Vigil Marks Six Month Anniversary of Shooting of Luis Gutierrez
Friday marked the six month anniversary of the death of Luis Gutierrez who was shot down by plain clothes Sheriff’s Deputies after a foot pursuit in Woodland on April 30, 2009. The case is still under review following a full investigation by the Woodland Police Department who turned it over to the District Attorney’s Office. The District Attorney’s office has forwarded it to the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI for a third party review of the investigation.
On Friday a modest crowd of 100 people, many of them friends and family of Mr. Gutierrez gathered at the Woodland DMV. After a brief address by organizer Al Rojas and a few words by Jose Santos Gutierrez, the father of Luis, the crowd clan with candles and flashlights solemnly marched down Gum Avenue to the Highway 113 overpass where Mr. Gutierrez was pursued and shot. They stopped at the top to kneel in prayer and remembrance.
For the third year in a row, the Davis school district is facing multimillion dollar cuts in school funding for the 2010-11 budget as discussed at last night’s school board meeting. As Superintendent James Hammond said last night, their hope is that by addressing the cuts early, they can mitigate some of the harmful impacts on school programs by working together through a spirit of joint sacrifice.
Under normal conditions, one would expect both the Sacramento Bee and Davis Enterprise to back new development in Davis. In the last decade, the Davis Enterprise has backed virtually every pro-development candidate and backed every project on the ballot. In fact, their 2004 endorsement of Sue Greenwald for Davis City Council stands out as the lone exception, up until now. Meanwhile, the Sacramento Bee treats Davis more like the red-headed stepchild, treating its limited growth policies as oddities and signs of weird Davis.
by Eric Alfaro
Quietly and without much fanfare, the Woodland/ Davis Surface Water Project Joint Power Agency organized and elected officers. The JPA was approved by both city councils in September, creating an entirely new government agency to over see the massive water project.
One of the issues that has plagued the city of Davis at times has been the perception of discrimination and the lack of tolerance for diversity. Now the Davis Human Relations Commission is conducting a survey to determine the public’s perception on diversity and discrimination issues in Davis that it plans to use as they prepare a Diversity and Discrimination report over the next year.
On October 21, the Woodland Daily Democrat ran a story entitled “Alternative to Prison Offers a Second Chance.” It was a story that chronicled the Yolo County Drug Court, which offers non-violent drug offenders treatment rather than jail time. According to the article, Yolo county has one of the most rigorous programs in the state, even granting eligibility to people who commit crimes to feed a drug addiction such as multiple DUIs, grand theft auto, petty theft and drug possession.
California spends $137 million per year on the death penalty and has not had an execution in almost four years, even as the state pays its employees in IOUs and releases inmates early to address overcrowding and budget shortfalls.
Beginning on Monday for the first time in our over three years in existence, the Vanguard will engage in a pilot project where registration will be required. At this time, I encourage anyone who wishes to post beginning on Monday to register a name–either your real name or a moniker. There will be a limit of one moniker per email address. However, if there is an abuse of the policy and a single individual is found to have registered under multiple email addresses, their rights to post on this forum will be terminated.
Last night, Vanguard Radio had representatives from the No on P campaign, Mark Siegler and Phil King on our radio show to discuss their opposition to the Wildhorse Ranch project and complete a two week process of covering measure P. The week before on October 14, 2009, Vanguard Radio had Shahin Monfared, John Tallman and Bill Ritter representing the Yes on P campaign laid out the project and why they believe voters should support it.