Dear Valley Voice Community, It is with deepest sorrow that I am addressing you today. As a UC Santa Barbara Alumni, last Friday’s tragedy touched me in a very deep and personal way. My heart and prayers go out to the victims of the shooting, their family and friends, as well as UC Santa Barbara, […]
This issue completes a first full calendar year back from the purgatorial wasteland to which all failed newspapers are relegated. Such papers may be no more, but they linger in archives everywhere from public libraries to private homes. The Valley Voice remained in the collective memory, seemingly, just long enough to be eagerly anticipated upon […]
Last month, the federal government announced that the production of food and fiber in the nation’s number one agricultural state and the highest producing agricultural counties are no longer important. Two agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service have determined they can’t create a solution that allows an affordable food supply […]
Congress needs to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) so there is real and fair competition reflecting 21st century commerce. America was built on promoting economic growth and business in a fashion that ensures fair competition for all. Today, online-only retailers are not required to charge and collect sales tax, while local businesses must. However, […]
On Friday, May 30, Tulare County for Families (TC4F) staged a ‘light brigade’ action, calling for a stop to the mass deportations that separate families. The event was a follow-up to the group’s June 13th delivery of over 600 crosses to Representative Devin Nunes’ (R-22) office. The crosses represented people who have died crossing the […]
Don’t look now but Visalia Unified is still growing! The good news is that Measure E will help us keep up with growth and will provide many improvements to our current schools. If you see work crews or clouds of dust around some of our schools, you will know that your tax dollars are at […]
Today’s frequent–if sardonic–observation that technology, rather than having made life more convenient, has instead spun us all off multi-tasking in too many directions, distracted by and over-dependent on our devices, is only more true as time marches forward. Yes–that was a 40-word sentence: the cell phone rang, and I lost my train of thought. It […]
Aid and Attendance is a special monthly pension benefit available to wartime veterans and surviving spouses of deceased wartime veterans who have in-home care, or who live in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities. The basic criteria for the Aid and Attendance benefit include the inability to feed oneself, to dress and undress without assistance, or […]
Welcome to the latest dog and pony show – the race for Tulare County Sheriff. We have a small war going on between “The Keystone Kops” (aka Sheriff Whaley, et al.) on the one hand, and “Deputy Dawg” (aka Sheriff Beaudroix, et al. ) on the other hand – or it could be the other […]
In a recent candidate forum that took place in Porterville, the current District Attorney, Tim Ward, trivialized law enforcement officers throughout the county. Mr. Ward stated that the seven local law enforcement officer associations who endorsed Ralph F. Kaelble for District Attorney did so simply because under Tim’s watch, the DA’s office had to bring […]