A loophole to drive a truck through

Friday, Aug. 24, the Tracy Press lost its lawsuit to compel Vice Mayor Suzanne Tucker to release e-mails regarding council business.

Judge Lauren P. Thomasson, by denying this Public Records Act request, has essentially neutered that law as well as voter-passed Proposition 59, which are designed to make government actions transparent — and therefore make government accountable.

This ruling essentially means that any public officer or agency, if they use private equipment to conduct public business, suddenly make their business beyond the public purview, even though these dealings clearly impact their role as public servants and not their role as private citizens.

Thank you, Judge Thomasson, for giving shifty government officials a way to evade oversight. Richard Nixon is applauding from his grave.

Friday random thoughts

• Believe it or not, the Tracy Press' move to a 3-day-a-week publication schedule and online focus puts it on the cutting edge of what newspapers are doing. This is the wave of the future.

• Teaching kids about religion without indoctrinating them? This new TUSD program might have just stumbled on something really smart.

• On Thursday's "Daily Show," Lt. Col. John Nagl said that the Iraq conflict is a "thinking man's war." Too bad there wasn't more thinking before the war started.

• Sunday is the fifth anniversary of the day Vice President Cheney began the march to war with a speech delivered to the VFW. Read his speech with the benefit of five years of hindsight here. The Iraq stuff begins about halfway down the page. It's gold. Pure ironic gold.

• For those who merely say "illegal is illegal" when it comes to issues like illegal immigration: Something is not automatically immoral just because it is illegal. Just food for thought.

• Calvin and Hobbes quote of the week: "You know, before there was television, kids actually did things on nice days like this." "Times sure change, huh?"

Cagey council consent

Some branching, beautiful shade trees that give character to Tracy's downtown are probably going to be chopped down.

That's because of the passage of a consent item on the City Council agenda regarding a contract to rebuild the sidewalks and pavement of 10th Street between E and East streets (as reported here in the Tracy Press). It was not debated. It was approved unanimously.

It's assumed the green beauties will be ripped out with the aging concrete that makes up the 10th Street sidewalk.

Which is too bad, because the lack of mature trees in the rest of the Downtown Streetscape area is one of the project's most glaring shortcomings. It makes the place terrible to walk around in during the summer. And wasn't the point of the whole project to make people want to walk around? The city's ripping off its toenails after buying a multi-million dollar pedicure.

It will be a real failure if the trees of 10th Street are cut down during this project that is supposed to enhance, not deflate, Tracy's downtown.

Pismo Portuguese

While taking a weekend vacation in Pismo Beach, I was witness to the St. Anthony's parade.

There were the standard brass bands and girls in dresses that likely cost as much as a wedding gown, but there was also the unexpected: representatives from Tracy.

OK, so it wasn't like there was a whole troop marching down the main drag (in fact, it was two men with a "Tracy" banner and one guy in a modified bike with an orange flag sticking up from it). But Tracy was represented nonetheless.

I didn't get a chance to track down the intrepid marchers from Tracy. But if anyone knows who those guys were, I'd sure like to know.

Friday random thoughts

• This morning's LAFCo meeting could be pivotal for the city's future growth. In my opinion, Tracy should just accept the guidelines the agency's laying out. After all, isn't it reasonable that a city shouldn't be allowed to expand unless it can prove it can provide the necessary infrastructure?

• I guess the cows are more crafty than the inmates: On Monday morning, 59 bovines escaped from the Deuel Vocational Institution. No prisoners were able to follow suit.

• Although it probably turned out for the best that no inmates followed the cows to freedom — more than 20 of the cows were killed by a train and a big rig. And, it is rumored, a CHP cruiser.

• Credibility? Who needs credibility?: The White House is going to interview U.S. commanders and then report to Congress about the progress in Iraq in September. Something tells me Congress won't get the unvarnished truth.

• The $250 per ticket pricetag at the Grand Theatre's Friday, Sept. 14, opening night charity fundraiser is drawing flak. I guess some folks forgot that Saturday's events are mostly free, and "Gone With the Wind" is showing Sunday for 25 cents.

• United States citizen Jose Padilla was convicted Thursday of "helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks." Of course, he was arrested for plotting to set off a radioactive bomb inside the U.S. — nevermind that that original charge was so bogus his attorneys weren't allowed to bring it up in court.

• Overheard quote of the week: "How come we don't run Molly Ivins' column anymore?" "Because she died." ~ overhead at the Tracy Press

• Calvin and Hobbes quote of the week: "I think we'd know normal if we saw it."

No more big boxes

Earlier this week, Stockton became one of a growing number of cities to ban stores of more than 100,000 square feet that have a grocery component — they're looking at you, Wal-Mart.

I honestly wouldn't be sad if Tracy took a similar stand. The market's great, and so is competition, but Wal-Marts tend to drain some of the soul from communities. I'd rather see the the city's current businesses — especailly the lagging grocery sector — solidified before a giant enters an already saturated marketplace.

An expanded Wal-Mart — or some other impersonal big-box store — just doesn't add that much to the community. Maybe if they tried adding a Miller brewery...

Selling points

Another story that shows how bad the housing market has become.

I park my 1966 Rustbucket in my grandparents' garage when I'm not trying to kill myself by driving it. My grandparents have been trying to sell this house for the past six months or more, so quite a few people have seen both the house and the car.

They've received more serious offers for the car.