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Red light green light teaches kids good nutrition
by Carol R. Thomas
NORCO, Calif. — When Grace Soeter heard that this generation of children is the first to have a life expectancy shorter than their parents due to obesity-related issues, she knew she had to act. The Norco resident launched Healthy Families International to help educate children and their parents about nutrition and godly eating.
The Fuller Theological Seminary graduate developed several fun, interactive presentations and took them into public libraries, community centers, schools and churches.
To date, the homeschooling mom has spoken to more than 5,000 children in dozens of Inland Empire schools.
“We need to wake up,” Soeter said. “We’re dealing with a tremendous obesity and health crisis. I’m very concerned about the children.”
Soeter, wife of Pastor Matthew Soeter of the First Evangelical Church of Diamond Bar, sees this as her mission field. And she doesn’t apologize for her Christian perspective.
FULL STORY
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| California Legislative News |
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OPINION
California budget woes: A question of stewardship
by Everett Rice
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Sacramento experiences yet another hot and blistering summer, the California State Legislature is once again engaged in the budget impasse ritual. For the past 22 years, the Legislature has failed to pass its budget—the spending outline and funding mechanism for the state—by the constitutional deadline of June 15 and this year has been no exception.
For Californians, this inaction has become commonplace, and, as a result, has become a matter of little importance to some ... but should it be?
While leaders are pontificating on the cause of the current budget deficit—estimated this year at $15.2 billion—and prescribing questionable solutions in an effort to convince the electorate that they are doing the people’s business, a more salient question is being ignored.
Are California legislators good stewards of the resources and responsibilities entrusted to them by the people of this state? This is a critical question during these turbulent times.
By its very nature, the notion of stewardship rests on trust, faith and reliability. It refers to the wise and effective management of time, talents, services and resources by those entrusted by the electorate.
So, I ask you … are our elected officials doing what we expect of them? Are they managing our affairs wisely and effectively during this current budget impasse?
During the impasse, we are hard pressed to find legislators offering wise and effective solutions to California’s yearly budget problems. Instead, we find one-sided solutions that benefit a small portion of the California electorate, while experiencing months of blaming by one party or another for the budget stalemate. Democrats clamor that the state has a “revenue” problem—their way of justifying tax increases; while Republicans remain resolute that there is a “spending” problem best remedied by spending cuts.
Neither party seems to recognize that their constant focus on being right and blaming the other does little to improve the state’s fiscal health. Further, it illustrates the failure of our elected officials to be good stewards.
Effective management of the state’s resources requires solving the current $15 billion deficit that includes developing a long-term strategy, which inhibits future deficits. While not an easy task, sound management begins with the elimination of debt. With each bond or initiative the state passes, requiring either the borrowing of funds or directing tax dollars to specific programs, fewer resources are available for other programs. Further, legislators’ inability to reprioritize or reduce expenditures to less important programs results in the need for new revenue streams to be devised to account for diminished revenue for those programs.
Second, effective management requires the state to do a better job of managing the resources provided by the people. Legislators are accurate when they say there is a “revenue” and “spending” problem. From 1976 to 2008, the California state budget increased from $12.5 billion to $141 billion. However, despite the increase in taxpayer-generated revenue, California still finds itself with a deficit. This is clearly a case of poor fiscal management.
What would also assist our elected officials in improving their management skills would be for them to be reminded that they were elected to represent all the people of California, not just their special interests. Unlike Hiram Johnson, the former progressive governor elected in 1910 who was dedicated to protecting the interests of all Californians from the abuses of special interests, today the budget and state statutes are filled with special-interest program protections that inhibit effective budgeting. These protections have created many of the structural inefficiencies that contributed greatly to the state’s budget woes.
Effective management, rather stewardship, requires courage to make the necessary changes to the budgetary process that may not be popular to special interests, but demonstrate a commitment to California. I am prayerful that legislators will remember their commitment to be good stewards of the resources and responsibilities they have been granted.
Rice is the legislative coordinator for the California Family Council.
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