Updates on 3 On-going Stories

With homage paid to retired Modesto Bee columnist Ron Agonstini who came up with the concept of telling readers how long his sports feature would be, the total reading time for this piece is about four minutes.

Family and friends of mine not living in California seemed fascinated with the recent recall effort.

With voters soundly defeating the recall by about a three-to-one margin, it seems the issue is closed. There was a brief period of time when the polls showed a much tighter race.

I’m reminded of the first race for President in which I was eligible to vote. President Gerald Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in 1976. The polls showed President Ford closing in on Carter in the days leading up to the election.

Had the election been held a few days later, pundits believed Ford would have been successful.

In the case of the California recall, it appears if the race had been held about a month earlier, there might have been a different result. We’ll never know.

The survey sent to homes recently on how to spend federal COVID relief dollars is a fast and easy way to let our City of Merced leaders know what we think.

The survey document includes the CityofMerced.org web address allowing for on-line entry of responses.

The survey features a ranking for priorities in order of preference, a question about the biggest challenge faced during the crisis, and a request for the top three priorities the City should address.

There is room to write in thoughts and points either not covered in the survey, or to expand on particular questions.

The community is remembering former Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse who died on September 15.

While I did not know him well, we would often cross paths during the early years of his service as District Attorney and my year as CEO of the Greater Merced Chamber.

After I left that job for my work at a utility company, we’d catch one another at community fund raising dinners. He was often tapped as a Master of Ceremonies for these events; I was usually filling a seat from a table purchased from my former employer.

I recall one time watching him carrying a book and walking briskly up the steps to the Main Branch of the Merced County Library.

He looked at me and said the book was overdue. I asked “where was the investigative reporter when we needed it?”

He gave a quote to the Merced Sun Star at the time his office successfully prosecuted a murder case.

That quote provided the perfect introduction to my murder mystery novel Ten Minutes to Air.

I used that quote at the beginning of my book:

“Murders are almost always about the amount of time someone has to evaluate their actions to stop themselves.”

Larry Morse, Merced County District Attorney.

Larry’s quote was the essence of my fictional story. If a would-be killer could take a few minutes to think about what he or she was about to do, maybe he or she might change their mind. That can apply to a lot of things.

There’s going to be more about the life and career of Larry Morse in social media and our local news outlets.

I will be grateful to him for letting me quote him for the introduction to my third book.