THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN

The Fresno Bee (California)
July 1, 2006 Saturday

Jul. 1–Thumbs down to former candidates Alan Schroeder and Larry
Wilder who still have campaign signs from the June primary scattered
around the community. Schroeder, Wilder and others with campaign
signs still up are littering Fresno. Ignoring an ordinance that
requires campaign signs to be removed after the election says a lot
about candidates’ commitment to doing the right thing. Why is it so
difficult for some candidates to take down signs that they put up?

Thumbs down to Richard E. Hoagland, America’s next ambassador to
Armenia, for picking his way around the word "genocide" in describing
the mass slaughter of Armenians between 1915 and 1923. This was a
"well-documented" genocide and Hoagland should have told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee just that on Wednesday, This is not a post
for someone who refuses to acknowledge the truth. "It’s almost absurd
to sit here, and you can’t utter the word ‘genocide,’" Republican
Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota told Hoagland. "We have ambassadors
who can’t use a word, just a word."

Thumbs up to Amy Adams of Bakersfield, an "American Idol" contestant
in 2004, who’s starring as the narrator in the national touring
company of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The show
is now in California, at the Pantages in Los Angeles through Sunday,
then in Costa Mesa from July 11-23. No Valley appearance with a local
star? What were the producers thinking?

Thumbs up to Mary Funk, a teacher at Burrel Union Elementary, and Wayne
Garabedian, a teacher at Clovis West High School, the first recipients
of the Met Award for Science Education. Each will receive $2,000 to
use in the classroom. The Fresno Metropolitan Museum teamed up with
the Fresno County Office of Education and the Reveas Foundation to
create the award.