Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs down to Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times for using a dismissive comment about Fresno to lead his commentary about Paul McCartney’s tour opening in Fresno. “Paul McCartney opened his 2016 One on One world tour on Wednesday night in, of all places, Fresno, at the Save Mart Center arena on the campus of Cal State Fresno.”

Woooo, Mr. Arrogant, every major artist in the nation plays, of all places, Fresno. Carrie Underwood had just packed her stuff up when Sir Paul arrived and in the last couple of months, Justin Bieber, Pepe Aguilar and G-Eazy have hauled a big load of money out of, of all places, Fresno. Up next are Luke Bryan and Selena Gomez.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lewis is betraying ignorance and a California bias against this town. He wouldn’t have said, “of all places, Portland,” a city with virtually the same population as Fresno-Clovis. Lady Gaga and Mick Jagger have played, of all places, Fresno. Now if McCartney had opened in, of all places, the Grand Canyon, that would be worth noting. Catch up, Mr. Lewis.

Thumbs up to the Fresno Latino Rotary Club for resurrecting the Principals Lip Sync Musical last weekend, in which principals work with their students to lip sync and dance to Spanish-language music. Clovis East High School Principal Kevin Kerney won the competition and $3,500 in scholarship funds. The Rotary club awarded $12,000 in scholarship funds to the six participating schools.

Thumbs up to Tim Schulz of ReVive Industries for reclaiming some of the wood from the dozens of trees lost in the Fulton Mall remodeling. He plans to mill the wood and save it for new projects. ReVive Industries focuses on reclaiming lumber from buildings being demolished for reuse in new projects, including salvaging the bowling lanes before the Cedar Lanes bowling alley in east-central Fresno was torn down several years ago.

“I’ve been working with Kroeker, and they let me come in and mark a number of the trees that we wanted,” Schulz told The Bee’s Tim Sheehan. Among the trees he expects to salvage are olive, carob and Canary Island pine trees.

“Once we can pick them up from their yard, we’ll take them back to our shop in Sanger.” There, the trees will need to be stored, then milled and the lumber dried before it can be used.

Thumbs up to Valley Cal Fire firefighters Johnny Miller and Emilio Valencia for receiving the Governor’s Medal of Valor for heroism April 13. They were among 15 state employees honored for their bravery.

Miller, a resident of Eastvale who works in the Madera-Mariposa unit, rescued two infants and a woman from drowning when their boat was submerged in the Colorado River. Miller was on vacation when he saved their lives.

Valencia, of Mendota, who works in the Fresno-Kings unit, saved a man from a burning house while on a medical call. When screams for help were heard, he put on his safety gear and entered the house alone. He was able to control a struggling victim who was panicking inside and resisting help. Valencia, exposed to the full heat of the fire and heavy smoke, pulled the victim out the front door to the lawn. The man was treated for burns and smoke inhalation on scene, then taken to a hospital.

Thumbs up to Cassandra Rodriguez, 18, a Parlier High School senior, for winning the 2016 National Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps Three-Position National Shooting Championship. The competition was held in March in Anniston, Ala., where Rodriguez competed against 7,500 air rifle athletes from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force JROTC units. She confesses she plays mind games with the competition by wearing a flowered headband. “Guys don’t expect a girl with a flower headband to be much of a challenge, so they let their guard down.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Thumbs up, thumbs down."