BVN Opinion

EDITORIAL: Convicted Violent Felon Hired By Madera Unified

EDITORIAL - If you or I as parents want to visit our children's school at Madera Unified we would have to go to the office and sign in. Then maybe we might be allowed to go to our child's classroom or more than likely our child will be brought up to the front and we wouldn't be allowed passed the main office.

But now at Madera Unified, thanks to Superintendent Ed Gonzales, a convicted violent felon has access to any campus he wants to visit and any child he wants to interview and there is nothing parents can do about it.

Lack of Fair Funding Would be Disastrous for Our Community

EDITORIAL - Summer has finally arrived, and that marks the official kickoff of fair season! Many of you and millions of others around our state will visit your local fairgrounds this year to participate in one of California’s longest-standing traditions. But in recent years, state funding for fairs has been all but eliminated, threatening their very existence.

In 2011, at the peak of California’s historic budget crisis, the Legislature completely eliminated the $32 million in funding to the California Division of Fairs and Expositions, which oversees the state’s fairs. Though the cuts were devastating, fair organizers learned to adapt to their limited means the way many other state programs did during that difficult time.

EDITORIAL: Slate Mail Ads - Paid Endorsement or Political Trickery

EDITORIAL - In the next few weeks, if not already, your mailbox is going to be filled with advertisements and brochures for candidates for every position on this June's ballots. The message will be "Vote for me because" or "Don't vote for him because".

Positive ads as well as negative ads designed by public relations firms will try to sway your vote to the candidate willing to spend the most money. Then there are other mailers that will look like endorsements from powerful groups that aren't what they seem. These mailers are called SLATE MAIL ADS and they can be quite deceptive.

Slate Mail Ads - Paid Endorsement or Political Trickery

Bad Sportsmanship in Little League is a Sign of Bad Coaching

EDITORIAL - Over the years I used to look forward to when my daughter's Little League team would play Cervantes Remodeling. At that time the team was being taught baseball and class from one of the best coaches I've ever seen in Little League, Larry Cervantes.

Unfortunately this year Larry isn't coaching. Instead his team is being handled by two newer coaches; one being Larry's former Son-in-law and the other being a sexist jerk. From the example they are setting, I'd have to say it doesn't seem that teaching sportsmanship and class is something these coaches find at all important.