parreira said, “our parents were too busy working [to help out].”

That’s why the brothers like to pitch in and help.

“It’s good to show,” Chris Parreira said. “They learn animal health care and how to handle an animal.”

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The High Roller Dairy maintains approximately 4,000 Jerseys at its Hanford location, about 1,900 of which are part of the regular milk herd, said Monica Mendes. Their love for showing stock, and inviting so many others to participate with preparation at their dairy, started with their daughter, Caitlin, 11, who simply loves to show dairy animals. Her younger brother, Blake, now 6, has developed an interest and will be showing this year for the first time. And, Monica’s parents also take part in the

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C8 • Valley Voice

2 March, 2017

Valley Scene

2 March, 2017

“Wit” To Open at Ice House Theatre on March 3 Nancy Holley “Wit,” which opens at the Ice House theatre in Visalia on March 3, is a beautifully written play about the metamorphosis that can occur when one realizes she is not immortal. Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama depicts the journey of a highly educated, academically overachieving woman who has been diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer.

Vivian Bearing, who is portrayed by Debbie Walker, has devoted her life to the study of John Donne, a metaphysical poet known for his “wit.” Never heard of John Donne? Not so, quotes from his poetry include “No man is an island,” and “for whom the bell tolls.” You may not know his name, but you do know his work through such familiar phrases.

“The present of the play is the last hour and a half of Vivian’s life,” noted Walker, “but the past includes her childhood, education, teaching, and diagnosis.” As Vivian relives her life, the audience is led on a journey of reflection, encouraged to think about what they have done with their lives.

While Vivian, for the first time in her life, tries to get in touch with her hu-

manity, she is confronted with doctors who see her treatment as an experiment and her as a subject rather than a person.

Dr. Kelekian (Tom Nance) who presented her diagnosis is anxious to have another guinea pig for his research.

Ironically, Dr. Jason Posner (Peter McGuire), one of her former students, is a clinical assistant in her experimental treatment program. McGuire notes the confusion of the role reversal now that she is a patient and he the controlling figure. Nevertheless, McGuire explains, “her class affected how Posner approaches his work. The human side of things does not come natural to him. That’s one of the problems he has.”

The one positive figure in the final days of Vivian’s journey is her mentor from her doctorate 30 years ago. Debra Hansen portrays E. M. Ashford now in her 80s and the only visitor Vivian has in the hospital. Hansen said, “Vivian was never connected emotionally with her heart. Her dad only valued her for her intellect. She has lived her entire life through her intellect and in the end she finds that’s not enough.”

Director Jennifer Toledo noted, “There are parallels between Vivian and

“Wit” features Christa Atkins as Susie Monahan, R.N; Audrey Badasci - Ensemble; Lelanie Muller - Ensemble; Lauren Chambers - Ensemble; Peter McGuire - Dr. Jason Posner; Debbie Walker - Vivian Bearing; Tom Nancy - Dr. Kelekian. Courtesy photo

John Donne. He went through a metamorphosis equivalent to her growth and looking back, wishing she had done things differently.” Assistant Director Lindsey Surratt added, “There is a lack of people in her life because she chose her work over all else. The play is not about death but about how to live your life.”

“Wit” runs for three weekends at the Ice House Theatre at Race and Santa Fe

in Visalia. Evening performances are at 7:30pm on 3/3, 3/4, 3/10, 3/11, 3/17, and 3/18, and matinees are at 2pm on 3/5, 3/12, and 3/19. To purchase tickets go to the Visalia Players’ website at www.visaliaplayers.org, their Facebook page “Visalia Community Players”, or call 734-3900.

This play contains adult content and language.

Brandon-Mitchell Gallery Hosts Spray Paint Art Show

Lacy J. Dalton Concert to Support Wild Horse Sanctuary James Kliegl Lacy J. Dalton is performing a benefit concert to support her wild horse sanctuary in Nevada called Let’em Run Foundation. The Concert is March 11 at 7:30 at the Lindsay Community Theater.

Tickets are only $20 each, but additional donations for the horse sanctuary would be appreciated. For best seat selection get tickets early at lindsaycommunitytheater.com. The Lindsay Community Theater is located at 190 N Elmwood in the heart of downtown Lindsay. For more information call 284 2223.

Lacy J. Dalton is one of the most instantly recognizable voices in music. Since the first time she caught the public’s ear, that soulful delivery, full of texture and grit, has been a mainstay of Country Music.

With hard-luck songs that reflected her real-life experience, Lacy J. Dalton became one of the most popular “outlaw” country singer of the early 1980s.

After winning a Country Music Association Award as Best New Female Vocalist in 1979, she released a series of albums

that were both commercial and critical successes.

She’s always been a writer and an artist who loved “music with a message” and lyrics that somehow brought a new awareness to the listener. She retains this love of material with a purpose, and her song choices reflect that appreciation.

Her early influences were the classic country music of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and later, the Folk and Rock sounds of writer/artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Fred Neil.

A popular concert attraction as well, Dalton sometimes played over 300 dates a year throughout the 1980s and released an album of original material almost every year.

Dalton slowed her pace somewhat in the 1990s as she entered her fourth decade in the music business. Settling in Nevada, she continued to record and perform; in 1999 she established the Let ’em Ride Foundation, an organization devoted to saving America’s wild horses.

The Lindsay Community Theater is proud to support that effort by hosting this concert.

Erik Gonzalez has become well Donna Orozco known in the community for his spray when you’re depaint and graffiti fying gravity— art that he is makdoing acrobatic ing mainstream moves in the with his Urbanist air. That feeling Collective. is almost indeThe Colscribable.” lective puts on Erik’s work art demonstrahas become so tions at the Old popular that he Lumber Yard in now works full Visalia, and Erik time doing comworks with many mercial projyouth groups, foects, work for cusing on education and showing One example of spray paint art by Erik Gonzalez. non profits, and teaching youth. youth they can He was hired by Levi Strauss to paint excel with their creative skills.

He also has a series of spiritual a backdrop on denim canvas for an MTV works he calls “Entre Gravedad” (Be- benefit concert on AIDS awareness.

He was in L.A. working on a beautween Gravity) that he will display at the Brandon-Mitchell Gallery in March tification project and introducing neighborhood murals. and April.

“I’m always surprised that they want The gallery will host artist receptions during the Downtown Visalia First Fri- the real graffiti style instead of more traday art walks from 5-8pm on March 3 ditional lettering,” he said.

Currently Erik is working with and April 7.

Gonzalez’ show touches on spiritu- students on a large mural project for ality from his viewpoint—using spray the California Rural Legal Assistance paint in a series using the shapes of trian- in Madera using a super hero theme to show social justice. gles and squares.

On March 18, he is organizing the “We are a medium ourselves besecond Queens of Style at the Lumber tween a higher power and what keeps us grounded to the earth,” he said. “When Yard, bringing international female grafI’m painting, that’s my meditative state— fiti artists in to help women promote their art. between gravity.”

His show promises some surprises in He gives this example.

“I recently started skateboarding the way he connects his art. Don’t miss again. I had forgotten how good it feels meeting this inspiring local artist.

2 March, 2017

B2 • Valley Voice

Great Conversations Nadine Gordimer and Social Protest Joseph R. Teller In January, many thousands gathered across the United States for the Women’s March.

The event was also suffused with controversy: what groups and organizations should have been allowed to participate in the official event in Washington, D.C., and what, exactly, constitutes an authentic feminism in the early 21st century?

Such ethical questions are often central to social protest more broadly: who is an authentic member of an oppressed group, and to what extent can people who do not personally identify with a marginalized group protest on their behalf?

These questions are at the heart of Nadine Gordimer’s short story, “Which New Era Would That Be?,” the focus of COS’s Great Books discussion group this week.

Published in 1956 and set in apartheid Johannesburg, the tale begins with Jake Alexander, a half-African and half-Scottish printer, preparing dinner for his African friends. Their laughter and camaraderie are interrupted by Jake’s friend, the white Englishman, Al-

ister, and Alister’s friend, Jennifer, who drop in unexpectedly to visit.

Jennifer is white and lives in the slums of Cape Town, advocating against apartheid. Jake is immediately suspicious of Jennifer because she represents a particular “type” of white woman, the kind who “persist[s] in regarding themselves as your equal…[who] [thinks] they underst[and] the humiliation of the black man walking the streets only by the permission of a pass written out by a white person.”

Even worse, Jake thinks to himself, “there [is] no escaping [this kind of woman’s] understanding. They even insist on feeling the resentment you must feel at their identifying themselves with your feelings.”

Jennifer takes a seat, and the conversation is cordial. Then one of Jake’s friends, Maxie, an African educated at English schools, tells two stories. In the first, he recounts how he and his white friend were invited by a white businessman for lunch. They accept the invitation and have drinks with the businessman.

But at lunchtime, the businessman tells Maxie that his lunch is set outside—the two white men will dine alone. In Maxie’s second story, he describes a flirtatious telephone relationship he had with a white secretary at “a certain firm.” After several phone

Coming to the Hanford Fox Theater Irish Rovers Sunday, March 5, 2017 7 pm - $25 - $35

$5 Movies Singing in the Rain Wednesday, March 15, 7 pm

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Thursday, March 23, 7 pm

(559) 584-7823

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conversations, he drops by the office to meet this woman, but when she sees that he is black, she is so obviously uncomfortable, embarrassed, and terrified to be seen with him that he leaves the office in order to save her the disgrace.

Maxie’s stories are intended to communicate what apartheid really feels like to Jennifer, who can never truly know what it’s like to be an African during apartheid.

But Jennifer’s response is so astonishing that it renders the men speechless: “Poor little girl, she probably liked you awfully, Maxie…you mustn’t be too harsh on her. It’s hard to be punished for not being black.”

Then, as the conversation comes to an end and Alister and Jennifer prepare to leave, Jennifer confesses to Maxie— attempting to relate to him respectfully, as an equal—that she doesn’t believe his first story about the businessman: “I feel I must tell you,” she says, “I don’t believe it. I’m sorry…It’s too illogical to hold water.”

After they leave, Jake, typically so jovial and lighthearted, kicks Jennifer’s chair so hard it topples over, and returns to preparing dinner.

Our discussion of this text was even more lively than usual.

At first glance, it would seem Gordimer sides with Jake, who believes Jennifer represents a stereotypical

white woman working out her privilege through guilt-driven social activism.

He resents her because she has the audacity to pretend she can identify with the oppressed, and Jake’s internal commentary makes us resent Jennifer, too.

But on a deeper level, the text refuses such simplicity. Jake, after all, is clearly a womanizer with his own biases (he sees her as a sexual object and is overtly misogynistic in front of her with his friends); Maxie’s story is indeed implausible, given the details he provides; and Jennifer sincerely stands up for herself as a woman surrounded by men who objectify her from the start.

In short, Jake, Maxie, and Jennifer all suffer from their own prejudices, and no one escapes with a pure motive.

Ultimately, Gordimer is less interested in preaching and more interested in dramatizing the intractable, frustrating, and sometimes contradictory complexities of social protest.

And this dramatization, this recognition that few issues are easily reducible to caricature or simple-minded groupthink, makes this story a vital text to revisit in our own splintered and hyper-partisan society.

Dr. Joseph R. Teller is Professor of English at COS. Email him at josepht@cos.edu.

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B3

Woodies to Gather March 10 in Visalia Wayne Yada The Central Valley Woodie Club chapter of the National Woodie Club has announced its upcoming 11th annual Woodies in the Valley event for March 10-11.

Woodies (and their owners) from all over California will be descending on Visalia once again for fun, fellowship, and sharing their cars with the public. The woodies will first gather on Friday evening, March 10 at the downtown A&W for a welcome reception and great A&W dinner.

The woodies will be there from about 6- 9pm and the public is invited to come and see them there as well as the regular “Show ‘n Shine” to be held Saturday on the front lawn of Redwood High School.

This all-woodies car show will be open to the public free of charge from 8:30am until 1:30pm. All woodie and car enthusi-

asts are encouraged to attend. “You will see a good sampling of woodies from 19231951, including original, restored, and full hot-rod woodies. states the club president.

“It will be a lot of fun . . . and very nostalgic.

“There are not a lot of woodies left in the country – let alone in the Valley, so 11 years ago, when we came up with the idea of having a show here, we knew that we would have to somehow convince woodie owners from all over California to come and join us.

Fortunately, we have been able to do just that. Currently the club’s 80+ members consists over 60 from outside the Valley.

Several of the woodies will also be participating in the downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Main St, starting at 10am.

For more information and pictures from previous events, log into the club’s website: www.valleywoodies.com or call 559-967-1357.

Ready For A Murder Mystery on the Orient Express?

Staff Reports On Saturday, March 25, 2017, join the in an inspirational evening celebrating the Tulare Hospital Foundation’s 2nd annual An Evening With the “Great Gatsby” Murder Mystery and Gala entitled, “Murder on the Orient Express.”

Tickets are on sale now.

This unique Gatsby-themed formal event event aims to connect like-minded philanthropists and professionals through forming valuable networks that are based on the desire to inspire hope, and giving, toward the mission of the Foundation. Tuxedos and formal attire are the order of this evening – flappers welcome.

This event will be hosted at the transformed Tulare Veterans Memorial Building featuring a delectable meal prepared by executive chefs, swanky drinks, live orchestra, ballroom dance performances and vocal selections, raffle prizes with over 300 professionals and philanthropies expected in attendance. The main feature of the gala is the “Murder on the Orient Express” where members of the community make up the cast that is sure to provide intrigue and suspense as guests try to solve the mystery. Bribery money, pre-event reception with the cast, and an evening of non-stop fun will provide an experience you won’t forget.

Tickets are $150 and are available at the Tulare Hospital Foundation office at: 906 N. Cherry Street, and at the Tulare Hospital Gift Shop. Benefactor and

event underwriting opportunities are available.

The Tulare Hospital Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to support purchases of state-ofthe-art equipment for Tulare Regional Medical Center and various wellness programs throughout the community.

Since its inception in 1987, the Foundation has funded approximately $3million toward the purchase of trade fixtures, wellness program support, remodeling of areas of the hospital, upgrading and purchase of new state-of-the-art equipment used to treat the many patients walking through its doors. Additionally, the Foundation remains diligent in procuring support and funding enhancements for the completion of their Tower Project Expansion Project. With ongoing support from donors and partners, the non-profit continues to move toward its goal of also bringing additional resources into the community by issuing scholarships, co-hosting events such as the “Love to Wear Red” event with Soroptimist of Tulare in honor of February, Heart Disease Awareness Month and the PCI program coming soon to TRMC, and supporting the Free Dental Clinic in April, as well as other outreach programs in the greater Tulare area.

Please contact the Tulare Hospital Foundation for more information or visit their website at: www.tularehospitalfoundation.org to become a benefactor of the event or to purchase tickets.

Symphony Plays Oscar Music The Tulare County’s most popuDonna Orozco lar concert each year is the one featurwith them to ing movencourage a ie themes. younger auThis year dience to atthe March tend the con10 concert cert and have is taking on a chance to the Oscars. network with And to make regular conthe evening cert attendees. fit in with The red the Academy carpet will Award theme, be rolled out the audience Hope Garcia is the symphony’s guest soloist. of the Visalia is invited to Fox Theatre, a special Red ending at a parked Lexus, brought in Carpet reception before the concert.

The salute to Oscar winning songs by the reception sponsor, Fresno Lexus. and original scores will include music Participants are invited to wear cocktail from such films as “Star Wars,” “Lord of attire, black tie optional. Heavy hors d’ the Rings,” “Pocahontas,” Close Encoun- oeuvres and wine will be served, and ters of the Third Kind” and James Bond. prizes will be awarded.

The Red Carpet reception is from Music director Bruce Kiesling is an 5:30-6:30pm in the Fox lobby, followed admitted movie fan. He went through all the scores of music since the music by Kiesling’s pre-concert talk at 6:45 and Oscars began in 1934, “And not just the concert at 7:30pm. The after party is the winners, but nominees too because at the Vintage Press.

Tickets for the Red Carpet recepthere has been famous music that didn’t tion and concert are $50. Tickets for the win,” he said.

He came up with 80 possibilities reception only are $25 and will benefit and slowly whittled them down to a the symphony fun raising campaign.

This show traditionally sells out, so well-rounded program. it’s good to get tickets early.

Guest soloist is singer Hope GarTickets for the concert only are $30 cia, who is a favorite performer with the to $39.50 at the symphony office, 208 W. orchestra.

For the Red Carpet reception be- Main Street, Suite D, Visalia, downstairs fore the concert, the symphony invited in Montgomery Square. Student prices are the Visalia Chamber of Commerce’s $10. Tickets are also available at 732-8600 Young Professionals Network to partner or go to www.tularecountysymphony.com.

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Calendar Now - March 11: 9th Annual “MINIATURES” Exhibition/Raffle Fundraiser Thursdays - Saturdays from 10am 4pm - Twenty-three local area artists have donated 55 original miniature works of art, created solely for the Tulare Historical Museum show. During the run of the exhibition, raffle tickets will be on sale in the THM Gift Shop, for a chance to win your favorite pieces. Tickets are $5 each, or 3 for $10.

The drawing will be held March 15, and winners will be notified March 16-31. Proceeds from the raffle will help THM’s mission to preserve Tulare’s history. Admission to Heritage Art Gallery exhibitions are free.

Now - March 24: “Iconografíca” New Works by Local Artist Francisco Alonzo Wednesdays - Saturdays from 125:30pm - Arts Visalia is pleased to present local artist Francisco Alonzo who will be showing new works in a show entitled “Iconografíca”: an investigation of the role of capitalism on contemporary culture. As Francisco states, his show “ explores how important iconography is reduced to everyday knick-knacks and the interweaving of other images into contemporary culture”. Arts Visalia Visual Art Center is located at 214 E. Oak Ave., Visalia.

Now - End of Spring Semester: The Great Conversation at COS 2nd & 4th Mondays, 4-5:30pm - The spring semester has just begun and The Great Conversation group reads and discusses some of the great classics of literature and philosophy published by the Great Books Foundation. The readings include excerpts or complete works by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Christina Rossetti, Frank O’Connor, John Rawls, and Max Planck. The book costs $24.95 through the Great Books Foundation. Contact Dr. Joseph Teller at josepht@cos.edu or at (559) 7303924 for more information about the meeting location and book purchase.

Now - April 15: CSET Free Tax Return Service Saturdays - 9am - 3pm - The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program prepares federal and state tax returns at no cost to households with less than $54,000 annual income. More information regarding the VITA program including contact information, documentation requirements and helpful links is available online by visiting www.cset.org/vita or

by calling (559) 741-4640. For information on tax preparation services offered in Kings County, please contact Kings United Way at (559) 584-1536 or Kings Community Action Organization at (559) 582-4386.VITA Sites - VISALIA CSET Main Office - 312 NW 3rd Avenue, TULARE Family Resource Center - 304 E. Tulare Avenue, CUTLER CSET Office 12691 Avenue 408, PORTERVILLE Employment Connection - 1063 W. Henderson Avenue.

March 2 - April 1: 29th Annual Tulare Student Art Show

MARCH The Tulare Historical Museum is proud to proclaim that art education is alive and well throughout the Tulare City School and Tulare Joint Union High School districts! Open reception will be held on Thursday, March 2, at the Heritage Art Gallery at THM from 4-6pm. Each year students throughout Tulare, from elementary school to high school, show off their best works of art in various creative mediums, in this long-standing THM tradition. The reception is open to the public and free of charge. The Tulare Historical Museum is located at 444 W. Tulare Ave. in Tulare.

March 5: Porterville Spring Fishing Derby 9-11am - Parks and Leisure Services is hosting their annual Spring Fishing Derby at the Murry Park Pond. Young anglers, ages 2-15 years old, are invited to enter the competition to showcase their skills and enjoy some outdoor fun. Trophies will be awarded to the top three children in each of the two age divisions, as well as to the biggest fish of the day. Participants must be able to reel in their own fish and provide their own rod and bait. Pre-registration wristbands can be purchased for $3 at the Heritage Center, 256 E. Orange Ave. The event sells out every year so don’t wait until the day of the event! For more information, call the Heritage Center at 791-7695.

March 2017 Lunc

Lunch served 12-1 pm $4 Please call 713-4481. Reservations m Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 1 Wings with sauce 2

DAILY SALAD Option: Chicken Caesar Salad available as a meal replacement.

6 Hearty vegetarian

3-bean chili with corn chips, cornbread and fresh fruit

7 Italian style sub sandwich with turkey, salami, tomato and shredded lettuce served with minestrone soup with vegetables and

fruit

13 Grilled chicken in

14 Pastrami and

served with pulled pork slider, potato chips and fruit

sa sa ap ro an

8 Quesadilla with

9

pork carnitas and cheese, Mexican rice, chips & salsa with fruit

ch Al Ca lic

15 Baked ziti pasta

16

with Italian sausage, vegetables and mozzarella, Caesar salad, garlic bread and fruit

bowtie pasta with mushrooms in a marsala wine sauce with green salad, garlic bread and fruit

Swiss on rye bread with corn chowder

20 Chicken soft tacos with lettuce, chopped tomato, cheese and salsa in flour tortillas with beans and fruit

21 Quarter pounders 22 Wing Wednesday

27 Hearty chili with ground turkey and kidney beans, potato salad, corn bread and fruit

with cheese, lettuce, tomato, chips and fruit

with pulled pork slider, warm German potato salad and fruit

28 Meatloaf with 29 Chili verde with mashed potatoes, veg- rice, beans, tortillas etables, salad, roll and and fruit fruit

March 10: Tulare Rotary Club 21st Annual Crab Feed 6pm - Along with all you can eat crab, there will be silent and live auctions.

Social hour begins at 6pm and dinner will begin at 7pm. This is the largest fundraiser of the year, and supports many community projects. Held at the International AgriCenter, Heritage Complex. Tickets available through the Tulare Chamber of Commerce.

March 11: Spring Blossom Vendor Fair 10am - 4pm - 30+ vendors with home decor, crafts, health and beauty, jewelry, candles, wearables, door prizes, food and more. Held at the Visalia Veteran’s Memorial Building, 609 W. Center. Details and more information, call (559) 308-8232, or (559) 623-2475; check Facebook Events Spring Blossom Vendor Fair.

March 9: Foreigner at the Visalia Fox Theatre 7:30pm - 40th Anniversary Tour performing songs such as Cold as Ice and I Want to Know What Love Is. A portion of the proceeds benefits The Creative Center in Visalia. This show was sold out in 2008! Tickets on sale now $50-$125. Brought to the Visalia Fox March 11: Lacy J Dalton at the Lindsay Community Theatre

by Rainmaker Productions.

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**Items on Menu are

7:30pm - Lacy J Dalton is performing a benefit concert to support her wild horse sanctuary in Nevada called Let’em Run Foundation. Tickets are $20 each, but additional donations for the horse sanctuary would be appreciated. Lacy J Dalton is one of the most instantly recognizable voices in music. Since the first time she caught the public’s ear, that soulful delivery, full of texture and grit, has been a mainstay of Country Music. With hard-luck songs that reflected her real-life experience, Lacy J. Dalton became one of the most popular “outlaw” country singer of the early 1980s.

After winning a Country Music Association Award as Best New Female Vocalist in 1979, she released a series of albums that were both commercial and critical successes. For best seat selection get tickets early at lindsaycommunitytheater.com. The Lindsay Community Theater is located at 190 N Elmwood in the heart of down-

ch Menu / Visalia Senior Center

4.00 Dine In

or Takeout & under 54 yrs:

$5.00

must be made one business day in advance by 12 PM.

Thursday

Friday

Croissant chicken andwich, Waldorf alad with lettuce, pples, celery, carots and dressing, nd fruit

3 Clam chowder with grilled ham and cheese on Texas toast, salad and fruit

Penne pasta with hicken, broccoli and lfredo sauce with aesar salad and garc bread with fruit

10 Veggie pizza with spinach, mushrooms, black olives, bell pepper and onions served with salad and fruit

Perfect Chicken Garden Salad Chicken,

6 Green chili and

17 Corn beef and

Chef Salad—with diced

heese enchiladas erde (green sauce) with Mexican rice, alad and fruit

Weekly Salad Option:

cabbage with carrots and potatoes, salad, fruit and roll

0 Chicken pot pie with vegetables in a ream sauce with pasry, salad and fruit

With Chicken, tomato, avocado, lettuce and bacon bits with ranch and feta cheese

walnut, dried cranberry salad with balsamic vinaigrette

cheeses, black olives, ham, tomato and hard boiled eggs with ranch dressing

Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and fruit with roll

Greek Salad— Crisp ro-

31 Vegetable frittata with mushrooms, zucchini and bell pepper with bacon, hash browns and muffins with fruit

Chef Salad—with diced

3 Homemade chick- 24

n noodle soup with rilled cheese on Texs toast and fresh ruit

Cobb Salad

e subject to change.

town Lindsay. For more information call, (559) 284 2223. Let ‘Em Run Foundation - Preserving, recovering and providing sanctuary and homes for America’s Wild Horses and Burros.

maine, tomato, cucumber, Kalamata olives, red onion and feta cheese in champagne Dijon vinaigrette

cheeses, black olives, ham, tomato and hard boiled eggs with ranch dressing

ly declared war against Germany and joined the Allied forces. The United States World War I Centennial Commission was created by an Act of Congress in 2013 to recognize America’s involvement in the war. The historical museum is located on the second floor of the Women’s club house originally build in 1879 as the Pogue Hotel. The Lemon Cove Women Club has used this historic building for their clubhouse since 1936. The exterior of the building is classified as Victorian with elements of Eastlake Stick Style which rare in Tulare County. For questions please call Pam Lurtz 597-2436

March 17: Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser Day at Porterville College 5-7pm - Trade that corned beef for delicious spaghetti at the Porterville College Cafeteria - take out also available.

Tickets - $13. Proceeds go toward the Veterans Memorial at the college.

Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Porterville. For ticket information call, Greg Meister, (559) 535-3788 or PC Veteran Resource Center, (559) 7912222.

March 18: Kellie Pickler at the Visalia Fox Theatre March 18th: Visit the Lemon 8pm - Presented by Hands in the Cove Women’s Club 1-4pm - Commemorate the Centen- Community. Kellie Pickler grew up nial of the involvement of the United immersed in country music in the States into World War I with a tour small town of Albemarle, North of their museum and a bake sale. Carolina with the words of Tammy On April 6, 1917, Congress official- Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn,

and Dolly Parton shaping her musical footing. At the age of 19, she first gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of “American Idol.” Tickets on sale now - $40-$83. For more information, visit www.foxvisalia.org.

March 19: Quest for Water Book Signing at Tulare Historical Museum 2pm - Richard Zack of Visalia will give a presentation and book signing on his book “Quest For Water, Tulare Irrigation District: Its History, People and Progression.” Join the museum for a fascinating presentation on our Valley’s most precious resource, and the role which the Tulare Irrigation District has had with it for 127 years.

The program will be held in the Heritage Art Gallery. The program is open to the public and is free of charge. Admission to the museum is also free on this day during its hours of operation, 12:30-4:00pm.

March 23: COS CHAP - “All They Will Call You” 6:30pm - College of the Sequoias’ Cultural Historical Awareness Program (CHAP) program’s theme for 2016-2017 is: “Economic Inequality: Problems and Representations.” All CHAP events are free and open to the public. Campus parking is free during the events. in the Ponderosa lecture hall, COS will entertain Tim Z. Hernandez, novelist and poet. Hernandez will be celebrating the hometown release of his book, “All They Will Call You.” “All They Will Call You,” is the harrowing account of the California plane crash in 1948 that claimed the lives of 32 passengers, 28 of which were Mexican citizens; farmworkers being deported by the U.S. government. The narrative captures testimony, historical records and eyewitness accounts to paint an intimate portrait of those who perished. More information on these and other, upcoming CHAP events is available at cos.edu/ CHAP or by calling 559.730.3921.

March 24: 9th Annual Leadership Visalia Golf Tournament the Visalia Chamber of Commerce and the Leadership Visalia Class of 2016 will co-host the 9th Annual Leadership Visalia Golf Tournament at Valley Oaks Golf Course. This annual event raises funds to support leadership education in Visalia. The

Leadership Visalia Golf Tournament Committee is excited to announce that the most popular components of past tournaments will again be part of the event.

This year the tournament will include: a putting challenge, closest to the hole challenge, hole in one competition and the longest drive competition.

Other fun features include a gun-shot bump up hole, and prizes for the top finishing teams. In addition, donated items will be raffled off to raise funds for the 2017 Leadership Visalia project. Sponsorship and player opportunities are available by calling the Visalia Chamber at 559-734-5876 or going to www.visaliachamber.org/golf March 25: Sequoia Garden Club’s 3rd Lawn-Free Garden Tour 9am - 3pm - The Sequoia Garden Club is again sponsoring a garden tour focusing on drought tolerant plantings to help homeowners see that it is possible to conserve water, save money, and have a beautiful yard. Tour five different Visalia garden venues with unique ideas, plus a sixth venue, which includes City of Visalia Natural Resources Dept., Sequoia Riverlands Trust/ Dry Creek Plant Sale. This is a self-guided tour. Advance tickets are $15 and are available at: Sequoia Plaza Flowers, Luis’s Nursery and Curry Copy Center. Day of tour - $20.00.

For more information, contact: dmekeel@att.net March 25: An Evening with the Great Gatsby - Murder on the Orient Express 6-11pm - A Tulare Hospital Foundation Event - Murder mystery dinner gala - live orchestra, ballroom dance and vocal performances. Attire: Formal evening wear, flapper, black tie, tuxedo preferred. $150/person.

Held at the Tulare Veterans Memorial Building, 1771 E. Tulare Ave. For more information, visit www.tularehospitalfoundation.org.

March 29: Vince Gill with Lyle Lovett at the Visalia Fox Theatre 7:30pm - After teaming up for a series of concerts in 2015 and 2016, Gill and Lovett saw that the shows were so successful that they decided to extend the tour. A portion of the proceeds benefit Tulare & Kings County Suicide Prevention Task Force. Tickets on sale now - $44-$106.

Send your calendar items to: editor@ourvalleyvoice.com

2 March, 2017

B6 • Valley Voice

Spring Rodeo Comes to West Hills College Coalinga March 9 and 10

The Redbud Festival will feature both local artists and artisans from other areas.

Arts Alliance of Three Rivers to Host Redbud Arts and Crafts Festival May 13-14 Staff Reports The Arts Alliance of Three Rivers is continuing a great Three Rivers Tradition. This year the Redbud Festival will be held on May 13-14, Mother’s Day weekend, and will again be at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. The festival promises to showcase some of the best regional artists and crafters as well as artisans who travel from far and wide for the show.

The Arts Alliance is pleased to partner with local chefs to provide a delicious, fresh menu for diners. The Memorial Building offers outdoor dining space to relax, enjoy a tasty meal or snack and take in the sights and sounds of this delightful Three Rivers tradition.

The venue has ample room for arts and crafts vendors including some spaces.

Artists and crafters may email redbudfestival@gmail.com or phone (559)

561-4417 to receive an application by mail. To reserve a booth, applications must be submitted by Wednesday, April 19.

The Redbud Festival will again host an Art Quilt Show. Quilters from throughout the region are invited to enter panels with the theme “Bloom in Textiles and Thread.” The organizers are pleased to welcome back the fabric arts community to the Redbud Festival.

Quilters can email the show’s organizers for the Art Quilt Show information and entry form.

The Redbud Arts & Crafts Festival offers everyone an opportunity to enjoy the arts in Three Rivers’ unique and beautiful setting, but the benefits go far beyond the Festival. Proceeds from the event go to scholarships for local art students, art-related events in the Three Rivers area and the Three Rivers Bread Basket.

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Spring is coming and that means it’s rodeo time in Coalinga.

On March 9 and 10, West Hills College Coalinga’s rodeo arena will host competitors from 11 teams from across California and Nevada for its annual spring rodeo.

The WHCC men and women’s rodeo teams will face off against some of the best teams in the West Coast Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association in nine different events ranging from bronc riding to barrel racing.

“We’ve had a great year and are looking forward to hopefully keeping the momentum going at our home event,” said Rodeo Coach Justin Hampton.

A rodeo performance will be held on March 9 at 6:30pm. On March 10, a slack round will be held at 8am and a championship final round at 6:30pm.

The annual West Hills College Coalinga Calf Dressing will also be held on the 10th, with staff and student teams compete for championship buckles.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for

Staff Reports students 17 and under, and free for WHCC students with ASB cards and children under 10. The concession stand will be open, with sales benefitting the WHCC Rodeo Boosters.

WHCC is competing against a wide variety of college competitors from schools including Cal Poly SLO, Fresno State, Cuesta College, Feather River College, Lassen College, UNLV, UNR, Western Nevada College, UC Davis, Clovis Community College and College of the Sequoias.

Following the beginning of the 2016-2017 rodeo season in September and four competitions, West Hills College’s men’s team is ranked second in the West Coast Region and the women’s team is ranked third as of November 28.

The rodeo arena is at 518 W. Gale Ave. in Coalinga. For more information, visit westhillscollege.com or contact Coach Justin Hampton at (559) 934-2702.

COS Football Crab Feed Tickets Available College of the Sequoias’ 2017 Football Crab Feed fundraiser will be Friday, March 10, starting at 5pm in the Dr. S. Thomas Porter Field House, on the Visalia Campus. Tickets for this event are $50 per person or you can buy a specially reserved table of eight for $375.

All proceeds support COS Football student athletes.

This event features a no-host bar, dinner, music, dancing, a live & silent auction and new this year, a dessert auction. Social hour begins at 5pm and the program begins at 6pm.

Staff Reports The COS Football team uses this fundraiser to supplement the means for transportation as well as meals for away games, equipment replacement and other components that help give the students the best possible athletic and academic conveniences.

Tickets will be available for sale through March 6. Tickets can be purchased through cos.edu/foundation or by calling the COS Foundation at 559.730.3861 or Head Coach Irv Pankey at 559.737.6203.

Ruiz 4 Kids Seeks Scholarship Applicants Ruiz 4 Kids Scholarship applications are available online for high school seniors who attend a high school located within a 35-mile radius of Dinuba or Tulare, California. In addition, for the first time, Ruiz 4 Kids welcomes scholarship applications from current community college students. Scholarship application deadline is March 10, 2017.

“The pursuit of higher education for some can feel like an unachievable dream,” explained Kathy Topete, Ruiz 4 Kids Scholarship Chairperson. “We look to help relieve some of the financial stress with our scholarships so that students can place their focus where it is needed most – their education. Our annual Louis F. Ruiz Golf Invitational funds our Ruiz 4 Kids Scholarship Program.”

In addition to the existing high school senior scholarship program, this year Ruiz 4 Kids has added a scholarship program specific to community college students who are planning to transfer to a 4-year university. Students must be current students at either State Center Community College or College of the Sequoias.

Ruiz 4 Kids, the non-profit organization of Ruiz Food Products, Inc., is based in Dinuba, California. The Scholarship Program is available to select high schools in specific geographic areas where Ruiz Foods has manufacturing facilities: Dinuba/Tulare, California; Denison, Texas, and Florence, South Carolina. According to Topete, Ruiz 4 Kids receives

Staff Reports over 600 scholarship applications each year and review teams comprised of a couple dozen Ruiz Foods team members volunteer to make the selections.

“It has become evident to those of us involved in the review and selection process, that sometimes it isn’t about the actual monetary award,” adds Topete.

“For many of these students, it is the knowledge that those involved in Ruiz 4 Kids and Ruiz Foods believe in them and their ability to achieve their goals.”

In the past seven years, Ruiz 4 Kids has awarded over $2 million in scholarships to hundreds of high school seniors committed to furthering their education.

High school applicants must have a 2.5 GPA or above to apply if they plan on attending a two-year college or vocational institution. Those who will be attending a four-year college or university must have a GPA of 3.0 or more.

Community college students must have maintained a GPA of 3.0 or above at the community college level. To learn more about the Ruiz 4 Kids Scholarship Program and access the guidelines and application, visit: http://www.ruiz4kids. org/programs-scholarships.aspx.

This year’s Louis F. Ruiz Golf Invitational is scheduled for April 4, 2017 at the Valley Oaks Golf Course in Visalia, California. The event attracts support from a wide variety of vendors and suppliers to Ruiz Foods.

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B7

Education Kings County Farm Day Only A Month Away Staff Reports Kings County Farm Bureau is busy preparing for the annual event that best exemplifies what Farm Bureau is all about: Farm Day. Now in its 13th year, Kings County Farm Day will bring together 2,373 third graders and 108 teachers from 32 schools for a unique field trip. With the help of 24 businesses, 12 equipment operators and 26 animal presenters, students from across the county will have the opportunity to learn about the many facets of agriculture through interactive exhibits and hands-on experiences.

Farm Day, which will take place on Thursday, March 16 at the Kings Fairgrounds, is a collaborative effort on the part of Kings County Farm Bureau (KCFB), the Kings County Office of Education and the Kings Fair. Farm Day strives to teach the next generation of consumers about the positive contributions farming makes to the community and the local economy.

Volunteers will guide students through a number of exhibits that allow them to climb on tractors, pet a variety of farm animals and learn the process of how food gets from the farm to the fork.

The goal of Farm Day, which requires hundreds of man hours to plan and execute each year, is to spark an interest in agriculture – the Valley’s dominant industry – at a young age for the next generation of consumers. As educational as it is fun, Farm Day teaches children valuable lessons about where food comes from, and demonstrates that it is not grown in the grocery store.

“Farm Day provides us with a special opportunity to teach local students about the importance of living in a farming community,” said Farm Day Chairman Brian Bergman. “Our goal is for every child who attends Farm Day to gain an increased awareness of the positive contributions that agriculture makes not only to our local community and our economy, but to the world.”

Farm Day will take place on Thursday, March 16, from 9am – noon at Kings Fairgrounds in Hanford, and is a very visual event that offers great opportunities for photos and video. It is requested that media planning to attend please call Kings County Farm Bureau at (559) 584-3557 or email dusty.ference@ kcfb.org in advance so that we may assist you with coordinating interviews. On the day of the event, call Dusty Ference

On March 16, Kings County Farm Day will bring together 2,373 third graders and 108 teachers from 32 schools for a unique field trip that will teach students from across the county about the positive contributions farming makes to the community and the local economy. Courtesy/KCFB

at (559) 303-1885.

Farm Day is a cooperative effort between the Kings County Farm Bureau, the Kings County Office of Education and the Kings Fair, and is made possible by proceeds from Farm Bureau’s Taste of the Valley fundraiser and Friends of Farm Bureau sponsorships.

Kings County Farm Bureau is a non-profit advocacy organization which represents approximately 800 members of the agricultural community. The mission of KCFB is to provide education, promotion and representation of agriculture. More information is available at www.kcfb.org.

Tulare Union Tribe Cheer Squad Take Fifth in Nation Staff Reports The Tulare Union Cheer Squad, under the direction of TUHS Cheer Adviser Britney Audino, capped off its season placing fifth in the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, FL earlier last month.

The championship was held from Feb. 11 to 12.

“After finishing 11th at the same ​​ event last year, the squad worked relentlessly with a focus on increasing the difficulty of their routines​,” said TUHS Principal Michelle Nunley, Ed.D. The team finished fifth among the top 40 teams in the nation, two places higher than 2016 national championships. “[It] was an exhilarating experience,” Nunley said.

This season, the team placed first in five major competitions, which included the title of CIF Central Section Valley Champions.

In addition to training daily, competing, and cheering for all TUHS athletics events, all members of the squad completed 65 hours of community service.

The team’s philosophy is that character and becoming better people goes hand-in-hand with athleticism.

The California Scholastic Federation agreed, awarding Mackenzie Gilbert and Kendra Olivera CIF Scholarships for their outstanding sportsmanship, character, and dedication to their sport.

“The​TUHS Tribe Cheer Squad is to be congratulated​on an amazing season,” Nunley said. “They have made our community very proud!”

Left: The Tulare Union Tribe Cheerleading Squad (r: Hannah Atlas, Meghan Mayo, Graysen Young, Faithe Pimentel, Peyton Ross, Jordan Lewis, Naomi Jones, Manuel Sosa; f: Emily Lopez, Claire Cattaneo, Mackenzie Gilbert, Kendra Oliveira). Right: Kendra Oliveira and Mackenzie Gilbert celebrate the team’s win. Courtesy/Britney J Audino

WHCC Accepting Nominations for Alumnus of the Year Staff Reports West Hills College Coalinga is looking for its next Alumnus of the Year.

The Office of the President will accept nominations until 5pm on March 17 for the honor.

The nomination form may be picked up on campus, in the Office of the President at 300 Cherry Lane in Coalinga, or downloaded online at http://tinyurl. com/whccalum.

“The alumni and alumnae of our college are our best Ambassadors,” said Brenda Thames, President of West Hills College Coalinga. “They are some of our most loyal supporters and serve as great role models for our current students. The College continues to benefit from their skills and experience as they advance

in their fields and make a difference in our communities. This award highlights the very best of WHCC. We recognize an Alumnus of the Year at the commencement ceremony each year to celebrate the achievements of our former students and to inspire the graduates, current students and prospective students.”

To be eligible, Tracey Jaurena was last year’s WHCC nominees must Alumnus of the Year. Courtesy/West Hills meet certain cri- Community College

teria.

Nominees must contribute significantly to their community, state or nation and must demonstrate outstanding achievement in their profession. Nominees must also demonstrate a high level of integrity. All nominees must have also completed at least one semester at WHCC but are not required to be graduates of the college.

Those who wish to nominate

an alumnus must fill out the nomination form and include a written letter of no more than 300 words detailing why the nominee deserves the award and information about their professional and educational accomplishments and community involvement. The nomination should also include two references.

Additional information, such as a nominee’s resume or press releases about their achievements, can also be included.

The recipient will be notified no later than mid-April and will be presented with the award during May commencement.

Last year’s recipient was Tracey Jaurena, formerly an athletic trainer and faculty member at West Hills College Coalinga and a graduate of the WHCC class of 1982.

2 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B8

The March Garden Checklist Michelle Le Strange UCCE Master Gardener Advisor Emeritus Spring is almost here! Buds are starting to pop and plants will be leaping out of the ground.

To help them along, apply 10-10-10 or triple 16 fertilizers to annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. Remember, a little fertilizer goes a long way. If there’s no rain in sight, water in slowly and deeply.

Annual & perennial flowers: To extend the life of cool season color like pansies, stock, and snapdragons, lightly fertilize, water as needed, bait for slugs and snails, and dead head, dead head, dead head (that means pinch off spent blooms)!

Garden centers are brimming with cool season annuals in March and April, but resist buying, as hot weather is around the corner and they won’t last long.

Instead, start filling in bare spots and flowerbeds with drought-tolerant warm season annuals like ageratum, alyssum, bedding begonias, lobelia, petunias, salvia, and verbena.

Divide summer and fall blooming perennials like chrysanthemums, daylilies, and coreopsis while still semi-dormant.

Use a spading fork to lift clumps and a spade to make a clean cut. Replant the young outer portions of the clumps and discard or compost the old center growth.

Bulbs: Plant summer bulbs such as calla, canna, dahlia, and gladiolus in fast draining soils premixed with a complete fertilizer.

Citrus: Prune off damage from frost, once growth begins. If damage was light, fertilize now. If damage was severe, wait until growth is active (maybe next month) before fertilizing.

Deciduous trees: Remove support stakes and tie straps from trees that have outgrown their need. Let me repeat that last statement.

Remove support stakes and tie straps from trees that have outgrown their need.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Drive around town and you will notice that there are hundreds of trees that are still tethered and strangling from their initial tree stakes and ties.

FREE THE TREES! Also finish up any pruning before trees leaf out.

Evergreen trees and shrubs: Prune to enhance shape, but avoid heavy pruning unless there is a need to stimulate vigorous growth.

To reduce overall size in pine trees cut the new growth “candles” back by half or one-third. Never remove them all the way, as that is their growth for the year.

Lawns: Fertilize cool season lawns such as tall fescue with a complete fertilizer (there are many good brands for turf available now) at rate of 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1000 square feet. If needed, select a weed-n- feed, a fertilizer

with preemergence crabgrass prevention.

If lawn is totally ravaged, consider renovating or replacing it with a low maintenance groundcover.

Wait until April to fertilize warm season bermudagrass lawns or to apply postemergent weed and feeds. If you want to apply broadleaf week killers to bermudagrass lawns this month, that is okay.

Roses: Feed roses when spring growth starts.

We encourage you to avoid over-applying insecticides to roses.

Yes, they will get aphid infestations in the spring, but there are so many beneficial insects around that are hungry, we want them to have the aphids for food.

This will keep them in our gardens longer. We also want you to have beautiful roses, so be sure to monitor for aphid infestations and dislodge them from foliage with a sharp stream of water from the garden hose.

Aim for leaf underside. Heavy infestations may call for insecticidal soap. Or if you must, there is a rose food and systemic combination that will fertilize plus control sap-sucking aphids in the spring.

Vegetables: Before planting veggies in very sandy or heavy clay soils, add compost to help improve soil texture and water retention.

Plant seed potatoes early in the month. Seed beans, beets, carrots, leaf lettuce, peas, and radishes. Transplant head lettuce.

Transplant warm season vegetables like eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, but provide cold protection (plastic mulch or hot caps). Otherwise wait until next month. Plant young herbs including chive, cilantro, parsley, and rosemary.

This is the nice time of year to be out in the garden. Get out there now and enjoy it while you can.

Where can the UCCE Master Gardeners be found this month?

The UCCE Master Gardeners will be available to answer your gardening questions at the following venues in March: March 4, 11am-2pm: Orchard Supply, Visalia March 11, 11am-2pm: Orchard Supply, Hanford; March 18, 11am-2pm: Luis Nursery, Visalia.

You can also find us every Saturday from 8 am until noon at the Farmer’s Market in the Visalia Sear’s parking lot on Mooney.

For answers to all your home gardening questions, call the Master Gardeners in Tulare County at (559) 684-3325, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30 and 11:30am; or Kings County at (559) 8522736, Thursday Only, 9:30-11:30am; or visit our website to search past articles, find links to UC gardening information, or to email us with your questions: http://ucanr. edu/sites/UC_Master_Gardeners/