Biggest Best Latest Loudest: SPECIAL GRADUATION EDITION
Most dubious absence award: California's Central Valley congressional delegation, which somehow managed to find other things to do Saturday, as UC Merced's first graduating class accepted the sheepskin.
Even Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia, one of the driving forces in the school's birth, was absent. Why? Because the commencement featured first lady Michelle Obama. At least Nunes came right out and said so: He skipped because of his unhappiness with the Obama administration.
How silly. This was an historic event for the San Joaquin Valley. It was supposed to be about the graduates, a pioneering class that took a chance on a new, unproven institution. It should have been about Merced, a town that finally reaped some economic reward after years of uncertainty and struggle over this university.
Nunes and his valley colleagues (Including Bakersfield's Kevin McCarthy, who attended an art competition instead), might have used the occasion to illuminate some of the valley's specific concerns, including water, but they missed the chance.
"It's bad manners, it's bad form and it's an insult to the community," CSU Stanislaus political science professor Lawrence Giventer told the Merced Sun-Star. We agree.
The party went on without them. Hotels were packed throughout Merced, sending people north to Turlock and south to Chowchilla.
It bears mention that, although he has been supportive of UC Merced, to the point of fighting to prevent an interruption in funding, McCarthy's district is the farthest geographically from the campus among the valley's members of congress. The point here is that it would have been nice to see the valley's entire congressional delegation on hand, not only to celebrate the completion of a hard-won fight for higher education in the valley and to honor these pioneering grads, but because these congressmen themselves deserved a public handshake. We hope they didn't really think it was more important to snub Michelle Obama.
Most precarious employment award: State workers who are faced with two possibilities come Wednesday morning -- a bad situation and a worse situation.
The Sacramento Bee reports that state layoffs and spending cuts would deprive the economy of significant dollars at a time when business is already starving for cash. The 5,000 layoffs announced Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn't be devastating, but without question they would be felt -- in Sacramento and elsewhere.
State government accounts for about 10 percent of the Sacramento area's total work force -- a huge percentage of the local economy. Make no mistake: 5,000 lost jobs, averaging in the $65,000 income range, would hurt any city.
I can top that award: A mere 5,000 jobs? Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman wonders why Arnie would stop there.
The eBay billionaire says California ought to skip the fat-trimming and go straight for bone. Her proposal? Lay off more than 30,000 state employees.
Her Megness says that slashing "head count" is the way to go. If the loss of 5,000 middle-class jobs would hurt the economy, think 30,000 might be felt?
