Guest Editorials

EDITORIAL: Proponents of Proposition 6 Commit to Redoubling Their Efforts

EDITORIAL - Despite a hard-fought campaign, Proposition 6, the initiative to prioritize rehabilitation over forced prison slave labor, did not secure majority support. While the outcome fell short, the campaign to end carceral slavery ignited an overdue dialogue about a prison system that has failed to prioritize rehabilitation, thereby jeopardizing public safety.

“In 2022, we could not get a measure on the ballot. In 2024, our coalition expanded, we exercised more power, and we placed Proposition 6 on the ballot. We did not achieve our ultimate goal tonight. Still, the movement for human dignity, safety, and justice persists,” said Dorsey Nunn, former Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. “We know Californians, including victims, want a system that centers rehabilitation, accountability, and a path to safer communities. We have more work to do to educate Californians about involuntary servitude. The race for justice is not to the swift, but those who endure.”

EDITORIAL - OpEd from MCTA Executive Director on Measure T

EDITORIAL—When Measure T failed in 2022, the Madera County Transportation Authority and all our member agencies had to examine what we did wrong and figure out how to deliver a package of investments that would reflect our residents and business community's needs and expectations. So, we started over. The new Measure T expenditure plan on this year’s ballot reflects almost two years of reassessing, adapting, and changing the form and structure of the Measure to meet those needs and expectations.

We gathered a steering committee of regular people from each of the five County Districts instead of having our elected officials appoint people to make it more independent. They toured the County and met six times over the past year. They unanimously supported the Measure that was sent to the Board. Yes. A group of citizens formed a Political Action Committee to place the Measure on the ballot with a lower threshold for passage, but – despite claims made by some – it is the same Measure. Period.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Madera Unified Loses Beloved Coach, Mark Lohuis 1956-2021

GUEST EDITORIAL - As if our third disrupted school year is not challenging enough, the universe delivered a powerful blow to Madera South High School and our entire community. Toward the end of the summer, we learned one of our most beloved and trusted teacher-leaders had fallen ill. Many of us tried to follow his progress with worry and prayers. Sunday night, after a valiant battle to return to his wife, grown children, students, and work-family, Mark Lohuis passed on. For those of us who knew him well, the word "mentor" fails to capture what he inspired. Mark was a moral compass in our lives and his sense of professional ethics was powerful and dignified. To many of us, Mark's advice was profound and his loyalty was powerful.

With all he had to give, Mark LOVED Madera South High School and has been an essential pillar of Stallion Pride since the school's founding. He believed in the underserved and underappreciated who needed us most. Mark believed in students with a fierce relentlessness you only find in screenplays. The difficult students were his specialty and therefore the specialty of the entire Stallion PE department. Mark challenged us to serve them with devotion informed by his deep faith in God. He believed in high expectations, accountability, self-responsibility, compassion, and above all, redemption. Everyone was worth one more effort and one more expression of goodwill. No task, effort, or gesture was beneath him if it lifted up a student or colleague.

EDITRIAL: Effectively Addressing Communitywide Homelessness

EDITORIAL - The nationwide homeless crisis has existed in Fresno County for many years and only worsened throughout the pandemic. To effectively address homelessness communitywide, both in the metropolitan and rural communities, partnerships between local governments and community-based organizations mustcontinue. Without these partnerships, the political will that galvanized the COVID-19 response and directed our homeless community into housing and support services will fizzle. It was this collaboration and funding alignment that brought over 200 households (or over 400 individuals) into housing within weeks during the pandemic, many for the first time, yet there is much more to be done.

Prior to 2018, homelessness in our community was being managed with resources provided through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HUD Continuum of Care Program1provides funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and state and local agencies to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families. Annually, the Fresno Madera (Continuum of Care) receives about $10 million to maintain and add limited permanent and transitional housing, supportive services, and homelessness prevention. In addition to that funding, the County of Fresno and the City of Fresno receive limited direct funding for homeless-related matters.

Assemblymember Gray’s Statement on Being Stripped of Committee Chairmanship

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) released the following statement after being stripped of his position as Chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. “History repeats itself.

“Five years ago, I fought to pass legislation to hold the State Water Board accountable for the devastating economic impacts the state water grab will inflict on the people living in my district and the greater San Joaquin Valley. Despite active opposition from legislative leadership, my bill was approved by a narrow committee vote, and I was summarily removed from my position on the Assembly Water Committee.