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• Dave Cogdill gets boot

• 2.5 percent pay cut for firefighters

• Lodi Unified School District trustees approve layoff of 390 teachers

• Local schools, governments look to cash in on stimulus

• Principals among those on list of Lodi Unified School District top 20 wage earners

• Regional Roundup

• No decision on Galt High district layoffs

• Correction

• Tracy native killed while serving in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps

February 8th, 2010

• Public Meetings

• Locals pick best, most memorable Super Bowl commercials

• Regional Roundup

February 6th, 2010

• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch

• Meet Larry, Curly and Moe

• Baboon business

• Regional Roundup

• Several Lodi venues let you watch the Super Bowl in style

• Lodi Library celebrates 100 years of serving the community

• Culinary craft

February 5th, 2010

• Kids, teachers help Haiti by collecting pennies for Learning Link

• Lodi, Galt students reach out to help Haiti earthquake survivors

• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam

• Hours of sweat and work go into putting on crab feeds

• Things looking up for state's real estate

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• Stray bullet strikes Lodi home; police suspect gang activity may be factor

February 4th, 2010

• Managers at Geweke Toyota answer questions about recall

• Lodi City Council votes to replace play structure at Century Park

• Lodi extends ban on pot shops for another year

• Mokelumne River triathlon set for June

• Family, friends to run half-marathon in memory of Galt family

February 3rd, 2010

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• Delta College trustees again collide over stipend committee

• Lodi-area senators Dave Cox, Lois Wolk admit to gifts; Tom Berryhill case pending

• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts

• Galt City Council avoids budget cuts — for now

• New Lodi Memorial Hospital emergency room opens to the public without a hitch

• Bad bugs, weeds are hot topics at Grape Day

February 2nd, 2010

• Big rig plows 7 cars

• Local business leaders say tourism, Costco, Home Depot may play roles in city's future

• Former Lodian Erica Davis is first paraplegic woman to summit Kilimanjaro

• Jumpers across California

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• No snow leopards, otters for Micke Grove

• McNerney leads in campaign cash

• Police: Train victim was a Lodi teen

February 1st, 2010

• Find cuddly alpacas not too far from Lodi

• Public Meetings

• Patients can expect faster, better service when Lodi Memorial Hospital's new emergency room opens

• Man killed by Amtrak train in Lodi

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Will terrorists be given Miranda warnings? (75)
• President Obama's first year (67)
• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts (64)
• Local business leaders say tourism, Costco, Home Depot may play roles in city's future (60)
• Islamic symbol in mosaic — what is all the fuss? (49)
• Many reject the politics of 'no' (45)
• Writer comments on Neely column (42)
• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch (41)
• Police: Train victim was a Lodi teen (31)
• Time to shed the convenient sham of 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy (31)

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Like NASCAR drivers, our politicians should wear uniforms clearly stating their sponsors

A most distinguished Highway Patrol retiree called me the other day to suggest some ideas he and a couple of his friends were tossing around that could, if put to use, save the state of California a little money and instill an additional modicum of honesty and real work ethic among the politicians and bureaucrats who presently run things, both in public and behind the scenes.

For one thing, he said for the sake of simplicity we should more clearly identify the primary players, their partners and sponsors. To start with, the various individuals who have their snouts in the public trough should be obliged to wear uniforms of a sort. The politicians' clothes might resemble those worn by NASCAR drivers and their crews, hard hats and all. Their political affiliation should be clearly marked by big "Rs," "Ds" and "Is" displayed on their chests sort of like the big red "As" that outed some less-than-distinguished persons many years ago. The politicos' sponsors' logos would be prominently sewn on their clothes and caps. That way, when you are out hustling their favors and votes on one matter or another, you'd know who else is kissing their rings to garner favors — it'd say so right on their uniforms. That way, you could temper your ardor based on the competition or lack thereof.

They already have special license plates on their (our) government-issued cars, and if we continue to pay for the use of the cars they should have the cars painted pink, or at the least have global petitioners so we will have some idea what kind of official business they are up to when we see them parked in front of an expensive or sinful joint spending our hard-earned money. There aren't all that many Mary Kay super sales people in Sacramento so they wouldn't get mixed up with the political hustlers very often.

Actually, if my friends had their way, the "Rs," "Is" and "Ds" would be driving their own cars just like the rest of us, and the gas in the tanks would be paid for the same way the rest of us do, from our own earnings. The perks used by those people sometimes exceed the cost of having the public servant in our employ in the first place, so such "incentives" would simply disappear and save the state a slug of dough.

The perk restriction would, of course, apply to who pays the hired help. When we hire someone, we pay that person out of our earnings. They should too; fair is fair.

We have heard the same lament for the half century I can attest to: "Unless you pay politicians more money, you won't get quality people, and that it is important to return experienced people to their jobs." I have only one comment: Look what experience and big pay checks got us so far. We have not had a workable budget on time in this state since Hector was a pup.

Besides, how does paying a person a salary make them more or less honest than they were or are?

While we are on this subject, serving one term in office shouldn't qualify those people for retirement any more than four years do for the rest of us. After they have been in office for one term, their pensions shouldn't start for at least 30 more years whether or not they were re-elected. That way they will have to work for a living exactly as we do or even President Ulysses S. Grant did after he left office. What the heck, if they could pull it off, let them go out on speaking tours representing ego-hustling companies and earn their own dang millions, but still not get one government pension penny until the minimum time elapses.

We are stuck in a mindset that says, "I know he is a dirty rotten scoundrel but he's our dirty rotten scoundrel, so we have to re-elect him."

My distinguished colleagues and I emphatically say, "Get over it and elect the right people. It'll do us all good to think before we punch out one more chad."

Bob Bader is a chiropractor and a writer. You can reach him at bobbyo@softcom.net.