Can You Smell the Reefer Yet? When Californians vote to legalize marijuana in November of 2016, which seems likely happen, pot will be legal up and down the entire West Coast, including Alaska. But California is the biggest prize of 2016. A victory in California could possibly portend the beginning of the end of the […]
District 1 Race Gets Crowded When Tulare County Supervisor Allan Ishida announced that he was not running for re-election, two strong contenders, and one unknown, came forward to throw their hat in the ring for the open seat; Vincent Salinas, Ted Macaulay and newcomer, Kuyler Crocker. At first glance, it seemed the rightful heir to […]
What Happened To AB954? The California State Legislature stayed in session until the wee hours of Saturday morning, September 12, wrapping up end of the year legislation on assisted death, climate change, medical marijuana and family leave. The Senate even passed Resolution 39 that instructed Californians to “Dump Trump,” but Assembly Bill 954 never saw […]
Vincent Salinas Running for Tulare County Board of Supervisors Vincent Salinas of Visalia has filed his paperwork to run for Tulare County Board of Supervisors in District 1. Mr. Salinas has been an active member of the community in many capacities, including serving on Visalia’s Planning Commission for 11 years. His map creating Visalia’s five […]
No Matter How You Vote, Crazy Wins OK, it’s official. Those opposed to chickens and mini goats inside Visalia’s city limits are as crazy as those collecting signatures to pass an initiative in favor of making them legal. Here in our office, for expediency’s sake, we refer to each side as pro-goaters or anti-goaters, and both […]
Separated At Birth In 2004, Visalia City Councilmember Phil Cox declared that he was going to run for Tulare County Supervisor District 3 because, among other things, he was seeking to improve communication between the county and Visalia. Sound familiar? At the end of July, Visalia City Councilmember Amy Shuklian declared that she was going […]
The Family Food Freedom Act – The rest of the story Let’s just say the painful truth out loud about the Food Freedom Act. A wise man told me during the Tulare County Supervisors’ meeting that Visalia could have avoided this whole initiative process if they had just given Gingi Freeman a medical exemption. When […]
Eat your vegetables If you always skip over the articles about the newest, hottest trade agreement here is your opportunity for a painless recap. Consider it eating your political vegetables. Just in case you thought you were always forgetting the acronym for the trade pact, you weren’t. There are three of them, TPP, TPA and […]
The Next Republican Governor In the last issue of the Valley Voice I considered Tulare County Supervisor Allan Ishida the Republican sacrificial lamb to run for governor against the immensely popular Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. But I forgot about Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin. She may not beat Mr. Newsom in 2016, but Democrats can’t win […]
Supervisor Allen Ishida Declares His Candidacy for Governor Supervisor Allen Ishida filed his intent to run for Governor of California on May 15. He can’t formally declare his candidacy until 2016, but wanted to get his campaign committee number from the Fair Political Practices Commission so he can start fundraising. His announcement is historically significant because […]