Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 10-14-21 E-edition

Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
In my OPINION Administration's decisions
further empower enemies
Outside of the first four years of my life, when we were involved in World War II, have I felt that America was in as great a danger as it is right now!
Reedley Fiesta enjoyed a perfect fit between smoke, rain and dust
Fred Hall — Publisher
Jon Earnest — Editor
Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
Thursday, October 14, 2021 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Because of the bumbling decisions
of this administration, powerful ene-
mies and their wannabes sense a very
real weakness in this super power and
are beginning to flex their muscles.
Even the hermit kingdom, North Ko-
rea, is once again beginning to act up
to show they are unafraid and the Chinese are making threats over Taiwan because they feel Biden will do nothing. What the hell ever happened to “we're going to make the whole world love us once again?” which we were promised by Biden and Democrats. I'd pick strength any time!
We'll concede that there were a lot of people, espe- cially in the media, who disliked Donald Trump — irra- tionally, we believe — but one must also concede that he was universally respected. What he said he meant and would follow through to its conclusion! Before the pan- demic, everything in America was returned to “America first” in everything we did. Make America great again truly stood for something as opposed to the weak sound- ing build back better of which Joseph Robinette Biden is so proud.
Under the Obama administration, the Internal Revenue Service was weaponized to effectively silence many of the conservative groups who had become involved in politics. Moving forward a few years we once again see a weapon- ization of government law enforcement agencies as well as media and big tech. The Justice Department has, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, been ordered to con- trol and arrest, if deemed necessary, parents who come to school board meetings. Under Joe Biden, those same parents who have taken an interest in their children's edu- cation, have been declared domestic terrorists.
All those folks are asking is that their children be taught academics — as it was originally intended — in school without theories and personal agendas of the school board and their teachers. All those “garbage” courses can wait for the college years when it is ac- cepted as normal. Even then, it's wrong!
To their everlasting credit, we understand that none of our local school boards, or the schools they oversee have felt the need for FBI protection. Anyway, with the groundswell of crime in America it seems to me that law enforcement has more important duties than harassing those taxpaying parents who underwrite the entire public education mess.
Recently a professor was disciplined and removed from his position because he insisted that all students receive grades based on their actual work. The UCLA ad- ministration had mandated that “students of color” would receive special treatment — a softening and easing of criteria — in determining their grades. I don't know about you, but to me that is the definition and very epitome of racism. Low expectations are wrong! The real injustice has been done to that student of color because he or she will enter a competitive world ill equipped to compete. Uneducated is uneducated no matter who you are.
Everything that happens continues to confirm the fact that the Biden exit from Afghanistan is one of the greatest, most embarrassing foreign policy blunders in the history of America. Military doublespeak calls it a retrograde instead of a retreat. Adding insult to injury, a CNN reporter recently broke the story that the suicide bomber who killed 13 American servicemen in Kabul was one of those who had been released when Biden va- cated Bagram Air base. Those young men should still be alive if common sense had been used for the withdrawal.
We're being told that Biden's multi-trillion dollar bud- get will cost nothing. No right thinking person can pos- sibly believe that there is such a thing as free money. That money has to come from somewhere and in this case it is being looted from the private sector. It's a way of thumbing the nose at taxpayers and telling them that government can spend the money better than they can.
But, as always, that's only one man's decision.
When it comes to perfect timing, organizers of the an- nual Reedley Fiesta couldn't have planned a better outcome.
Two weeks of smoky condi- tions from a summer of state wildfires — most recently the KNP Complex fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks — had put the Central Valley in a steady haze of bad air for much of September and into October. Then came a most welcome development on Oct. 7, a brief weather system that actually brought a bit of much- needed rain to the region that helped tame the wildfires a bit. More important, the front's cooling winds helped blow away smoke from the area for at least a couple of days.
Those couple of days just happened to be Friday and Saturday, Oct. 8 and 9. The cloudy skies from the brief rain cleared up, and the result was a cool evening on Oct. 8 in Pioneer Park, followed by a perfect autumn morning and midday for the parade and ven- dor and food booths.
And what a Fiesta sight it
was. In my eyes, the crowds appeared to be back to the usual levels of people coming out to cheer on and support the grand marshal (two this year in Don Enns and Don Becken- hauer), parade float entrants, marching bands. The beautiful weather likely played a role in the large crowds. Even without a Fiesta King and Queen couple this year, the Friday festivities at Pioneer Park still had a good turnout and Saturday's large numbers easily surpassed the first night.
Credit goes to the Greater Reedley Chamber of Com- merce, Rotary Club of Reedley, the many sponsors headlined by Jaber Motors and all the attendees for a great event. It was special to experience the tradition again!
•••
Speaking of special, the new
Sanger High West Campus that was dedicated earlier this week is a true jewel of a facility. The two-story building, which has been home to SHS freshman and sophomore students since school started in August, was
formally cel-
ebrated by the
district and dig-
nitaries (includ-
ing Fresno May-
or Jerry Dyer)
with a "Phase
I" ribbon cut-
ting ceremony
on Oct. 12. The
building — which eventually will serve as the junior high school in the complex when all construction is completed — is bright, wide open and a dazzling learning environment for the students there. It actually had been finished in August 2020, but because of virtual distance learning in 2020-21, students didn't get a chance to experi- ence the new facility at the northeast corner of Fowler and Jensen avenues in Fresno.
This year, the Classes of 2024 and 2025 get to enjoy the building, and Phase II of con- struction isn't too far down the road. That includes the three- story high school building and athletic facilities.
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
Fred Hall
QUOTE
“If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.”
— George Carlin (1937-2008)
Jon Earnest
How to slash Americans' electricity bills
By Wayne Winegarden
Guest columnist
Whenever you hear about America's electricity system these days, it's usually some big problem that has captured the public's attention.
There are examples of en- ergy companies operating inefficiently, such as ratepay- ers having to foot the bill for massive cost overruns at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. Sometimes, as was the case in South Carolina, cus- tomers wind up paying higher rates to cover the costs of building generation resources that are never completed and generate no electricity. And we have seen outright corruption, such as the FirstEnergy scan- dal in Ohio that led to the larg- est criminal fines for bribery ever imposed by the local U.S. Attorney's office.
What do all of these exam- ples have in common? They involve government-mandated electricity monopolies. Resi- dents and businesses lose out when states rely on electricity monopolies, forced to endure higher prices, reduced invest- ment in new infrastructure, and less reliable power.
When thinking about Ameri- ca's electricity future, we want a system that produces abun- dant and reliable energy sup- ply to power our homes and
businesses. We want to be able to keep the lights on at the most affordable price possible. And at a time when the country is increasingly concerned about global warming, we want to generate more "green energy" and lower emissions.
The key to making each of these priorities a reality is through electricity competition.
Right now, there is electric- ity competition at the whole- sale level — or the source from which power companies acquire electricity supply to sell to local customers — for most of the country outside the Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. In addition, 13 states and the District of Co- lumbia have retail competition, where individual customers can choose a power company that best meets their require- ments, such as lower prices or more power being generated by green sources.
As I document in the new Pacific Research Institute study "Affordable and Reli- able," if every state switched to a competitive electricity mar- ket, it would be a win-win for customers, the economy, and the environment.
The latest data shows that competition lowers prices for consumers. Prices in competi- tive wholesale markets were trending downward and were at or near 6-year lows in 2020.
States with competitive retail markets saw prices drop 0.3 per- cent between 2008 and 2020 -- compared to a 20.7 percent price increase in monopoly states.
Competition also ensures that power interruptions are rarer and brief. Because com- petitive wholesale markets are regional and encompass a larger geographic area, they have more diverse energy generation options when sup- plies are tight. A key measure- ment found that the frequency of sustained power interrup- tions was 10.4 percent lower in competitive states compared to monopoly states.
The research makes it clear -- if we want to lower costs for consumers, make our economy more competitive for invest- ment and job creation at a time of uncertainty, ensure that we have a reliable electricity sup- ply to power our homes and businesses, and boost our prog- ress in lowering emissions, then policymakers in states with government-mandated electricity monopolies should pass reforms establishing com- petitive electricity markets.
Dr. Wayne Winegarden is senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Re- search Institute, and author of the new study "Affordable and Reliable." Download a copy at www.pacificresearch.org.