For The Madera Tribune CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT — Felipe Piedra, Chris Imperatrice, Michael Grossman and Kevin Hatch. The retirement of Golden Valley Unified School District Superintendent Rod Wallace at the end March signified a major change within the district. Wallace’s retirement started the merry-go round of district administrators that caused a ripple effect down to Liberty High School’s counselor. Kevin Hatch, who has been with the district before GVUSD even began, is n

Courtesy of Tiia Dickerson Bullen The family of Chief Petty Officer Donald Dickerson, shown here, continues to fight to have his name engraved on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Thirteen days before Christmas in 1971, a U.S. Navy plane took off from Naval Air Station Cubi Point, Subic Bay, in the Philippines. It was en route to Tan Son Nhut Airbase, Saigon, Vietnam, on a “scheduled logistical support mission” during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, it never made

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Project Run Madera creator and two-time cross country Central Section Champion, Alisha Brown, shows off an enlarged donation from the Madera F.A.N. Club. With Brown are Madera F.A.N. Vice President Tyler Takeda, left, and President Ryan Desmond. When Alisha Brown was going through middle school, she had the awkward moment of changing in the locker room with other athletes. Unlike other athletes, she didn’t have a sports bra and that made her

November is a season for giving “thanx.” I like to spell it this way because it matches my last name, one I share with my husband. We were married the day after Thanksgiving. At the time, Fred said that he didn’t want to be one of those cartoon husbands who gets in hot water for forgetting our wedding anniversary. No matter the date on the calendar, our anniversary falls on the day after Thanksgiving. He probably can’t tell you the actual date (Nov. 23) because, to his way of

Time’s current magazine issue features a 30-page spread on “The Best 100 Inventions of 2021.” The entire article, by seven staff writers and photographer Margeaux Walter, is both informative and interesting. I recommend it because it also gives us a glimpse into what we might expect in the very near future. In the space allotted to me, of course, I can only highlight a few. Story Time Chess The classic game of chess has traditionally been embraced by the big-brained Mensa cro

Courtesy of the Madera County Historical Society As Madera County Sheriff, Marlin Young was a busy man. Shown here on the right, he escorts a prisoner to trial. Not long after this was taken, he was investigating one of the most horrific crimes in local history: the whipping death of four-year-old Sandra Schindler at the hands of her parents. Sandra Marie Schindler was 4 1/2 years old on Jan. 7, 1958, the last day of her short life. Her parents accused her of “sassing “ her m

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune From left, Madera Mayor Pro-Tem Artemio Villegas, Madera Mayor Santos Garcia and City Council member Anita Evans help hold the welcome mats of the Garcia-Pizano, Robles and Cuellar-Anaya families after they received the keys for their Habitat for Humanity homes on Friday. The City of Madera and Habitat for Humanity Greater Fresno Area (Habitat) held a joint news conference to officially dedicate and hand over the keys of homeownership to the

It was Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007, and 24-year-old Katie Hill had reached the nadir of her young life. She was morbidly obese, going through a divorce, and virtually without self-esteem. So dark were those days that she told God that she didn’t care if she died. By the time she got home from church that night, the emotional and physical pressure she was feeling came crashing down on her. When she woke up the next morning, something told her to get up and go to the hospital emergenc