A Merced Sun-Star blog
I wrote a story about Stephen Wampler, a man who on Friday became the first person with cerebral palsy to climb Yosemite's El Capitan. Video footage of the last portion of his five-day climb, as he reached the summit, was posted to YouTube over the weekend:
More...Paul Vasquez's love of rainbows has been well documented over the last few months, but it's obvious he also loves the spotlight just as much. The Mariposa resident, who I first interviewed for a July 8 blog post , is now starring in a 43-second commercial for Microsoft. Microsoft's Connor Lanman says in a blog post that he first saw the " double rainbow" video
More...CBS 13 in Sacramento followed up on the Sun-Star's Wednesday story about Merced College spending $15,000 for administrators to attend conferences at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys and Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino near Coarsegold. Except, they took a slightly more confrontational approach. Watch the video here: http://www.cbs13.com/video/?id=76416@kovr.dayport.com
More...A poet, a musician and an artist walked into a restaurant. What could sound like the beginning of a bad joke is actually a monthly occurence at J & R Tacos in Downtown Merced. "Conjuntos," which means "a gathering" in Spanish, pairs three artists once a month for a free two-hour show at the popular Mexican restaurant. Conjuntos started eight months ago after a meeting between J &
More...The Yosemite shown in this 1940s travel film looks familiar, but it certainly isn't the national park we know today. The tent cabins look like something out of a Civil War film, and the drive-through Wawona Tree at Mariposa Grove was still standing.
More...Livingston-based Foster Farms introduced its "Say No to Plumping" marketing campaign a while back, alleging that its competitors inject saltwater to increase the size of chicken sold in stores, while labeling the product as "natural." Doing so increases the sodium content of the chicken by up to 500 percent, according to the company.
More...Merced's Madeline Wall, 88, an Austrian immigrant who has worked at the same Volkswagen dealership for 50 years, is a finalist in Mitchum's "Hardest Working Person in America" contest. According to a press release from Mitchum, a deodorant company, Wall is one of 10 finalists who could win $100,000 and become the subject of a short film by Albert Maysles.
More...Mercy Medical Center's emergency room sees a lot of people coming through its doors. But despite what some people think, those visits aren't by undocumented immigrants. According to Mercy, less than one percent of emergency room visits are by undocumented immigrants.
More...Update: He's hired an agent and a manager. *** Original post: Paul Vasquez spent Thursday morning fielding phone calls from reporters. "I'm taking the day off to go to Yosemite," he said, making it clear that his 15 minutes of fame is already starting to wear thin.
More...Chances are you have an opinion about Arizona's new law on illegal immigration. Check out the results on MSNBC's one-question survey . At the time of this writing the poll had 2,227,632 votes, with 95.8 percent of the voters in favor of Arizona's stance.
More...It took "America's Most Wanted" to bring Paul Clouston to justice. Clouston was one of the U.S. Marshal's 15 most wanted fugitives, and he was hiding out in Merced. He was on parole for killing a police officer and child molestation.
More...Ever-interesting Sunspot commenter Mjon posted a link to a website that purports to show just how much area the gulf oil spill would cover in other parts of the world. According to the site, if the spill happened in Merced, we'd have oil stretching from Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area.
More...MercedSunStar.com user "Mjon" presented a question to other Sunspots users wondering if a tale about a "perpetual motion machine" in Planada was true. I couldn't find anything in the Sun-Star's online archives, but according to a 1952 Milwaukee Journal article , a Planada lumberman hoped to harness up to 35,000 horsepower from a perpetual motion machine designed according to the biblical...
More...The circus surrounding Sarah Palin's upcoming visit to Cal State Stanislaus was just too good for the humor writers at The Onion to pass up. Responding to the news that CSUS students found a draft contract for Palin's appearance in a university trash bin, The Onion released an infographic listing the former Republican vice presidential nominee's speaking demands. They include:
More...Sure, you remember visits by Jimmy Carter and Michelle Obama. But over the years we've had lots of presidents and their spouses visit our area. George Bush the First stopped in Merced on a campaign tour in 1988 (he also stopped in Ripon, where I saw him along with Chuck Norris and two of The Beach Boys.) In 1999, Vice President Al Gore shook hands with firemen at Castle Air Force Base and visited...
More...Wayne Colvin is grateful that his hat was the only thing he lost on Wednesday afternoon -- after being picked up by a strong wind and thrown against his 1991 Honda Accord, things could have been much worse. Colvin was working on his car outside a Castle Vista home, when a gust of wind lifted him into the air and slammed into the vehicle's side, breaking the side mirror.
More...The Capital Public Radio show "Insight" had an interesting interview today with Pete Devine, education coordinator with the Yosemite Association. The conversation included discussion about this year's snowmelt and the park's new rules on climbing Half Dome. Listen to the show here: http://www.capradio.org/resources/audioplayer.aspx?showid=7756
More...While sifting through the 90-page staff report about Mariposa County's upcoming agritourism codes, I stumbled upon the following paragraph: "Additions have been made to the definition of 'glamping' to clarify how glamping differs from camping." Uh, what? I first read about glamping--glamorous camping--sometime last year in a Wall Street Journal article .
More...We received a diverse selection of letters after a recent story about an Atwater resident who’s concerned with how much the city council is paid. Here is a selection of them: "Car Allowances... $700.00 sounds like a lot of money but if you do the math with the cost of fuel, insurance, maintenance etc.
More...Photographs of hospice patients taken by Roger Wyan, a Merced photographer who teaches photography at UC Merced, are on display at Fresno's Mullins Studio Gallery. The project, done in partnership with Hinds Hospice, took several years to complete and documents the last days of about a dozen hospice patients. We conducted an video interview with Wyan a few weeks ago:
More...A very interesting case of journalistic ethics is spiraling out of a breaking story primarily focused on the behavior of a pharmaceutical company that gathered information on Food and Drug Administration officials. Politico is reporting that Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. paid a private investigative firm, Kroll, to gather information on the officials.
More...A few more notes on Merced's Google fiber campaign: Merced's application for Google's fiber Internet test was officially submitted Wednesday in a send-off ceremony at Castle. (Merced Sun-Star photo by Bea Ahbeck -- From left, Merced Union High School District's Anthony Thomas, Mark Hendrickson, Director of Merced County Department of Commerce, Aviation and Economic Development, Rod La Salle, with...
More...By now, you know that a couple hundred people gathered on Merced College's football field Saturday to spell out "Google" in an attempt to convince the Internet giant to select Merced as a test site in its ultra-high-speed Internet case. If you haven't seen the photos, click here for the gallery. But there's more happening on the Google front.
More...You may have heard that former President Jimmy Carter plans to visit UC Merced in May. It's created quite the conversation in the story comments on the Sun-Star's article , as well as UC Merced's Facebook page. Sophomore Oliver Darcy, a conservative and a member of the College Republicans, tried to capture the points for and against Carter in a 3-minute YouTube clip.
More...Here's a pretty awesome Christmas display, courtesy of MercedSunStar.com user ' TheEliminationist .' It was mentioned first in this Sunspot post. There's another musical light show, this one set to the tune of the song from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas,' on Sunset Drive, just north of El PortalDrive. Know of others? Tell us about them in the comments section under this post.
More...Halloween is pumpkin carving time, and at Mercy Medical Center Merced, pumpkin carving is a big deal. Employees compete for a gift certificate for the best carved pumpkin, and the competition is fierce. One employee used his pumpkin to promote Mercy's new hospital on G Street.
More...An Associated Press story about the graying of the Manson Family says that convicted killer Susan Atkins, 61, is held at Chowchilla's Central California Women's Facility, where she is dying of brain cancer. A parole hearing is scheduled for Sept. 2. A Web site maintained by her husband says that Atkins is paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and is unable to sit up in bed.
More...From Chowchilla's Central California Women's Facility : Serial killer Dorothea Puente is still trying to manipulate people. The 80-year-old Puente, who Sacramento police say killed nine people and buried their bodies in the yard of her boarding house, talked with SacTown Magazine senior editor Martin Kuz for a series of interviews stretching over six months.
More...The state's institutions of higher education may not be facing the best financial future with state budget cuts, but a local institution just got a little help from Foster Farms. The chicken company has given $500,000 to CSU Stanislaus to fund The Foster Farms Endowed Chair in Business Economics.
More...Hey all you fans of Bio-Dome and Big Momma's House 2: Word is that actor Stephen Baldwin and model/actress Christina Lindley are going to attend the Sept. 4 grand opening of Pocket 8's Sushi & Grill.
More...Someone should remind Wonkette editors what happens when you assume. When our story about Atwater City Councilman Gary Frago's e-mails was published on July 17 , the national political blog site immediately picked up on it, writing a profane piece that identified Frago as a Republican. Whoops. Frago is a "lifelong Democrat," according to his Monday apology .
More...The Santa Rosa Press Democrat ran a follow-up story on the Dylan Morse case in Saturday's paper. The story includes a comparison of similar Sonoma County DUI/manslaughter cases with Morse's sentence. The story can be found at this address: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090718/ARTICLES/907189952/0/ENTERTAINMENT08
More...UC Merced students who led the "Dear Michelle" campaign have set the standard for other groups attempting to court the first lady. From a Google Alert I have set up, I learned of one such attempt this morning by Mocha Moms , a national organization for stay-at-home moms of color. The group, according to an article on www.examiner.com , "Mocha Moms, Inc.
More...I was just reading The Washington Post when I came upon this recap of first lady Michelle Obama's speech yesterday to graduates at the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter High School: http://bit.ly/qTlaR. I was struck by some similarities between her speech there and her speech last month at UC Merced: At WMSTPCHS: "We all had doubts.
More...This happened Thursday afternoon at 16th and R streets. Thanks to Sun-Star reader "bettymiller49" for submitting the photo and video.
More...This happened Thursday afternoon at 16th and R streets. Thanks to Sun-Star reader "bettymiller49" for submitting the photo and video.
More...This happened Thursday afternoon at 16th and R streets. Thanks to Sun-Star reader "bettymiller49" for submitting the photo and video.
More...This happened Thursday afternoon at 16th and R streets. Thanks to Sun-Star reader "bettymiller49" for submitting the photo and video.
More...That's the message of "Save Your City," a Web site launched by The League of California Cities. The site invites readers to submit videos explaining why local government money shouldn't be raided by the state So far, a majority of the videos are provided by the usual suspects: Local politicians and bureaucrats, including a few locals. Here's what I found:
More...I received this information recently from Julie Rivard, an art teacher at Merced High School. It looks like the arts are thriving in some of our local schools: " Merced County High School top art students will have their work exhibited at the Civic Center from May 15 th through May 28 th .
More...My first blog in some time. And it's for a special reason. My daughter Dylann, who just celebrated her 23rd birthday in Buenos Aries, went to South America after she graduated from the University of Oregon in December. She made the honor roll with a degree in Art and was an All Pac 10 defender on the Ducks' women's soccer team, as well as its captain.
More...The Howard Hughes Medical Institute – a Maryland-based, non-profit research organization – invited nearly 200 top institutions to compete for individual grants of up to $2.2 million to fund innovative teaching methods in science and medicine. The group will give out a total of $85 million. According to the math, that means up to 38.636 colleges could get the maximum grant.
More...In his weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown - who recently spoke at UC Merced - said he championed UC Merced in its planning stages several years ago, but would never have voted for it if he had known it was "three hours from anywhere." Brown also admits his motivation to support a UC in the Central Valley: "I knew that if I ever pulled it off, it would make me bigger than...
More...Last Saturday, the Sun-Star ran an article about changes to UC Merced’s commencement ceremony. I got this response from another unhappy parent: “I read in the Sun-Star that each graduate would be given 8 tickets for family. Given there are 500 graduates, this accounts for 4,000 seats.
More...When the University of Kansas won the men's national basketball championship last year, I was so happy, I couldn't breath. OK, I was hyperventilating. But it was welcome hyperventilation. I never imagined the low I would hit one year later, when I met secret agent Jack Quinn and arms dealer Yaz. I lost this year's newsroom bracket competition.
More...The Merced City School District staff is applying for a grant that will fund a permanent shade structure for students at Ada Givens Elementary School. The grant, worth $8 million, would provide money for the school to build a structure over the preschool/kindergarten playground at Givens.
More...You bet! This time for some decidedly positive news. No matter your political affiliation, it is a big thing for UC Merced to host first lady Michelle Obama as commencement speaker this year. Jesse McKinley wrote this short story about the "Dear Michelle" campaign for The Gray Lady on Saturday (I was a little late to find the article, I know).
More...High school students who need help with math might have their answer. Members of the Math Club at CSU Stanislaus will hold a tutoring night April 2 from 4:30-8:30 p.m. in the University Union Event Center. Tutoring sessions are open on a drop-in basis to all students who need help with upper-level high school or college math.
More...For the past 20 years, I have done dog rescue. Mostly border collies, but I have also rescued an old golden retriever, a whippet, a couple of Queenslands and a lot of mixed breed dogs. Doing rescue meant that I had to take a trip out to our local animal shelter, the place where unwanted dogs usually end up. That shelter is old, smelly and a terrible place for both animals and people.
More...Students at Village Academy High School in Pomona, Calif. created a video called is "Is anyone listening?" The footage is gripping and shows just how much students are tuned in to the struggles of their families and communities. "I can't imagine what is going to happen for our generation," one girl said.
More...Ana Aceves-Cabrera, a Golden Valley High School junior, has been selected to represent the United States in an international youth debate competition. I originally wrote about Aceves-Cabrera in November when Golden Valley Principal Craig Chavez chose her to speak for the "school showcase" at a district board meeting. In November, she talked about her experience in space camp.
More...Did BCHS students resort to newsprint when bathrooms ran out of toilet paper? Students at Buhach Colony High School in Atwater went without toilet paper in several dozen bathroom stalls yesterday, according to a concerned community member who called the newsroom this morning. Instead, the students used torn newspaper to wipe themselves, the caller said.
More...The Central Valley Opportunity Center is offering $750 scholarships to graduating high school seniors from Madera, Merced and Stanislaus counties. Eligible students must have a 3.0 grade point average, financial need and must be planning to pursue an upper level education in the fall of 2009.
More...Gary Frago, an Atwater City Council member, is on a crusade against Cal Fire. It seems that ever time I go to an Atwater City Council meeting the former fire fighter is going after Cal Fire. First he backed the city's removal of fire inspection fees and now he wants the city to look into what it would take to end the city's contract with Cal Fire.
More...867-5309? Forget Jenny. You want Google. I recently discovered a new service offered by Google, free of charge. It's a text messaging service where the Internet powerhouse answers your basic questions. The number is 46645 and it's easy to use. You're already at dinner and you want to see a heart-warming coming-of-age tale?
More...Golden Valley High School has another National Merit Scholar finalist. Patrick Lauppe, a senior on campus, earned the distinction for scoring high on the PSAT exam. Out of the 1.5 million juniors who take the exam nationally each year, only 8,200 qualify and are announced as National Merit Scholarship finalists. About 16,000 semifinalists were named in September.
More...The Merced Union High School District met Saturday afternoon to decide how the district should reorganize its five-year facility plan in light of financing complications. A decrease in assessed property values and an increase in financing rates caused Merced Union High School District to put off the sale of general obligation bonds last month.
More...When the Internet went down in the newsroom yesterday, we tried to remember what we did to fill our days in 1996 ... before Wikipedia and IMDB made us movie-trivia experts. When the Internet went (and stayed) down in the newsroom today, it was more of a nuisance. We are still pretty much Web-less, and it affects a large part of our day-to-day business. Fact-checking is tougher.
More...I've been following the ins and outs of Merced Irrigation District’s budget shortfall and subsequent fee increase for the last couple of months. Since then it has been an important topic for farmers. While the board finally decided to have a protest vote on the fee, the issue doesn't seem to be able to go away.
More...I wrote an article earlier this week on the controversy surrounding a decision to remove the Chicano novel "Bless Me, Ultima," at Orestima High School in Newman. Several readers commented on the story and some of you asked for more information.
More...I've gotten a couple of calls from readers recently about mail theft in Merced. Both reports came from the McSwain area. I'm wondering how widespread this problem is and whether most victims report it to police. If you've recently had mail stolen from your mailbox, let us know about it. Leave me a message here or email me. creilly@mercedsun-star.com .
More...It's February and American Heart Month - a time to focus on the continual battle to stamp out heart disease. WomenHeart and Clos du Bois announced they will join millions of Americans nationwide in supporting women's heart disease awareness and prevention with the launch of www.ToastToWomen.com.
More...Dylan Morse, the 18-year-old son of Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II, is scheduled to be arriagned Wednesday in Sonoma County Superior Court, on charges of felony driving under the influence and manslaughter. The Sun-Star will be in Santa Rosa to cover the hearing, and we'll have updated coverage on the case later this week.
More...The Merced City School District passed its 2009-10 academic calendar Tuesday night. After long debates and delayed votes all year, the calendar was passed with little fanfare after hours of budget talk. The new calendar matches the Merced Union High School District perfectly except for two occasions: winter vacation and president’s week. Winter break for MCSD will run Dec. 21 – Jan. 1.
More...Livingston's new city council is an eager bunch. At their last meeting there was much talk of reform, transparency and openness. And to some degree , they seem to be moving in that direction. But despite their eagerness to show a new face of the city's government, they are a little green.
More...Atwater High School senior girls will wear white graduation gowns this year, the senior class voted last week. The boys will wear dark blue in accordance with a long-standing tradition, student body president Dion Mays said. Mays said the tradition changed last year when everyone wore the same color.
More...State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell delivered the annual State of Education Address this morning in Sacramento. There were few surprises considering the regular media coverage of how the state budget shortfall is playing out in school buildings across the state.
More...Then check out this meeting. The Merced County Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission will host a joint study session Tuesday afternoon on the county’s ongoing effort to update its general plan.
More...Barack Obama made many promises to the American people in the two years he campaigned to become the 4 4th President of the United States. He kept one of those promises Jan. 29 when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in a televised ceremony.
More...I wrote a story for last week’s Saturday paper about how to choose a breed of dog. I was inspired to do this because our new president is in the middle of making a decision about what type of dog he wants for his girls. One of the breeds that he mentioned isn’t even a breed - a Labradoodle. That’s a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle.
More...Last week, I wrote about the Merced Irrigation District and the wage increases that management gave themselves. MID turned off water to the growers last year a full month before normal, because of the drought. They then offered to sell water to growers that they had obtained from another water district. And now, they are asking for a $5 per acre foot increase in water rates for farmers who use MID.
More...Twitter is definitely an exercise in narcissism, but there's no better social networking tool out there. For the uninitiated, Twitter is a "microblogging" service that asks users to write about what they're doing in fewer than 140 characters. It's a weird mix of instant messaging and blogging, and it's hopelessly addicting.
More...I wrote a story this week about how the nursing homes in our area are rated by Medicare. I thought that I would be doing a piece showing that the homes in Merced and Atwater need some work, maybe be rated lower than other places in the state. Boy, was I wrong. The nursing homes, all of them, got rated either good or excellent. They could get a rating of five stars, down to no stars.
More...You may have read about the Spider-Man comic book featuring Barack Obama that's driving speculators to comic shops nationwide. The comic was so popular that Merced's Cop-A-Comic wasn't able to get the first printing and has had to turn away potential buyers hoping to snag the collector's item. Well fear not, says Cop-A-Comic's Mike Smid.
More...Merced County may have supported Barack Obama back in November, but a recently-published searchable database at the Sacramento Bee's Web site shows just one donation of more than $200 to Obama's Inaugural Committee. That distinction goes to Pamela Magneson of Magneson Dairy, Inc. The Cressey resident contributed $250 to Obama's campaign. The full list of donors can be found here . Nov.
More...You may have read about the Spider-Man comic book featuring Barack Obama that's driving speculators to comic shops nationwide. The comic was so popular that Merced's Cop-A-Comic wasn't able to get the first printing and has had to turn away potential buyers hoping to snag the collector's item. Well fear not, says Cop-A-Comic's Mike Smid.
More...You may have read about the Spider-Man comic book featuring Barack Obama that's driving speculators to comic shops nationwide. The comic was so popular that Merced's Cop-A-Comic wasn't able to get the first printing and has had to turn away potential buyers hoping to snag the collector's item. Well fear not, says Cop-A-Comic's Mike Smid.
More...You may have read about the Spider-Man comic book featuring Barack Obama that's driving speculators to comic shops nationwide. The comic was so popular that Merced's Cop-A-Comic wasn't able to get the first printing and has had to turn away potential buyers hoping to snag the collector's item. Well fear not, says Cop-A-Comic's Mike Smid.
More...Hello readers, As you have probably read on the front page of our newspaper and Web site (as well as in other news agencies citing our story), Merced City School District Superintendent Terry Brace was placed on paid adminitrative leave at the school board meeting last night. Please call or email me with any additional information you might have.
More...An invitation came by way of an e-mail Jan. 7 from an organization I hadn't heard of b efore. "Join us to make a positive difference in your life and in your community," Jeff Freitas, chairman of Change Merced promised in his opening remarks. Freitas invited me to help Change Merced celebrate the Presidential Inauguration at Club Mercedes between 5 and 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
More...Merced County launched a new Web site today. It's a dramatic improvement from the county's old one, and it includes lots of neat new features, like a countywide events calendar, e-mail alerts, RSS feeds, citizen complaint forms and an improved search function. It’s at www.co.merced.ca.us , or click here .
More...With all the bad news out there these days, it's easy to forget that people are still doing nice things for each other all the time. One such person is Melba. Melba read a story I wrote that ran in Saturday's paper about local folks who've been laid off.
More...The Kennedy women aren't strangers to honoring people who have made extraordinary contributions to the performing arts. In a two-hour television gala , author and attorney Caroline Kennedy took the stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.
More...Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East corresponent for the London-based Independent newspaper, is one of my few journalistic heroes. Here's one reason why: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-leaders-lie-civilians-die-and-lessons-of-history-are-ignored-1215045.html?startindex=40 And here's another take on the Israeli assault on Gaza--again, you'll have to...
More...I received a phone call as I was wrapping up my day-before-the-holiday short shift here today. The voice on the other line was a bit shaky and the woman seemed nervous. She hoped she had reached the right person.
More...Merced Irrigation District meetings are long and full of obtuse bureaucratic presentations. And MID's last meeting in 2008 was no different from most. But after much of the crowd left the last meeting, Jack Hooper, usually a quiet board member, spoke up. And what he had to say might not have gone down well in front of a room full of farmers.
More...This summer, as part of a series on poverty in Merced County, the Sun-Star published a story about the Hernandez's, a family of seven that shares a 500-square-foot shack in Le Grand. The story is here . Today, the head of the Hernandez family, Grandma Donna, called me to ask for some help. "We're in trouble," she told me. "The water heater's broken."
More...There were a few witness reports of a large fireball or shooting star in the sky near Merced County sometime this weekend, during the early morning hours. One of the sightings was reported on the Web site www.spaceweather.com . I was alerted to the fireball sighting by an individual named Robert Ward, a Prescott, Ariz.
More...Our series, 'Sowing Hope,' done in partnership with the new Center for California Health Care Journalism, has gotten some attention. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/sowinghope/ Below are accounts in three widely read journalism Web sites about it.
More...Last June, the Merced Sun-Star publshed a Monday Merced Matters story about Alexis Hill, an enterprising Merced student keen on attending the inauguration ceremonies in 33 days. The article highlighted Hill's love for learning and her desire to attend the inaugural festivities as part of a youth leadership conference.
More...Listened last Friday to several folks trying to bring, keep and grow business in Merced. We know how important it is to support efforts that help companies that provide and add jobs. A decent job may be the only--but certainly the most effective--way to solve a lot of our problems. If you've got to get up in the morning and report for work at 9 a.m.
More...Yesterday I wrote about some Canadian-based scammers trying to foist fake checks on people in Merced. Well, it seems there are more scams than one coming from north of the border. Shirley Webb, a grandmother from Merced, called the Sun-Star today with a story of her own. This morning she got a call from someone claiming to be her grandson.
More...Merced County Supervisor Kathleen Crookham gave up her bid this week to hand a big chunk of county money to the Merced Theatre Foundation. We ran a story about it Wednesday. Since then, I've gotten several calls and e-mails suggesting the Sun-Star take a closer look at the policy that gives each supervisor $100,000 a year in "special district funds" to dole out as they see fit.
More...
