Changing the single-member district system would mean that Merced would be split into six districts and each district would elect one representative to sit on the city council. Each district would have about an equal proportion of voters and candidates would only have to campaign in their district, which could mean candidates would pursue a pool of 13,500 residents instead of 81,000, according to proponents.
Escobedo was in middle school when his family settled in the mostly agricultural town of Atwater, located 8 miles north of Merced up Highway 99, six years ago. His father landed a job that offered better benefits and a better salary, he explains, allowing his mom to remain at home and focus on helping Escobedo and his younger sister with their studies. The effort paid off. When it came time to apply for college, Escobedo received acceptance letters from three UC schools – Davis, Irvine and Merced. He chose the latter, he says, for a variety of reasons, including the school’s smaller size and its proximity to a community he was just then beginning to discover.
I think about how a nation that has an average annual income of less than $23,000 had to fork over $11 billion for a soccer competition. Is the love for this beautiful game really worth so much? Was I supporting inequality by enjoying the games? These are the questions that swirl in my head, but I have no answer. Perhaps because I love the game -- too much.
I realized that the drought is an important event that affects all of our lives. Dr. Kelly Redmond helped me understand that droughts can be a part of nature’s cycle, but the drought we are in now is certainly extreme. Even though I do not experience the effects of the drought through the perspective of a farmworker like Effrain, like Evelyn I live in an agricultural part of California where water is really important and it is noticeable when it is not in abundance. Now when I see how dry the lake by UC Merced is, I think of the larger effects that the lack of water has on my region.
In 2009, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits – commonly known as food stamps -- by 13.6 percent, as a way to bring relief to struggling Americans during the economic recession. But on November 1 of this year the increase expired, returning SNAP benefits to to pre-recession levels. The program cut will affect roughly 4 million Californians, many of them young people. We’Ced members discussed the importance of food assistance programs in their own lives, and how they foresee the change affecting their families.
Photo: LGBT Health Forumby We’Ced YouthEditor’s Note: On August 8th, We’Ced Youth Media attended Merced’s first LGBT Health Forum held at the Italo-American Lodge on Main Street.Read More
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