Targeting Tehran: 'US nearly daring Iran to strike first'

Candidate: In this troubled city, inexperience a plus

By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
March 22, 2012 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - Gregory Pitsch has no political experience, but he believes his successes, failures and close calls as a small businessman make him a prime candidate to become the city's next mayor.

And, no, Pitsch, 26, said he's not too young to lead Stockton.

"Look at the experienced politicians, what they have done," he said. "If that's what experience gives you, we're better off with someone who's inexperienced."

Pitsch is among seven candidates seeking the city's top elected office in the most crowded mayoral race in years. The city faces staggering crime and teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.

Promoting small business and jobs is the key to turning around the city, said Pitsch, an online retailer who sells T-shirts and electronics. He also dreams of growing his small music-production company.

But running his fleeting storefront clothing business has given him a taste of how perilous it can be to work in downtown Stockton. In June last year, Pitsch said, four armed men robbed him.

One put a knife to his throat, while two others pressed pistols to his head and rib cage. They stole money he needed to pay his rent, but he was not physically hurt.

"We were trying to bring something new," he said. "It was a bad experience."

He now works from his home in Weston Ranch and makes most of his living by designing and producing screen-print T-shirts in the business that has succeeded through word-of-mouth sales, he said.

Pitsch said he has dreamed of entering politics since he was in grade school. Born in San Mateo, he graduated from East Union High School in Manteca and has attended San Joaquin Delta College.

He worked in construction until the economic downturn left him without a job. That's when Pitsch said his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he began launching his small businesses.

"I believe people should go after the career they want," he said. "You really can be whatever you want to be."

Pitsch has been married for more than a year to his wife, Brittany, an American Sign Language interpreter at an elementary school in Manteca.

Gregory Pitsch said the only mark on his record is a driving under the influence of marijuana case at age 19. Pitsch, a medical marijuana card holder, said he learned his lesson from that experience.

Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog.


Share This Article with all your friends and family.

To Link to the article click here!

House GOP unveils budget blueprint

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Republicans controlling the House unveiled a budget blueprint Tuesday that combines slashing cuts to safety net programs for the poor with sharply lower tax rates in an election-year manifesto painting clear campaign differences with President Barack Obama.

The GOP plan released by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would, if enacted into law, wrestle the deficit to a manageable size in short order, but only by cutting Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and a host of other programs that Obama has promised to protect.

To deal with the influx of retiring Baby Boomers, the GOP budget reprises a controversial approach to overhauling Medicare that would switch the program — for those under 55 today — from a traditional "fee for service" framework in which the government pays doctor and hospital bills to a voucherlike "premium support" approach in which the government subsidizes purchases of health insurance.

Republicans say the new approach forces competition upon a wasteful health care system, lowering cost increases and giving senior more options. But Democratic opponents of the idea say the new system — designed by Ryan and liberal Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon — cuts costs too steeply and would provide the elderly with a steadily shrinking menu of options and higher out-of-pocket costs.

Even as Ryan was describing his plan to reporters, it became election-year fodder for both parties.

"The House budget once again fails the test of balance, fairness, and shared responsibility," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a written statement charging that the GOP proposal would dole out tax cuts to rich while protecting tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers.

"What's worse is that all of these tax breaks would be paid for by undermining Medicare and the very things we need to grow our economy and the middle class — things like education, basic research, and new sources of energy," Pfeiffer said.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted strong support for Ryan's budget. He also defended Ryan's proposal to cut agency spending below an amount that both parties agreed to in last year's compromise that extended the government's authority to borrow money.

"We all know that we've got a real fiscal problem here in Washington, and frankly we think we can do better," Boehner told reporters.

This year's GOP measure would produce deficit estimates that are significantly lower than a comparable measure passed by the House a year ago, claiming deficit cuts totaling $3.3 trillion — spending cuts of $5.3 trillion tempered by $2 trillion in lower taxes — below Obama over the coming decade. The deficit in 2015, for example, would drop to about $300 billion from $1.2 trillion for the current budget year. Last year's GOP draft called for a 2015 deficit more than $100 billion higher.

The measure would cut spending from $3.6 trillion this year to the $3.5 trillion range in 2013 and freeze it at that level for two more years.

The GOP plan doesn't have a chance of passing into law this year but stands in sharp contrast to the budget released by Obama last month, which relied on tax increases on the wealthy but mostly left alone key benefit programs like Medicare.

The resulting political battle is sure to spill beyond the Capital Beltway into the presidential race and contests for control of the House and Senate this fall. As if to underscore that reality, Ryan released a campaign-style video Monday evening telling viewers that "Americans have a choice to make" in a none-too-subtle appeal to voters.

"It's up to the people to demand from their government a better budget, a better plan, and a choice between two futures," Ryan said. "The question is: which future will we choose?"

Visit The Stockton Record's Website To finish reading the article

Memo to Stocktonians: 'I am What Stockton Needs'

To the citizens of Stockton,

The time is now. As citizens, there is no longer the luxury to sit back and allow our Civic leaders to blindly misdirect us. The powers that be have decided to take Stockton for a ride, a really bumpy ride. While a few people are active and they do voice their opinion, but there is an even larger portion of Stockton that doesn't know where to go if they so choose to put their word out. I am running for the office of mayor in Stockton, California, because I feel I am the best candidate in the highly-contested race for the seat.

This June will be my fourth year as a Resident of Stockton. And let me just say, I have learned many valuable lessons while residing in the Worst place to live in America, in 2010(according to Forbes Magazine). Certain lessons that will strengthen one's state of mind, and give thm the power to do the right thing, strictly to benefit my community.

I am going to be breaking down the budget to find out what the cities biggest priorities should be. I am not going to take the repetitive non-sense we are seeing from politicians as they continually assume that my youthful spirit will not directly benefit the city monetarily, well I would beg to differ. Nobody likes a poor-sport, and you will come to realize that I do not embody that characteristic. Don't get me wrong, I play to win, but a fair fight is just that, fair!

I will listen to the citizens rather than hear their opinion, and vote based on my own. That is a failed political practice, that is destroying our trust that we have from the people who vote us in. Yeah I know that's what the Mayor's job description entails, however this city has been ran that way for too long now. I have some higher, but still attainable goals that I wish to bring forward to the city's council. Such ideas are rarely conceived, except by those of us that can have a solution to a problem instinctively upon it being mentioned.

THE PRIORITIES I SEE FIT FOR STOCKTON'S RESTORATION:
1) Get a hold on the bankruptcy proceedings to review what is being deemed expendable, and what is necessary. Keeping the parking garages downtown is of vital importance to the recovery we are seeking.

2) I will vow to ''solarize'' the City's largest energy consumers and work with them to apply for federal funding to install solar panels, and be with
them every step of the way to make sure they aren't sidelined by the red tape which has been famous among insiders in Washington.

3) Try to branch out satellite sites for the city of Stockton employees and Police to become more localized to keep them close to home to reduce
the cost of the fuel bill each month just to have the fleet mobilized. Each office will have a number of volunteer's to ensure our Police can be
really policing against all the city's gang and drug problems.

4) Inspect the School District to find other unnecessary waste of our education funds. As well as ask the state to be pardoned from their curriculum
because we have seen it not work in the sense of educating our future leaders since 2004.

5) Be the first public school district to give students a head start, by making the school day just an hour and a half longer, allowing each student
to additionally get a High-School Diploma, as well as have an Associate's Degree by the end of their four years of High School. This will open up
the community college for the previous generation that hasn't been able to finish their college education, since all the local campuses have
been full.