Thursday, May 23, 2013
YOLO COUNTY NEWS
99 CENTS

The problem’s in the testing

In the Sunday forum article “Dubious legal advice drove lottery,” Carlton Larson lamented the use of a lottery to select GATE-qualified students for the limited seats available in self-contained GATE classes. Larson, a law school professor, contended the district could and should select students based solely on merit, i.e., test scores. Larson compared admission to [...]

Vote no on fluoride in water

I am glad to read more comments about the negative effects of fluoride in drinking tap water. It was added to the water we had in Wilmette, Ill. How do I not know that it didn’t contribute to cancer? I choose to avoid tempting having cancer by not having it. What other organs would it harm? We don’t [...]

Food closet kept stocked

It takes an unbelievable amount of support from the community of Davis for STEAC to feed the homeless and low-income elderly and low-income families who live here in Davis each year. Without the large and small food drives that are held every year it would not be possible. We would like to thank two of [...]

You can’t invent your own facts

I was stunned by the unintentional irony of your recent editorial excoriating the Obama administration’s apparent overreach while investigating national security leaks. Hyperbole is certainly not unusual in editorials, and the government since Sept. 11, 2001, has indeed been much too lax in protecting civil liberties in the face of potential terrorist threats. It does [...]

Marsy’s Law is working well

On a sunny California day in 1983, a woman loading bags into her car trunk in a supermarket parking lot was suddenly confronted by a gunman who forced her into the car, tied her up and drove her away. Minutes later, in another parking lot, he blocked another car’s attempted exit from a space and, [...]

Tornado brings grief and hard-won knowledge

The issue: Even a few minutes’ warning saved lives in Oklahoma By lunchtime Monday, storm spotters knew something terrible could happen. Heartache would be in this storm’s path. There would be no way around it. THE DEPTH OF GRIEF and the breath of destruction would be determined later, for agonizing days and weeks later. Make [...]

Is it real?

Davis High School students watch and react to a simulated DUI crash Wednesday morning on Oak Avenue near the campus. The crash was a program staged every three years by DHS and the Davis Police Department in partnership with the Every 15 Minutes Program. The program’s name reflects the fact that every 15 minutes, someone [...]

Davis Art Center: Yes! Bikes, chickens and art go together

This Saturday is the fourth annual Tour de Cluck, a celebration of backyard chickens and bicycles. If you had asked me five years ago — even two years ago — if I thought I’d be involved with the Tour de Cluck, I would have laughed. I am not a chicken girl. I am only reluctantly [...]

Low-income taxpayers may apply for city refunds

Qualified low-income homeowners can receive a full refund of their Davis park maintenance tax and open space protection tax for 2012-13 by returning a completed city application form by June 28. This is an annual refund program, not an exemption from the tax, which appears on your property tax bill. To be eligible, applicants must [...]

Lake Berryessa cleanup, picnic celebrate World Environment Day

On Sunday, June 2, Lake Berryessa will host its third annual celebration of World Environment Day with a cleanup of the lakeshore followed by a picnic lunch. The event begins at 9:30 a.m., with cleanup activities running from 10 a.m. to noon. Post-cleanup festivities will take place at Markley Cove Resort. The event is sponsored [...]

UCD team finds elephant seals infected by flu virus

UC Davis researchers found the H1N1 virus in free-ranging northern elephant seals off the Central California coast — the first report of that flu strain in any marine mammal — a year after the 2009 human pandemic. “We thought we might find influenza viruses, which have been found before in marine mammals, but we did not expect to [...]

Bills would prevent rise in student loan rates

By Tamar Lewin Congress now has an array of legislative options to prevent the interest rate on student loans from doubling to 6.8 percent on July 1, as scheduled. With student loans topping $1.1 trillion — and held by one in five American households — many families are questioning why students should pay so much [...]