Starting 2010 with big news

I disconnected for the entire New Year's weekend, and man, did I miss a lot.

Richard Pombo wants to be in Congress again, the Tracy City Council takes up the issue of crime and punishment, and our city's first recreation director passes away.

When it comes to Pombo's announcement, I suspected he wouldn't be out of politics for long, though I really expected him to be lobbying instead of running for a new Congressional district. However, he's a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, and he's running in a pretty conservative district — no surprises, you go where you can win. Although, I still wonder why he's thrown his hat into the ring again. Hopefully, we'll be able to answer that question in the next few months.

As for tonight's (probably still ongoing) council meeting, Police Chief Janet Thiessen said the department wants to reduce crime by 10 percent and make Tracy the statistiaclly safest city in Northern California. Key word there is statistically. When it comes to numbers, Tank Town is still a pretty safe place to live. But as I've said before, there's more to numbers than safety. It's a feeling. And it's that feeling of security that we really must recapture.

And I didn't know Joe Wilson, but I know that he meant a lot to this community. If you're like me and you know Joe Wilson more for the pool named after him than the man himself, this obituary should give you a pretty good picture of his life's accomplishments.