Oakhurst cafe to host virtuoso guitarist
Bee’s Bakery Cafe, 40250 Junction Drive, will host Italian virtuoso guitarist Alberto Lombardi for a food and win event on Friday, beginning at 5 p.m. Lombardi is an internationally renowned acoustic fingerstyle and electric rock player. Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.
For The Madera Tribune
Nov 12, 2025


Shoe store suicide mars expansion
For The Madera Tribune A job at Brammer’s shoe store wasn’t enough to dispel Jim Brammer’s despondency. He committed suicide after his father made him a partner. In 1917, Herman Brammer and his son, Will, decided to expand their shoe store and build that three story, brick building that still stands on the north side of Yosemite Avenue. At about the same time, they determined to bring Jim Brammer, Herman’s stepson, into the business by placing him in charge of the new clothin
Bill Coate
Nov 8, 2025
Letters: Just my thoughts
In response to Mr. Wieland’s Letter in the October 15 edition of The Madera Tribune: Going to school in the North, I had a history teacher that put a different light on the Civil War. It was mostly about the price of cotton. Cotton was produced in the South and the textile factories were in the North, mostly in New York. They were buying import cotton at a lower price than what the South needed. With no tariffs, the South was being squeezed into submission.
For The Madera Tribune
Oct 31, 2025
Opinion: New York to London via tunnel
Remember Elon Musk? No, not the disemploymentator. The high-tech industrial genius who was born in South Africa and immigrated to Canada in 1989. There, he attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he received a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School. Since then, he has been busy amassing money. Even before he was granted his degrees, he co
Jim Glynn
Oct 24, 2025


Bigelow went from stagecoaches to telephones
For The Madera Tribune Frank Bigelow, great Grandson of Harmon Bigelow, founder of the Ponderosa Telephone Company. I first met the Bigelows while working at Spring Valley School a long time ago. Jess Bigelow was a major patron of the school’s 4-H club and spent a lot of money buying their animals at the Madera and Chowchilla fairs. Of course it wasn’t long before I found out about the connection between the Bigelow family and the Ponderosa Telephone Company, and that is a hi
Bill Coate
Oct 24, 2025
Opinion: China’s long game, part III — China in MENA
In a 2016 issue of Forbes magazine, Helen H. Wang wrote, “The new Silk Roads already have momentum.Earlier last year, Beijing announced...
Jim Glynn
Oct 4, 2025
Opinion: China’s long game, part II — toward global hegemony
The Silk Road. It was the trade route that ran from China to the West during the days of the Roman Empire. In 2013, President Xi Jinping...
Jim Glynn
Sep 26, 2025
Opinion: China’s long game, part I — buying America’s farmland
Several years ago, I wrote about the Four Tigers of Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. They were the countries that...
Jim Glynn
Sep 20, 2025









